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. This show today is brought to you by Trust20. One of the toughest things about reopening right now is not knowing if you're doing everything you can to ensure the safety of your guests and your staff. Trust20 will do an independent audit of 20 key areas you need to be focused on. Go to Trust20.co to request a free audit now. Remember it is only free through the end of August, so this is your opportunity to get a comprehensive audit to make sure you're doing everything you possibly can to keep everybody safe who comes into your restaurant. The show is also brought to you by Springer Mountain Farms Chicken. Be the chicken the best feed, treat the chicken humanely, and treat your employees well. Springer Mountain Farms, they are above and beyond, not because they have to be, because it's the right thing to do. These guys are amazing, proactive, making sure they're a step ahead of everything that you need to be doing. Go visit them at SpringerMountainFarms.com, join the flock, and find out where you can go to eat the best chicken in the world. It is hot outside. I think everybody out there can tell. One of the worst things that could possibly happen to you is if your HVAC unit is not working properly. I've felt that experience

02:05recently. It is not a lot of fun, and I'll tell you what you want to do is you want to support a local business. You want to support somebody who's out there working hard just like you, and I'm going to tell you I think that you should call Binkley HVAC. The Binkley HVAC I think is the company that you need to call who's local, who will take care of you, get you nice and comfortable again. Josh Binkley will come out to your business. He'll come out to your house with no service charge. He will come out and identify what's wrong. He will not charge you the $100 that everybody else charges. He is a guy that recognizes that we're in the middle of a pandemic, and that when your air conditioning is out, you don't need to pay a bunch of money just to figure out if you need a coolant. So he is amazing. He's responsive, wants to help you and your guests feel comfortable again without breaking the bank. So give him a call 615-736-1012 or find him on Facebook at Binkley HVAC. Local, honest, affordable. Binkley HVAC.

03:14So here we go guys. Big show today. We have got Jesse Lee Jones, the Brazil Billy himself. This is a recording that we did a couple days ago. This is episode one. We were gonna do a two-parter. So we recorded episode one and then he had to go to do the tomato arts festival. He took a few of his cars out there and we picked back up and I can't tell you which one is the better one. We get deep in both episodes. They are equally amazing. So here's what I did. I didn't want to do episode one and leave you hanging and make you wait for tomorrow. Although some of you might want to do that because it's you got to take two hours out of your time. But I did was I've got episode one available right now and episode two is also available right now on YouTube. So you can listen to episode one today. You can watch episode two today and then today and then tomorrow you will be able to listen to episode two as well. So both episodes are out today. You can listen to one. You can watch one. But if you want to listen to it all and get it over with, you want to binge it, please feel free to check out our YouTube channel. I want you guys to all go please right now go to the Nashville scene webpage. Nashville scene.com.

04:37Find the best of Nashville voting. It's open till the end of August. Please go down to best podcast. It's under the media and politics section. Go to best podcast and type in Nashville restaurant radio. Would love for you guys to share. Get us on there. We'd love to be anywhere placed. Be a great honor for you guys to show your love and respect for what we are doing right now. If you don't do that, whatever way in which you're listening to this podcast, we'd love it if you would go and rate us five stars. And if you don't think that we're five stars, I would love to hear. Send me a direct message. Let me know what you think we can be doing better. Let me know if you have a differing opinion, whatever it might be. I would love to hear some feedback from you. Thank you all for listening. I hope that you enjoy this fantastic episode with Jesse Lee Jones. All right. With much excitement, I'd like to welcome in Jesse Lee Jones, who is the owner of Robert's Western World and the Brazil Billy. Welcome.

