Montell and Kristin Jordan

00:00We are supported by Robbins Insurance, a local insurance agency providing customized insurance policies, sound guidance, and attentive service. Robbins Insurance is the go-to agency for hospitality professionals in Nashville. Listen, Robbins knows how hard industry professionals work every single day. They also know how devastating accidents can be. Be it a grease fire that damages the kitchen, a severe storm that cuts off power, or a customer slip and fall incident. Both the extensive experience and the savvy to create a policy that protects your business from accidents like those, you can rest easy knowing that the work you've put in will not be for nothing. Visit Robbins' website at RobbinsINS.com to request a consultation or call Matthew Clements directly. His number is 863-409-9372. Protection you can trust. That's Robbins. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City.

01:06Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We will be joined with Caroline Galzin here shortly and we are powered by Gordon Food Service. Man, we got a fun one today. This is a random one, but we are talking with Montel Jordan and his wife Kristen. So Montel and Kristen Jordan joined us in studio and I know you're wondering, is he opening a restaurant? What's the deal with this? No, he's not. He's not opening a restaurant. Not to my knowledge. He's not even in the industry. He's just a really interesting guy that has had an amazing career and I wanted to talk to him. Met him and here we go. So this is a little bit of a departure. I want to do some more musical acts in different people and kind of tie it into the industry because I think there's a creative side to everything that we do and chefs are creative people, restaurateurs were trying to think of different ways to market and things.

02:22I think that musicians do the same thing and we are Music City also. So we've got to be doing something around music. So today we have a platinum selling recording artist Montel Jordan. If you don't know who he is, you can hang out just a minute and you can hear who he is with one of his songs. He's an amazing guy. This is one of the nicest people I think I've ever met. I didn't know his wife was going to be here till like the day before which made it so much better. She was so amazing and we get to get into some really neat stuff here and I'm really really excited to share this episode with you. I do want to tell you that I've been getting some amazing response from my episode with Stephen Faust. You guys go back and listen to that one. Very brave and honest conversation with a chef who, you know, was just the most amazing guy. And I love sharing those stories with you. I love sharing. I sometimes feel like I overshare and that's okay. I don't, you know, I don't care if one person out there.

03:24Here's something that I've been through and I've made a bunch of mistakes in my life and I'm fine with that. They don't define me. Those are the things that that you grow on and I'm excited to share some of those mistakes with you on this show. And I think I do in this episode too. And I want you to hang out at the end of the episode today because I'm going to I'm going to wrap this up with kind of a bow with kind of what's going on with me and my life and some things that are happening. And I just wanted to share just some stuff. So hang out till the end of the episode. I do want to tell you that Philip Krajek was on the show this past week. And man, what a fun episode that was just getting to know him. But one of the cool things that we do here in the studio, I've got these amazing sponsors and I've got this this built in that is behind the desk and every guest that comes in is to leave with swag with stuff from all of the sponsors. And I love sharing the message of what the sponsors are doing. But we have these really neat like bags and they're from Cytex, which is a linen company.

04:27And I gave the bag to Philip and he says, oh, man, Cytex. I love these guys. Day one, we've used Cytex. We use Cytex in our restaurants. They used to be a sponsor and the pandemic was crazy. Well, they are back and I'm so excited to be talking about a linen company that cares the service level throughout the entire pandemic. Their service level has been absolutely amazing and I couldn't be more impressed with them. And they just they do what they say they're going to do and their quality is amazing. So Cytex is who you I'm recommending if you need a good linen company and you're a locally owned and operated restaurant, you need to call Ross Chandler to 270-823-2468 is how you get a hold of Ross. If you're opening a new restaurant or you have a restaurant, you're not happy with the linen company. And believe me, I know you're probably not happy with the linen company. Cytex is somebody who you will be very excited to work with. So give them a call today and get you going with Cytex.

05:30I don't know what much more to say until after the episodes. I told you stay around from there. If you're just finding this podcast, we'd love you can watch this podcast on YouTube. Go to YouTube channel at Nashville Restaurant Radio. We did this live so you can actually you could have watched this video a week and a half ago when we recorded it. If you follow us, you'll get this if you're subscribed to it, you can get notifications when we go live with guests and you can join the show. Go find us on Instagram at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio or find me at Brandon underscore NRR. If you like to be a guest or you have ideas, if you'd like to sponsor the show, we would love to. We're taking applications for that too. So if you want to come on, we're not just taking anybody. But if you are somebody who's doing something really cool for the hospitality community or for the community in general, and you think that we need to share what you've got going on, I'm happy to sit and talk with you and learn more about your business because these are not just people who want to advertise with. These are people who we vet. We learn. We learn that they are doing amazing things in the community.

06:31And then we really just want to share that with you. That is every one of our sponsors. If you have an issue with any of our sponsors, if you call one of them and you start using them because of the show and it's not working out, call call me DME directly. I want to know because I want to hold them accountable and I want them to know the feedback. What's going on? And especially if I'm recommending that you guys use somebody they need to be amazing. This needs to be an amazing company that I trust that I'm vouching for and I absolutely do. So any sponsor that you hear on this show is somebody who I know they're friends of mine. I've used them. I work with them and they're they're amazing companies. And we do have a new sponsor today coming in this afternoon with volunteer welding. And I'm going to get into them here in the middle of the show. But right now, I think it's time to get in with Montel and Kristen Jordan. Super excited today to welcome in Montel and Kristen Jordan.

08:01Yeah. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Oh, man. Thank you. No place would rather be. Now, I think the question is why on Nashville Restaurant Radio do we have Montel and Kristen Jordan and Montel is a platinum selling recording artist. You may know him best from the song. This is how we do it. That was a perfect opportunity for you to. This is how we do it. Okay. So what you're looking for. I was I was looking at the commitment. This is how we do it. I mean, I mean, I got you. Be on in. Carolyn, can you give me one? I cannot. I will not. I only karaoke after several drinks and I am very sober at this early hour of the day. Thank God. I've been drinking all morning. There you go. There it is. You're just you're just more unhinged than me. I absolutely that I guess that's the thing when people say that they have to sing it, right? They have the opportunity to be in front of the guy that created the song and actually they think it, you know, and you have some people that come up and they say, hey, Montel, you know, it's so good to, you know, I just got to tell you this is and they do it.

09:13And so they're committed when you actually have the platform to do it. And then don't. It's wow. You feel what you did. You're committed. But I loved it. Well, I didn't realize how important that this is because I was like, this is how like this is how you got to start on it. This is where it is. It's the this is how we do. And then it kind of goes down from there. Yeah, I like that. Okay. So why would you have Montel Jordan on Nashville Restaurant Radio? And I believe you guys are in Music City and as Nashville Restaurant Radio is we talk to chefs and restaurant owners. And I think there's a massive correlation between chefs and artists. Yes, you're both creating. You're both your artists. You're going out there taking something and making it your own and then you're putting it out there in the public. And it's a it's really service. I mean, really you creating music and doing the things you're doing, especially doing now it's a service that you're doing. And I love the correlation between the two, especially being in Music City.

10:13I like I love telling stories of other artists and it's interesting people. So I think the next question is, well, how did this happen? Well, let me tell you, I was in Indianapolis last week for an EOS conference, which is the Entrepreneurial Operating System, which is how we operate our restaurants. And I walked by a booth and there's a bunch of people taking pictures with a guy who had a really cool hat on. I think it was that hat. I was like, I really like that hat. Yeah. And I was like, what is going on over here? And I walk over, I said, take your picture with recording star Montel Jordan. I was like, oh, that is the coolest thing. Like, man, I thought I didn't know anything about it. But I walked over, I was like, I'm sheepishly going to take a selfie with you. Is this OK? Yeah. And he was like, yeah, man, how you doing? Let me what's your name? And you're so kind. Brandon's never met a stranger. No, but you could. I've met a lot of celebrities. Yeah. And a lot of celebrities like, what's up, man? What do you like? And you never want to interrupt a celebrity because it's celebrity, but you were there and you were kind and you just were like, so man, how's everything going for you?

11:17What are you doing? You're a celebrity. Apparently. I like you though. Thank you. So you see what we have in our house. He's like, stop it. So anyway, we reached out on Instagram and I said, man, I'd love to have you on the show. And you said, I said, if you're ever in Nashville and you I'm actually in Nashville next week. And I'm like, well, let's make this happen. And here we are. Here we are. Listen, first of all, thank you for your platform. Glad to be able to be here. I think in addition to the chefs and restaurants and foods and the different things that that your pod probably tackles, we like to eat 100 percent. We like to eat our foodies and we like to create. And so I think that you hit it right on the head when it comes to how when you are preparing meals or or when you are preparing music, you're serving and you're creating flavor profiles and a bunch of different things that, you know, we're like I said, as foodies, we're looking to taste something and then be like, oh, there's a crunch in this or there's a little spice or a little kick and a sweet, you know, music and creating not just music, but even ministry that we do.

