John Rich: Melodies Of A Lifetime 55:54

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Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz. I appreciate you joining us. I think you're going to enjoy it. We've got a great guest we're going to call. A good somebody that I'd like to say friend, but we're not friends yet. I haven't even spoken to him before. I've never met the guy, but I've been a big fan. His music in John Rich. He's quite the talented person. I can't wait to call him. You've probably heard more songs by him than you recognize because he's...

He's written a lot of songs. He's known for writing, but he's also a great performer, big and rich. He's been a mainstay and a huge star within the country music genre, and I think

I think you're going to enjoy it. I'm looking forward to it. So we're going to phone a friend with John Rich coming up here. We're going to do some thoughts on the news, and then we're going to highlight the stupid because, you know, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere, and there's plenty of stupid to talk about. All right. I want to give a little riff on the news. You know, we've turned the corner on the new year. Happy New Year to everybody, and looking forward to 2022. And in the world of politics...

You know, it seems like a week or even a day can be just a sea change. You try to think through of all the things we did. I think Biden and Harris are in real trouble in that you can go through most major issues. And I think they made the situation worse, not better. And if they look back and say, OK, Joe Biden, all right, Kamala Harris, what'd you accomplish in 2021? You really struggled to come up with anything.

I guess you could point to the bipartisan transportation bill that was passed. A lot of Republicans voted against that. It is a very rich bill, but most of that will play out over a 10-plus year period.

And there were some legitimate infrastructure issues that needed to happen, but hardly, hardly a big accomplishment for President Biden. It wasn't as if that was on the top 10 list and the voters like, hey, we need more bridges. I don't think that's it. So I want to give you a few predictions, a few thoughts just to chew on as you kind of go into 2022 and think about the world of politics. I think the undercovered stories, I was asked on Fox News Sunday, I was on the panel,

Mike Emanuel was hosting, and it really caused me to kind of sit down and think this through. Undercovered stories. I think the immigration issue has got to be at the top of the issue, top of the list. I think Fox News covers it extensively, but if you don't watch Fox News or listen, you would not see or know that there's a problem on the border. But when you have Henry Cuellar, the Democratic congressman, who's a very nice guy, by the way, when he's

When he and his district, which has about 200 miles of the border there between Texas and Mexico, between the United States and Mexico, he happens to be the Texas congressman. Even he is saying Kamala Harris just doesn't seem interested. He cannot get her to return his phone call, nor can he get her to come and visit the border. I think the immigration issue is going to continue to be a big one.

Democrats are going to pivot on voting. They're going to claim that Republicans want to suppress the vote. They're going to cheat the vote. And consequently, we have to have federal mandates and federal policies in place.

Beware, America. This is dangerous stuff. This is, hey, we Democrats can't win elections unless we change the rules and make it harder to authenticate the vote. You know, we authenticate ourselves every time we do something, whether you're going online to buy something from a merchant or get on an airplane or drive a car. I mean,

authenticating who the legal lawful voters are for the state and the counties who administer these elections, it's pivotal. So don't buy in. Listen very carefully to what the Democrats are going to try to say, but they're going to try to say that Kevin McCarthy and the Republicans and Mitch McConnell, they're all scoundrels because they want to suppress the

you know, people's vote by far. That is just absolutely not true. Absolutely not true, but it'll be a big issue. That's what I'm trying to say. Another big undercovered story. It's going to be all the scandal that's happened. No, I'm not talking about just Hunter Biden. I'm talking about things like what's going on with the Biden family. But think about this. I think it was about two weeks ago, three weeks ago, the United States secret service,

estimated that more than $100 billion has been scammed out of these programs that were put in place for COVID relief, COVID support. And so the Democrats can go and argue and say, oh, well, we need a trillion more.

Well, when you can't even administer $100 billion, Democrats are going to say, we need $85 billion more so we can have all these extra IRS agents. They're going to hire them by the tens of thousands to do all these audits and all these rich people. Well, think about it. First of all, if you're going to be hiring tens of thousands of IRS agents, do they think there are tens of thousands of billionaires? There really aren't.

That's because they want to do auditing and control and data mining into... I mean, we learned this with Lois Lerner in the IRS investigations that we had been looking at in the past. But the number in the comparison, this is what I want to draw your attention to. They want $85 billion to do that. But the Secret Service is already telling us that they've already lost more than $100 billion. They were only able to recover $2 billion.

But I think that number is much bigger, and I think scandal will be much bigger. One other big thing is going to be security.

Your personal security, security in your neighborhood, security in the big cities, our national security, security on our borders, security online. I think the Democrats are failing us on all of those security issues. And I also think privacy will be a big major policy discussion. Should you have to provide your papers to go into a restaurant to get a cheeseburger?

I mean, I just don't think the COVID mandates are the right way to go. I don't think the government should be injecting you forcibly into

And if they're going to say, well, we don't do it forcefully. We're just not going to let you be a human being in the United States and participate in the economy. You can't have a job. You can't do. I mean, come on. That is forcing government using its big hand. I think that whole privacy issue will be a big one. The economy, inflation is obviously another big major policy issue. And then ones that will come up on us quick are the Olympics, right?