05:45Thank you. Thanks a lot, Brendan. Good to be here. It is an honor, like an absolute honor to have you here. And I want to start off to say that I was at Leila's a couple and we were filming a bit where she read a one-star Yelp review for me. And I don't know if you got to see it, but it's really funny. And we were talking, we talked for about 30 minutes and she was just sad. You know, her place is closed and there's other places across the street that are open and not, you know, because they're classified as a restaurant, they're allowed to do all these and she has to sit there closed. And she was sad. Like it was visibly sad. She wasn't angry. I don't know if she is angry now, but like you could just like this, that place, Leila's Honky Tonk is in her soul. And she is doing it, like just the whole thing. And then I was in, I was out of town this past weekend and I was watching videos from all the insanity that is Nashville. And I saw a video of you and Leila standing outside of Western world with all this insanity. And you guys were just kind of talking. You're like, look at this. Look at what's going on here. And I thought, I would love to get his story, just his take on what's happening right now. And I'd like to know how you're doing. Like one of our questions is we asked you like, how are you is the most vital question? Like, how are you doing right now? Well, you know, nowadays it's right now, I just feel like I should say, well, I'm good. But you know, the truth is I'm not good. I'm pretty broken hearted. I'm disappointed. I wish this wasn't happening. I mean, to me, it's almost like being in a bad dream or something. So you mentioned earlier about some of the places that

07:50are open. They are considered restaurants, if you will. They pay their taxes or, you know, they pay their fees to operate as restaurants. Well, Robert's does too. Yeah, Robert's is not open. You know, Robert's Western world. And it's just like, you know, I've been in Nashville for 25 years. And if you had told me that this would be happening in America, of all places, I would say no, no, I just say, I can't believe that would ever happen in America. I mean, it's just the fact that this is the land of the free home of the brave. Yeah, yeah, I mean, but I see I say those things and I really mean it in my heart. And for this to be happening in the United States of America is just like, wow, you know, in the beginning, I was thinking while the Chinese found a way to get us on our feet and our knees, you know, because I was just saying that because I really wasn't aware of the whole thing. I don't know what all, you know, what they mean with all of this. I just know in my heart that we are not being told all the truth. And here we are, the American people have to pay for this one way or the other. And we don't even know the truth.

09:16You know, there's just all kinds of rumors and things that are going on out there. So sometimes I get upset, you know, and that's the video that you talked about. It was I was coming out of Roberts and the place was empty. And as you go through the front door of the place, there's like this big party going on on the street. So that's when I got a little upset and I said, hey, you know, what's going on here? Yeah, I mean, I think that when you're when you're forced to close anybody in your building and you walk outside the door and there's a handful of places because of a classification to be open, they're selling booze on the street. They're, you know, they're not following the 50% guidelines, not wearing masks. Exactly. Yes. Gigantic super spreader event happening downtown. And some people are just cashing in. And it's almost like without regard for people like, hey, I'm just going to make if I'm allowed to be open, I'm going to make my money.

10:26Yeah, the moral responsibility there as well to not do that. Well, you know, we we got a phone call from the city, from the health department reminding us that, you know, because we are classified and pay our fees as a as a restaurant that we could be open. But, you know, the truth of the matter is, you can only get like 50% of capacity in. There's also the issue with the the moral issue of the masks. And some people that are not doing what they're supposed to be doing, to take care of things to get to feel better. And and I mean, feel better as nowadays is just not even having or not having this this this disease, disease, this problem, this virus. It's just, you know, it's just it's just been really hard here lately to to to feel good and to and to feel excited about things.

11:32You've doesn't make sense. No, I can't imagine what you're going through. I can't imagine, you know, and kudos to you for not opening. I mean, I think that there's a side of you can watch your neighbors. And I don't know how your relationship is with Steve Smith. I think he's been kind of the guy that's been all over the news the most. Well, yeah, Steve Smith is a I'm going to put this very, very lightly. He's the black sheep of the family, if you will. If there's going to be a if there's going to be trouble if there's going to be, you know, police involved, if people are going to get hurt, or if there's going to be a lawsuit, you can just count on being Steve Smith. I mean, he he just he enjoys that kind of stuff, I guess. We don't we don't necessarily get along. No, I wouldn't say we do. Well, it's interesting, because downtown on Broadway is a bunch of different personalities.