12:27All of those things need to have those flavor profiles in it so that if I'm delivering, we're delivering a message, we need to make it funny, but we need to have good solid points, but we need to make sure that this drive this point home. But then we have to sprinkle this over here and you got to tell some backstory. And so, you know, I think whether it's food or whether it's or whether it's music at all, somehow ends up being a meal to be consumed by somebody. And so maybe that's the place where where all these things intersect. There it is. See, he said it much more eloquently than I did. I mean, that's exactly it right there. Kristen, thank you for joining us today. Like I'm so excited. You're such a bonus because I asked him that I said, is your wife Kristen coming? Because I listened to you guys on a podcast the other day and I was so enamored with how intertwined everything. I think that he gets a lot of the name recognition, but you were right there from pre day one. You were there before all of this through all of this.

13:28Yeah, little known fact. We were actually married before we ever got in the music business. Oh, wow. Yeah, we were married in 1994 in June of 1984 and literally the song doesn't come out until 95. And I was his manager. Nice. You were the manager. You remind tell Jordan's manager and his wife. But you the crazy thing here is that you kind of had that. I was a secret. It was the reason it was a secret though is because when we went to the record label, they were like, so hey, here's the thing. No one's going to respect you as a manager if they know that you're the wife and I was like, wait a minute. I was like, wait a minute. I've worked my whole life to get to this point and to that's going to discount what I'm going to give. Well, we won't do that. And then they told him nobody wants an unavailable R&B recording artist like I'm married man. That's that's unattainable. No, thanks. So they basically said it would be better if you guys didn't say that and we were foolish enough to believe that that was the right thing to do.

14:33Yeah, I didn't know if I could be a good husband, but I knew I could be a good recording artist and I didn't know if I could be a good wife, but I knew I could be a great manager. So we were like, hey, let's try this. It'll be great. What would you do if they said that today? What if over that time if somebody came to you right now and they said that to you today, what would your response be my edited version shock them in the throat? Just to come when supply just for a couple of seconds. Yeah, absolutely walk away. I think we understand what's at stake now and we didn't then and we're in a different time now too. You know, at that time period the music industry standard was for success meant that people want for me. It was in order to be successful men have to want to be you and women have to want to be with you. If you can attain those two things and men want to be you and women want to be with you, you can be successful. Same thing with women. It was a if women want to be you and men want to be with you and that's why you can have some artists that may reach a certain level of success, but they maybe have one of the two.

15:38You know, or you know, you're a great craft craft great at your craft, but maybe you don't have the certain look or the same this that gets you to that next. We'll think about like all the like all the house music in the 90s that had someone else singing and then a different person in the video, right? Yeah. And then when you sit you're like, yeah, those two things don't like, oh, she's actually not really singing that but she's, you know, the skinny beautiful young exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Now, did you two meet because you were his manager or no? Okay, we we met at a place called the cockatoo in. Yeah, and neither of us had any business there. It was a sorority ball cockatoo in. Yeah, in California. Yes, Los Angeles, LAX. It was an Alpha Kappa Alpha Ball and neither of us belong to those organizations. I'm a Zeta and he's a Kappa but that we had no business there and basically it was God Sovereign timing.

16:39Yeah, I saw her before she, you know, big glass windows. I saw her walking by she's already six feet tall got on like three inch heels and she comes walking by outside, you know, long hair don't care at the time and I was like, oh my goodness, that could be my wife right there. Like when I saw her Wow, and then she came in and proceeded to like play me for like an hour and a half two hours. We get introduced to each other because my friend knows her from college and I mean, I got no rhythm bro, like no love. No like no nothing. I am you don't nothing and I'm a popular guy at the time. I'm a very he's the man. I don't know it yet, but he's the man in his organization and I am catching like I mean, no rhythm is painful. Listen, no, it was painful. I'm like saying, you know, would you want to dance? No, no, thanks. Do you like to you know, what do you like to do? Nothing, nothing like everything was man. And then, you know, so we spent like a good hour of us sitting our friends are dancing hanging out.

17:42I'm just sitting with her a DJ is killing it. And so I finally say, are you sure you don't want to dance? And she says, well, if I dance with you, will you leave me alone? If sure dance with you, will you leave me alone? And of course, as a man, I'm thinking so you saying I got a chance saying I got a chance. So we dance. I turn the dance floor out. She's mortified. Now she wants to talk and then she falls in love. And now we got five kids over that part. I just I just I can't I can't skip over that part because when we're on the dance floor and see Running Man isn't the same now as it was then but at six eight appendages going everywhere. Yeah, this was a wild spectacle. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was known for the Roger Rabbit. That was yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yes. And you're not a small guy either. So six. So right. So like all of the flailing that was happening at every eye that has torn towards you my running man is elite running man is a little you know, stood my line was I would say look there's nobody on the dance floor and I would have enough room liquid courage liquid courage and I would go if you want to get the dance floor going I will go out there because I am a six foot six white guy with no rhythm whatsoever.

19:01And I look I like snap. I'm like Carlton, you know, like I'm not doing this very well and then every other dude who's there is like well if that guy's out there I'm gonna look really good. So I was like that I'm just gonna do this for everybody else because that's right. That's why you got invited to all the parties official party starter. Yeah, that's well. That was it have that in common. I met my wife's parents before I met her and when they you know, we have a daughter and I was like, of course you do like, you know, you work at a restaurant. You it's just a thing that people like when you look like a nice young man and they brought my daughter. They brought their daughter in one day. And I was like, this is your daughter. Wow. I never knew that's how you oh my god. This is amazing. Like and she wanted nothing to do with me similar kind of a deal. So I got the intel from her mom. Her mom said she really wants to go eat at Sapphire in Franklin's brand new at the time and this is 20 years ago, right? And so I said, hey, you know, maybe we should go out sometime and she said, no, I think I think I have a boyfriend. There was like one of those like no, I think I think I'm washing my hair, you know, kind of like, no, I don't I don't think I can make it.

20:07I said, oh, I really wanted to go eat at Sapphire and she was like Sapphire. I said, yeah, it's this new restaurant. I really wanted to check out. She's like, I I could go eat at Sapphire. Maybe I don't have a boyfriend. Oh, wait to see if I have a boyfriend for another week. What's going on? And we had the first date and then she fell in love again. And you know, then night and shining armor and here it is 20. Carolyn's going to throw up and 18 years. No, I think that's very cute. And I love your wife. She's she's wonderful. She is amazing. But I did I did get the heads up from her parents. They gave me the template. They gave us a golden ticket to get the first date after that. It's on you, buddy. What about you? How did you come? You got to give the view and tell me. Actually, I was going to say I feel like even just kind of the little bit that you've said so far about how you met and kind of have grown together. I can relate to so much because I met my husband working in a restaurant. He's a chef and I was I've always worked front of house. And when we met, you know what you guys said about I knew I could be a great manager, but I didn't know if I could be a great wife.

21:10I knew I could be a great singer. I didn't know if I could be a great husband. I'm somebody who I was always very very career focused and I actually never saw myself getting married. You know, I was kind of like that Sarah Jessica sex in the city type thing and just career was always always number one to me. I was never the person pursuing a relationship. So when we got married, it was a bit of a whirlwind, but we knew that we really wanted to pursue opening a business together and that was part of our decision to get married so quickly is like, hey, if we're going to do this, let's really do this and you know, it's it's worked out very well. We're married for 12 years. We're very happy and we own a business together. But I feel kind of a similar role where it's like he's the chef and I'm not his manager necessarily, but I do manage the I handle that business end of things so he can kind of do what he does. Let's let's not discount that you manage his life. You know, I really do and honestly, I think he would say that as well. Yeah, definitely, but if he didn't do the things that he does, we neither one of us would be able to do it.

22:16You know, it's not to discount anything that he does, you know, I can sell a party. I can sell a big catering order. But once I write the event order and send it off, I need to never think about it again, you know, that's the getting young, you know, you got to have the two. It's very important. I don't I don't want to change it, but I want to think that's a good segue and to go back to when you met and then going through all of this. So you I want to get a little bit of your backstory Montel we do the same thing for you Kristen, but kind of leading. I think this is a really interesting story and I'm going to tie this all into restaurant stuff here. Eventually. I promise I'm going to do it, but you grew up in and you were born in South Central Los Angeles. Yes, and you went to Pepperdine. That's correct. You had a degree in communications. I read the Wikipedia you did. This is all true Wikipedia is going to tell you that I was like Magna Cum Laude or something. That's a lie. I was I was a Magna Cum Laude. I was thank you Laudie. Thank you. And so you were you were I'm just how you were found out like how people you were running you were doing infomercials and then you hosted an event where you're going to showcase some of your songs and I guess Janet Jackson came to that.

23:29Yeah, I was I used to be a part of something called a Crystal Penny showcase Crystal and Penny were aunt and mother to famous recording artist Shannice Wilson and they did showcase out of Pasadena, California. It was like Wednesday nights or Tuesday nights. And so I was just an upcoming artist and I would go there and sing like nightclub type of stuff, you know, out on the West Coast and there was nights that was there. Janet Jackson came through a birthday party and I never met her but I knew she was there and it was one of the key nights when a lot of pretty famous and important people were in the room and they got a chance to hear me and see me sing which eventually got me fired from my job because I invited people from work and the people from work went back the next day and the report of me at the club that night was man. This guy is really really good. He won't be here long, you know, and that's just the main thing of a boss wants to hear that one of their employees is not going to be there long. He's doing a lot of things outside of this job that are much better than what he's doing at this job.