Should we or should we not boycott the Olympics? This idea that the Biden administration wants to

They want to do the diplomatic boycott. Are you kidding me? You mean some undersecretary for the Department of Commerce isn't going to get to go see bobsledding in Beijing? First of all, I'm kind of shocked that we have all these diplomats going to the Olympics. I'm the former chairman of the Oversight Committee. That's actually probably an investigation I should have done. How many of our government bureaucrats are traveling overseas to go watch sporting events?

I mean, look, I can understand where, like here in Utah, we hosted the Salt Lake City, the 2002 Winter Olympics. President Bush came. I mean, we're the host country. Makes a lot of sense. But to send diplomats to go to the Olympic Games and to say, hey, China, guess what? We're going to show you. We're going to do a diplomatic boycott here.

Because we don't like what's going on with the Uyghurs and millions of people that are supposedly, you know, in slave labor and that sort of thing. Do you think the Chinese really give a hoot about that? They may say, oh, well, that's just wrong. But come on. So they can't attend some cocktail party to go watch the luge. I

That is such a joke of a pinprick to think that that's going to make the big difference. Ooh, the diplomats aren't coming. And one other thing that I highlighted, I wrote something for FoxNews.com is about Xavier Becerra. So when I say Xavier Becerra, do you know who he is?

Well, he's the former attorney general for the state of California. He was a longtime House member, congressman. Actually, when you meet him, super nice guy. I've interacted with him quite a bit. Nice guy. Disagree with him on just about everything policy-wise, but a nice guy.

Well, he's an attorney by trade. He has no health care background, no health care policy experience. This hasn't worked for a health care company. It's not as if he was in the pharmaceutical industry or anything else. But he was confirmed by the United States Senate to be the Health and Human Services Secretary. Have you seen him since he's been confirmed? He was confirmed in March.

We have the pandemic. We have fentanyl coming across our borders. So we have a major drug problem. We have more deaths through drug overdoses. And we have a wide open border where unaccompanied children, when they're detained, they're actually turned over to Health and Human Services. Xavier Becerra, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, when President Biden says, ah, I forgot to order the testing kits, he

Where is he? He's never once, the secretary, participated in one of the COVID press conferences at the White House. He doesn't have regularly scheduled press conferences. And it was reported in the news that it took more than seven months from the time he was confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services to go visit the National Institutes of Health during a pandemic. Where is the guy and what is he working on?

I just think there's so much out there. So that's a glimpse of what I'm thinking about, not only predictions of where we're going, issues that are going to be out there, undercover stories, but things that are happening right as we turn the corner here in January. But, you know, with all that said, it's time to bring on the stupid because there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. ♪

All right. Now this one, I appreciate that it was actually brought out. It was stupid when it happened, but I can kind of understand it. I kind of understand it. I can see it. But Gilbert Arenas is one of the best NBA basketball players that there is. I mean, the guy is exceptionally good. But...

It was brought out in FoxNews.com as he's looking back. He's been in the NBA now for a while. But he looked back and he said that he spent his entire salary before he was even drafted. So I don't know who was giving him these loans, allowing him to sign these papers. It was pretty clear coming out of college that he was going to be a really high pick in the NBA. But he wasn't at the top of the heap anymore.

And I think he went in the second round. He wasn't a top 10 guy. And so he went from what he thought was going to be millions of dollars to, as he said, an $845,000 a year package. Now, that's a lot of money. But...

But when you pay taxes, you pay an agent a percentage of that, probably 10%. When you pay an attorney who also may get a percentage of that, and then you also have to pay your accountant, you start to have that number dwindle down more in the $300,000 to $400,000. Well...

Here's what the quote was. I don't remember. I spent that before the draft. You think you're going to go top 10 like beep. I'm thinking millions. So I bought an Escalade. I had five TVs in it, four 12-inch speakers, saw Gary Payton with the suede,

had suede on the top, suede on the roof. He had told this TV station. And so he got the Gary Payton package there on his Escalade. He bought some jewelry and

And then he kind of jokingly said that, you know what, I didn't have gas to put in it because I'd spent all my money on this stuff. And I read a similar story about Will Smith, about how he first hit it big and then he bought a house and a big car and he thought he had arrived. And then I remember it was a great quote. It was from Will Smith saying something like, looks like Will Smith needs another hit.

because he spent all his money so fast. That, to me, is just bringing on the stupid.

I don't know. That to me is just more of a funny story. It's a life lesson story. But I worry that all these people are going into athletics and then they only participate for a couple years and then they move along. But we have something better, though. We've got John Rich, who I'm going to give a call to. The guy is an amazing success story. He grew up in tough circumstances, but it's better to hear from him. So let's give a call to John Rich.

Hello. Hey, John, this is Jason Chaffetz. Hey, brother. How are you? Thanks so much for doing this. I really do appreciate it. Look, I'm a fan. I've seen you on Fox and I haven't had a chance to shake your hand yet or get to meet you. But I certainly do appreciate you joining this Jason in the House podcast.

Well, thanks for having me on. I think you're one of the only people I have not met yet. So we're going to have to fix that brother, but Hey, this will go a long way. We've never had a conversation either. So I'm looking forward to it. There we go. There we go. No, I used to, you know, before COVID and whatnot, I was going to New York like three times a month and traveling a bunch and, and,

But I've kind of locked down since then, and I really haven't traveled as much. And then I convinced Fox to go to L.A. because it was a lot closer for me being out in Utah. So I spent a lot of time out in L.A., and I don't think you've been out in L.A. as much. I have only been to L.A. one time. Yeah, since –

Since everything happened, you know, the Southwest Airlines flights in both directions with a mask on your face and them telling you to put your mask up in between bites. That got a little old for me. Yeah, you know, it's amazing to me that the virus just stays. It knows when you're eating and it won't come out. It's that's.