12:38Right, right. You know, Ryman Hospitality, or if it's the I want to say that the Cadillac Ranch people, but it's the other group that owns many of those honky tonks down there. Right, right. You and Layla are kind of the original people that are the entrepreneurs that hustled your entire life to earn the opportunity to own one of these places that is the original, you know, I don't know, I feel like yours are so genuine. And then you look at a guy like Steve Smith, who's just he's an antagonist. Yes, indeed. But you know, he lucked out on that purchase on the purchase of that place, because he actually got that place from Robert Wayne Moore, who is, you know, Robert's Western World. Sure. So in 1992, you know, Robert Moore, you know this, but, you know, after 1974, after the Ryman, or the Grand Ole Opry, left the Ryman downtown when it moved over to Opryland, to the big Opryland facility over there, downtown pretty much just, you know, it went down into this very depressive and very left out and mowed and almost like a huge recession downtown. When I came to town in 1994, there was a little bit of that still going on, but not as bad. And I knew that Robert Moore owned Tutsis, but, you know, which was very common for places down there during that time, that period, the buildings were, you know, really falling in. I mean, the roof was going to cave in. I mean, the health department had been after him about that. He didn't own the building. And so,

14:40Ruble Sanderson, who is the guy who owns four other places there, he's a very nice person. Him and his wife, Branda, got ahold of this, the news that the owner of Tutsis was probably going to be selling the place, well, selling the business, not the building. He didn't own the building. So, Robert met Ruble Sanderson, and he also met Steve Smith, and immediately he didn't like Steve Smith. So, there was a problem that was created right then and there, but he dealt with Ruble Sanderson. And, I mean, the story is just unbelievable. Robert pretty much just sold the name, Tutsis, Goodwill, if you will, and for peanuts. So, they got the place, and it was actually Ruble Sanderson who bought it, but Steve Smith considered himself a partner of the deal, because he was the one who really knew what was going on downtown and wanted to be a part of it. So, it's just amazing that, of course, after a couple of years, things just went south. Those two began, you know, it's a fight, like if it was a gunfight, believe me, people would have been dead. But Steve Smith decided that he wanted to have the place for his own, and Ruble was done with all the fighting and the bickering. And the next thing you know, he sells Tutsis then to Steve Smith for a pretty amazing amount of money and opened himself four other places down there. And so, the bickering between the two of them has been going on forever. So, now Steve has four or five places. Of course, he has those places with the help of

16:42investors, and Ruble has his places. And so, there's all of this going on. And you mentioned Honky Tonks. To me, honestly speaking, they are not Honky Tonks. They are your usual or typical, you know, tourist bar joints, if you will. And so, you're right. Yeah, Robert's Western world started as rhinestone western ware because Robert wanted to get away from the business, Honky Tonk business side of it. But Robert has it in his blood. I knew it wasn't going to last. So, you saw this rhinestone western ware, you know, all the boots lining the walls and the shirts and the hats and etc. changing, you know, it morphed into a little bit of a bar. And then the next thing you knew it was like playing the traditional country music, the classic country music that Robert himself loves. And it was just something to see. Quite a story in that place.

17:47So, yes, Robert's to me is a real Honky Tonk and layless. And if you go outside of that, it's pretty much a tourist trap, bar, restaurant, if you will. And everybody wants to have a place on lower Broadway now and have an artist, you know, have a singer's name to it. And man, Robert is proud of what I've done and which was, you know, I did a lot of cleaning and repairing and things, but I would never change the heart of that place. Wow. I just love what you just now said. You talk about Robert as if he's almost like a father figure, like he's a guy that you just respect with. Absolutely. Can you tell the man, can you tell me about Robert? Because I don't know him and I don't know if a lot of people know him. And he seems so genuine. Can you just talk about him here? Sure. Well, so Robert is was actually a fighter, right? Boxer. Really? And he has and back in the late 50s, early 60s, he moved to Nashville. But you know, there are, for instance, there is a story about a Clint Eastwood that has a movie that he goes like he moves from town to town and people would bat on him and he would have these street fights. Have you ever watched that? I can't remember what that was called, but it says he's a tough guy. You know, he would have this tough guy. I can't think of the name but I've seen the movie. But anyway, I heard, that's what I heard, that that was based upon Robert's real life story, which is very interesting. He's definitely a boxer, man. I guess the best way for me to describe Robert more, he is a, let me see here, I don't want to be,