24:30Yeah, the irony is is that like he's like the employee of the month the month before and he gets fired the next week and they bring him a cake. They bring him a cake to say you're fine wish. Yeah, really now was that no I got fired and they get me brought me a cake. Was that an act of love? Yeah, I mean in all honesty, I think like there's a side of that but was this a what are you doing wasting your time here go do bigger things. Here's a cake now waste your time in this spot. Now it's that now. Was they loved me enough to to let him set me free and be like me and go do what you're called to do but at the time it was a what the hell are you guys doing? I don't know how I'm going to eat next week if I'm not employed here. So sometimes you need that that through the trials and tribulations these tough things is where we rise the sure fastest and the best and we have we gained so much more knowledge. I have a question actually. So I know a lot of people who are pursuing a career in music acting and actually even you know in the restaurant and culinary industry make the choice rather than to go to school just to kind of pursue that right out of high school.

25:39What were you always interested in pursuing a career in music and if so, how did that influence your decision to attend college as opposed to just saying hey, I you know, I'm going to move to Hollywood and do my thing right? Well, I always I wasn't interested early on and being in the music business. I always just did music. It was just something I did because I was yeah, it was a church musician. I was a kid. So I was every weekend. I was in front of a audience of you know, a couple hundred people playing piano playing Oregon singing writing songs like so but that was my childhood from like 10 years old and so I don't think you know, hey one day I want to do this as a it's like I wanted to be a you know, as I'm 54 now. So at the time I want to be in the NBA. I want to be in the WWF at the time before it became the WWE. I want to be a famous like I want to do style. I don't want to be a pastor in a church. I don't want to you know, you know, so I did not have a template for what I wanted to be, you know at that time and so it really became a passion later on in life that it wasn't just something I did but it was something I was really good at.

26:46I think the aha moment if maybe that's what you might be asking the aha moment for me was in high school at a talent show because I was not popular in high school. I was not like I would I had a lot of friends but I was not the popular kid. I wasn't the athlete. I wasn't really the anything other than the kid who was funny and tall and little goofy but at the talent show for the first time what I had done most of my life sitting in front of a church playing a piano and singing I finally did it outside of the church and so I'm in this talent show all these parents all my peers and I sit down to the piano and I start playing Lionel Richie's Jesus is Love and it's a beautiful son of father help your children don't let them fall by the side of the road and I'm playing it and singing it and it was like the room got as quiet as this room is right now and amazing when I was when I was done. It was like the entire crowd was in awe and they like erupted in this.

27:52Oh, that's what you do. That's who you that's who you are like it's almost like they were trying to figure it out and in that moment it was like oh, that's who you are and I sat there and for the first time I thought oh, maybe this is maybe this is who I am the Plains like that. Maybe this is my spot and so it was at that point then I started doing, you know plays and writing my music and even as I got to college trying to figure out. Okay that moment right there where everybody said oh, that's who you are. I started looking for that moment over and over again. We're going to take this moment to hear a word from our sponsors. We are so excited to welcome a new sponsor to Nashville restaurant radio volunteer welding gas and supply volunteer welding beverage carbonation began serving bulk co2 and beverages systems in 1976. They are a service oriented company that is passionate about and dedicated to beverage only gases.

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30:02Thank you Brandon. There's three things that are fallacies when it comes to buying a home from the hospitality industry. Number one is that you need perfect credit. Number two is that you need tens of thousands of dollars for down payment and number three is that you need two years of work history in the same place. John you're a restaurant veteran been in the industry a long time. How do you as a real estate agent overcome those three myths? The first thing we do is we pick a premier partner for lending and that's Foundation Mortgage. They're going to be our first stop to get people pre-qualified in the hospitality industry. Number two, we understand that hospitality workers don't work nine to five. So our phones are on 24 hours a day. Amazing. So if I wanted to call you, how do I do it? You can get me at my cell phone shoot me a text or give me a call it's 615-483-0315 615-483-0315 or Amanda Gardner Foundation Mortgage 865-230-1031 865-230-1031. Follow John on Instagram at Housepetality and follow Amanda on Instagram at mortgageamanda.

31:05What chefs want story is incredibly unique. The owner Ron Trenier met with a bunch of chefs in Louisville back in the early 2000s and asked them one simple question. What do you want in the chefs? They responded emphatically. We want deliveries on Sunday. We want to be able to split any item that you sell. We want a frictionless experience where we feel like we're being served. And so, you know what he did something crazy. He did just that. So what chefs want is not only a company that's delivering fresh produce, fresh seafood, fresh custom cut meats, specialty items, dairy gourmet, all of that seven days a week. They also offer 24 seven customer support. You want to call you want to text you want to email you can talk to somebody 24 7 get your delivery seven days a week and amazing selection of products.

32:06That is what chefs want. So if you ever wonder why do they call it that? That's your reason. Check them out at whatchefswant.com. Sat there and for the first time I thought oh, maybe this is maybe this is who I am. The the planks like maybe this is my spot and so it was at that point. Then I started doing, you know, plays and writing my music and even as I got to college trying to figure out. Okay, that moment right there where everybody said, oh, that's who you are. I started looking for that moment over and over again. Yeah, I love that. I mean, it's funny. I didn't really know what to expect for meeting you two today, but I feel like so much of what you're saying I can I can personally relate to in so many ways, you know, when I was I went to college and I thought I was going to pursue a career in law enforcement and ultimately wanted to be an attorney and I started working in restaurants and at a very young age somebody gave me a management opportunity and I was like, I think I'm going to drop out of college now. I really love this.

33:07That's what I did. Yeah, same. I was at MTSU and I had the I had a how far did you get two and a half years, but I got a job to be in leadership and I was like, well this I want to do restaurants and I can sit in a classroom and hear somebody tell me of what it's like to run a business. I can go run a business and I was 22 years old and I was a young I took a year off and then I was 22 years old when I took this job in 2001. I think this is what it was. I mean, it's been a it's been a minute, but it was in a different city and I got to learn hands-on leadership right there like go smack cross out of the face and I was like I think for me it was that first like I think was like the first hundred dollar tip or the first time somebody said like, you know, you're really good at like like you made our experience so much better or you may have somebody who comes in who you don't know what people are experiencing when they walk into your restaurant. I think that's the thing. That's the true thing of service is that you don't know if they just put their dog down, you know, if there's won the lottery, you don't think it's got divorced you don't think it's got married.

34:10You have no idea what their state is when they come in. But if you provide that genuine amazing experience that service when they leave if they feel better, I think that's everything no question and the first time you feel that where somebody's like we're having a really bad day, but everything you just did for us has changed our day and it made us feel very special that moment to me recognize that acts of service is my love. That's the way I get that's the way I give love. I'm able to give you love by what I'm able to do for you. And that was the moment I was like this is what I need to do. Well, and I think that today it's such a different world around pursuing a career in the restaurant industry because of Top Chef and Food Network and all of these things, whereas I think when we were younger it was kind of viewed of like if you can't make it to college, then you can get a job in a restaurant. It was something that was unfortunately looked down on, you know, and I I wonder if you see some parallels today with the music industry where people you know, maybe don't have to work as hard as you worked because they can go on Tik Tok and millions of people can you know, the voice or American Idol or any of these other shows where you can turn a musician into a superstar in a month is where you I think I think there's a ton of small Nashville's famous for having all the small venues that you know, Laney Wilson played in for six years before somebody said, hey, I'm gonna give you a record deal and hey, we're gonna put you on the highway and hey, we're gonna do this and all of a sudden she's amazing.

35:36But she did this for seven years or her whole life, but professionally seven years before somebody saw it then you get this kid on American. I was like, I've been singing for nine days and he's a superstar and it's like that's not the way you came up, right? Well, honestly, he we did demos for seven years. So people would say, oh, he's an overnight success overnight seven years like seven years of overnight until the one night seven years later when I woke up the next day and was an overnight success. So people don't understand it overnight sometimes happens over time. And so I think people in this town do yeah, I believe I believe in Nashville that you definitely do and listen, I don't you said something Carolina that made perfect sense is that people will look at I remember that they would say, you know, will you go to college you do this and if you can't, you know, then you know, then then go go do that right, you know, and that you know became something that has an extreme amount of value and from the standpoint of someone who goes to culinary school and pays for it and does however many years and apprentices and does X Y and Z and somebody that just came out and work hard at it and grinded and figured out the recipes and finally worked their way up through from from being a sous chef to be in the the main, you know, executive executive chef, you know, killing it or whatever.

37:05What's the difference between those two people and when the meal is prepared the journey to get there was just different, you know, absolutely. I think in fact a lot of professional chefs will say it's it's better in a lot of cases to just learn as opposed to going to culinary school. You know, I graduated from high school in 2001 and when I was in high school culinary school was for kids that couldn't get into college and I certainly that's not my opinion, but that was the I don't know if you recall that that was a thing if you can't get into college. Well, then it was like going to trade. Yeah, go learn a trade. Go to culinary school. Go to you know, automotive school learn how to do hair. Yes, you know, it was the funny thing is is that these are the entrepreneurs that make real money exactly and then you go to school rack up $200,000 with the loans and come back and be like I'm going to time for 50 grand. Yeah, it's like, you know how many people I work with in the restaurant industry that have like so much student loan debt and they're working in the restaurant and they got the degree and now they have to they have to backtrack and I'm not knocking.