I've never heard of a virus like that. It's amazing. Yeah, the smartest virus ever, I think, that's ever existed. It's so smart that it even knows how to get around the vaccine now, which is pretty incredible seeing all the vaccinated people coming down with COVID. But come on. Dr. Fauci told us that would not happen. I heard the president say, you either mask or vax, and then you're good. Yeah.

All right. Well, look, we're not talking to Dr. John Rich today, but I say it with a big smile on my face. Let's go back a little bit because, you know, I've read a bit about your background, familiar with your songs and your work and your passion and you're giving back to the community and whatnot. But let's go back to little John.

Little John Rich, little, the kid that is born in Texas, right? You're born in Texas. Tell us about your family and growing up, what life in Texas was like when you were a little, little squirt. All right. Well, so I was raised in Amarillo, Texas, which if you look at the Texas map, that is the dead middle of the panhandle of Texas, so the very top. Yep.

It's flat as a board on a calm day. The wind's blowing about 35 miles an hour. It's called Tornado Alley for a reason. More tornadoes in a year go through there than anywhere in the United States. And, you know, that's where I grew up. And it's most Texans would say that's the rough end of Texas. Probably that and El Paso. That's the rough sides of Texas. But I loved it because, you know, that's that's where I grew up. So that's what I knew as being my hometown.

My dad is what I would call a prison preacher. So he's been a minister since he was 19, but he's never been one to preach in the big churches, never made any money doing it to speak of. And when you ask my dad, well, dad, why are you you're such a great preacher? I mean, you're talking like an evangelist style preacher. Dad, why aren't you preaching in a big church?

He said, because people in the big churches don't need to hear what I have to say. They've already heard what I'm saying. I want to take it to people that have never heard it. And this may be the only time they hear it. And that's why I come at them like I do. So he preached at prisons. Listen, Jason, he hit 32 Mardi Gras out of 35 years going down there, standing on the street corner in the French Quarter with a guitar around his neck.

singing gospel songs and witnessing to people as these parades are going by. I don't know if you've ever been to a Mardi Gras, but it's probably the most insane atmosphere you could find yourself in. He went to places like that year after year after year. So I grew up out there. He's working every kind of extra job he could find because I'm the oldest of four kids. We lived in a double wide trailer until I was about 10.

10 or 11, which makes me the ultimate cliche because we all know tornadoes love trailers, right? One of the oldest jokes. But, you know, nothing fancy about the way I grew up. But I watched my dad

Do literally any job he could get his hands on to make sure we didn't go without. We did not have excess of anything, but we did not go without either. So my dad, my dad and I would slop hogs on the weekends when I was like nine, 10, 11, 12, right through there. He sold cars. He was the night watchman at Emerald national bank.

And then, of course, going to the hospitals, visiting people, preaching. He's taught school, you know, substitute school teacher, mowed people's grass, detailed people's cars, literally whatever he had to do to get his hands on enough money to keep everything going. And he did it. He accomplished it.

And so when you grow up watching a guy like my dad do two things simultaneously, which is what I refer to as short ball and long ball, which I think every human being should play life this way. Your short ball, that's whatever you have to do to make ends meet, to make sure the bills are covered, make sure the family's taken care of. And that's your short ball. Your long ball,

That's what your passion is. That's what your American dream is. That's what your calling is. You may never get rich doing that. You may never be able to pay the bills doing that, but it's something that you continually strive for and do simultaneously because that's the limitless end of

of who you are, of who you are, Jason, of who I am, John, of who my dad was and who everybody listened to this podcast is there is a limitlessness thing about every human being. If they can figure out what that is and go at it, even if they're just pecking at it a little bit, it,

It keeps your spirits up. It keeps you positive and it keeps you understanding there's something bigger than what I'm doing right now. And I'm going to continue working towards that. So growing up watching him, man, that that's been the blueprint for how I've gone about things in my life is to work really, really hard, take care of your family, take care of other people. If you're able to do that and constantly keep your vision way, way, way out ahead.

looking at that thing on the horizon that someday you might you might be able to accomplish. Yeah. You know, I love stories like that where, you know what, they do everything they need to do to take care of their family. They're not out there asking for, you know, the government handout, expecting somebody else to take on their burdens. Where was your mom in this whole picture? What was she what was her presence like?

She could type about 120 words a minute. That's a lot. Yeah. So she would go do paralegal work. She'd work for the school, obviously did stuff with the church, the small churches that my dad was preaching at, and then raising four kids. So that's a lot. My parents had four kids by the time my dad was 30.

So there's a lot of action, a lot of action going on there. You know, my dad's mother, my granny, my granny Rich, she was around a lot too. She just died the summer of 2020, but granny Rich was born in Pampa, Texas, which is just outside of Amarillo born during the great depression simultaneously in the middle of the dust bowl days. And so arguably the toughest spot to be in America, maybe ever.