19:52I don't want to sound demeaning because I love Robert, but he's like a geriatric Popeye. You know, remember when he, yeah, he opens those cans of, I can't remember what is it, spinach? What is that? Definitely spinach. Yes, spinach. So he eats that and you know, that's how Robert is. But Robert is very, very down to earth. He's just a hillbilly, man. I really didn't realize what the the implications of the term hillbilly really meant until I met Robert. Well, I remember walking into Robert's Western World and he was fixing up the place, but the guy who did all the work was a gentleman by the name of Larry Helms and he has passed away. But anyway, Larry always had a cigarette in his, you know, mouth and his lips and the ash, you know, was fixing to drop and it's burning his eyes, but he's just smoking, right? This is the guy who did all of him, by the way, drinking his bush beer. He would drop one bush beer after the other.

21:02And see, by the end of the day, if you've ever been to Robert's, you can look at the floors, the tile floors, and you can see that it doesn't follow a straight line. It doesn't, but you know, I was there and I saw Robert saying to Larry, we need to take down that light fixture and I was there when Larry would pick up this fledge hammer and swing at the thing and, you know, sparks would be flying everywhere and he'd go back to his bush beer. Done. I was like, are you kidding me? Man, I tell you, I usually say this to people and it's hard to really understand what I'm trying to say if you've never been in a situation before, but it was so wrong. It was so wrong. It was right. Yeah. To a guy like me, I mean, I was coming in, I was fresh. I, you know, I walked in at Robert's and asked if he was there, if he was available to speak with me, you know, and I put on a suit and tie and stuff, like I'm going to apply for a job and I walk in there and there rises this man from behind a domino gang on a table he was having with these other gentlemen and I looked at his hat and his hat was like he had sat on it and just put it right back on his head. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It wasn't neat. It wasn't clean. His shirt had ketchup and mustard on it from a hot dog or something he ate, you know, a few hours before. His glasses, his glasses were missing one of these little supports or arms, whatever you call it, you know, so they were crooked in his face and it was, you know, he had tobacco in his mouth so he was spitting and his pants, one of the legs were inside of his boots, you know, so it was pretty unkept. It was not the vision that I had of a businessman, a business

23:06owner by any stretch. Very humble man and I said Mr. Robert may speak to you for a second and I knew right away that there was no need for formalities if you will. Yeah. Because, you know, he just put his tobacco in his mouth and he said, you play country music? And I said, yeah, I do. I play some country music. I mean, I played a little bit of everything because I was coming in from Peoria, Illinois where I worked at a lounge so you have to play all kinds of things, right? So I wasn't really focused. I wasn't that serious about traditional country music at that point, but I knew I loved it. So I said to him, well, you know, I'm a huge Marty Robbins fan and I can sing a few Marty Robbins tunes for you. And he said to the band that was up on stage, so get this boy up there when I hear him sing. And so anyway, he, just as I started singing, he laughed and I was a little confused, but he went across the street to fetch a lady that was running a place across the street, Kathy Moore. I came to know her, in fact, to even work at Robert's. But Kathy came over from her place and the next door where Layla's is right now, Pat was the lady who ran that place and she was like a Native American lady and she had the long, long black hair.

24:38And you know, you can see that the ears haven't been too kind to her, you know? She looked like she was bent through it. But anyway, they came in and they started listening to me and then he asked me to sing another song and another song and that was it. He said he was going to put a band behind me. And at that time, he was putting the band that became known as BF549 together. So it was like, he's picking, you know, I'm going to get this guitar player from here, this bass player, this drummer, and I'm going to put this band together, which didn't mean that it was the best. But once he gained, you know, trust in me, he said, well, you know, you choose your own musicians and that's how things began. It was a, a, I mentioned something to him that I think, even though I don't think Robert is a, he's not a very spiritual person, perhaps. We've never had any conversations on that. But I mentioned to him that in 1986, I drove from Peoria, Illinois, down south on a 1971 Plymouth Fury that I had acquired back there in Peoria from a guy that was just so nice. He took a liking toward me or for me and, and he sold me this car for like 150 bucks, but it was just eaten up by rust and it was, you know, it was like Swiss cheese, you know, I had holes everywhere. And at the time I wasn't, you know, nowadays I do take care of my vehicles and, but back in those days, I just didn't know what was going on. It wobbled really bad and I came to find out later on that it was a tire. The whole problem was a tire and that's how I learned the tires can do that, you know, and that thing wobbled all the way down south. It was the beginning of 1986,