38:08I'm not knocking education and I'm pleased. I hope people don't don't hear me saying that I don't knock education. I think that I don't want to devalue the the work ethic of people that also just say I'm going to you know in the this is funny and I'm having an epiphany right now. One of our favorite family games is a game of life and then the old game of life right at the start you have the option of taking this one little pathway to go to college and you know, you're going to get some debt but it puts you behind the other player that says I'm just going to jump right in and get a job and so somehow there's this thing that will because you did the college route you get to choose from these other cards that allow you to earn more money by going to school and but yet the other pathway you don't get to choose from those cards.

39:09You just get to go this pathway and somehow along that if you ever played the game of life before but it is been a need to you and I'm like you should go back and look at that and when you go back up in there, that's how it's that's how it starts out. If you don't go to college you can start out but you can only earn this type of money because you're choosing not to go to school you get a faster start but when you go to college you come with the debt but you can now earn have jobs that earn more money than the people that just went and I think what we're learning today is somebody who is learning how to cook to then come into the profession of cooking and someone who is cooking and grinds it out for those years of cooking you got four years of experience cooking when you're got four years of experience of learning of what it is to cook as opposed to you know, so I don't know practicality maybe it's certainly as valuable and I think maybe sometimes people overkill on the education.

40:14I have friends that are I call them professional students and they have like, you know, six degrees. It's like I'm not mad at anybody's just take one. I'm just saying don't devalue the hustle who don't have a degree but they've been working in degrees that don't necessarily have a title behind it. But it has the experience that a title could never pay for I think you could debate this for hours. But really what happens is is you get out what you put in right? So if I want to matter what if I want to go to school and I pay attention I'm all in for school kind of person and I can figure out how I'm going to apply that to my life and I have a plan and I enjoy the social experience the whole thing. That's a major your experience at Pepperdine meeting her. I mean all this stuff was an amazing part for you. But if I go to school if I don't go to college and I get in there, but if I'm really paying attention and I learn that entire P&L and I learned how to lead people and I'm and I know what I want in life you can go as far as you want to go.

41:18But if I go I don't want to go to school because I'm lazy. I just want to go get this job because I want to start my and then you're waiting tables 20 years later, but then there's a fine profession. Don't get me wrong. But if you always wanted more and you never got there, there's a mirror and everybody's bathroom you can look in and figure out why you're not there and it starts with a what can I do to get to the next level and put a plan together and you have to execute everything is about passion and execution and whether you go to college or college, there's a drive that people that make it have. Yeah, and you got to have that. Yeah. So so so my question and it's not really a question but this is something I'm dealing with this now because I there's a new wave that's happening where you're going to see a lot of people that have new titles in front of their names now and I think it's justifiable even from a guy who who did the school route. In other words, I have done now almost 30 years in the music business. Almost 30 years of producing records Grammy nominations X Y and Z the question I would ask is somebody that goes to school to get a doctorate in music production and now they have a title of doctorate in music production, but I don't have a doctorate in music production, but I've worked in the field of music production for 30 years.

42:48You know, how do you equate or say well that guy is a doctor and he's not when we both have been in the profession. You've got the technical knowledge and the know-how I've done the technical knowledge and the know-how I just don't have the title. And so I think that's a thing that will kind of watch happen in our world right now is very interesting. Yeah, and I don't know. This is just my opinion. I think that that experience accounts for leaps and bounds more than you know, a piece of paper. I worked at one particular job in my twenties in Chicago that we had a lot of interns that had just graduated from hospitality school and everybody who was the bartenders and the servers all the employees had had tons of years experience and these interns came in having only gone to college and never actually worked in a restaurant and they were honestly they were a joke to everyone. They didn't know what they were doing at all and we were working for them.

43:49You know, they were the bosses but they didn't know what they were doing at all because they didn't have that experience. Well, tell us how you really feel. I love when she gets into it. All right. I'm going to I'm going to reel us back in because I think there's there's a lot of more of this story that I want to get to because I think people wondering like Montel Jordan like let's learn more about the moment that this all happened and I want to know your experience too. But as his manager, where did you go to school? I went to Cal State Fullerton. Okay, I went there because I wanted a business degree. I wanted to go. I grew up in a little town in California called Roanoke Park. It was in the Bay in about an hour outside of San Francisco. You're a NorCal. Yeah, so I'm in Orange County. I was born in Mission Viejo. Ah, so, you know Cal State Fullerton. Yeah, so I wanted to go to the largest place where I didn't know anybody. New York was too far. So we went LA. I went to go look at Pepperdine. I saw that tuition was like, nope, just kidding. No, just kidding.

44:51And then I played basketball. And so I went to Cal State Fullerton. It was a business school. So it made sense and it was in the second largest market in the country. And so I was like, yeah, yeah, that sounds right. There you go. And so that's how I ended up at Cal State Fullerton and we end up meeting. I'm 19 years old when I meet Montel. So literally like the first year of life in there. And yeah, so and we've been together ever since. Yeah. Pushing up on 29 years. That's so cool. 29 years. So you you put these demos out seven years. Let's talk about this is how we do it kind of so bad. So bad. No, that's great. Just say it. No, it's great. It's great again. Hundred percent. The song comes out. Yeah. Overnight and this song hit pretty hard, right? Yeah. I mean, how long did it take? Did you when it when you when you release a song back then? Is it on an album or did you have a single that the radio play?

45:53Who's the first radio station to play it? Very, very different time. Very different time because it's not all how many downloads. I mean, it was no social media actually sent records physical CDs and albums to DJs and white labeled projects that they would get, you know, an album, a piece of vinyl and a white label on it that you didn't know what was there and it was kind of this before it comes out. You have it before anybody else gets it. It's not like today you can just up we could upload this to in the next hour and a billion people have access to it. Back then people had to physically physically tangibly either go out and buy it or purchase it. There is a romanticism about all of that. And I miss that. I miss that. I miss waiting at the record store for my Pearl Jam album to come out, you know, like that kind of a thing was a whole thing. Now it's digital copies anyway. Yeah, no, but but that would that was the journey to song bubbled up, you know, at DJs were playing it in their mix shows.

46:59Stations got it in December, November, December of 1994 before the radio station shut down for the holidays. And then when everybody kind of came back in January, the radios the record label would we service the song again to the people at radio and the the song I think came out around February the single and then the album followed I think in April, but the single started moving up the charts pretty, pretty quickly. We had a station in Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk, Virginia. Wow. We w w w i while we they played the record. I think there was a record of them playing the song 117 times a day, which is literally like every hour on the hour they were playing the record. I think the really the really cool thing about this is how we do it. And this is a story that may fit here. Well, for all of my mouth people that was 170 times a week.

48:00Yes. Okay. How? Yeah. No, was it every hour on the hour? Okay. Yeah. For the week. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Like how could that actually happen that all they played was is how we do it all the time. No, I thought you were going to say 117 times in a row. Like, you know, but the craziest thing is how we do a radio. It was only three minutes and 21 seconds. So there's a song was so short. They could repeat and repeat. So it's a every hour on the hour kind of a feel and so that's how it became so popular so fast because everybody could one had tempo to had never been done where someone was rapping and singing at the same time. He was the first to do that. And then it was coming from Def Jam, which was a traditionally all rap label. So they were like, wait, what there's credibility behind it and the obviously the sample in the undercurrent was Slick Rick children's stories, which was a classic like party jam at that point. The thing that made this is how we do it. I think it made outside of, you know, an act of God, you know, being gracious to us.

49:02The thing that made the record so big was the song said South Central does it like nobody does talking about South Central LA. Yeah, New York City at the time the kind of drama between LA and East Coast and West Coast. New York was like, we're not playing this record. It didn't matter if it was a big record. New York is like, we're not playing this record. So I went in to the station in New York City hot 97 and in their production room like this. I went in and said, I'm kind of buzzing. It's all because this is how we did on New York does it like nobody does. And when I said New York does it like nobody does and then this is how I do it. It's Friday night. I feel all right. Wendy Williams here on the East Side. Funk must have flexed like I customized the song for New York City and so New York City had something nobody else had and so now New York City is playing that record like it was a South Central LA record and somebody from Philly hears yo New York City got a customized version of this is how we do it Montel.

50:12He's coming here to the station. Yo, can you go into the booth real quick and say Philly does it like nobody does Indianapolis does it like nobody does Vegas does it like nope. So everybody on the planet had a customized version of this is how we do it. And that's one of the reasons why the record was as big as it was. We are going to take one more break to hear a word from our sponsors. Hey guys, we are supported by Sharpies Bakery and we've been supported by Sharpies Bakery for the last year and I tell you I couldn't be more proud of this partnership guys. They're a locally owned and operated bakery right here in Nashville for the last 36 years. Yes, they deliver fresh baked bread daily to your restaurants back door and man is it good. You want to know what kind of bread they make go check them out at SharpiesBakery.com That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S-Bakery.com So they have over 200 types of bread and if you're wondering well, hey look, it's a special recipe that I like to use that, you know, we bake it in our house and it's just it's a kind of a pain but we like to do it.

