New co-host Joe Black: Instagram, TikTok & YouTuber with questionable taste and a penchant for loud cars. Griot's Garage, Cape Cod and Santa Rosa.

From the shadows of Mount Rainier, this is Cars, the podcast with your host, Don Swear, and

have a very special person to announce here, Mr. Joe Black.

Does he talk?

I do talk.

You do talk?

Do you eat peanuts?

I do.

I appreciate the mix.

You give me these planters.

Great.

It's the least I can do.

I might want a Snickers bar later on.

Yeah.

Hey, folks, we're taking the podcast in a little different direction here, and we've

got some new voices.

Our expert mechanic, Bill, has a lot on his plate right now.

It's great to have him the last six years, and we have a guy here, Joe Black.

I've been wanting to have on the show for quite a while here, at least as a guest.

You know what?

It's kind of funny because you know I do my videos, you know I do my lives.

Yeah.

You're TikTok and YouTube.

And it's like, I always tell them, I'm like, I didn't come on here to become rich or

didn't come on here to be famous.

Well, you're in the right place if you're not here to be rich.

Somehow I have become famous, allegedly, to all the people that watch me.

Well, I can go anywhere.

You're magnetic.

I run into Joe here at our local cars and coffee event, Griot's Garage, Caffeine and

gasoline, and he seems to know everybody.

He seems to know what's up, at least as far as American cars go.

You're on point.

And I know he'd be he'd be great for the podcast.

I appreciate it.

And we're honored to have him.

It's an honor to be here.

I'll be honest with you.

I've had a lot of people say, I should do a podcast myself for years, and I'm

like, I haven't got a clue what the hell I'd be doing.

You could probably detect a little bit of it for those who haven't met him.

There's a little bit of East Coast vibe going on here.

And yeah, this might be like a is a quarter of what how about a beer?

Well, there's a little bit of my Boston accent.

It comes out like if maybe you and I were at the pub or something like that.

Well, I could try to talk like I'm from the Jersey shore or something.

And you know what's funny is because it's it's similar.

But I do a lot of jokes like that stuff.

I'm like, hey, how are you doing?

I'm a Joey.

What's what's going on here?

And people think, hey, Joe, where are you from?

I'm from Flatbush, I don't know.

But it's just like it's just one of those things is I'm a big mobster guy.

I love the mobster movies and what we're out here on the West Coast.

We're kind of like a mono accent here from all the way from California to

Washington, right? Correct.

There's no accent, right?

No, because, you know, it's funny.

It's like when I was in the military here and I'd go visit places and

like, you know, people like, hey, I mean, I'm just saying for women,

we're going to be like, where are you from?

You know, your accent would come out all the time.

It's like, it's just how I talk, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I think that's one of the first questions I had for you when I met you.

I said, this guy's he's got some he's got some energy that we just don't have here.

I don't know. It's the energy.

I mean, I'd say that's probably individual wise, but

I'm just I'm a people person.

I love people and I just, you know, I just I love talking to people,

you know, just just a good vibe.

I mean, if you know my background, you know, law enforcement, things like that.

It's like, well, you you're in the right profession.

I think so. Some of the stuff you do.

So you've told me a little bit.

I just I just came back off the record about.

Correct. I just came back into it again pretty much.

I was doing other things and I just missed doing what I was doing.

You know, it's a whole different culture now, a whole different world today.

But, you know, you treat people with respect

and hopefully they'll do the same for you.

Well, we're here to pin Joe down.

I I screwed up.

I'm I'm not a technical expert here.

And I was, you know, it's always good to hit the record button

when you start recording, right?

That's awesome because I see all those those lights over there.

I'm kind of like, it looks like kind of like Rubik's Cube with all the colors.

Yeah, I'm kind of like, I wouldn't know.

Green usually means go, but it's opposite.

Well, this wouldn't be the first mistake I made.

It won't be the last. I tell you that.

Hey, it's OK.

As long as we keep rolling, we're good.

Whatever you got.

Well, Joe, yeah, it's hard to tell what age you are.

I just I pictured you for about I pictured you for about 10 years

younger than you are. I get that.

And I get people like, oh, you're in your late 40s or this and that.

And it's like this and I'm like, you know what?

I'll just give you an example.

So my ex-wife, God bless her.

She's still here, everybody, but my ex-wife, just let you know.

But she's like, you act like a 15 year old.

So I said, no, 15 year old, huh?

Was that a compliment or I took it as like, you know what?

I guess I should subtract 15 years from my age

because of what my age is, because I can tell you this.

People never believe when I tell them about my age is.

So I'm like, OK, guess what?

I'll just stick to like I'm in my late 40s and early 50s.

How about that?

Well, some of the questions

I'm going to ask you reveal a bit about your age.

Sure. I can I can I'm about to cross a I'm about to cross

a milestone here that you've already crossed.

I think a couple of years ago, a year ago.

Yeah, you can go to the Joe Black Zone.

Joe, the Joe Black Zone. Is that what you call it?

I guess it is.

I just thought of it, you know, but I'm pretty quick.

Well, I'm finding more out about Joe all the time,

but it'd be good for our listeners to know a little bit.

Sure. Now, you're from the Boston area, right?

Cape Cod, actually, which was called.

I lived about eight miles from the Kennedys.

Really? Yeah, eight miles from the Kennedys

and some, you know, just a beautiful place.

Is their compound that big, eight miles long?

You know what's funny is that there's actually like no

not any longer, but they used to call it the Kennedy compound.

But yeah, there's like one entrance, you know,

one has a couple pillars.

So maybe that's when they took some of the barricades down.

I don't know.

But the last time I went by the Kennedy

place was about probably 10 years ago.

Oh, and it's it's, you know, just one of those places that.

So Cape, how far out on the hook is this?

I picture in the.

So you get on Cape Cod, which is like if you look at the map.

Yeah, there's a there's a person that runs.

There's a person that runs east west

and then it hooks up to the north.

It looks like it looks like an arm.

Yeah. So I believe from one into the other,

it's like 60 something miles.

Is this above the elbow?

So this is right about lower elbow midway.

OK. Yeah.

I was like trying to describe Italy, right?

I know. Are you like you make an arm like this

or the Michigan Mitten?

Are you in the thumb or if you're looking at me, right?

If I was holding my arm up, like a muscle or something,

it'd be like, there's your right arm right there.

This is an audio medium, Joe.

Oh, I'm talking.

OK, I'm talking to all people listening.

So you're you're a you're a video guy.

You're I'm a little bit of everything.

Now, what's the behavior before we get?

What is what's the name of your your tech talk and YouTube channel?

So I have three platforms, which is

Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

TikTok just happened to take off like really fast for me.

And that that started a whole different issue.

And I've got 50,000 pretty much on that.

And my other ones, YouTube and and Instagram,

I started those because TikTok was going away.

And so I cannot figure out the algorithm for the world

to try to get those accounts going.

So they're all three the same.

Yeah, they're all fast cars and freedom to everybody

with a two on the end, all one word.

And number two.

Yeah, number two, the deuce, whatever you want to call it.

It's there.

And it's like, hey, I appreciate followers.

And it's like, I don't I'm not there for money.

I'm not here for fortune or fame.

But when it started for me on TikTok,

I just had more people saying,

hey, you know, can you do a video of this car for me?

Like, you know, you asking for like a 69 camera.

And I'm like, sure, what kind of music you like?

And I'd find the music and I would make up a video

and match it together for you.

And the stories people would send me for, you know, on TikTok,

you know, very touching stories.

And we can get into that some other time.

But it's just like, you know, I don't do it for me.

I do it for the people.

I don't you know what I mean?

I'm not getting paid for them.

So so you you match up the music when I just have a vibe.

If you gave me a band that you like, then I do that.

But I pretty much have my own vibe.

And it's like I'm pretty much a musical junkie,

you know, being from the band Boston area.

Like, yeah, yeah, things like that.

I grew up music and I've loved music since I was a little kid.

So my music in my car is a pretty much been combined since I was a kid, really.

When I wasn't doing anything car related like models or music,

I was singing with the radio. Wow.

So with your channel, if I brought I'm trying to think of a car here

that would I was thinking earlier, a Trans-Am, yeah, a 77 Trans-Am.

So would you be playing Jerry Reed and Eastbounded Down?

Or is that not your not your groove?

It's been there. I've done that video, OK, where it's gone viral.

But, you know, you got to sometimes, you know,

get to bring out of the tools, you know, you got to get outside the box.

And so if I had everybody, what if I had a PUD truck with Kansas

plates on it, would it be Wichita Lainman and Glenn Campbell?

I could be doing some Glenn Campbell on that.

I do have some songs with Glenn Campbell from music.

You know, I do have some like that with some like an old Cadillac

or something like that. Yeah. Yeah, I do that.

I mean, like I said, it's just kind of like a vibe

or like the Johnny Cash song. Oh, yeah.

I went one piece at a time, which is what it's called.

That one, one piece at a time. How's it go?

One piece. He you know,

the song goes about how he worked in the Cadillac factory

I'm not from 1955 to 1970.

Is that before prison? I think so.

Yeah, yeah, before the prison. Yeah.

Is that before the prison break?

Yeah, that's why he was in prison, because he stole auto parts from

is that what happened really? Oh, I mean, no, that's in the song,

though, the car is I'm going to have to look at the song up

just because you said that. Oh, man.

So I can use that for a video. Oh, yeah.

And I'm going to have to like make up some car parts.

So you picture this car that's got like, you know, 1959 fins

and yeah, the Dagmars from the 55.

I'm getting ready to do some more videos and people are going to be like

because car season's over. Yeah.

I have literally like 13 videos of cars on my phone.

Yeah. So I tell people that are also doing the same thing.

I'm like, hey, don't use all your content.

I say, because you don't have as much as I have.

And now they're already trying to search to reinvent themselves

because guess what? Car season's over. Yeah.

So unless you're going to a car show like at LeMaze inside

or somewhere else, you're kind of like you're stuck.

You know, I've even gone to a junkyard before

and just showing people because the junkyard used to be.

I love combing junkyards if they let you in.

Yeah, it's just pay the pay the five dollar entry fee.

I guess that's what it is now.

Some of them are entry fees just to get in there to walk around.

But it's pretty much it's pretty much a safety thing.

So you have to sign the waiver.

Yeah. But like I went to one in Olympia.

I tell you, is there still one there by the airport?

Is that the one I went to?

And you know what? Out of all the cars in there, it was one.

It was like a 1977 Lincoln town car four door

like the time kind that would be like on Marcus Welby or some TV.

Right. Right.

You can make a Batmobile out of those. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's like you just don't see.

So most of the junkyards now, guess what?

It's all these cars that are on the road today.

You know, that's that's where the whole yeah.

So you can't find those.

But it's like I used to go to junkyards.

I was a little kid. I loved it.