26:43so it was very cold outside. And I said, you know, I remember driving down 24 and going through Clarksville and when I got to Nashville, I didn't know where I was. I didn't even know why I was there. I just needed something different. I was very, I was feeling miserable, maybe a little sorry for myself. I don't know, but I drove that car down 40 towards Memphis for about two miles and I saw a street sign, an exit that said Broadway. So I took that exit and I came up to Broadway and for whatever reason, I made a left turn. And if you've been to Nashville, you will know that on the right-hand side, I saw this big, beautiful building, looked like a train station or something. It was a union station. And then I said to him, this is what I told them, and I said, and I came to at the top of the hill. I realized that the road was going down and I look at a distance at this church, this building that looked like 12. In fact, there were several churches there, but then on a 400 block of lower Broadway, there was this big church, which was the Rymer Auditorium. I didn't know at the time. I just drove down lower broad and I parked my car directly under the Ernest Ub Records sign. So I'm thinking to myself, I mean, I don't know who I didn't know Ernest Ub was, you know, but that beautiful sign, man, I just parked underneath of it. And I looked at the store on the end. So this was like three o'clock in the morning. So there wasn't anybody out. Wow. And I'm looking at the store and that sign, I'll never forget this.

28:32And then for whatever reason, I just turned my face left and I saw that building, that very building. And it was 416 Broadway. At the time, I believe it was a place called the Lynn's Liquor Store. So anyway, I saw those two buildings. That's all that I did. And I shift into gear because a voice inside of me said, not now. No, I'm not ready for this. And if I have an accident then, now, imagine then. But I just floored it, man. And I ended up in Atlanta, Georgia, where I, you know, I lived for almost two years. And that's when I first picked up a guitar and started doing singles and stuff. I didn't know what that was at the time, if people would like that. But it got me a job at a place called Frankie's Tavern out there in Conyers, Georgia. And then my family asked me to come back to Peoria and I did.

29:35And that would have been 88. So it wasn't until 1993 that I took a trip downtown back to Nashville. And I felt that that might have been the time to do it. And here I am, man. I own Robert's Western World. That's just crazy. And I just acquired the Earner Subrecord Shop. And it's like, what? How did that even happen? But, you know, so when I came to talk to him, I'm a very emotional person. So I was thinking about that, you know. I almost wanted to cry because he gave me an opportunity to get up on stage and sing with the band that was there. And listen, I don't walk around holding a sign that says I own anything, because I'll be honest with you, even last night, last night, I was having a real problem with my inner ear issue. And I was telling myself in bed just before I fell asleep, I was telling myself last night, you know, it was probably three o'clock in the morning. And I was saying, you know, I'm happy with saying that I don't own anything, man. I don't have nothing. I'm a nobody. I'm here just like anybody else.

30:54I never really got this, you know, I never learned to be a boss. I don't like being a boss. I don't like that. I treat people like family, man. You know what I mean? We don't have to turn over to Robert's because, you know, the way I see it is like this. Plain and simple put is these things have been placed in my hands by luck, by, you know, I work very, very hard, and I'm very diligent on things. And I don't change. That has been something. I've always been this way, even when I didn't know who I was. But these people take a liking toward me or for me, and things happen. And I was able to grab at the opportunities. But the way I look at it is I'm only here for a period of time. You don't take any of this with you. No. And so all I'm saying is, you know, for as long as I'm allowed to be here on this earth, I want to I want to be to do the best that I can. And that's that's where I'm at. 100 percent.