51:18They can take your recipe and make that bread for you without any of the hassle, the mess, the labor. They'll just deliver it right to your door every single day. It is freshly baked. They love to give you a tour of their facility. Give Erin Mosso a call. Her number is 615-319-6453. You should do it now. We are sponsored by Corson Fire and Security and let me tell you total protection one source. Yes, they can sell you fire extinguishers. They can service your fire extinguishers, general fire products, emergency exit lighting, fire alarm systems, fire sprinkler systems, kitchen fire suppression systems, fire suppression systems, security. So your cameras, all of our cameras and monitoring over at the brand new Chagos will be done with all of their cameras, communication, so mass communications, emergency notifications, so many things and you don't know until you need them. Let me tell you if you do need any of these services, you need to call Corson Fire.

52:22Kevin Rose is your man. His number is 615-974-2932. You should call him now. Hey, this is Jason Ellis with Nashville SuperSource. We're so proud to be a sponsor for Nashville Restaurant Radio. We would love the opportunity to discuss your chemical and dish machine program with you. If you have any needs or any questions about your current program, opening a new restaurant or just need a double set of eyes on that, we'd love the opportunity to help you with that. My number is 770-337-1143. We don't do any contracts, no minimums, weekly service to make sure that all your equipment is functioning properly. Make sure you have everything that you need. Again, my name is Jason Ellis, 770-337-1143. That is so smart and I feel like everybody does that now. Like I'm thinking of like Petey Pablo, like, you know, shouting out every city and you know, I've heard other songs where they have like the customized for that station. I assume no one was doing that prior to doing that at that point.

53:24Yeah, what a smart idea. I'm not saying we invented that. We can say it. We'll say it. But we were one of the first to do it well. We were one of the first to do it well. Yeah, but that's I just think it just brings me back again when you just talk about the East Coast West Coast divide of Biggie and Tupac and that whole. I know I'm like reliving my childhood. Well, you're welcome because I was a sophomore in high school when that song came out. I was right in my day. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's when you're driving in the car and you got the 12s in the back and you're listening to all this music and I just remember those which side are you on? Like, I don't care. I mean, I always have West Coast. I'm from California, but I like all of it. I didn't I didn't have a we're in the middle of the country, but I was a solidly West Coast fan. I'm not saying that just because you're here, but you know, that was me. But I. I also grew up in Mobile, Alabama. So I listened to a lot of, you know, no limit and cash money was like very, oh, yeah, which I feel like was kind of more aligned with West Coast.

54:28Your stock just went way up right there. I just want you to know it was already like you want to hear my no limit story. Oh, please. I yes. Yes, absolutely. So it's funny. This was on his third album and we were like transitioning into seeing like a new way and a new thing to do things and we were coming up with records and we heard this record and it was incredible because it had like this bounce to it. Was it like a it wasn't the club banger. It was like a you don't dance to this. You like rock you bounce and we're like man if Master P had this record like he would kill it except for at that point Master P had never really been on the radio. He was only selling records out of the back of his car and he was selling a good gaggle of records out of the back of his car be clear but had never had a radio record and so we were like and he was the hottest thing on the street at the time. So he was like all the buzz in the rap world, right? So we go to our label like hey, we just want to we want to do this thing with for Master P.

55:31He was like you'll never get that. Oh really? Hmm. Okay. Hey, guess what? He's shooting a video in town. Let's roll up. So, you know, another guy roll up on the video set for Master P and say hey, I want you to hear a record get inside. Do you remember what video it was? He was shooting a movie when I got the hookup. Oh, I've seen it many times. And so we say get in the car and we play him. Let's ride. And he goes I like it. I like it, but I want to put my man on it. Okay, whatever you want and that's the birthing of Silk the Shocker. And he ended up doing the record. It was the first radio record Master P ever had and his first number one his first number. Wow, was it really? Yeah, that's right. That's awesome. What a great story. I love that. Are you guys still friendly with yeah, love that. See I whenever I go home. We go to Ralph's supermarket and I his partnership with Ralph's sorry, that's probably a deep cut for maybe people who are listening that don't know about but I just I don't know.

56:38I love it. I'm such a huge fan. So yeah, he's awesome. He's a great guy. Percy Miller. Love. Yeah, love it. I had another question and sorry keep getting sidetracked. This is such an exciting conversation. Yeah, it's it's a little surreal. The song gets played. We were we were at Roanoke, West Virginia. Yeah, and it's being played 117 times a week. It kind of blows up. What are you guys at home? Are you guys just like holy cow like this is this has happened like what's home? Yeah, we we were only home 13 days that year. Wow. So what do you ever are you playing shows over now? You are you just doing promos for you sitting in studios like this talking about it like promotional tours hotel rooms record label has you back in the day to call it the chitlin circuit. This is when in the R&B world, you know when you hop on a little bus or something and you drive from city to city and you route and you go from Metallica Gaston to Birmingham to Montgomery and you kick over into Mississippi and then you go down here and then you make your way into Georgia and over to Carolina like it became a tour where you're the artist and we map out that the stations that are playing your record we're going to put you either on a bus or we're going to get you in a couple of dancers and y'all are going to go on tour and you're going to perform here and we're going to pay for you to go here and promote this record and that's what life became for the first probably year of you know, you blow up now you you go on the road and act like you're and act like you're not married.

58:18I like you're not but you guys like you guys have the same hotel room or do you guys have to see where it's something but sometimes when you show up and there's girls in your room before you get there. Whoa, wow. Are they like bribing people at the hotel? 100% Wow, 100% Wow. Yeah, I have many naked girls. That happens to me all the time. I know it does. I would I would lose my mind. I think I would have a nuclear meltdown. You know what it is. It almost became comical. It was kind of like seriously like think more of yourself be higher than this. So so it made me be like hey, hey. Get out of there. So then we would send security guards ahead of time clear the room and then that is wild. You talk about testing a marriage. Yeah, I mean all that because if even when you're at a place mean the girls that aren't naked waiting in your room, they're all clamoring for your attention. What is that as a wife and my wife would be like then no, no, no, I don't I don't like this.

59:19This is not something I all the attention that he's getting. Are you cool with that? Are you good? Are you how do you handle that? Well, the truth is at that point I was focused on business, right? So no different than what you're talking about. Get him in here fill the seats. Let's do the next catering the big event. It's the same thing, right? It's no different whether it's catering or it's concerts or it's record sales again. Like I knew I could be a successful businesswoman. I just want to sell a million records that group equal dollar signs. Yeah, because the truth is is that like I was focused on we're going to sell a million records. That's it. And so like it it you're not even counting the cost of what it's going to cost you right and we don't figure that out till later. Well, we you know, we had Philip Kray Jack who's a James Beard nominated chef who's here in Nashville. He was on yesterday and he said he'd been married for 29 years 28 28 years some somewhere around 28 years and I said we have Montel Jordan and his wife Kristen coming on tomorrow and they've been married about the same amount of time.

01:00:20I said in and I said, what is your secret to use? It's a lot of work and I said, you know, I listen to this interview with them and they said divorce is off the table. That's correct. They go divorce is off the table and he goes we kind of looked at each other interesting. I said he gave an example and he said divorce is too many options in a marriage because if you know why they don't give a pilot a parachute they don't give anybody on an airplane a parachute commercial airplane because that's that's one too many options for that pilot to have that is correct and I thought that concept I talked to my wife about it on Monday where we went we got a new puppy on Monday. We drove to Alabama to get this dog and we're talking about this and I said divorce off the table and she was like, yeah, I'm a rule breaker. I would immediately be like, oh yeah. Well, what if I did this? I don't know why I would test that. I just think it would be one of those things. I wouldn't but yeah, well, can we talk about that? Absolutely. I mean we went when we say that if divorce is an option for you, you have too many options.

01:01:29And some people are that shakes them that it shakes them like no divorce is an option. What if this happens? It has to it has to be an option and we believe that if divorce is an option for you, you'll at some point use it. If it's not an option, then you get to figure out. Okay, no matter how difficult it gets. We need to know how we're going to get through it over. How do we get out of it? And so if it focuses on the wrong thing, listen, we have a great marriage. Our marriage is not perfect. But the way we know and the way our kids know where our grandkids know and one day their kids will know that we're going to be married to each other happily together forever is because we don't have any other option. And so without any other option, we want to make sure we're going forever. So let's make it the best forever possible.

01:02:30Like I said, we talked about the pilots. Don't get don't get a parachute. They don't give you a parachute either, you know, because when there's turbulence on a plane or whatever and things get rocky the first thing you read it look at what I got parachute record you don't because you can endanger everybody else on the plane by you trying to hop out of the plane too soon and same thing with it. And so wait think about that though. Okay, so let's say you do have a parachute and you do ripcord, but it was going to land and it was going to be okay, but you aborted the mission. Not only did you kill yourself, but you killed everybody along with you and that's what divorce does. It rips the soul out of you the person you're married to and everybody involved your kids your grandkids their church your friends because now somebody's got to pick do you get this friend in the divorce or do you get this friend like we have friends like that. The dog the house that everything right. So it just leaves a bleeding and the truth is is that we saw that a lot in our childhood and it just it wasn't what we decided now.