Dust Bowl days and Great Depression, very same time. And then a handful of years after that, here comes World War II. So Granny Rich, man, she was the same way. She's sitting there running her own business till she was 89 years old. And when you ask her, Granny, why are you still working 40 hours a week? She would say she would have a Marlboro Red lit, of course, every time. And she'd take a big draw on that Marlboro red.

and blow that smoke out at you and she'd say i work because i can and that's what you're supposed to do when you live in this country and the look on her face was like and if you ask me that stupid question again i will smack you across the face like that's that's how she approached it like how dare you ask me why i'm still working of course i'm still working i'm an american and that attitude that's what built the country jason you know that there's a whole culture out there trying to tell young people especially

Hard work doesn't count. You have the right to be happy instead of you have the right to pursue happiness.

there's a big difference in those two things and so you've got a lot of young people that don't understand hard work is the basis of everything good you're ever going to have the government can never do for you what you could ultimately do for yourself yeah you know i look back at those experiences early on in life and dad pushing me to you know get a job go out and do this and mow the lawn in arizona in the summer and the heat of the day it's just good for you and and you learn to work and

What were some of those early jobs and work things that you did when you were growing up? So I trailed my dad around. Another job that he did was on a couple of nights a week, he would give guitar lessons at the local music store. So when I was about five or six years old, he goes...

Hey, you want to go with me to guitar lessons? And I'm like, sure, dad. Of course you do. You know what kid don't want to tag along with dad. So I go down there and he hands me a little plastic guitar and he's teaching adults how to play guitar. And he goes, just follow along and do the best you can. Don't worry about it. Sit behind me. So I did that. And after about a month of guitar lessons, I was playing better than most of the people he was teaching. And that led to me being really serious about, about music. Cause I loved it so much, but yeah,

That was one. Another one was car lots. So my dad would sell, sell cars on sometimes new, new cars, sometimes used cars,

but somebody has got to clean those cars, especially used cars. So my dad would say, okay, we just traded for this Chevrolet Monte Carlo and the carpet is nasty and there's tar splattered all over the paint. John, go get some kerosene and a rag and get that tar off that paint and go down on that carpet. And I want that carpet standing up and looking brand new. And then we'll price this car. Well,

Well, I have seen my dad and other car dealers that I would go detail cars for literally wipe the number out off, you know, the white shoe polish on the windshield style. They would wipe a number away after I detailed the car and they'd add $500 to $1,000 to the car. Yeah. Just because I had it looking so good, you know. And so I learned that elbow grease, presentation, detail, detail.

Those things are worth money, actual money, you know, and that kind of trained my mind for what I wound up doing later. You're listening to Jason in the house. We'll be back with more of my conversation with John Rich right after this. Fox News Radio on demand on the Fox News app. Download the app and just click listen. When you swipe left, you can listen to your favorite Fox News talk shows live. Swipe right for the latest Fox News Radio newscasts on demand. Fox News Radio on the Fox News app. Download it today.

So go back to the music first. So you're pretty young. You got this small guitar, but you're figuring out how to strum it. When did you figure out that, you know what, I can actually sing? I can play. This music thing's pretty good. I'm pretty good at it. Well, I was basically just imitating my dad.

which is why dads have to be careful because your kids are watching very closely. I had a great dad, thank goodness. So I was imitating what he was doing. And after probably six months, he said, hey, do you want to sit behind me at the pulpit and play along with me? And I'm like, wow, okay, this is the big time. I made the stage, right? So now I'm up there playing along with I'll Fly Away and all these gospel songs.

It never dawned on me, though, until later in life, people actually make money doing that. Where I lived in Amarillo, Texas, you better be able to drive a combine, right?

Plow a field, herd cows, work at the livestock auction, work on an oil field, something like that. Those were the main, let's go get a great job. Those were the great jobs out there. Never dawned on me you could make money playing music till we eventually moved to Tennessee when I was a teenager. But watching him do that, man, and I think him allowing me to just tag along, he never pushed me towards that ever. If anything, tried to steer me away from it because he knew what a dangerous job

job it is to be an entertainer. He had seen a few of them not do too well. But man, that was my calling. That was what I was supposed to do, and I chased it down. Now, a lot of people can play, but not everybody can write. Part of your talent, your success, is your ability to write.

And that doesn't flow for everybody. Why do you think you're able to have so much success with it and maybe some others aren't? And where did that come from? Like, where did that emanate from in you and in your talent? Well, so, you know, I have given a lot of – I've sat on a lot of stages in front of a lot of, you know, aspiring songwriters. And they ask questions like what you just asked.

And I always tell them and I'll tell you and you're going to go, wow, that's that's absolutely true. A pencil and a blank sheet of paper are the are the most limitless things in the world. The Declaration of Independence started out as a blank sheet of paper. The Bible started out as blank paper until some inspired person put pen or pencil to that page. You can literally change the world with a pen and a piece of paper.

And if you view it like that, every time you walk past a piece of paper and then a pencil, you realize nobody can tell you what you can or cannot write on that. And so for me, I've viewed writing as a limitless endeavor, something I would never master. There's no such thing as somebody that's mastered writing. There are masters of writing, but the great writers will always tell you, yeah, there's they'll never get through.

getting better. You'll always get better till the day you die. And then somebody is going to read your stuff or listen to your stuff and they're going to pick up and take it even further. So for me, nobody was writing the kind of songs that I wanted to sing in Nashville. It was a lot of great songs, but I went, yeah, but I kind of hear them different, man. I wish I had a song that kind of had a little bit of this and a whole lot of that and take this out and move this around.