32:05Wow. Does that make sense? A hundred percent. I mean, I think that that all makes sense. But I think I don't even know. That was such an amazing story that you just told just about how do you are you you said you're not spiritual. Are you are you spiritual? I mean, I am. I am very spiritual. Yes, I am. I mean, believing when you come to Nashville and you get off on Broadway and you come over the hill. And that's one of my favorite things in the world to take people from here is to drive the station and now be the Grand Hyatt. You go up that hill. And then once you get crest and you look down, it's like it's like pulling into Vegas. It's just this beautiful sight of bright. Right. And I can just imagine you coming in at three o'clock in the morning and seeing it. But like the idea that you see something and go that that's it. That's the thing. It's a feeling. But then to trust that feeling and follow that feeling. Yeah. It's something different. Like it takes like a faith, some kind of spirituality to say. Right. Meant to be. Well, you know, that's that's what I tell folks. You know, the few people that I have mentioned this story to. It's like, why? Why? Why? Why did I hear that voice inside of me at three o'clock in the morning inside of that old car? Not now. Not now. Something like that.

33:33And, you know, I went back to Peoria, Illinois. I got to play music and all the bars and honky tonks and fancy hotels and restaurants up there. And I'm very grateful for that. I met wonderful people. You know, my family is so wonderful. They're my American family in Illinois. And, you know, it was so much happened up there that needed to happen. And, you know, I became an American citizen in November of 1990. So check this out. They knew that I was, you know, the office of Dan, Senator Bob Michaels up in Peoria, Illinois. Well, they had heard about me because I was like, you know, it's like this big fish in a small pond, you know, and I played these little restaurants and these gigs and stuff. So they had heard my name around. So they got involved in that and that dream. And Senator Bob Michaels just took me in and his staff. And, in fact, the day that I was sworn in, the judge asked me to get up and sing America the Beautiful right next to him in a courtroom. So, oh, yes. So the TV was there and stuff. And after that, here's the next blessing, man. It was, I was invited by his office. I remember the night. It was a Wednesday night because I was coming back from Sky Harbor, a closing door of Sky Harbor over in Bartonville by the airport in Illinois. I was driving my old Cadillac that I had at that time. And I heard when President Bush went on the radio and he said that we were at war with Iraq because their invasion

35:35of Kuwait. I remember hearing that. I remember driving to hear him on the radio talking about that. What I didn't know was that Bob Michaels' office was going to ask me, as the youngest American citizen from central Illinois area, to go represent Illinois with the Department of Defense. And they flew me out to Kuwait. I put a band together and here I found myself in Kuwait. And I got to play music in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and southern Iraq. And the blood was still fresh on those walls where people had been put in there and been killed. And I was there. I got to see all of those, all the burning. And I was there when Saddam Hussein's force got on a highway of death, is what they call it, because it was a north and south highway. And there was a big jam. The highway was jam-packed with, at the time, everybody, just about everybody in Kuwait or in that area, were driving those big upside-down bathtub Chevy cars. I don't remember if they were Impalas or what they were, but they were very popular up there. And then the Allied forces come overhead and they blew them off. They blew them away on an interstate. So everything was in flames. Cars were upside down. And the Saddam Hussein's forces had gone through the houses in Kuwait. And they raped. They killed. They took everything that people had. And it's just that, how in the world did I get involved in that? I mean, how did that happen? So when I came back from the first World War,

37:40forgive me, when I came back to Peoria, Illinois from the first Gulf War, that's when people started saying to me, man, you need to paint the bigger picture. You need to get out of here. And I was going to be a police officer, man. Really? Yeah. I went to school, you know, two years of law enforcement. And I was ready to have a career. My goal was to become an officer in Chicago, Illinois. So based upon what's happening there right now, I'm happy I never did. I think you're in the right place. Yeah. So my police chief at the time said, you gotta go. You gotta go, man. I don't want you. You don't need to be a cop. And it sort of broke my heart, but it was his influence that got me on that old car. And, you know, where was that old car? At this time, I was driving a big Ford van with my gear because I went from gig to gig, you know, and setting up myself. But that's how it happened. And here was 1994. And here we are today.