We got in trouble going to a junkyard one time.

It's called John's Junkyard.

I was just I think I was 10 years old.

Yeah. And so wasn't everything already rusted back there?

Yeah. But you know, you all still get local cars and stuff like that.

Depends how rusted it is.

You know, it's like so there's a little creek behind John's Junkyard.

So there's no fence behind it, right?

But three sides of it were all fence.

And then you have the main road.

How about a junkyard dog? Was there there were some junkyard dogs?

They said, but I think they only had the junkyard dogs

because you think about there's no fence in the back.

Yeah. So the junkyard dogs are only in the garage warehouse part of it.

Right? Yeah. So here we are, some kids.

We think it's cool to go in the junkyard like it was on a Sunday.

And so I had a friend, you know, his name was his name was Charlie Brown.

I kid you not. I swear to God, his name was Charlie Brown.

Right. And he has brothers.

So we all went in there, right?

And it was on a Sunday afternoon.

We just think it's cool to take the valve, you know, covers for the stems.

Yeah. Yeah. I feel the stems for the, you know, the wheels.

You know, we just thought that was cool.

So I had pockets full of them.

I'm like, I don't want to do with them all.

But but then, of course, you know, you think it's cool.

It's like, oh, what if you throw a rock and you break a windshield or something?

You don't know. Right.

So then, you know, you were not really doing too much of that.

But some of those cars are stacked, you know, right?

Twenty feet, three, four cars.

You know, I mean, it's basically one of them could fall on you.

So we're walking around in there to send this and that.

And all of a sudden here it comes, I guess it was John.

It wasn't John himself from John's Junkyard.

That was the name of it.

Maybe it was Benny. I don't know.

But he's like, what are you all kids doing in here?

You know, he comes over and we're like, oops.

Yeah, he's like, you know what?

Because I'm taking you back to your houses.

We were swimming in the creek and we just happened to get out of the creek.

You know what we're doing?

But yeah, you know, like I said, we weren't damaging stuff.

We weren't like that.

I mean, maybe Charlie Brown's brothers were.

But but because one of his kids was named Eddie.

So Eddie Brown and he was just a little one.

He was like a feister, of course.

And he was shorter, too.

But like I said, we were only 10, so I was short, too.

But anyways, we got walked.

He got walked to his house.

He got in serious trouble.

His dad whooping on them.

Me, I go by the time we got to my house, which was farther than his

because guy actually walked us. Yeah.

And so he goes, you know what?

Normally, I take I was supposed to call the police.

My boss told me I was supposed to get the police and call him.

Take him out.

We get they seem like good kids by the last.

So anyway, it's my dad.

He didn't whoop me, but guess what?

I got grounded.

So that was it.

But John's junkyard, just a famous place where I love junkyard since I was a kid.

So your dad, this is going to seem like deja vu for some reason.

I don't I can't understand why are we recording this again?

We're recording this like Groundhog.

This is recording. That's why it's red.

You ever seen the movie Groundhog Day?

Is that what it feels like here?

Groundhog Day is like, I know that feeling.

That's just so I was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

I tell my soldiers, I'm like, OK, I said, until you're on the ground,

your feet are actually on the ground in the United States.

Don't listen to anybody else.

That's including don't listen to me.

Yeah, I just want you to make it easier on your families.

Yeah. And so every day is the same thing.

Groundhog Day. Boom, boom, boom.

Not technically, but OK, it was the easy way to look at being funny.

Wow, to get through the survival. Wow.

So you mentioned your dad is you blame him for you being a car junkie.

I it's hard to say because, you know,

I'll give you an example.

So remember the little pedal cars?

Yeah, metal ones. Yeah.

So I don't know the name of the store.

It's not around anymore.

Just a little five and dime store in our town.

Right. This was up in Lewiston, Maine.

I was just a little kid.

And my mom and dad went to the store and my dad had a Mustang.

So we went to the store and I got in that pedal car.

And guess what? It's time to go.

I'm not getting out of that car.

I'm holding on to that wheel for all my strength

of my life, my little, my little 40 pound body or whatever I weighed.

And I'm screaming and carrying on in that store

like that embarrassing kid that you don't want to look at.

What color was this? Blue.

Blue. Yeah. OK.

You know, it matched my dad's blue Mustang in my sea.

At least in my head of dad.

So I'm not getting out of that car.

So my dad literally had to take me and put me in that car

in his car and take me home in that.

And I would not get out of that car

because I slept in, I think, a crib still, right?

Because I was just happening.

You were small. It was easier, you know?

And so it was cheaper probably then for us to

growing up back in that age, you know,

our parents are trying to be savvy with money.

Yeah.

Anyways, I wouldn't get out of it.

And I slept in that car.

So I blamed him.

And so I was like, my dad used to say to me always,

you know, my dad passed away in 2020, unexpectedly.

But he always used to give me hell

even when I went down to Florida.

I used to get out and see him in Florida

three to five times a year.

Yeah. And he knew my fascination.

I started taking my dad started going to car shows with me.

He loved going. We go, we go to like the T-Bird show.

Yeah. All T-Birds out in Florida.

Yeah. You know?

And my dad would like my dad started living through me

because of cars. Yes.

He got older and retired.

Like one time I came home, my dad had like this.

He goes, I got to show you what I got.

I'm like, what do you got that?

One time he bought a V 65 Magna.

Motorcycle, where he didn't even ride the damn thing.

Yamaha, right?

No, the Honda.

Oh, Honda.

It's one of those fast ones.

I do remember those from.

But he got a good deal on it.

That's why he bought it.

OK. He never wrote it.

So anyways, he goes and he goes, hey, he goes,

I think you'll love my car.

Opens up the garage, just got this yellow Corvette

with a white top.

And I'm like, it was like an 80s.

OK. Maybe 90s.

Trying to think what you see for.

Yeah. Yeah.

About 1990 or so.

Yeah. And, you know, one of those newer type of ones

in the sense I'm like, dad, why'd you get yellow?

Nothing. I didn't tell him that.

But I'm like, I go, that's all right.

Because you want to drive it?

I'm like, I'm not really because I didn't.

But I did go home one time.

So this was about 92.

My sister was graduating high school.

Yeah. And so my dad.

Long story short, he had ordered in 1987 or 88.

He had ordered a brand new Lincoln town car.

He always wanted to have a Lincoln.

Yeah. My dad could always buy any car he wanted to.

But he always put family first.

And he's like, wow, what do I want a car for?

I just need a car to go work and things like that.

So he ordered his Lincoln town car.

Well, that was up in Brunswick, Maine.

Guy calls him up to dealership and says, hey, sir, your car is ready.

OK, I'll be right down.

I guess down there, he's like, yeah, he's your car.

He goes, that ain't the car I ordered.

It was like some funky green color and all the stuff.

So the car he ordered was the wrong car.

They sent it was still a town car, though.

Yeah, it's a town car.

They sent it to the dealership and however the whole numbers came out.

Maybe they sent it the wrong place.

I don't know. My dad, he had all the cash in his hand.

Yeah, he's like, that is not the car I ordered.

He goes, it's clearly he goes, I ordered a black car and blah, blah, blah.

And so they're like, oh, so they go and look up.

They go, oh, you're correct.

He goes, well, we'll give you a discount on this car.

My dad's like, I'm not taking that thing across the street.

And so what happened was is my dad was really pissed off.

He's like, you lost my business.

He goes, that's so much for my Lincoln.

So my dad was driving home and then downtown they had the Chevy dealer.

He looks and this is in December.

He looks and is a Monte Carlo Super Sport in there.

Eighty seven. This was 87 or 88.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

White tea tops, maroon, burgundy interior.

Yeah, three or five dog motors and of course, but beautiful cars.

Right. My dad was a big Dale Earnhardt fan.

Oh, that was his.

Wrangler car back then.

Yeah, he. Well, yeah, yeah.

No, no, no, no.

So he there's a I actually have some pictures of it from a Winston Cup magazine.

Yeah.

So it shows Dale Earnhardt and it says something like from this to this.

So it shows the exact same car my dad bought.

OK, to the black one that he's racing on the track.

Right. So anyways.

OK, but they changed the livery by that was good wrench.

Yeah, it was OK.

Yeah, yeah.

And so what happened was is my dad's driving down the dealership

and he looks and sees that in there.

And he's like, oh, he starts talking there.

He's like, oh, I guess I really like that car.

And the salesman comes out.

He goes, oh, he goes, how you doing, sir, blah, blah, blah.

He goes, well, he goes, I think the price of it was like 18 five,

right, at that time.

And so, of course, the new ones had already come out.

So I think it was maybe eighty seventy eight.

So this was a leftover. Yeah.

And so you're up in Maine.

Nobody's going to be buying that car in the winter time for one.

So my dad's kind of like, because well, what do you want for that car?

He goes, oh, it's 18 five.

My dad's like, it's not 18 five.

He goes, he gives us winter time.

That car is left over when the new ones came out in September.

Yeah. And so young, young manager.

No, salesman, I'm sorry.

Yeah. And my dad's like, I'll tell you what, he goes,

I'll give you fifteen thousand for that car.

I was like, no, I'm sorry, we can't do that.

Because my dad, you know, he's a businessman.

Yeah, he knows.

He goes, he goes, let me tell you something.

He goes, I'm a businessman.

He goes, this is what I do for a living.

He goes, I think you need to go talk to your manager.

Because now, sir, I'm not selling my car for $15,000.

And I think and I actually think it was less than that

because that was the that was the manufacturer sticker on the car.

Oh. And so guy comes out, manager, he goes, hey, he goes, hey, sir.

He goes, I understand you're interested in the car.

He goes, yeah, he goes, I'm interested in this car.

He was 15,000 cash.

I'll give you that for 15,000.

He just had 15,000.

Most people are going to finance the car

when my dad had the cash because of the Lincoln in his hand.

He goes, I give you 15, you know, guy goes cash.

He goes, I'll give you $15,000 cash right now for that car.

Guy looks at the salesman.

He goes, give him that car.

Wow. So my dad had that car.

He had that car for basically five years.

Had like low miles on it, 20,000 miles on it.

Yeah. So funny story was I went home

for my sister's graduation and I think it was 92.

And my dad's like, hey, you got my car for the week

while you're here, you know, a couple of weeks.

I'm like, OK, because I stayed with my dad and my mom.

They were divorced. Yeah.

And so I can remember.

I mean, I'm not I would not do that to my dad's car.

Hot rod or do anything like this.

But I went out one night with my cousin.

So my cousin, Kathy, she's she's probably like three or four years

younger than I was. And she loved him.

She goes, oh, my uncle, Mike, my uncle, Mike.

She always talked about my dad because my dad was always

so nice to all my nieces and nephews.

And so we had gone to a club and it was like shenanigans.

So I met this one girl that I knew from

from my mom's place and things like that.

And so my cousin and her friend were there.