And it was just a customized thing because I'm an artist, right? I'm not, wouldn't say I'm a singer. I'd say I'm an artist. I hear it a very particular way. And so for me to sing the kind of stuff I wanted to sing, I was going to have to write it myself. So I wrote a bunch of them. I've co-written a whole bunch of songs with other really interesting people. Big Kenny, of course, Gretchen Wilson, a lot of great talented people that are also very directional people. And so when you sit down to write a country song,

It's a three-minute song, Jason, three to three and a half minutes, whereas a book is 150 to 250 pages, right? Long form, short form. So I've always had this little knack at being able to stick an idea in your head, put a melody to it, and hopefully you enjoy hearing it in your head over and over and it doesn't become a menace to you. But writing hit songs...

for me has honestly been more important to me than being a singer. Do you write for somebody else or do you write for yourself or is it both? There's all different reasons I've written. So I've written a lot of songs, obviously for myself, for big and rich, um,

And that's when you're writing towards a record. But man, I've had people walk up to me. I'll give you a good story. Faith Hill walked up to me one day out in a parking lot. We were on tour with Tim McGraw. And I see Faith Hill coming. I went, okay, here she comes. I don't know what this is about. You know, I hadn't really talked to her ever at that point. She says, John, I wish you'd write me a song. And I said, Faith, I'd love to write you a song. What do you want to sing about? She goes, I don't know. Can you just write a song that it would only make sense if I sang it?

Like nobody else could even sing it. That's how specific it would be to me. I said, well, that's quite a homework assignment. Let me think on that. She goes, okay, well, if you come up with something, let me know. So I said, all right. So I started paying a little closer attention to Faith Hill out on the road. And what I'm noticing as a fan of hers, and I realized, wow, her fans don't see this side of her, is that all day she's out there in cutoff shorts, flip flops,

her kids are out running around. They're sitting in a kiddie pool under the awning of the tour bus, you know, ball cap. And then when it's showtime, she'll walk out with diamond earrings and a big long dress and she'll sing. It's your love with Tim McGraw. And the second she's over, she walks right back out, changes clothes, pops back down on the lawn chair, just a regular, regular girl. I said, that's what people don't know about her. So I started writing a song called Mississippi girl, uh,

And the first line of the song says, it's a long way from Star, Mississippi. Well, that's her hometown. So I knew, well, whether she likes the song or not, she's the only one that can sing this because there's nobody else from Star, Mississippi. So I finished the song about a week later. I saw her again. I said, hey, I wrote a song that only you can sing. She goes, oh, my God, can I hear it? I went, yeah.

Sat down and I played it for her. A big old tear rolled out of her eye and she said, that is exactly what I wanted. I'm recording it next month. And she did. And it was number one for two weeks, almost three weeks on the charts. So I call that sniper writing. You give me a target and you say, hit the target with that lyric and that melody. I call that a sniper song. That's what that song was. Okay.

Well, you hit that on the mark. I had the good fortune years and years ago to be able to spend a little time with Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. And she had done a concert. Then she invited me and I went with her and Tim back onto the tour bus.

And it's exactly what you just said. It's so funny that you said that. As soon as she walked off that stage, she flipped off those shoes, and we got on the bus, and she just wanted to sit barefoot and just relax. You know, it puts on quite a performance.

And I just was so struck about how just real and authentic. And I just think the world of her. She is such a great talent and just a great person. I mean, I only got to spend a couple hours with her, but wow, what a wonderful person. So I think you hit that right on the head there. Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's what her fans didn't know about her, and that's what she wanted.

to be able to let them know about her. At that minute, she was actually out in, she did the Stepford Wives. So she did a big movie and a lot of people were giving her grief over that. Like, oh, face gone Hollywood. She's not country anymore and all this stuff.

And she wanted something to be able to say, no, no, no, y'all don't understand. I'm just chasing dreams. You know, I thought it would be cool to try a movie. Oh, how dare I try something different? Right. So that that song fixed that problem for her. You're listening to Jason in the house. We'll be back with more right after this. You have this passion for America and freedom. You can tell it's embedded in you like it's part of your core.

Why? Like, I mean, a lot of people born in America, they don't have that same sort of passion. But where does that passion come from for the country? I think to start with growing up around my we called him Papa Papa Rich. If you walk in the front door of my house here in Nashville, where I'm at right now, the very first thing you'll see is his World War Two uniform on a mannequin. That was his body size. He was five foot two, one hundred and fifteen pounds.

He lied about his age when he was 17 because he wanted to go fight. And when they got that guy in the army at 17 years old and realized how vicious he was and how upset he was with the Germans and the Japanese, you know, his hometown of Glasgow, Kentucky, he said, John, and everybody's got granddaddies. You remember how they tell you the same story 500 times, but you don't care. You want to hear it 600 times. This was one of those stories.