01:03:38We understand there are circumstances. Yeah, I mean we saw physically abusive circumstances. I mean we and we understand that but the truth is is that there are implements and things that you can put in place to safeguard against those kind of things. But the truth is we only have one question when you know that this is your person and you guys go into an agreement like our only question is how do we how do we get through this? Yeah, and and you know, I know that we're talking about, you know what to bring this back around to restaurants and to eat a reason don't have to. I mean, it's important but I don't want to get the idea that we're saying if you're in abusive relationship stay in that now as you know, you can't get divorced. That's not what we're saying. I'm saying your safety your mental health your self-care those are things that are extremely important. You have to put those things at the forefront as well. Just knowing that we believe that any circumstance is workable if people are willing to work it out and but if your life is in danger by all means we're not saying hey, but divorce is not an option.

01:04:45So stay there and get beat. I'm not saying that I think you said something so important though. You said if people are willing to work it out right because there are so many circumstances where people get divorced because one person is given it everything and the other person is just not willing to budge or communicate or you know meet halfway or put in the work, you know doesn't happen overnight right? No, you're right. It doesn't it's steady. It's steady decisions over time that create either success or failure and so many people I think go into marriages unprepared for the wrong reasons, you know, I think that there's so much societal pressure. I think, you know, obviously society is changing but still I see it a lot here in the South, you know of that I go to college I have to get married. I have to have children. I have to do this. I have to do that. And then 10 years later people realize oh I wish I had done something else or I wish I'd given myself this other opportunity and you know, I did what I felt like I was supposed to be doing as opposed to going in with love and passion and you know, we spent so much time and energy planning the wedding but we didn't spend the time and energy planning our marriage our future.

01:06:02I was going to say you have to have a strong foundation. I don't know. When did you guys decide marriage is the divorce is not an option. Was that on the altar or was that after you hit some turbulence did you go we hit a brick wall? Brick wall hit us either way. Yeah, but the truth is is that like it was like seven years in and we have this like and create a incredible impasse and it was like, huh, we have two paths here. We can either take a or B and we had seen I had seen with my my parents what that route meant. My wife could have legitimately left. What do you mind me asking what the brick wall was? Yeah, it's called cheating. Brick wall is called cheating. Okay, man. I talk a lot about we talk about a lot of stuff on this show, you know, and I we get vulnerable. I mean the brick wall me so there was infidelity. I was I was unfaithful to my wife and because in that season I you know little compromises just opened the door for years of guilt and of shame of me hiding it and we going to God saying God I did this be you know, take this away from me and in God saying I forgive you and then be going back out and trying to be strong and then just over and over and over again one and not to go super spiritual here, but I mean I'm a pastor I didn't have I didn't have a keeper and I'm not talking about a human keeper.

01:07:38I didn't have the thing in church was called Holy Spirit. I didn't have the thing to help sustain me when I was out on the road being away from home. Some people call it conscious. I didn't have any of those things to help keep me stable. And so during that time period, you know, she legitimately can leave she can leave she can take half she can take our one daughter, you know, I can we can split up the family. I can see my kid every other weekend. We can divorce split up house try and figure out how to how to you know, we didn't do a prenup but like everything was leading down the pathway of you can leave friends were saying you can leave and take half probably and I think the difference is God was speaking to her saying why would you leave and take half when you can stay and have it all and in that journey of her saying, you know what I don't want to stay but I'm gonna stay because I believe God can do something that Montel and I can't and I'm willing to wait to see what that looks like because I've seen what the other path look like my parents were married and divorced six times by the time I was 18 years old.

01:08:53So I already saw what that was. I felt the repercussions isn't greener. No, not only is it not greener it sucks and there is no other word than that. It does there's so many things that and so many repercussions that can happen. And so my thing honestly in that season was I don't want this for my daughter. I don't want this for her life because I had been at the hands of others in these kind of situations and I didn't want that for her and so honestly I leaned into I pick you I will choose the chance with God other than the I know what this road leads to I think that also just speaks to you to what a very special connection the two of you must have because there's got to be still that little spark of this is my soulmate. This is who I meant to be wet, you know, even though this is such a terrible terrible hard time and I maybe can't stand you right now. There's there's something telling me that you are the person.

01:09:57Well, I can't imagine my life without you on it earlier and this is the interesting part before you get married you there's this thing for me. I had to pray of like God like it. This is my person like show me unequivocally matter of fact if he's not the person send him to Siberia like send him away send him hella far coming back. I'm waking up having dreams of waking up in Siberia like I don't want to be here. What's going on? But he would be on my front door with flowers and I was like maybe I wasn't clear or did I not say right but the cool part is is that once you know that that's your person then it makes everything different, right? So I didn't pick this God picked this and if that's the case, you know far beyond what I can see so I trust your plan over my plan. So I'm going to assimilate some of my life because I had a similar type situation where one relationship hit a wall and a lot of it was due to my drinking and I lost my job.

01:11:04I was at this it was a it was a brick. It was a big old brick wall that hit me and I was underneath it when I can't move this brick wall and I went to that day. I saw the moment all of this happened a gigantic rainbow showed up just out of nowhere and I looked at this and I was like well clearly talking to God God's talking to me right now and I don't I speak about higher powers because that's kind of in the recovery community. I don't like to get too much into organized religion because there's it's polarizing but I'm very spiritual and there was a day that I surrendered and I just said I cannot do everything on my own. I can't be the husband. I can't run the business. I can't I can't control everything and you surrender and you give all of this stuff up to your higher power and you say this is what it is and I think that my wife at the same point said I saw light in him. He was dark for a long time.

01:12:05There was this addiction. There's all these things and I see light like it's almost like my eyes opened and I went. Oh, I don't have to do all I can give this away and I can pray and I can do the and I know I say pray like I'm praying to God like I just I don't control anything and I put it in his hands and I go what's next? Am I the most you're going to look at me and go that man is godly. I don't know. I don't like for you to think that I have that something special going on but my wife sees it and she goes okay. No, and I told her I said whether you leave me or you stay with me. I'm going to be a better person from this day forward and this is why and I did that was just commitment I made to myself. I think at that point when you recognize hey, there's this foundation of we both have this energy this what we're going to do then I think you can I think it's easier at that point to say we've been through this we're going to do this going forward. This is off the table. We now know I'm not going to I'm the person you want in my no.

01:13:05No, I understand what you're I understand what you're saying, you know for us. We got married a little later. We were both in our 30s when we got married. I was late 20s Tony was in his 30s and you know, we own a business together had some horrible times just owning a business really sometimes it's great but more often than not it kind of sucks and now with that said I wouldn't trade it for anything but that's just the reality of it. We've we've been we had a kind of a four-year stretch where between some crazy family stuff that was going on and closing one business and opening a new business and things weren't going with the new business the way they should have been going we had some years that were truly worse than anything I ever could have imagined and it was horrible and we were fighting all the time not because we hated each other but because our lives were so inundated with stress just 24 7 we couldn't even sleep at night. It was so stressful and the thing about it is I'm not happy that we went through that but we are so much better stronger and so much more well-equipped and I think that our our relationship is so much closer because of that, you know, I think that some people have a really great life where so many good things happen all the time, but I think more often than not when we're in a marriage in particular life is going to be hard more than it's not going to be hard.

01:14:31Here's the truth. Those are the IG life's and the truth is they're giving you their highlight. Yeah, yeah, and I feel I've said that to two friends of mine who are getting married to say listen life is going to be hard more than it's not and you have to have that person that you know is going to be your solid Rock through those hard times. That's exactly. So this just turned into marriage radio, which I love the conversation really do to I appreciate y'all's vulnerability and willingness to talk about some of this stuff and you too Carolina. This is this is a really interesting fun conversation. Sometimes we forget we're on a podcast and everyone's going to listen to you seriously. We've been talking for about an hour now. I want to be respectful of your time. You guys have a couple more minutes. Sure. Yes. Okay, cool. So we talked about the song it came out. Are you tired of being known for the guy? This is how we do it song. Do you is that something that because I'm like at some point he's like I have a lot of other things going on a lot of stuff. I do a lot of other stuff.

01:15:31I don't want to be in every time somebody sees me like this is like I guess that was me move on. I'd love to hear more about what else you have going on because I know that you guys have other businesses and other ventures. What what else let's get let's go beyond. Yeah, the song where the cool thing is the song a lot of times is still the entry point into television show or it's the entry point into why someone wants you on a show or television show or podcast would be it's because of that and so I never want to forsake just the idea that that's a that's a point that gets me into different rooms, but we are doing and are much more, you know than that we are pastors of a virtual church, a virtual house church. We are opening up a facility called the Jordan River which is a 13,000 square foot property that sits on six acres.