So we all went to this place.

And well, meanwhile, I'm not driving now.

I'm with the girl sitting in the back seat of the car.

And she had a little bit much to drink.

But my niece thought it was great.

She's like, oh, because I always want to drive my uncle Mike's car.

And so guess what?

She's doing burnout stuff after we left the bar that night.

She's like doing burnout here and there.

And so I'm like, oh, my God, I'm like, she's going to get pulled over.

I was like, this is not going to be good.

Anyways, that was it.

The other night this and that.

So I still had to have the car.

Well, I got home, you know, from from the whole thing.

And my dad calls me on the phone.

My dad goes, what the hell did you do to my car?

I'm like, what are you talking about?

He goes, how do you find out?

No, no, that's what I'm saying.

I'm like, what the hell?

I said, we're working fine for me.

He goes, yeah, my car is overheating.

It's this that everything else has all this.

He goes, you and the motor's blown.

I'm like, I said, I didn't do anything to your car, dad.

And he's like, well, you used it last.

I'm like, because my dad never drove it.

And so I said, well, I said, Kathy drove it.

Well, we were out one night.

This and that, that's all I said, right?

And he goes, anyways, he was he was he was acting

like he was all pissed off, but he wasn't.

So he goes, well, it's still under warranty

because I think it had the five years.

Oh, wow, yeah, it was right at the right.

It was because it was under 50,000 miles.

I think it's a warranty for those then.

Something like that.

Thirty was under 36,000 miles of a five year warranty.

Something stupid.

And so my dad's like, that's OK.

He goes, I just brought back the dealership

and they're going to take care of it, right?

So they say, hey, sir.

He goes, we have a problem.

He goes, yeah, what's that?

He goes, we don't have the answer for your car, which was a 305.

I have to put a 350 in there.

That's what they did.

They put the Corvette motor in it.

Oh, man.

Yep.

And so he goes, you say, I got a Corvette motor for the car.

And so he had the Corvette motor put in it

and then cost him a dime.

Jeez.

And he had the car for a few more years.

And then like, I guess that's

when he changed up to the Corvette.

Yeah.

He's like, because they gave him the Corvette

to drive around a little bit.

Kind of mess with him.

Oh, try to try to.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, try to get him up.

Yeah, exactly.

Like, hey, we're sorry, sir.

We didn't mean, you know, your car was under warranty.

It didn't cost you a dime.

But I'm not a Corvette guy.

But I that Monte Carlo.

Those are beautiful cars.

I mean, horsepower wise.

But I almost bought one a couple of years ago here locally.

But the deal fell through and I bought something else.

G body.

Yeah, I bought it.

I bought an 03 Terminator instead.

Oh, no, that Mustang thing just keeps coming back.

Yeah, I believe not.

I've had 29 Mustangs.

Oh, my God.

Seventeen of them Fox bodies.

No kidding.

Yeah.

So I guess it was a Mustang guy for a while.

So you're not that old.

When you get into this bag of goodies I've got right here.

You're going to see some pictures.

God.

And I've got some other things in there.

So you can just open this bag I brought to you.

But a little birdie told me that your first car was actually

at Impala.

Is that right?

You are right.

It was a 1970 Chevy Impala.

It had 70,000 miles on it.

And the original owner was a lady in her eighties.

I'm trying to picture.

Is that the one with the tail lights and the bumper?

It is.

It has the square.

Yep.

You are 100% right.

And this is the Caprice.

The Caprice has the chop top a little bit.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But this is the Impala where it has the long back.

OK.

So it had the white rims with the dog dish hub caps

on it, white wall tires, G78 15s, which are just

bias ply tires.

This is before we went with the metric system.

Yes.

Had the 350, two barrel, but it had a power glide.

Which if you know a power glide, a lot of racers use power

glide.

You can find those bases.

But one day I came home from school.

I used to work at a Sonoco station.

And my boss, he was a Vietnam veteran, Marine.

And he used to race 68 Camaro SS 396 when he came back

from Vietnam.

So he used to teach me stuff on cars.

That's how I learned a lot of my car stuff when I got

older was in, I had shop alcohols.

So power mechanic shop also.

But I got to learn stuff from this.

White school.

Just regular school.

Oh, OK, yeah, high school.

Yeah, in high school.

Regular high school shop.

It's funny.

And I was ace in that class because when

I worked at the gas station, this

was the old school of Sonoco station.

You have two bays.

Or guess what?

He goes, hey, I need you, Joe.

He goes, I need you to take the wheels off of that Corvette.

So you got to practice on customer's cars.

He goes, hey, he goes, I got this Corvette in there.

I'm going to show you how to do the brakes on it.

I'm going to show you how to do this.

So he would basically tell me, OK, just take these off,

take this off, and everything else.

So I would, I mean, I would do exhaust work on cars.

And the only thing that sucked about it, because it was back

east, you know, you get a lot of rust.

Yeah.

You know, so when you're trying to turn wrenches.

Oh, God.

You know, it's like, guess what?

You're like, oh, skin your knuckles or, you know,

drop a wrench on your face in the winter time

and bust open a tooth or something underneath the car,

cold in the bay, you know, wet snow on you and everything

else inside the bay.

I almost bought a Toyota from upstate New York.

Oh, no.

I saw the orange underneath.

I said, no.

Yeah, you don't want that.

It's bad news.

But yeah, so what happened was I came home from school

and I was a junior.

And I just got my permit.

And my dad used to let me drive his truck.

I had a date with my girlfriend at the time.

And my dad would always let me drive his truck

without a license.

Yeah.

He'd like, go ahead, take the truck,

go into your girlfriend's house.

I'm like, really, you want a permit?

My dad's just let me go.

Anyways, he didn't want me.

He had a Silverado four-wheel drive.

Chevy pickup.

You know, a nice Cheyenne edition.

I don't think it was what it was.

But he didn't want me to drive that all the time

because we had also my mom's Buick Regal, which

was a nice car.

But we didn't have no garage.

We had a garage.

It was underneath the house, the house.

You know, we had these houses were on Cape Cod,

so they're called a cape.

Of course, the house is called a cape.

So the way they're built and stuff like that.

But it's like, no, but we didn't use the garage

for a garage.

So anyways, my dad, I came home from school

and this car sitting in the driveway.

You don't sound snooty enough to be from Cape Cod.

Yeah, because I don't know if I gave you that story,

but like, here's what happens.

There's the people on Cape Cod, they are snooty.

Yeah, they are rich people.

Oh, that's true.

And because I can remember moving there

when I was a little kid, right?

Yeah.

Well, I just moved there in junior high.

Yeah.

And so, you know, guess what?

My dad, this is how it works.

You get for school, go school shopping for the year.

You get all excited as a kid, right?

Well, you have your choice.

You can get some Sears and Robux pants,

like three or four pairs of those.

Or you can get Levi's where you can get only two pairs.

OK.

Well, when we move there, guess what?

All those kids are kind of like looking at you like,

oh, what the hell are you wearing?

I'm kind of like, not like today's kids.

Kids today, I mean, they go to Target.

They can go to Walmart.

You can get whatever clothes you can pull it off, however.

But, you know, it's a big thing to you when you're a little kid.

You know, so it's like, yeah, I had those Sears and Robux

or those Kmart skins.

Yeah, tough skins or the rustlers, you know,

Kmart rustlers or whatever.

I'm like, I'm not wearing those.

You know, and anyways, so it is, it's rich people.

Yeah.

And they live there in the summertime.

And they go back to Florida in the wintertime.

So that's how it is.

And so anyways, that's what that old lady used to do.

And so the car was sitting in my driveway

and I was like, hey, what's up with that car?

The driveway.

My mom goes, your dad bought that for you.

I'm like, what?

He bought that car for me.

He goes, yeah, because he'll be hanging later on.

So I'm just looking over that car.

I'm kind of going to.

He bought a lot of metal around you.

That thing is.

He did.

Yeah, it is a big car.

I can say that.

Big, beautiful.

But like I said, it was mint conditioned,

white with blue interior.

Had the AM radio in it.

I almost bought it.

I think it was a 70 Bonneville.

Oh, yeah.

455 once.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

That's a cruiser right there.

That was a cruiser.

My dad had one of those.

Really?

He did.

And it did have like the cat's eye taillights on the back.

I think so.

Yeah.

It looked like I guess they call like a cat's eye.

I'm trying to.

Yeah, I'm trying to picture.

Bonneville and had the beak up front and the white body.

That's the one my dad had.

He had a yellow one like that with with a brown vinyl

top and brown interior.

So that's about the size of your Impala hood.

Pretty much.

I think the Pontiac would have taken that out.

It had a lot more bulk to it.

Maybe it was that beak like you said on the nose.

But I mean, I would love to have that car my dad had back then.

You'd never see one of those.

You could see a 70 Impala or an Impala at any time,

pretty much.

70 not so much, but.

So anyways, my dad came home and here's the keys.

I started it up.

I'm like, oh my god, I sat in the driveway.

There's only one rule.

You have to pay your registration for it

and you have to pay for your insurance for the whole year.

Not for by monthly payments or all that kind of bull.

And I still remember how much the insurance was.

You know why?

Because there's a story to go with that.

It was $237 for a year.

And so the deal was, my mom was gone.

So at this time, we lived on Cape Cod.

Go figure, we lived on Cape Cod.

So we were kind of snooty ourselves.

We didn't stay on Cape Cod in the summertime

because all it's when the tourists came,

we had a summer house up in Maine.

Oh, no kidding.

So my dad, isn't that kind of weird?

I was a businessman.

Yeah, he was.

And so we didn't go to Disneyland.

We had a summer house.

And it was a cottage.

But this cottage was not, it's not a bunch of Lincoln logs.

It was a nice cottage.

You couldn't sleep there in the wintertime

because they weren't winterized.

But you still had running water for the well.

We had a wharf.

We had two boats.

We had it all.

But anyways, so what happened was

is my dad said, what do you do with the insurance wise?

And so me, working at the gas station,

guess what happens?

Salesmen come in all the time.

And I'm kind of like, my car's sitting in my driveway.

And so I'm kind of like, man, I want

to drive my car at summertime.

I'm a senior in high school now.

I'm like, I got to be cruising.

My girlfriend said, she gets to use her mom's Volvo.

And I got no car.

It's in my driveway.

And so.

Yeah, volvos were the Subaru, right?

Nowadays, it'd be a Subaru.

Oh, yeah, it was the Volvo, the safety thing.

Because volvos were so safe.

And so she was, so I still could use my dad's truck.

But I mean, it would have been hard

because I stayed home that summer with my dad

while my brother and my sister went to Maine with my mom.

So I wanted to make money.

So I want to pay off my car so I can drive it.

Because my dad gave me a loan for the car, $400.

That's what he paid for it.

So I didn't even tell you the story

about how he got the price of the car.