John, when the war started, the train that had been rolling through my hometown my whole life growing up, that would bring us, you know, potatoes and coal and firewood and whatever. He said, now that train's rolling through and it's loaded down with caskets. And in those caskets are my uncles, my cousins, people I went to school with, people I worked in tobacco fields with. And I was so mad that I couldn't go fight because I was 17. I lied about my age.

and got in anyway. When they got him in, they realized he was one of those guys, if you said, hey, Bill, shoot that squirrel, he'd say, right eye or left eye? I mean, dead-eye shot, vicious American, wanted to kill as many of the enemies he possibly could. So they made him into what they called tunnel rats. And a tunnel rat was a little guy that they would send into a cave, a small cave with a short-range flamethrower and a grenade belt,

And his job was to flesh the Japanese out the other side of the cave where they were hiding. Kawajaleen, places like that. And so throughout his tour in World War II, he had six Purple Hearts.

Got back home, hooked on morphine for two years, had to wean himself off of that, had PTSD to the point of, you know, screaming in the middle of the night. I heard him scream more times than I can count. And he died at 80 years old. Growing up around that guy and understanding, had it not been for those people back then doing that job, I would not be living in a free country. It's just that simple.

And so going forward as a younger man, when I would go out and meet an active duty member or a veteran, the first person I would think of is I bet my granddaddy looked about like that when he was that age. And I just totally drew that parallel every single time and have gone on to always make sure that they understand that I understand that.

I would have nothing good in my life if it weren't for them and their willingness to fight and die if necessary for this country. And another thing, Jason, is I've traveled all over the planet playing music. So I've seen what other places in the world look like. There's a reason there's lines coming into our country and no lines going out. Last time I checked, I haven't seen a lot of people exiting America. And guess what? You never will, because we're the only country in the world

in the history of the world that's ever given its citizens the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No other country has that except for us. And I think human beings inherently want the ability and the freedom to exhaust their potential all over this planet. Can you imagine where the human race would be today if for the last 250 to 300 years, every human would have had the right to exhaust their potential and pursue happiness? Where would we be with the human race right now?

If the whole world had the principles of America applied to it, it'd be a totally different planet. We're special. We're the one everybody wants to come to. Our military is the only reason it's still intact. That's why I feel like I feel about it. Yeah, and you can tell just the way you talk about it. It does. It comes from your heart. And there's

It just makes me sick sometimes when I see these people just take it for granted and not pay attention to these members of the military and don't honor them or won't stand for them. It's just beyond me because there are literally millions of people that have given their lives, that sacrificed, that got up out of their chair like your relative there and got up and engaged in the fight because it wasn't always crystal clear that we were going to win.

But there is that spirit of America, as I like to call it, the spirit of America. I just don't think you'll ever break it. I just think it's unbreakable. And it's so deeply embedded in a core group of people. And I think the rest of the world doesn't understand it. And you are right. I think...

This system of ours, although flawed at times, has created more prosperity, more freedom, more liberty, more opportunity for more people than anything else in the history of the world.

And, but I worry about it. What worries you about the country and its future? And, you know, there seems to be a lot of animosity, a lot of people who look at the exact same thing and see two, we see totally different things. What do you worry about? Well, I think we have, we have two elements right now in this country that are extremely dangerous. One is Americans that have inherited freedom for so long, and I'm one of them, but I know the difference.

You know, a generation of Americans out here now, a couple of generations of them that have never had to fight, have never had their freedom truly threatened like they did during the greatest generation. They take it for granted. They trash the flag. They trash the country. They don't love the country enough to even fight for it, which is part of what they do to them in schools for the past 35 years.

is to tell them America's bad and that disincentivizes them to ever want to go fight for it. Think about that for a minute. And I don't think they would fight for it, honestly. A lot of them wouldn't, millions of them. So you've got that element. And then on the other side, the people in control right now, a lot of these people are absolute qualified communists, qualified. They are playing right out of the communist playbook and they don't even try to hide it anymore. We don't even have to accuse them of it because they say it with their own mouths every single day.

So you've got people in control that would love to have America as weak as possible so we can become just one of the other countries in the world so we can – the whole world can just be run the same way. They would love to see that, and this is their shot to do it right now while you've got all this bad stuff happening, which, by the way, I believe that's why half of it's happening in the first place.

is to weaken America to a point where they can then offer some kind of solution that really takes our freedom away in a mass scale. But then you've got a lot of these Americans who are watching this go on and they're just rolling along with it. And I'm afraid, Jason, at some point, it's going to take things getting so bad

And so treacherous in America for these people to finally wake up and realize your freedom is not inherited. Your freedom has to be earned and you're about to have to earn it again right now. That is what I see on the horizon.

You probably do, too, in some version of that. I think that's a really dangerous thing, but it's where we are. And unfortunately and ironically, the worst things get, it might actually be the better for the long term of our country for people to see that you actually can lose everything that you thought was a guarantee for you. Freedom is not a guarantee. It never has been and it never will be.

Yeah, I do hope everybody wakes up to the realities of this and this next generation. You know, it's that Ronald Reagan quote about, you know, we're just one generation away from losing it if we don't pass that baton to the next generation. I mean, and to your point about these communists, you literally had Senator Blumenthal from Connecticut saying,

A sitting United States Senator go to a celebration celebrating, I think it was the 102nd or so anniversary of the Communist Party in the United States. What in the world are they doing? I mean, it's just beyond me and in no repercussions, no uproar, just sort of like, yeah, hey, you know, let me come here and tell you how great communism is. Yeah. And like I said, that's actually a good thing. It's not good that he went and it's not good that that's who he is.