01:16:35It's a marriage ministry a place where public marriages can heal in private. So it's the type of place where not just actors or entertainers or ministry leaders entrepreneurs in other words if Caroline and her husband are navigating through something in public, there's a private space for them to be able to come and and heal and get marriage and family therapy and get because if you fall and you're the leader, how many people do you take with you? Yeah. And so those are the main two things that we're doing right now is that you know outside of moming and daddy and me meing and big papa hang with our grandkids and doing the virtual church, which is like every Sunday night thing at 6 p.m. is pretty cool. It's called Masterpiece Church and as you know, Mastering Peace in your life and the idea behind that is we're around people all the time who work they travel they're playing in the NBA or playing in the NFL or their immune compromise or they're in prison or whatever reason they can't go up to a local church and just roll in like that.

01:17:49So we from our living room to your living room deliver what you would normally get in a church or in a candid conversation truthfully you guys this it's no different than this. We just be on couches and having conversation a lot of times we do things in the round to get people's different perspective because not everybody's perspective is the same and I think as we operate in love and have a love for each other and show each other that compassion that's how we get to the greater version of us. Yeah, can I I do want to say this and this is a I love what you said about spirituality Brandon and higher power and the light, you know, I mean that you could feel you know, and that your wife said I could see that there's something different. I'm going to challenge you I'm going to challenge you to to give it a name. And when I when I say give it a name what I mean is I understand that religion can be super super polarizing and it can cause so much division.

01:19:00The thing that I know is there is a different level of intimacy that comes with proximity. Oh my God is a Christian God. Yes. The Jesus Christ, I'm a Christian gotcha. That is what I am. But as far as far as what I recognize, there's a lot of people listening to this that are turned off by that understood and if having a higher power and in my recovery rooms, yes, that's so many people don't go to recovery because it's a God thing and I see it because they're like I'm not going to get better because I don't want to go to that God thing because it's so polarizing. So when I talk in here, I'd like to speak about a higher power to me because if it drives one person to find to seek that they can find their own but my own personal perfectly understand is is that that's I'm a Christian. That's where I'm at picking up what you put in.

01:20:00Okay. Yeah, that's where I'm at. No, I put a name to it for sure. Yeah, that's good. And I see I grew up my father was in the Christian music business. So there's a magazine. There's a magazine called CCM magazine. My dad owned that magazine to inception in 1979 until he sold it, you know, I don't know ten plus years ago, but he was the president of the gospel music Association. Wow. I mean he's used to run the Dove Awards. I mean that was I grew up in that whole world. Yeah, so probably all the Jackie Petillo's of the world and folks like that probably in my day. It was like Petra, Amy Grant, Steven Curtis, Chapman DC talk. Those were my boys. I love DC talk. I used to go hang out with those guys. They would you know, they were all at my house jars of clay doing cover shoots in my backyard. Like that was the whole Toby. It was it was another thing. It's K Max and Toby and and Michael Tate, you know, Tate was my talk. Yes. Yeah, he just recorded a song with what a Toby Max artist Rich Lynn.

01:21:02I would go to records. I'm going to tell the story. I learned so I we have known each other so long and have talked so much and I learned new stuff about you all the time. Isn't that cool though? It's it is. So DC talk had a song and he can dispute that. I love him to come on to dispute this, but these talk has something called Jesus Freak. You guys remember the song. Oh, yeah, it starts off this heavy guitar. What would people do if they found out I'm singing today? And we've had to hear you sing so much at Michael Tate's house and I bring back we used to go jam every once in a while. I got my guitar and he goes dude, you got to hear this song and he played Marilyn Manson's beautiful people. Oh, wow. I get turn he goes this just slaps like listen to this and he has huge system. He is playing the song and then he goes this is our new song. Check this out and he played Jesus Freak and Jesus Freak was based after the intro. Oh, that's so Marilyn Manson's that is the inspiration for Jesus Freak is Marilyn Manson's beautiful people. Wow. And I just I don't think the context of that song had anything to do with it, but the intro and just that that sound that he was like, this is our new song.

01:22:11Check this out. And I thought it was hilarious. Like that's wow, you're facing Jesus Freak of a Marilyn Manson song, which is almost like turning everything for good kind of thing. Yeah, one of some of the best people ever. But no, that was my whole life growing up as a kid was all in that that world. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, he's this the record that they just recorded for goatee for Toby Mac is amazing. Yeah, it's called Knocked It Out. And it's very cool. It's very inspiring song basically about facing your Giants and and taking Goliath out with everything that that you got so pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's it's a whole thing because we all face Giants every day, right? So no matter if you're in the restaurant industry, you're in the music industry, you're in entertainment of any kind, whatever that is, we all have our own Giants. Okay, so nobody's immune. So that's right. That's right. I was going to ask this this question to you guys because like I said, we're foodies.

01:23:13Yeah, and I think this is a good way to probably bring this all around full circle. Somebody mentioned to us, you know, they just kind of said man, there's a place in called the pharmacy. They got the best burgers in the world. And I was like when I hear best burgers in the world, we've been a lot of a lot of places. It's a great burger. I love the pharmacy burger. I will also give a shout out to Joyland. If you're looking for a good burger, Joyland is amazing. They're taking a break right now. But these guys there's two burgers. There's a few burgers bad luck Burger Club. Okay, these guys are doing smash burgers out of a food truck taking over the city. Okay, love that and no shade to anyone else because I love all burgers, but my favorite burger in town is place called Hugh Babies, which is kind of like a it's it's a local guy who owns local restaurants here, but he has several locations of Hugh Babies and it feels like a fast food place, but it's like a local. Oh, it is so good. Hugh, like H-U-G-H. Hugh, it's Hugh. It's like a pig. So Pat Martin owns Martin's barbecue here in town's legendary barbecue pit master West Tennessee whole hog barbecue.

01:24:22Okay, there's a difference. Oh, he's preserving tradition of West Tennessee whole hog barbecue. He has a new he has a place called Hugh Babies, which is like his take on like a it's a mix between like five guys in and out. It's kind of a cool vibe in there. I get their high service. You spoke love language. Both of those were like and if you guys are looking for a great place to enjoy Italian food and pizza, I would recommend Nicky's coal fired just down the road from a Hugh Babies actually, it is so whenever whenever you're in town looking for a great Italian dinner handmade pasta is the only coal burning pizza oven in Tennessee. Please hit me up. We'd love to have you. Do you legit do you make gnocchi? We don't have gnocchi on the menu right now. We have had it before but but not at the moment that I think I might know somebody now. I might have a hookup a gnocchi hookup for you. You make gnocchi? No, not this one. He is a barbecue master.

01:25:22His barbecue sauce bar none. I make barbecue sauce from scratch. You gotta bring us some barbecue sauce when you're in town. Do you cook barbecue? Do you like smoke things? No, no, no. He slays the grill. I have a green egg and so I do that but I actually make my own barbecue sauce from scratch. Do you want to do a guest chef dinner at my restaurant? We do guest chef dinners. We used to do them all the time before the pandemic. We really haven't done one in a few years and my husband loves a green egg. So don't play with me. I'm serious. Come do it. We'll do it. It would be amazing. Grab a couple of briskets or a couple of pork pull pork show and I was gonna say I have a I have it. I make the barbecue sauce there live. Change your life. Brand new sponsor coming to the show is go do life. This is a setup because Blair from go do life is going to come on the show in the next couple weeks and I am beyond excited to bring this to you.

01:26:26First of all go do life.com forward slash GK because they support the giving kitchen, right? So they're one of the major sponsors for the giving kitchen. Let me tell you how it works with what they do. So when you talk about go do life you access your funds what they do is they give you access to your funds before payday, right? It's a novel concept. A lot of people are offering this service. All you have to do is download the app and register for it. You get to access your wages immediately. You receive a go do life giving kitchen MasterCard and then your advance is repaid on payday, right? So as you take money out, it's that you can take 30% of your check before payday in advance. Here's the kicker. There's no fees. It doesn't cost you 50 cents per transaction. Nothing. And if you're a restaurant it costs you that's it nothing. Well, what about the setup? That's a really hard deal. All you have to do is have a payroll company. If you have a payroll company that works with go do life you're in that's the setup.

01:27:29It is it is a no-brainer biggest no-brainer on the history of Earth. If you're struggling with retention and you pay your staff bi-weekly, this is a way to give them an opportunity to get their money early here. We're going to talk about this so much in the coming months, but I wanted just to give you a teaser. If you wanted to learn more you can go to go do that's G O D O L I F E go do life.com forward slash G K when you do the forward slash G K it's it puts you into the giving kitchens custom site. So the more people that sign up for this the more restaurants that sign up for this the more money they're able to give to the giving kitchen. So not only are you giving your staff an opportunity to get their money early. You're also giving money to an amazing nonprofit that is helping restaurant workers. Like I said, we're going to have a lot more information on this coming soon. Stay tuned for an interview with Blair Gotchell and I'm just I'm super pumped and I wanted to get this in this episode.