I think that's what I was getting at, right?

So basically, my dad.

So it was cheap.

Yeah, so yeah.

Even then, you know what's funny is?

I can still remember my very first license plate.

Can you remember yours?

I can.

Can you?

That's shameful.

No, it's not.

So who ever says Alzheimer's is coming up?

AEK 373.

See?

It's Washington State, right?

It was Oregon.

Oh, Oregon?

So you say, yeah.

Oh, you live down there.

Are you one of those guys?

No.

Mine was 346 FMF, Massachusetts.

Green and white plate.

Well, it's actually white with green letters.

Kind of looked like a Washington State plate.

Okay.

So anyways, the salesman comes in and he's like,

oh, and my boss was getting insurance

because the salesman coming to gas stations

is like a salesman selling back in greeners back then.

So I'm like, he goes, hey, well, I can get you

your insurance for like $19 a month or something like that.

Like, really?

That means I could get my car registered today

and I could just drive it.

So what happened was is I'm coming up

with this brainstorm idea.

I'm like, I can pay this guy this money

to get my insurance started.

I can go register my car

because I have enough to register my car.

And meanwhile, my car's sitting in my driveway.

So my boss, Bob, I'm like, hey, I'm gonna say,

oh, when I get off work and I said, can I use your car?

So he goes, I got a better idea.

He goes, take my dealer plate.

So they have dealer plates

where you just put them on any car.

Yeah.

So he's allowed to do that even if I'm driving it.

So he goes here, here's the dealer plate.

So I go back to my house,

put the dealer plate on my car.

I jump in my car, I drive up to the DMV

and I register the car.

It's registered and I show them the insurance.

So there we go.

Good, right?

Yeah.

You think?

Oh, no.

That was not the deal.

Oh, jeez, what's this?

I was the deal breaker was, you know?

My dad was like, what was the deal?

I don't know, what was the deal?

I said, I did, I got insurance on it.

He's like, you paid all your insurance?

I was like, no, I paid, paying like $19 a month

or $30 a month, whatever it is.

He's like, that's not the deal.

Give me the keys.

I'm like, what?

And he's like, give me the keys.

I'm like, but that's my car.

And so, and a funny story for him is like,

I kind of got pissed off because it was summertime.

So I'm like, I'm running away.

You want to teach you a lesson, huh?

I want to teach him a lesson because I'm like,

you just took my car that you gave me.

It wasn't paid off yet, but I ran away.

So my buddy Mike lived down the street.

So I went and stayed at his house.

So I lived there for like a week.

So I'm like, nope, I'm mad at my dad.

He's like, he took my car away.

And so my buddy Mike let me stay at his house.

The stupid stuff we do is.

Yup.

And his mom and dad let me stay too.

So I was staying at Mike's house

up on the floor in his house in his bedroom.

And I'm like, I'm going to go get another car.

So I had enough money to go get a 1974 Capri.

Oh my God.

And you want to talk about rust.

I mean, the car was, the car had weeds

growing out of the hood, but the car ran, started.

Was this the Pinto engine?

Yeah, the rusted out whole thing.

7.3.

Just sitting in the yard.

I'm like, I can get that car running.

I can drive that car, right?

It's like 50 bucks.

And I'm like, I didn't buy the car, of course.

Cause I'm like, yeah.

Cause my buddy Mike was like, I do that car.

You can't get that car.

Just to jump, just wait till you get your car back.

I'm like, I'm not going to get my car back.

I'm not going home.

But anyways, that was the deal with what happened

with my insurance stuff.

And I didn't tell you about how they came about

getting the car.

Basically a salesman.

My dad was getting some maintenance work done

on his truck at the dealership.

And this car was sitting there.

And my dad says, hey, what's the deal

with that Impala right there?

It's heavy.

And the guy goes, oh, it was a trade in.

He goes, yeah, a little lady.

She's about in her 80s.

She just traded in on a brand new Cadillac

or whatever the hell she traded in on, right?

She drives it to the floor and back in the wintertime.

So there's no rest on the car.

That's the ideal.

Yeah.

And so what happened was is my dad goes, oh, he goes,

oh, he goes, he goes, I'd like to have my mechanic

look at that car.

He goes, I'd like to buy it.

He goes, well, how much is this in the cell for?

He goes, well, I don't know because, you know,

it might need some work.

So my dad goes and gets my boss and they go back.

It's back in the high Anas.

That's where the Kennes live, right?

So it's about eight miles away.

So they go back and he's like, hey,

he goes, hey, I was interested in this.

He goes, yeah, I can't even talk to you early.

He goes, yeah, we can't sell the car now.

He's like, what do you mean?

He goes, you say you can sell it.

He goes, well, it needs a lot of things done to it.

He goes, it needs brakes.

It needs this.

We made up a bunch of bullshit, basically.

Just lying.

Well, because what happened was the mechanic

wanted the car and the salesman didn't know

the mechanic wanted the car.

So he goes, well, he goes, well, what would it be worth,

you know, if you're going to sell it?

He goes, well, if I had a dealer,

somebody with a dealers license come in,

he goes, I'd sell it for 400 bucks.

My boss, Bob, breaks out his dealers license.

He goes, there you go.

He goes, here's 400 bucks.

I'll buy that car right now.

So of course the dealership was pissed off

because they weren't going to make no money off the car

from the salesman, from the mechanic wanting the car.

So that's how we stole the car from them.

Which if you had that car today.

Ah, you know what?

You never see those cars.

So every time I'm like on some type of social media

or I see one of those things, I'm like,

the only time I've actually seen the exact same car,

same color and everything was when I was

at Fort Benning, Georgia.

One of my drill sergeants had that same car.

Oh, crazy.

Yep, and I was just sitting there

and I used to look across

because I was in basic training.

I'm like getting dogged out.

I'm like, man, I could be driving around.

I just graduated like six months or eight months ago,

whatever it was, I was like,

I could be driving back in my car right now

if I kept that, but I didn't.

Oh, well.

So what's the worst car you've ever owned?

Can you admit that?

Damn, worst car I've ever owned.

You always made great choices, right?

Never had a mistake.

It's like that song by Cheryl Crow.

How about like, you're my favorite mistake.

You're my favorite that you like,

that taught you a lot of stuff

because the thing kept breaking.

Damn.

What do you think?

You know what?

You're lucky.

You know what?

I'm trying to think.

Probably the worst.

Yeah.

I don't know, because you know what?

So when I was also, you know,

after I graduated before I went to the military,

I was, I used to work in a junkyard.

So I used to get steels of deals from my boss.

So you did.

That was a question I had for you.

Did you ever work in the auto industry?

That kind of.

Yeah.

So, you know, it's kind of cool.

So his name was Victor Salamini.

He was, he's an Italian Jewish guy.

Big guy, man.

Yep.

And so, you know, you're on Cape Cod.

Well, you know, there's a lot of high end homes

at Cape Cod.

Well, this guy owned a piece of property

where it had a junkyard.

The town was not happy.

Oh.

They're like, hey, you know what?

It was off the road, off the beaten path.

But, you know, the developers wanted that money.

OK, right.

So he used to fight with the town constantly.

Yeah.

And I'd love it to own a junkyard.

Oh, me too, man.

I could play in those for hours.

Yeah.

You know, go play games in them and just pretend

I'm driving old cars and stuff.

And so, anyways, so he gave me a job.

He goes, oh, I give you five bucks an hour.

He goes, and he goes, you pull parts off of the car,

whatever I need.

And he goes, you just go pull off the part.

And he goes, you know, maybe I'll give a percentage.

Whatever.

But the cool part was, you know, those big top loaders

like they see construction.

Yeah.

Big, big things.

They move the cars around.

They're not made for that, but they're made for like bulldozers.

Oh, OK.

You know, the big dump on it.

Yeah.

I mean, they're pretty high up in this thing.

He goes, ah, there's nothing to drive in those things.

I'll show you how to drive it.

I'm like, so he'd be like, hey, Joe,

I need you to go pick up that car over there.

I'm like, pick up that car.

He showed me how to hook up a chain to those cars

and drag them and do everything else with it.

I'd be driving that big damn top load around.

I was like, this is cool, man.

I'm just 18 years old.

I'm driving around a junkyard.

And if I didn't like something,

I could sit there and smash it with a bulldozer.

So I would I'd be going up and picking up parts.

But anyway, it's one of the cars that they came in

because I did get another car as soon as I graduated.

I sold my car.

And there was this one kid that was a year behind me

and he loved my car.

He wanted that car since I had it.

Yeah.

And he was a junior and I was a senior.

I'm like, as soon as I turned 18,

I'm like, I'm selling this car because it was paid for.

I'm like, I don't care what my dad wants.

You know, my dad was out of town.

And I'm like, so I bought a 68 GTO.

And it's out with the plastic nose.

Is that they have that by then?

You know, what's funny about the plastic?

Endura, the Endura nose.

Endura nose, yeah.

Did you know this?

No.

The GTO, that was an option.

The Endura nose.

Actual 68 and 69 GTOs came with a chrome bumper

from in like the Le Mans.

Did you know that?

No, I didn't.

A lot of people have no.

I've told GTO people.

My knowledge of those era extends to saying Endura.

I just went to a show, you know,

at Benford's Field of Dreams, right?

Which I go to on Friday nights.

And I was talking to a GTO owner.

I said, did you know that?

He goes, I had no idea.

And this guy was a GTO.

Wow.

You would be surprised how many people didn't know that.

Well, you pulled up here in a GTO,

but it's it's one of those modern.

It is a modern day O5.

I've had three GTOs.

This is my third.

I've had a 65, a 68.

And of course, my teacher.

All the way to O6.

O5, what is it?

O5.

O5, 6.0 liter.

Do you know what the top speed of those cars are?

From the factory, they come from Austria,

Holden, Monero.

Yeah.

It's a six liter.

So that's a car that liter.

It is.

So that car, what happened was when they started bringing the GTO,

when they brought the GTO from Australia,

that was actually the Holden of America.

The Holden of Manaro.

Manaro.

Yeah.

I always have a difficult time with it.

I don't know why.

I guess I'm not.

Yeah.

The Commodore.

The Toronto.

Exactly.

The Maloo.

Right.

I'm not an Australian.

When I saw those cars when they first came out,

I go, man, these things are ugly.

I said, who would drive one of those damn things?

But I'm kind of like, you know what, I'm an ugly guy.

I like ugly cars.

I was like, you know what?

So I was like, I said, you know what?

I wanted something different.

I'm going to guess 150.

You're not even close.

No.

187 miles an hour.

Oh, really?

From the factory.

Wow.

I'll have to re-look that up, but it's the 180s.

179 to 180 something.

I get my numbers mixed up because of different cars

that I like so much.

My car tops out at 93, so I'm going to not race you.

Hey, if you put some 92 octane in there,

you might go faster.

Down this hill.