But it is good that we're seeing these people finally come out in the open and do what we've suspected of them for all these decades. They're actually doing it out in the open now. So we're getting to see who we're actually dealing with. And that's my point earlier. The worse things get, the more you understand what's really at stake here. If things never get bad, are people ever going to wake up? No, they will never wake up. But I think as far as they're stepping over the line now, Jason, this is this. They've stepped so far over.

a partisan divide or a racial divide or anything else. Everybody has kids. Nobody wants the school telling their kids something they don't want to tell them. Nobody wants big pharma telling them what they have to do with their kids. Nobody wants the government telling them you can't work and earn a living if you don't stick this in your arm. Nobody wants that. And so in this very ironic way, the worst things are getting in our country. I believe the more unity there

It's actually causing I mean, if you see the recent polls and I know you keep up with all this Biden's down in the mid 30s. Well, that means he's lost a big section of his own party. Those people cannot identify with what he's doing right now, nor will they support it. And they don't like Trump either. But they're going, hey.

You don't get to step into my house. You don't get to talk to my kids. You don't. There are things you just don't do. And I think what we're going to see more and more as this gets worse and worse is people who totally disagree on a lot of different subjects are going to become very unified on the overarching topics. Yeah, you're right. The Biden numbers, they don't get from here to there by.

you have to lose independence and you have to lose people in your own party or you can't get as low as he and Kamala Harris are in the polls. All right. I want to ask you one more thing before we get to the rapid questions. And that is what you're doing with Fox nation. Tell us a little bit about the pursuit. Oh,

All right. Well, so I was, let's see, a couple of years ago, I was up there in New York doing some interviews, I think about a new big and rich record or something. And a guy steps out of one of the big offices, you know, a guy wearing a suit.

And he goes, hey, John, you step in my office for a minute. I said, sure. And I went in. He goes, you like doing these interviews, don't you? I said, I said, yeah, it's funny. He goes, I can't believe you're willing to talk about these subjects. Most entertainers won't do that. Why is that? I said, because the truth's the truth. And I love my country. He goes, bingo. He goes, I think I think you should have your own show. I said, really? Me, too. And I kind of laughed. He goes, no, seriously, I think you should have your own show. I said, a show about what? He said, whatever you want.

And I went, wow, whatever I want. He said, yeah, we're launching this new platform, Fox Nation, a digital streaming service with Fox. We should start it there and just see how it goes. So you think about it. I said, OK, I will. So I took about a month thinking about what my show would be about. I did not want to discuss politics.

I did not want to have anything negative going on. We got plenty of that as it is. Instead, I said, I want to focus on what we still have in common and inspire people. And what is it that all Americans still have in common? They have the right to pursue happiness, not the right to be happy, the right to pursue it.

So I came back and I said, I'd like to do a show called The Pursuit and interview all different kinds of people about their pursuit of happiness in America and really focus on what was tough about it instead of how many touchdowns did you score? What did you have to go through to get to the point to even be able to score a touchdown in the NFL? Like that angle. Right, right.

you know how Barbara Walters goes at an interview and the guy goes, yeah, yeah. I said, I want to be like Bubba Walters. I want to be like the country bird for that. And he thought that was funny. So we did a season on, uh,

on Fox nation, people really liked it. And he came back and said, Hey, we want to take you to TV. Let's do Fox business network. So, uh, we've done the first 20 episodes, Fox business network every Wednesday night, eight central nine Eastern. And then starting in the spring, there'll be a whole new 20 episodes and I'm having a great time doing it, man. What, what an incredible platform to have. Well, you do a great job with it. And, uh, it is a lot of fun and an array of people that, uh,

Go look at it on Fox Nation or on Fox Business and do a great job with it. So more power to you. And, John, it's fun to get to know you, but you know what? These rapid questions, I hope you are prepared for this, but I'd like to ask you a few more. You never mentioned this part. Yeah, I know. That's how we just reeled you all the way into this, and now you can't get out of it. So here we go. No way out. No way out. Okay.

All right. Favorite item at Taco Bell? Combination burrito. Combination burrito. All right. I'm a big Chalupa guy, but they don't always have it. So first concert you attended? Randy Travis and Reba McIntyre together. Oh, that would be fun. That would be real fun. High school mascot?

The Patriots. Oh, bingo. In Amarillo, Texas, that's about as patriotic as it gets. That's good. That's right. That's right. Your favorite vegetable. Black-eyed peas. Is that a vegetable? We'll count it as one. Life's most embarrassing moment.

Ripping the crotch out of my jeans during the middle of a concert in front of 40,000 people in Minnesota. And I still had 40 minutes to go in the show. There's not a whole lot of ways to cover that up, is there?

Man, you can only play with your back turned to the audience for so long before they realize something ain't right. Yeah, you can only hold the guitar in the right. Yeah. Anyway, if you could meet one person, you'd say, you know what? Tonight we're going to have dinner with who would that person dead or alive could be anybody. Who would you want to sit down, break bread and have a little dinner with?