01:28:33Let's finish up the rest of the show with Montel Jordan. First of all the probably kind of ruined my life if I'm superbly honest because like now I go to other barbecue places and it pales in comparison and I have such a judgmental feel. I don't operate in judgment very often except for I have a very judgmental barbecue feel my sauce is awesome. Oh my gosh sauce is boss, baby. His sauce is it more like a zesty red sauce or like a mustard sauce. It's not mustard based. Okay. I'm ketchup based. Okay. Are you ready for this? Yeah, this is how we cue it. Yes. You have to sing that you can't say this is how we cue it. You got to go this is how we cue. So it sounds like we're going to put together. Let's do it. Listen. I don't know. Yeah, I got some ideas for that thing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, well, I'll get with your manager. Yeah, get with your manager.

01:29:34Have my people get with your people. It'll be great. You guys are amazing. This has been so much fun. So this is what the and bring it back. I love bad like Burger Club. And if you're in East Nashville, the redheaded stranger, which is kind of a Mexican restaurant, they do different things, but they have a green chili burger, which I think good rivals any burger on the planet. I mean, it's a redheaded stranger, redheaded stranger like the Willie Nelson song. Redheaded stranger, Brian Lee Weaver, who's a local chef and amazing chef. He also has the butcher and be. But this this green chili, he does a Crunchwrap Supreme like old Taco Bell style stuff. And like it's amazing is all of his food. The flavors are just there, but that green chili burgers made so bad like Burger Club. Redhead stranger, you babies, babies. There's a lot of great the best seafood in town. Probably Henrietta Redd, Henrietta Redd, the optimist is excellent. Optimist Marsh House has really great fresh seafood. Yeah. Those are probably the the three top three.

01:30:36I mean, there's some, you know, if you go to like me out at the Four Seasons has a really good oysters and they have some different, you know, crudos and things that are delicious. But I mean really seafood. I think Henrietta Redd is yeah, for sure the best and then optimist I think also has the best selection. I mean, they get a whole flounder. And then you guys have an optimist in Atlanta too. So I would say go to Henrietta Redd because that's one you can't get in Atlanta. Yeah, love it. All right. What else you want to know? Coffee. Oh, I'm a barista parlor loyalist. There's quite a few around town. If you're like a if you're a coffee nerd, if you're into all the different types of coffee and different ways to roast and prepare and everything barista parlors. Barista parlor is a great job. I really like 8th and Roast. Okay, 8th and Roast is another local company. Cremas, Frothy Monkey, Bongo Java is actually the og of all ogs. She's taking notes.

01:31:39I sure am taking notes. This is the things I need to know. And then was the last one Friday that original og is Bongo Java or crema Fido. Well Bongo Java has been around for almost 30 years. They were on Belmont Boulevard. The first they have the nun bun. Do you remember? Did you guys ever remember this? That there was a bun that was iced and it looked straight up like Mother Teresa and it went viral before anything went viral like the newspaper covered and went all over the nation every news story and a bun in Nashville looks like Mother Teresa was right after she passed away. I think so it was like this hole in the nun bun was stolen and then all this stuff. Oh my Google nun bun. It's pretty impressive. Bongo Java back in the early 90s were that was the jam. Okay, that was one you said after Fido creme crema crema. Yeah crema's. There's some really good coffee in town. So I have this you've done a you guys are familiar with biscuit love.

01:32:40Oh, yeah. The boner. Oh, those are great. Yeah, delicious things you dream about. And the the pro hack is to not go to the one in 12 South. There's one right down the street here. You mean don't go to the Gulch. Yeah. Well, I consider the nut 12 South the Gulch yet. Don't go to the Gulch Hillsboro Village right here. You can walk right in. There's not the hour and a half long line outside. You can just walk right in and get all the same things. It's just right here. All right, Hillsboro Village. This is right in the middle of where Vanderbilt Belmont kind of is the tourist. There's the original pancake pantry. There's a lot of really great little things over here. Right. This is awesome. Yeah, so we'll definitely be back clearly. This is a thing for us. We like food and it's funny. Like so my brother's a chef like he could for all our events. He's actually a personal chef for us and he's starting a restaurant in Atlanta. And then our what's it called? He so his big thing is he cooks meat, but he does rubs.

01:33:47So they're all different kind of like flavorings and that kind of stuff. So he's going to start his own truck, whatever. But the our executive assistant for our company, she ran restaurants her whole life as she left the restaurant industry. Sorry. Sorry, not sorry to come and work with us. But she turned as she used to have this place called Catfish Fridays. That was in Dallas. That was incredible. Took a recipe that was beautiful, but turn it into these multi businesses. But so we have foodies all around us. Food surrounds us. This is a thing. You will be our culinary guides through Nashville from now on anytime. Well, we look forward to it. We we I like to feel like we have a good idea. We we focus locally on locally owned and operated restaurants. I love that. We want you we want people to come in and not eat at the chains. Support the people who are building this community. We think that's just really, really important. And that's really kind of the genesis of this is supporting other independent restaurateurs and telling stories of hope and building community.

01:34:54And you guys, I think, have absolutely done that today. We have one final thing for you. Yeah. And we could we could do this for another three hours. I mean, there's a million stories we could probably get into. Love to do it again sometime. We do the Gordon Food Service final thought kind of that one to grow on one. Yes, whatever. Whatever you want to say, you get to take us out. You get to end the show with whatever you want to say. As long as you want to say it, you both get a chance. The floor is yours. I would say there's a truth to you are what you eat. And I'm not just talking about physically. I'm saying whatever you consume with your eyes, with your ears. Um, whatever you are taking in. You become so make good choices. Make good choices.

01:35:56I love that. Listen, we become the company we keep. Make sure that when you sit down at a table with somebody that, you know, something about them more than what they do, what they saw, who they are. And your dinner tables will be extravagant. Your life will be rich. And this is where real life happens. I love it. Kristen Montell. Thank you for joining us on Nashville restaurant radio. It's been a lot of fun. Such a pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much to Montell and Kristen Jordan for joining us on the show. Um, I talked about the beginning of the show to stay tuned because I wanted to give an update on me and really the, uh, the update is I listened back to these episodes and I hear me talk about my higher power and working the system and, and all of these things. And it's a challenge every day.

01:36:57I don't want to come across as somebody who knows everything about everything. And it's tough. It's a tough challenge. And one of the things I've learned recently is that when you quit drinking and you start doing all the work in order to do that is relatively easy at the beginning. It's relatively easy to begin because you're desperate and you really are doing all of this stuff that we talk about. And you know, it's been a little bit difficult for me recently not to not drink or do anything like that, but you know, I feel like I need to give stuff away. I give stuff away to this higher power and I stress about stuff because I try and control everything. I want to be in control of every single thing that I do. And the fact of the matter is I can't. And that is part of the insanity that would cause me to drink before you have all these things going on and I can't control them all. And I feel overwhelmed. And what do I do? Oh, fuck it. I'll have a drink. And that's a thing. That is a thing. So one of the things recently was how do you do this stuff when, when life's going great, when, when things are, when you're not desperate, I think that's kind of been one of my challenges recently is that, you know, you've got to stay focused.

01:38:00You've got to stay on track with this program. And I say this stuff because I want you guys to know that, that, hey, I'm real. I want to be real because I'm not, I'm not perfect and I do make mistakes and that's okay. I'm doing great overall. Everything's going really well, but sometimes I hear myself talk about it and I'm like, I kind of sound like a douchebag. I got to figure this thing out. I just like to give updates on this stuff that I'm doing great. Everything's going well, but I'm focusing again on giving this stuff up to a higher power because you can't control everything. And there's so many things in life that I can't control. And that's just what it is. And you know, doing the podcast and the restaurants and all this stuff. It's a lot. I think the number one question people ask me is how do you do all this stuff? And I'm like, I don't know. I honestly, I don't know. Every day I get up and I just, I just go all the time and it's fun. I like being busy. So that's it. That, that, that's what's going on. And I'm going to keep talking about it. Got a lot of feedback from the Steven Faust interview. Just the good stuff, man.

01:39:00Thanks for sharing that. And I'm going to continue to share that. I'm going to continue to share it under the guise of, Hey, maybe somebody out there. And I got a phone call from somebody last week that said, dude, you've inspired me and I'm addressing some of the things in my own life. And I'm like, hell yeah, that's it. That's exactly it. I'm, I raised my hand. I'm not perfect, but I strive for, for progress rather than perfection. And that's what I'm trying to do. And thank you guys so much for listening. This is an amazing platform for me and it's amazing platform for anybody that we have on just the fact that we're talking to an audience that, that cares, that cares about this industry, that cares about their own mental health. And it is May and it's mental health awareness month. And I want to talk about this stuff. I really do. So I don't want to ramble too long, but I want to tell you, thank you for listening. It's you guys every day. That makes me want to come back and do this. We've got some amazing shows coming up in the next couple of months. We've got Ford fry. We've got Tandy Wilson. We've got Emma and Chris from SS guy.

01:40:02We've got, I mean, we've got so many people. Lorraine from the sexual abuse center is going to be coming on. You heard about us talking with her and the Joshua Buckley interview, how they're doing their hope beer. They're coming on to talk about this stuff. So many great things that are happening and we just are a feel completely blessed. So thank you again for listening. I hope that you had a wonderful mother's day and again, happy mother's day to all the moms out there, especially my wife, Jennifer and my mom, Linda. I love you guys so much. Hope you're doing great. Talk to you guys later. Love you guys. Bye.