Down the hill, maybe.

Yes, you have a beautiful home here.

And the size of this hill, everybody.

If I could show you all the beautiful home

that Don has here, him and his wife, a beautiful view.

And I said, I think we can get that thing faster than 90

on the hill.

It's my wife's home.

I just get to stay here with her.

That's kind of interesting.

I'm a kept man.

Well, you're doing something right.

God bless you, brother.

I'm good at picking A. That's the only thing

I'm better than her at is picking a partner.

Hey, you know what?

But guess what?

She chose you.

That's important.

That's what love's about.

What car will we on?

Hey, we're on Pontiacs.

We were on the GTO.

We're on Australian Pontiacs.

And it's an automatic.

Anyway, so we're going, yeah.

It's automatic because it's 400 horse from the factory.

The only other car that that engine came in

was the Corvette and the Cadillac of that year.

Yeah, it was in those Cadillacs and those Corvettes.

So after it was that, oh, yeah, the CTS.

And the reason why they did the 04 to 06 GTOs

is was guess what?

The Terminator, as you know.

Mustang.

Yes, yes.

That was the end of the Camaros and the Firebirds.

So the Transams and the Supersports.

Because those were king of the streets.

Because the Cobra Mustangs, the 9901s.

Did Ford ever use the name Terminator?

How did that come about?

So it's funny that you say that.

I was talking about just, OK, we're getting off base here.

But that's OK.

I want to hear this.

We're on cars.

OK, that's what it's about, right?

Yeah, that's about cars.

The podcast, right?

It's about love.

It's about life.

It's about cars, right?

Right.

Not in that order, maybe.

I don't know.

But yeah, so that.

Hey, I said that wrong.

It's cars, the podcast.

No, there you go.

That better.

That's it.

All right.

So Terminator.

So the Terminator, which people don't realize.

So the Terminator was built.

So they started building that car in 02.

And because the 99 to 01s, the Camaros and the Transams

are just blowing those cars away.

And they were just dog motors.

They were the 4.6.

305 horsepower.

No, 315 horsepower, I believe it was.

With the 4 cam.

Yep, yep, just dog motors.

And that motor, actually, in those cars

actually came from the Lincoln first.

The modular.

Yeah, those 4.6 came in the 93 Lincoln's,

I believe it was the first year they had it.

Anyways, they were just dogs.

So what happened was, I'm trying to remember the guy's name

exactly.

Anyways, the big executive at Ford.

Telnac?

No.

That's all right.

His name's John Coletti.

OK.

John Coletti.

He was a master.

So basically what happened was, they were building the

Terminator.

They were building another one.

They said, hey, we need these cars go faster.

So what happened was, they had the Focus STIs or

whatever, all those cars coming out really fast.

Well, the one that they just built, they were going

down to Arizona.

Well, one of those little four-cylinder ones

was running circles around the car.

Oh, seriously.

He goes, this is not acceptable.

He's like, you give me the money, and you give me the go

to build this car.

Or he goes, I'm not doing this.

This is a waste of our money.

So this is where they came up with the Terminators.

Well, the 5.4, which was in the Ford Lightning,

was too big.

Which fit.

Yeah, so they decided, hey, the 4.6.

But they tried putting different super chargers

and doing all these different tricks,

and they're like, that's not working.

They finally came up with it.

They said they went to Manley that builds the rods,

and the pistons, and all that stuff.

They went to Manley Racing, and they said, hey,

we need you to build this stuff for not an aluminum block,

for a metal block.

So the Manley men built it.

Yes.

But actually, who helped them out to build the Terminator

motors, you know who that is?

Jack Roush.

Oh, OK, yeah.

Roush Racing actually had the super chargers already

on their cars.

So those early sailings for the Roush's and the sailings.

So Jack Roush actually helped them.

The companies were right down the street from each other

in Michigan.

So Jack Roush had a lot to do with the Terminator

as far as building the next level for the motor.

So when it comes to the Terminator part,

so when they built the car, they're like,

we need a name for this project.

It's a Terminator.

And they're like, well, how would you come up with that?

And they're like, determinate the rest of the competition.

That's how they came up with the name.

So when they did that, basically, they

took those engines.

They'd already used Eliminator on the Cougar back in the day.

Oh, yeah, that's true, too.

And that was Mercury for the Lincoln.

Yeah, the Eliminator.

Yeah, those are some nice rides.

So basically what happened was.

Birdwalking again.

No, that's OK.

Hey, at least it's moving, right?

So on the Terminator, there was actually, because I said,

look, there's nothing on the car saying Terminator.

But if you look under the front bumper

and the rear bumper engraved on the bumper,

actually has Terminator.

Oh, no kidding.

And if you take off the side scoops,

where you have those little side scoops,

if you pull that off there, it actually

has Terminator written on those, too.

No kidding, huh?

Yeah, wow.

There's a Terminator book out there by John Coletti.

I actually have that book so I can give more knowledge

on that stuff.

I've actually just looked at the pictures.

I'm a picture guy.

You don't buy just for the articles.

Yeah, no, no, no.

That's kind of like when I was a kid, Playboy Magazine.

My dad had Playboy Magazine, so I'm not

going to go into all that.

But I always look at this.

Playboy Magazine was a classy magazine

of showing of a beautiful woman.

But it's like they actually did have,

and I'm talking about when I was a kid, teenager,

I would actually read them also.

They would have articles on stereos, brand new cars,

things like that.

Or interviewing, like say, oh, we're

going to interview John Lennon,

or we're going to interview somebody else, you know what

I mean?

So I mean, I actually would read the magazines.

So Hugh Hefner had a classy way of doing things,

you know, not downgradable and nasty stuff.

Well, anybody who wears a smoking jacket all day.

Anybody can run around their pajamas like that, right?

And that the grotto, is that what it was?

I don't know.

The grotto is like his hot tub hole cave thing.

Is that what it was, grotto?

Mansion, I don't know.

Yeah, the mansion.

I think it was called the grotto for some reason.

But everybody always wanted to be invited to his place.

I'm a music junkie.

It's like in cars.

So it's like, who else could be something like that?

Well, you have to.

My knowledge of pop culture ended about, I don't know,

years ago.

And then when you got married, is that what you're telling me?

Well, way before that.

I'm like the last guy you want to ask about sports or pop

culture.

I'm just anything guy, pretty much.

Anything, really?

Yeah.

I don't know.

Ask me something.

I can probably give you something.

Speaking of asking you a question, so I asked,

do you have any favorite car events you want to go to

or that you've gone to?

You know what I want to go to, which I haven't.

I want to go to SEMA.

But I don't want to go to the regular SEMA like the people

get to do.

You have to go like, and that's why I was thinking of talking

to Grios.

I don't know if they do it.

And it's nothing to give somebody.

Because it's vendor only, right?

Yeah.

It's nothing to give somebody vendor passes.

You know what I mean?

Or those car builders, they're the ones that get those

passes to be inside.

That's where everything's at.

Otherwise, most of that is on the outside for SEMA.

They do the drifting, and they do all the car show

stuff outside, and they do this and that.

But it's like, either way, it's in November.

It's like one of the biggest, largest car events.

I would love to go to that to see that.

It's coming up.

Yeah, I don't know if it's possible this year.

But I thought about talking to the guys over at Grios

and say, hey, you guys doing any type of vendor stuff

for that.

Because they also said, they didn't set me up for like,

but I've done the Portland Road show.

I've gone to that, and they have their Grios stuff

inside there.

And I've actually offered, I said, hey, you know what?

I would do it for free.

Guy is the manager over there.

And I said, hey, I said, you pay for my airfare.

You basically pay for my living.

I said, I'll do the stuff for free.

I would go out there and support and try to sell it.

And I don't think it's not so much that.

But it's like, they have a younger generation of like,

if you own their shop, you know what I mean?

And so some of the younger generation, they push the products.

They're doing what it is.

But they can't really connect with a lot of the older

people that come in.

You have to have that gift of gab, I guess.

You've got it.

You've got it, man.

I appreciate that.

So you and I have very different tastes as far as cars go,

which is why I'm really happy to have you here.

Give it to me.

I'm going to just have a couple of words.

You know what would be good if you had some lollipops?

Some lollipops?

Wow, you're just demanding, aren't you?

No, I'm not.

But it's like, I bring all sorts of nuts.

I love to.

I just happen to think of that.

Lollipops.

I'm kind of like, it's kind of hard to suck on a lollipop

and talk.

No, it'd be easier than probably chewing on these nuts.

Hopefully, it won't sound like I'm crunching on some nuts

while I'm talking on this microphone.

I'm assuming because you're a big Detroit iron guy that you

like.

Is it drag racing?

American muscle.

Drag racing?

So I used to.

If I had muscle like you do, maybe I'd be into it.

You want to judge the GTO?

Is that what you're telling me?

Did I say that?

I think you did.

You don't want to see me drive.

I'd love to.

You drive a big truck.

And you're good at what you do.

A 13-liter engine.

Yeah, but you're good at what you do.

You get up at like 2 AM to go to work at like 3 or something

like that.

Drag my butt around.

It's fun.

Hey, you're living a good life.

You're happy.

You have a wonderful wife.

You have a beautiful home.

And you're living the dream.

Living the dream, man.

Exactly.

Living the dream.

So have you?

My job allowed me to go to see the NHRA Nationals.

Correct.

Have you seen that?

Have you heard it?

Believe it or not.

So remember I lived in California.

I used to, I went to college in California.

So when I was in Cal, was that Santa Rosa?

It was.

Santa Rosa Junior College, which is actually at the time

was one of the top number three as in junior colleges

in the nation.

I used to put out a lot of football players, too.

But anyways, so when I was going to college,

I was a personal trainer at Gold Gym.

I worked as a bouncer.

That's where all the muscles come from.

It's all beauty, brother.

It's all like, you know what?

It's all psychology.

It's like, you know what I mean?

You've got to get that six foot seven Simone dude out.

Guess what?

It's pretty embarrassing if you're

going to try to hurt me.

But if I hurt you, that's going to look pretty bad.

But it's not about that.

It's just about, you know, it's custom relations.

Treat people like you want to be treated,

even if they are drinking.

So that's why I started doing bartending.

It's more money in bartending and pushing people

out of the bar that don't belong there.

That's why you're in law enforcement.

Correct.

I love people, believe it or not.

I love people.

I'm not here to judge anybody.

I just, you know, you love them even as you're pushing them

out of the bar.

If I can make a difference with somebody

out on the street, it's kind of like that smile.

You know what I mean?

See, you just see somebody a stranger and you give them a smile.

It's like, oh, how are you doing today?

Like the accent you were talking about.

Hey, how are you doing today?

Kind of like, oh, hey, I got to try that.

How are you doing?

So anyways, so I used to work track security

at Sonoma Raceway.

Wow, which has changed names.

They have their Sears Point.