38:46I would, I want to, I love, I used, I love eating at Jason's Deli, just on West End. It's just one of those, I love the salad bar, right? There's not a lot of healthy food in the salad bar, but I was parking that parking lot downstairs and there's a picture of your Cadillac, the Annabelle. That's right. That's right. I didn't realize that that was your car until yesterday. I was like, oh my gosh, I love that mural. And that is your car. I want to talk to you about your cars, but first I want to ask you about the American dream because we are in unprecedented times right now where the pandemic, there's police officers killing black people. We're in a complete, it's an insane time right now. Black Lives Matter is very important. And you have a lot of varying opinions that are happening right now. You are somebody who immigrated here from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and you were chasing an American dream. You're living an American dream, an entrepreneurial dream. You've, you've fought hard, but so, you know, I think that what gets lost in this sometimes is politics and all this other stuff, but I'm curious from your perspective, what is the American dream? What does it look like to you and what are you going through right now?

40:15Well, the American dream, it's such a, it's just an emotional thought that comes through my mind. You know, a lot of people come to this country from other countries and most of those people, I will say, they come because they love the idea of the red, white and blue. I was a kid growing up in Brazil, you know, there was no money and I come from a broken family. My parents were divorced and so there was so much that happened, but the thing is nowadays, I sometimes, I think of, you know, sitting or laying on a couch at home in Brazil and watching a movie like, you know, Canon. I don't know if you remember that, but in the 70s, late 70s, there was a show, this guy is a detective, big guy out in California and he drives this big, beautiful Lincoln Continental, you know, and it's like, wow, my gosh, and I've always loved cars since I was a little kid and I remember the Rockford Files, I don't know if you remember that, the music is just playing, you know, it's playing in my head right now.

41:45So anyway, this guy, this tall, handsome guy, he drives this, of course, I didn't know what it was at the time, but it was a Pontiac, it was either a Camaro or he was driving a Trans Am, but I just remember seeing that and falling in love with that. I remember listening to black gospel music, I mean, the real deal, you know, the old stuff, old school music and I remember being so in love, so fascinated with that. It's like I was born in the wrong place and at the wrong time too, because I just love older things and there was, I remember, I don't think I've ever told anyone this, but since my mind is drifting back to the old days, I remember the day that I made my decision and that was, I was watching TV and they played the national anthem of Brazil, which is a beautiful, beautiful national anthem. It's just gorgeous, the music is phenomenal, but anyway, and then they're flying the flag and then I don't know the cause of that commercial at that time, but it said, at the very end, it said, Brazil, love it or leave it. And that's when I made my decision, right there.

43:06Okay, baby, hold on. Wow, there was a commercial that said, I'm gonna have to go here soon, I'm so sorry. Hopefully we can continue this. Yes, no, I would love to. And you said, love it or leave it. Yes. You know what, I'm gonna leave it. I have, my love is somewhere else. Yes, that's exactly right. That's it. And then, you know, coming to the United States of America, arriving here on the fifth day of February of 1984, you know, walking out of the 747 airplane from the Argentinian Airlines and walking into the airport and seeing the police officers and seeing the people and listening to the language and looking outside and seeing those yellow cabs. Man, man, I have such love for that. You have no idea. I think that with all of this stuff, some of that can get lost. I think we lose since the original one is great. And I love you telling that story. I know you've got to go. I'm gonna let you go.

44:15Here's, I like to finish and I want to, we'll pick this up. I want to pick this up another time where we can spend, we'll do a part two of this interview. Okay, so we kind of left on a cliff hanger there. Love it or get out. So we do touch on that in episode two. We catch right up there. We talk more about his cars. We talk about what it's like to be an immigrant coming to America, being an American, some of the psychological issues that come with all of this that happens. We talk about him being robbed his first day in America. A lot of stories that come out in episode two. So hang out for tomorrow or switch over to YouTube and check it out right now. Thanks for listening guys. Hope you are staying safe. Love you guys. Bye. That's the end of this show.