Johnny Cash. Johnny Cash. That would be fascinating. Did you ever meet him along the way? I met Johnny Cash one time. I was 19 years old and we opened for him at a fair somewhere. I got one picture with him backstage and that was it. But my first son's name is Cash. So yes, ladies, my son's name is Cash Rich. Just so we're clear. I think Johnny Cash was the greatest singer-songwriter that ever lived.

Oh, that's great. I'm glad you got a picture with him. Glad he got a chance to shake his hand, at least to meet him for a moment. Pineapple on pizza, yes or no? Yes. John, we're going to have to talk about that. Put some jalapenos with it. You got to have the sweet and the hot together. Jalapenos I'll buy, but the judges do not like pineapple on pizza. But best advice you ever got? Best advice I ever got?

Well, that was probably my dad. He said, if you work real hard and think real big, you never know what might happen. Well, look what happened. Good for him. Good for him. All right. Last question. If you weren't doing what you're doing right now, what would you be doing? I would have been the greatest car salesman in the history of car salesmen. Yeah.

I bet you would have. I bet you would have. I bet you still are. I bet from time to time you're actually out there buying and selling cars. I've got a car for sale right now, Jason. You ought to let me get you in it. We can take a test drive. I'll show you how cold the air is. Sitting in my garage right now. I've been trying to sell it for a month. You know, I probably couldn't say no to that. So I'm in Utah and you're in Nashville. So it might take me a little bit here. Hey.

I would like to say, though, before we stop, I took my family on a – this last summer, took them on the family trip across Utah. We flew into Grand Junction, Colorado, rented a car, and drove to Moab. We spent four days in Moab, which has got to be one of the most incredible places on the planet.

If nobody's ever been there, you got to go there. Then we made our way across over to up into the mountains and wound up in there for three or four days and then onward. But, man, I think Utah may be the most beautiful state in the United States. Just incredible place and incredibly nice people. Well, thanks for saying that. So once upon a time, you know, I used to be in Congress and I represented Utah's third congressional district. And I had that whole southeast quadrant of Utah, including Moab and Tate.

and Arches National Park, and it's so much because you've got the reddest of rocks and then these big, green, beautiful mountains with great snow and brilliant deserts. You really do have it all in kind of wide open, fresh air spaces. And you're right, some very, very sweet people who also love their country and care deeply about it. So I'm glad you and your family had a good experience. That's great.

Yeah, we love it. You can walk right across the dinosaur tracks. That's right. We took a rock crawler like we had somebody driving it. But when those giant rock crawler trucks and drove over the tops of some of the things I wish to God I wouldn't in the truck when it was happening. But I'm glad I did it now. I mean, we got down and dirty with it, man. Beautiful state.

Yeah, no, that is fun. And you're right. We have more dinosaurs than you can possibly imagine and tracks that are preserved. And you start just wondering what Utah and what this, you know, part of the world was like when dinosaurs were just common and roaming and

It really is amazing. But John, listen, thanks so much for joining us and taking the time and just kind of sharing a little insight as to who you are and how you got to where you are today. And glad you're involved in the Fox world. And I hope to see you in person. But until then, thanks so much for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. Hey, brother, thanks for having me. And keep up the great work. We'll see you in person soon, I hope. Very good. Thank you again. Rags to riches. Just pouring his heart out. Loves the country.

I mean, I liked his music before, but I think it'll mean a lot more to me now. And I will go out of my way to support whatever that guy's doing because he's just got a heart of gold and a good example for a lot of people. And I really appreciate him taking the time to join us on this podcast. So one last thing, cute story. I like to highlight some of the people that are doing the right things.

Actor Rob Schneider. Now, he's played a lot of weird characters along the way. But Rob Schneider, if you can picture him, he's been in a lot of different movies with Adam Sandler. And he really, I think, is a very funny actor. But evidently, the police in Scottsdale, Arizona, got a call of a disabled vehicle. And so they rolled onto it to help this disabled vehicle. It was in the middle of an intersection or something.

And the officer evidently came over and said, oh, wait, aren't you Rob Schneider? You don't look at his driver's license. Yeah, I'm Rob Schneider.

But instead of being a jerk, instead of playing the highbrow and, you know, some of the stories we always heard, what the police are saying is he was so, so nice. He, like, talked to all the officers, told them stories. Then there's even a picture of him. He went down to the Scottsdale Police Department, shook hands, said hello to people, you know, happy holidays, all that kind of stuff. I love those kind of stories. I had a similar story yesterday.

that we talked about with Adam Sandler, and then Rob Schneider's doing the same thing. I love those kind of guys, you know, guys that you don't expect it. But instead of hearing about all these snobby, snooty stories about some celebrity blowing people off, you've got celebrities like John Ridge. And then also Rob Schneider. Hats off to you, Rob. Happy New Year, and well done, and good job thanking the first responders and those people there at the Scottsdale Police Department, the dispatchers and all those people

Well done. All right. I'm Jason Chaffetz. Thanks again for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. Hope you can rate this one. You can find more podcasts over at foxnewspodcast.com. Got some good ones out there, like my colleague Trey Gowdy, Will Kane. There's a lot of good ones. Dana Perino. Have a listen to those. But we'd like it if you'd rate it and subscribe to ours as well. And we'll be back with more next week. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and this has been Jason in the House. Bye-bye.

This is Jimmy Fallon inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas. Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at foxacrossamerica.com.