What's it called now?

I don't even know what it's called now.

It was Infineon.

Yep, Infineon Raceway.

The original name of it was Sears Point.

Yeah, that's what I know it is.

Yes, off Highway 37 right near Devato.

I worked there for some of the biggest, largest events

and I was a track supervisor for security

when I was going to college.

They're big events there.

Indy and Les Carr.

All of them.

And so guess who was working the stage?

I've got stories that you wouldn't believe from that.

They have a drag strip too.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying, Angela.

You know one of my favorite racers were?

It's probably going back a ways.

No, well, yeah, maybe first for drag racing it is,

but just a wonderful gentleman.

Kenny Bernstein?

Nope.

It was, oh, damn, I just forgot his name.

Garlets.

No, not one of the big racers.

It was, he was a baseball player.

He used to drive the TAC.

Oh, Reggie?

No, no, no, Jack.

He used to drive the Taco Bell car.

Oh.

Used to own the team for that.

You remember my knowledge of sports?

Oh, no, no, yeah, that's right.

But I just had a mind block on it, but yeah.

So he used to, he used to be a professional baseball player

playing with a bunch of teams

and really big dude for baseball.

Yeah.

Big like Jose Konseko kind of guy.

Yeah.

And his name was Jack.

Damn, I can't remember his name,

but anyways, he used to, it's not Jack Black.

I was gonna say Jack Black, it rhymed.

But anyways, so I used to work in the staging lanes

on those events.

I'm gonna tell you what, that's a lot of nitro,

a lot of fumes you're talking about on the strip,

even though it's Sonoma County in the summertime,

average temperature is probably 75.

That's wonderful climate there.

It is, but it's hot.

And I mean, I'll tell you what, you come out of there,

you look like, you know, you lobster,

you're 30 shades of gray, you know,

with all of the tire stuff and everything else,

all of you breathing that stuff, it just gets monotonous.

The best part was is like, you know,

so we do, I do different parts of the events.

And so, you know, you get a lot of stuff for free

because we did the security for it.

You know, the women, they drive up and they,

the women, the wives, they don't care about

going to the races, that's what their husbands do

for a living, you know what they wanna do?

They go into the wine country.

Like, oh, we're going wine tasting.

You wanna come with us?

No, I'm good, but thanks.

But then they would bring you back food,

they would bring you back shirts,

they'd bring you hats and they would give stuff and,

you know, you just wave to them and say thank you

and I met plenty of racers.

Joe Gibbs, I mean, I met lots of racers

because I used to do NASCAR events also.

Yeah.

But to me, I'm kind of like, and I don't know if you knew this.

I've done a lot of VIP body protection, body guard stuff.

And so like Richard Marks, Huey Lewis, different events

and different Eddie Money, one of my favorites.

I was a kid growing up and I loved Eddie Money's music.

Oh, he used to be a cop too.

He was an admin guy, because he came from

a generation guy of cops, his dad, his grandfather,

but he was actually just admin is all he did in New York.

Oh, okay.

But you were on it.

Because I used to work with Bill Graham.

There's my pop culture knowledge.

Yeah, no, Hill goes back four decades.

Yeah, no, Bill Graham production was five decades.

And that's who Eddie Money was under Bill Graham

for a lot of things, a lot of events.

And so I actually did three different events

and body guard for Eddie Money.

So it's like, people would ask me like,

I was like, I never in my life did I ever think

someone idolized music wise.

He was just a wonderful man.

He passed away a bunch of years ago for eye surgery.

And I actually made some contacts

with his son and daughter, both do music.

And they're on TikTok.

And so I mentioned some things to his son

because he's doing music now.

And I say that, I met your dad a bunch of times,

a wonderful man.

So I've been fortunate to do a lot of things.

But the Sonoma Raceway was right there.

I'd be there for Wednesday night drags,

every Wednesday night working, staging lanes.

And that's an awesome way to get into those events.

Oh yeah, I mean, it's freebie for me.

It's like, and if I didn't work,

I mean, I worked almost all events.

I'm talking about, you're talking about

12, 14, 16 hour days sometimes.

And it's kind of funny.

So you have an event like NASCAR, right?

And you're familiar with the track

across the street, they call it 50 Acres,

where all the campers and all the people park

across the freeway, right?

Well, during the events, there's a sign

and you tell people when you see their ATVs

and motorcycles, dirt bikes, all stuff.

Don't take that off the truck or you'll be out

because, you know, talking about NASCAR event,

well, all those people camp around the track.

So who has the only dirt bike?

This guy.

Mr. Joe Black.

I had a dirt bike.

So I was like, cause I had,

that's a great way to get around.

Well, I had over a hundred guys I had to check on.

So I had rovers, I had like three guys.

You're gonna be my rovers.

You guys need to go, you're gonna roll this way

and you're gonna break all these different people.

That's all you're gonna do all day long.

You catch people stealing like to be VIP parking.

And it'd be a guy up on the hill, right?

It's like, hey, that guy up there, he's taking money.

It's like, what do you mean he's taking money?

Like he's taking money to park the cars.

Cause you get some guy like,

Sammy Hagar comes in and he's like,

I want to park my car up in the hill

with all those cars.

Sorry.

And that's how it worked.

You had to get a VIP pass for that.

So guess what?

Sorry, you can't bring your, you know,

a hundred thousand dollar car and park up there

and you're gonna be up in the dirt

like everybody else.

Yeah.

Well, this guy was like pocketing money.

So guess what?

I go up on the hill.

I'm like, hey, he's like, I said, give me a jacket.

Cause they only wear a jacket or you give him a shirt.

Yeah.

So give me a jacket.

He's like, why?

I go, so what do you got in your pocket?

Just nothing.

I said, what do you got in your money?

I said, you got money?

Yeah.

I'm like, how much money do you have in your pocket?

He's like, I don't know.

You don't know how much money you have in your pocket.

I can break over my wallet

and I can say how much money I have in my wallet.

And so I'm like, give me your stuff.

You're good to go.

Boom.

So I mean, that's as far as it goes.

Wow.

Like you're out, escort him off the track

and they hire numerous college kids, whoever for events.

Who think they can just scam?

Yeah.

They're gonna scam the system

and they're gonna get their money out of it.

But it's like, you know, we don't,

they don't do a thorough background.

I mean, this might be the first time

they had an opportunity to make that kind of money.

So they're like, hey, I'm gonna make that money.

Wow.

Yeah.

I can see, I can imagine the temptation.

Oh yeah.

So you, you've had a good life.

I've, I've actually had a very good life.

I, I might not be rich and famous, but.

But if you could do it again, if, if,

if you could be in the car industry.

Car industry?

For life.

What, what would be your.

You know what it would be for me?

Believe it or not.

What?

So we'll go back to, ever since I was a kid, I was drawing.

Yeah.

I was drawing cars.

I was drawing, yep.

I was drawing cars like these people

that you see draw cars.

Yeah.

And I started doing that stuff

when I was like six, seven years old.

And so like, you know,

you'd have to make something in school,

like a card for your mom or dad.

Oh yeah.

Like their birthday, whatever holidays,

anything like that.

So you'd always draw a car.

I would always draw on cars.

I was like, cause it was always in my head cars.

Yeah.

So I was always drawing cars, you know?

And, and as I got older, when I got into high school,

and I just was doing one,

I was just doing my thing.

Yeah.

What I felt good with.

So it's, and it's, so it was a,

I had an art class.

So I was a freshman in high school.

And, you know, of course I played lots of sports

and did other stuff.

You had this art class that I was in a freshman art class.

It was a beginner one.

And the teacher was like,

Hey, you're, you need to be in this class.

And so they put me in the junior senior art class.

And so it's like, it's, it's kind of weird how like,

So here's the jock in the art class.

Yeah. Right.

And here's the thing.

They, they, they're teaching you how to draw.

So you're drawing without looking at your pencil.

I'm looking at you.

And I'm just doing like that.

So this is how they teach you all the stuff.

Yeah. And so it's like,

I'm kind of like, I don't know if I can do that.

Right.

Okay. They're just teaching you how to do it.

So I'm like Picasso.

Yeah. And so I'm here and there.

I'm looking at your pictures right now.

I got your headphones.

And so what I'm doing is I'm looking,

I'm drawing that right now at my speed in my, on my picture.

Wow. And so the teacher's like, Hey, you know,

you're really good.

You need to do this and that. Right.

Well, I'm not, when I was younger,

okay, I'm not, I have nothing against gay

or anything of peoples or what they're about,

things like that.

But as a young kid,

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

No, exactly. Cause there's not.

You know what I mean?

Is that what you have to say?

Yeah. I guess today, I don't know what you gotta say,

but it's just, I, you know what I mean?

And it's like this as a, as a person.

Hey, if you, like my brother, my brother's gay,

you know what I mean?

It's just not my lifestyle, but that's his,

you know what I mean?

It's, it's his, you know,

I love my brother, this and that.

So it's like, you know, it's just, it's people are people.

So I have this guy in my class.

We'll say his name was Mr. X.

Well, this, this guy, he was a, he was a senior.

And I was only, like I said, a freshman.

And I'm in this, in this junior senior class, right?

Well, he's being really nice.

And he's helping me out this until this day.

I don't know if he was actually gay.

I'm just saying, but it was art class.

It was art class, Picasso class,

whatever you want to call it, right?

So we're, I'm drawing my thing.

And he's like, no, you have to do it likes the way,

but it's kind of like, you know, the way you leaned up.

And I'm not, like I said, even when I was a kid,

you know, it's like you get those vibes.

Somebody like hitting on you or something like that.

Even when I got older, you know what I mean?

It's just not my thing.

But as a, as a younger kid,

I'm kind of like, oh no,

especially if somebody's older,

trying to hit on me, I'm kind of like, I'm just a kid.

You know, I'm like, this is, no, no, no, I'm scary to me.

Right?

And I can't remember what it was that was,

but he was leaning over me and this and this.

And he's like, oh, you're doing this.

But then he had his hand like on my, on my leg.

Right.

And I was just kind of like, hmm, WTF.

I'm like, yeah.

And I was just kind of like, whoa.

And I mean, it could have been innocent.

I mean, you know what I mean?

Cause he's trying to show me something

on how to do something.

And it was just a big scary moment for me.

Turn off.

Right.

Yeah.

I think I was 14, 15, 14, I think, 13, 14.

I was a freshman in high school.

And this was a junior senior class.

So I'm like, they're older than me.

You know what I mean?

But anyways, it scared the hell out of me.

It was a turn off and I dropped the class.

Just like that.

I just stopped going to it.

Right.

And the teacher was like, the teacher's name.

Sir, are you saying that you were,

you would have been the chip foods or?

No, but honestly, when I watch that stuff on TV

and stuff, I'm kind of like, wow,

I said they make great money at this

and they do this stuff now and everything else.

I'm kind of like a few people at the top of this.

Yeah.

And I'm not saying I would ever beat that thing,

but I could draw.

You know what I mean?

And like, who knows how far I could have taken it.

But I love to draw.

What I still do with this thing,

I've thought about sitting there

and messing around with it again.

But I mean, I'd never, I guess,

the art class was trying to teach you

maybe professionally way.

I don't know.

I was just, you know, however they teach you,

but I think the teacher's name was Mr. Lemon.

And he begged me to come back into the class,

you know, listen to that.

And I was like, and I didn't tell him why.

I was just like, I don't want to do that.

I just don't have no interest in doing it.

Just turn me off.

I mean, and it just shut me down completely.

I got to visit art center school in Pasadena once.

A relative was going there

and they had all these mood boards.

And yeah, this is where this is the school

where the top, the top designers go to.

It's one of the three schools in the world.

Yeah.

It was pretty impressive.

I realized that my doodles

that look nothing like, you know, what they can do.

But sometimes you see art

and you're kind of like, what the hell is that?

That's art.

It's like, I'll use like, I'll use.

I hear something.

That's art.

No, I'll use it and not to get political.

I'll use something like Hunter Biden.

He's selling that picture

for like $3 million to somebody for what?

Are you kidding me?

Oh, if you have the right name.

I guess, you know what I mean?

And that's what it is.

You know who does it?

That does really beautiful art?

Paul Stanley.

Oh, the from kiss.

Remember I gave you a bag of goodies.

Oh yeah.

Have you opened up later on?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh my God.

That a friend of mine gave me a bunch of them.

It's a model.

This is one of those rare models.

Yeah, it's a rare model.

So they have.

Oh God, this has to be from the, what, the 70s or?

Yeah.

Oh my God.

So I've got all four of them.

They just to let Pete, just to help me.

Hey, Joe here brought a goodie bag full of stuff and.

Wow.

This is the most late 70s thing I've ever seen.

It's in, it's a box.

It's like a, like a model car.

It's a model to put together.

Seriously.

I didn't know.

I just knew cars and airplanes.

A friend of mine knew I was a kiss fan and he's a big kiss fan.

Yeah.

And so he got me all four of those models off of eBay,

which was a steal of a deal because they're really expensive.

Yeah.

And he's like, hey, I thought you would want these.

Yeah.

These guys weren't.

I didn't even want to take it from them.

Cause I was like, I said, you like kiss too.

He goes, no, he was your friend of mine.

He goes, I want you to have this.

They weren't as much musicians as they were marketers

and they're brilliant.

They are tremendously brilliant.

Yeah.

And I've been, I was in the kiss army before I was

in the regular army.

So I was one of those kids I had.

Is that what they call it?

So I was the job fan club.

Yeah.

So I was the jock that was also into kiss.

Oh, man.

And it was in, like I said, music wise,

because my uncle is the one that,

and it was this album called destroyer.

Yeah.

And my uncle, I saw that album as his house

and my uncle is only four years older than me.

And because my step uncle more or less, I get it.

And so he, I think like four,

somewhere at six years, I'm not sure, but he,

he had albums.

He loved music.

Yeah.

And so I was at his house,

staying over his house for a couple of days,

which was a big thing to me up in Maine,

because we were like,

we had our house on the water, but our cottage.

But my relatives and all our family were,

lived in like Lewiston, Auburn and all those places.

Yeah.

And my uncle, which is my mom's stepbrother,

I got to go stay with him.

I was like, oh, this is cool,

because he has all this music and stuff.

And he showed me a destroyer album.

I was hooked.

I was like, I became a kiss army guy.

And then I went to the regular army.

So I always tell people, I was like,

I was in the kiss army.

Before the regular army.

And I just, I just, I just loved it.

I saw that jock that would have like

an ace freely t-shirt on or a kiss shirt on.

And people kind of like,

and then I would have my hair longer sometimes.

I haven't heard that name in a long time.

Oh yeah.

A wonderful guitar player and.

The makeup was a brilliant idea,

because then they could, then Gene and,

and Paul could just, you know,

take people on and off the band.

Yeah.

Right.

You're just that faceless person

with this paint on your face.

You know what?

So all the years that I was a kiss fan, right?

So sometimes when you're younger,

growing up, you didn't run.

It was kind of weird because, you know,

people would like identify you if you like,

you really, if you like kiss, they're like,

oh, you like kiss?

You know what I mean?

You're that young age or a kid.

Sort of like you you're into

professional wrestling or something.

Yeah, exactly.

Right.

Exactly.

You know, that's not a real sport.

Right.

It's not.

I'm not.

So you always tell me about that.

You always asking about the things of that I've done.

You know, I used to work for Vince McMahon.

Oh, seriously?

I swear to God.

So Vince McMahon, if you go look it up.

They're, they're from,

well, they're from Kenny Connecticut, right?

Is that?

No, that's where they started Titan, Titan Sports.

This is where I'm connected.

But he used to own the Cape Cod Coliseum.

Oh, no kidding.

So his son and daughter were little tiny kids when this,

at the end of the street right there,

where the Cape Cod Coliseum is,

there's a mobile station there.

Well, when I didn't work at Sonoco,

I went because my friends,

I was like, I used to have to work by myself at Sonoco.

So I said, I want to go work at mobile station.

It was called Gardner's Mobile.

Yeah, I said, I want to go work with my buddies

that work over there because it's like two or three of us

that work together at one time.

So we get a lot of screwing around.

You know what I mean?

So it's like, hey, you're going to go get something to eat.

So one of us would go like,

go to Burger King and get the food for us or whatever else.

But he used to have his cars worked on there.

And so he'd always say, hey,

you guys want some tickets for one of the shows

or this and that.

So what happened was is we got hired during concerts

to clean up after the concerts.

Well, you're a kid.

Think of all the things you're finding.

Money, anything else?

If you're that kind of stuff, I wasn't,

but you'd find money.

You'd find all kinds of stuff after the concert.

So it's like you're getting double duty.

You get extra pay because you're finding all these things.

You're as a kid.

So anyways.

It's like going to an Elvis concert

and seeing scarves all over.

Exactly.

With sweat all over.

You're exactly right.

But what a wonderful guy, you know what I mean?

And people don't realize he used to do wrestling

back in the day.

Came from his dad and stuff like that.

Vince McMahon's a very big guy.

Coming through the door, he's like a refrigerator

coming through the door.

So I used to work with him.

Used to take care of us, you know?

First concert I ever went to.

Grateful Dead concert.

And I didn't like the Grateful Dead in the first place,

but the tickets were free and it was cool.

You don't seem like a Grateful Dead concert.

I'm not, but the tickets were free.

Oh, well.

So it was Columbus Day weekend.

You know what I mean?

Then I had a concert and he's like,

hey, because I got these tickets.

He's like, hey, why not?

Let's go.

The Venn diagram of Grateful Dead fans

and World Wrestling fans.

Yeah.

Probably not a concentric circle.

Definitely not.

Might not even touch it all.

So this is like, you were asking me about this then.

I don't mean to get all on the stuff about me

because I know this part about the whole show

is about me right this moment.

Yeah, it's about you.

It's about you.

So, you know, like in the Bay Area, right?

Yeah.

So I told you, I was a personal trainer at Gold's Gym.

So Jerry Garcia passes away, right?

Yeah.

That was, wow, 20 years ago?

More than that.

30?

30, yeah.

Jerry Garcia passes away.

Yeah.

And I told you, I work at Gold's Gym.

One of my friends, Ron, works out there.

Guess what he does?

He's a fireman paramedic.

He responds to the house at like two or three AM

or whatever time it was.

And he lived in Marin County, Jerry Garcia, up in the hills.

Yeah.

You know, he was a hippie guy.

Yeah.

So yeah, right.

My friend, Ron, he comes in.

All those hippies live up in the hills.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah?

So my friend, Ron says to me, he goes,

hey, Joe, he goes, I was up in the hills.

And he goes, he goes, I had to respond to this guy.

And this and this.

And he goes, I didn't know who he was.

And so I was like, who was he?

He goes, Jerry Garcia.

And this is before they knew he passed away.

And so my buddy is the one that responded to him

when he passed away in his house that night.

And it was like two or three in the morning

that my friend got the call.

Have you overindulged on some Jerry Garcia from?

Yeah, Ben and Jerry's.

I'm not sure, but yeah.

But you see how it's such as like a small world, like

personally, from things in my life, it's like,

I can always relate something to something and might.

I guess.

My ex-wife used to get so angry at me.

She was about six degrees of separation, you know?

Or maybe it's fewer than that.

I don't know.

But my ex-wife used to get mad at me because she's like,

I was like, she goes, yeah, you knew this person.

Oh, you did this.

You did that.

This is, I'm like, okay.

If you asked me the question, I was like,

where was I working in 1989?

Loma Prieta.

She's like.

Oh yeah.

The earthquake.

I worked at the, I was working at the,

the San Francisco Giants Oakland gate.

Oh my God.

Because I told you, I used to do security for.

You're like, you're like a forced gun.

It was money.

It was just what I, for college,

the money I was making on my side gig, making money.

So to me, people are just people, right?

So I'm like, you know, they give me the dugout

with Jose Kinseko and Mark McGuire,

this and this, hey, your job's to make sure this.

No, during the wheel series, you know, my job was,

you know, those little on the side of the,

of like the different deck levels,

they have the camera guys, right?

And so they have the wooden platform

that's made of metal and holding them

with the cameras over the side of those railings, right?

They say, oh no, you're gonna be up there.

You could be one of those guys.

So your job is to make sure nobody messes

with the camera guy.

Because you know, everybody wants to be on TV.

They're like, hey, I want to be on TV.

Well, I never thought about that.

Yeah, the banners for football are big.

For baseball, they're not really as big,

but so guess what?

You get these people like, hey, put me on the camera.

Hey dude, get out of here.

You know what I mean?

So that was my job.

You know what I mean?

And it's like I had another friend of mine.

Remind me not to get in your way.

A friend of mine.

You're gonna mow me down.

Because of the earthquake, right?

Yeah.

When they had the collapse of the freeway?

My friend was on the phone with his future to become wife,

talking to her on the phone,

because he was in San Francisco, in Oakland,

because he worked in Oakland.

He was going to her house,

as she lived in Sacramento.

He's talking to her on the phone

as he's watching that collapse.

Oh man.

Yeah, the pancake did pancake.

Yeah, was it in Bacchardero?

I think it was one of those.

Yeah, Bacchardero, yeah.

And so he actually watched this happen

while he's talking on a pay phone, of course, back then.

And he's like.

What's that?

Yeah, exactly.

I just saw my first pay phone.

I hadn't seen it in years out in,

you know where I saw it?

Out near, like on my way when I went out to Long Beach.

But there was no phone.

I figures.

But there was no phone.

There was a booth out on the phone.

They're a little behind out there in Grace Harbor.

Yeah, but my buddy, yeah,

he was helping take some of the people

that got crushed underneath that.

I mean, he just didn't know what to do.

He's just all of a sudden, I mean,

he was literally probably like,

not even 50 yards away from it collapsing.

On the phone.

Was she okay?

Oh, she, no, she wasn't there.

She was on the phone.

So she was on the other end.

She was in Sacramento while,

she's saying, are you okay?

Because I think the phone line finally went dead,

of course, because everything had happened.

Yeah.

But yeah, his name was Dallas Barrett.

And he was talking to her on the phone

and then he watched all this collapse in front of him.

Wow.

It's kind of like, you know,

you're just kind of trying to picture like,

what the hell is this?

What's going on?

So that's why you ended up moving here

to be in the path of Mount Rainier when it blows.

I figured, hey, if I'm going to go,

I might as well go.

It's going to be front page for the natural disaster.

It's going to be enormous.

It's going to be big.

So just wrapping up with some other questions here.

Yeah, let's stay on time.

We've got to drive you.

We're all over the place.

We've got to get some anger in here

or maybe some annoyance.

Is there anything annoying about Car Guys?

Car Guys?

Car shows.

Car shows?

Is there any aspect of car culture that annoys you?

Yeah, there is.

There's car shows.

There's car shows because,

I'll give you an example, Mustangs.

Mustang car culture, right?

So let's go to a car show.

And if you're going to a car show

and you get to vote on a car,

but you have to have a car to vote on a car, right?

So a lot of people vote for their own car, of course.

Which I can't lie, I voted for my own car before.

But here's the thing.

Car clubs, I call it ballot stuffing.

So guess what?

Dawn, Dawn's in the club.

We're going to vote for Dawn's car.

Everybody vote for Dawn's car.

Even though your car might be parked

beside that 1967 Mustang also,

but guess what?

That one right next to you is a 10.

Your car might be a five.

But we're going to vote for your car.

And then the attitude of people that don't win car shows,

you hear grown men, they're just like kids.

Just like babies.

And so I say, you can hear them talking about it

when you're at the shows.

You're like, this is really a turn off, man.

It's like, you know.

It's why I'm not part of it.

You know, that's why I really like cars and coffee

because it's not a judge thing.

You just bring what you have.

Run what you run.

Why this guy let on it if it's, you know,

you haven't watched it in weeks.

I just want to see what people have.

Yeah.

I mean, just having fun with it.

Yeah.

You know, it's just, it's the,

that's what I like doing when I do my lives

and things like that.

And I do my videos.

I like talking to the people that own the cars.

Yeah.

I like to know about the cars

and what their connection with the car is.

I don't go to a lot of judged events.

That's, yeah, I'm not.

Yeah, I just, yeah, I'm not.

That's why I go, I'm on the outside now.

So it's kind of like, I don't, you know,

I don't, I'm not, yeah.

I've voted on car shows before, like they say.

I love how Griot's puts this event on and there's, yeah.

You know, I think they had like a supercar day

and somebody had a tattered old Subaru parked up friend.

It's like, yeah.

Yeah.

So what?

It's fine.

And that's free.

And free coffee and donuts from the house of doughnuts.

Isn't that great?

Free coffee and doughnuts from the house of doughnuts

from 1958.

Is that how you have to say it?

I guess it, well, no.

And I guess that's how you start putting

commercial gigs into it.

It's like, hey, well, let's,

we have a podcast here.

We want people to know.

It's, it's always great to go there.

But cause to think about it.

No, really.

What event, when you say cars and coffee, right?

Gives you free coffee and free donuts.

Yeah.

It's kind of like a trailer.

It is cause it's kind of funny.

Like I always laugh about it

cause you see how long that line is to get in sometimes.

Right?

And you look at some of the people

that get up in there and get their donuts, right?

And it's like, well, guess what?

You see that guy right there?

He just drove up in the Ford GT.

That's a, that's a $700,000 car.

But guess what?

He got his coffee and donuts and then guess what?

Boom, he's gone.

Yeah.

I'm like, you know what, everybody?

Some of those rich people know what they're doing.

I guess they're out for free coffee and donuts.

I don't know.

That would seem kind of weird to just be there

for like, like 10 minutes.

Not that, that's pretty much right.

Watch some of them do.

I'm kind of like, really?

So we must be doing something wrong.

At least I am.

Cause I don't have that kind of money

to be driving that Ford GT, it cost $700,000.

You were there when that 250 GTO Ferrari was there?

Yeah.

White one?

Yeah.

It's kind of like, at least they drive them.

Yeah.

Get those things out.

Don't be pulling up on a trailer, man.

Just dump it off the trailer.

It's like some of these car shows.

Yeah.

I tried to figure out how many hundreds of Honda Accords

you could have for the price of that car.

That'd be a lot.

It'd be a lot.

You might have a dealership.

It'd be a lot.

You have a mini, mini Don's, Don's dealership.

Yeah.

Hey, just to, just to wrap this up.

Is there somebody that you really admire

in the auto world living or, or past?

Elvis.

I guess he's a car guy.

He owned a bunch of Cadillacs, right?

No, I said Elvis because I love music, but um.

He had a BMW 507, one of those weird.

You know, people don't know this with Elvis,

but Elvis also had a love for Lincoln's.

He did.

If you look at a lot of Elvis's early cars,

they were actually Lincoln's.

Oh, we did like the Mark II.

Did you have one of those?

Yeah, one of those big ones.

The big ones.

Those big old beast, man.

Yeah.

LeMay's had one of those.

Do you know what his first car was that he bought?

What he bought it for?

Let me guess his mom.

His mom and it was pink.

Right.

And it was pink.

Cause Priscilla was probably like five years old back then.

Yeah.

You're right.

She probably couldn't drive it.

Oh, so here's the thing.

So I've been to Graffenbier, Germany.

And you always get this stuff with Elvis that they say,

Hey, is that two different places?

No, Graffenbier.

Graffen, not beer.

Did I say that wrong?

Graffenbier.

It's like one of the biggest, largest training facilities,

military bases overseas in Europe.

So you're telling me stuff I'm not,

I'm not familiar with.

I'm gonna bring it to you.

I've learned all sorts of new stuff for you.

I'm gonna bring it to you.

So you ever see the movie GI Blues?

I'm an Elvis fan.

So I love watching these old Elvis fun movies.

Oh, so this is an old.

Yeah.

When he was in the military.

Yep.

GI Blues.

And so they always said because Colonel Parker,

who was his manager, right?

Well, he wasn't allowed to go out of the country.

Cause you know why he had some stuff against him

that he was never gonna be able to get back.

Oh, okay.

Because, you know, whatever it was, he did.

I don't have any idea.

So he was literally, he was a colonel.

Yeah, he was never a colonel.

That was just a name.

I'm gonna call my name.

Maybe it was a colonel that went AWOL or something, you know?

But he had some things going on in other countries

where his visa passport, whatever else,

he would have never been able to come back.

Wow.

So that's why he stayed in the United States

and Elvis, they would say Elvis never did

any concerts overseas, you know?

He did Hawaii, which is not overseas.

Yeah.

He actually did play music overseas.

And that was in Graphenvere, Germany.

So when you go out the gate, there's a bar there.

And I'm talking about, it's not even

an eighth of a mile out the gate.

You walk into that bar, you'll see everything Elvis

from when he played there,

because that's where he was stationed at.

So he did play overseas.

But I know that wasn't really the answer

to the question of car stuff.

I guess it was, but I would say,

probably, I don't know, a lot,

Carol Shelby, I guess, you know?

It's kind of hard to argue with that, isn't it?

You know, it's all the stuff,

the wisdom that he said and things later in life.

He went his own way and he disappeared to Africa

in the 70s and then Malaysia, and then he came back.

And it's like he said, drive these cars.

Don't let them sit in your garage.

Yeah.

And I mean, look at the money that man had

and the cars that he had.

Yeah.

Because you and I see them both, you know?

People like, and I've been guilty of it in my past.

Like I sold my Terminator because I never drove it.

Yeah.

You only had 47,000 miles on it.

Wow.

I think it was 43,000.

And it was mint condition.

Yeah.

But I never drove it in the rain.

Yeah, you can always get it back.

I never, nah, you know what I did?

You know what I did?

You know what happened was?

At the time, I always tell people this,

and so if y'all remember this, okay?

People first, cars are second.

So in your life, a car can always come around

back into your life.

People can't, for whatever reason,

it could be from heartbreak,

it could be from a loss of life,

it could be from a number of things.

But people first, cars are second.

So you might have sold.

You're so right, brother.

You're 70 GTO.

You might have sold that because guess what?

You got married.

Or you had kids.

And it's like, oh, hey, honey, we need a bigger car.

Well, you nailed, you pitted it on the head

why we even do this podcast.

Cause I love cars, but I'd rather talk with people.

Yeah.

And that, you know, you can't replace people.

No, I wouldn't go to cars and coffee

if it was just some cars there and there was nobody.

Right.

Nobody had to talk to you, so.

Yeah.

That's how me and you came about talking.

I can't remember if I came up to you,

you came up to me, I don't remember how it was.

I saw you filming and with your,

You know what I mean?

You're like on a shoestring budget with your smashed phone.

You're like trying to get more miles out of that.

I still have that.

I have a Galaxy 10 and you know what?

Samsung, if you hear this, T-Mobile.

Yeah, I definitely need a new phone.

TikTok tries to do all these advertisements

about trying to make their cheap TikTok money

with little things.

I'm like, no, I've got a,

I've got a Galaxy 10 that I bought in 2018.

It's cracked, broken, still works.

And Lance, the one who does Instagram,

my videos come out better than his do on my broken phone.

And he's got that high end Galaxy.

He's, I'm sorry, the iPhone.

We'll have to get him here to defend himself.

No, he'll agree with you 100%.

He gets mad.

He's like, I can't believe it.

And now he's got to the point

where you know, you try to do videos

and it's like, I've run out of room.

I've run out of room.

Wow.

I run out of room.

Wow.

Mine too, because it's a Galaxy 10,

but guess what?

The idea is I have to delete stuff

and I figured out ways to delete so I can bring up,

like right now, if you, I pull up to go video,

I got 50 minutes of video to do.

After that, guess what?

It's froze.

I've never had it freeze on me yet,

but I'm just like, like you said,

I'm not computer savvy.

I'm not, I'm not a digital guy this and that.

I'm just saying like,

so I was afraid that I might lose all my content,

but I know better right now,

but I'm definitely gonna get the new phone.

Well, let's put a bow on it.

For some reason, our lights flickered here.

Like, like we're gonna have a storm or something.

It's like, yeah, it was always pretty windy.

But man, I'm so glad that you came by here.

I appreciate you for having me.

Yeah.

And I look forward to this.

It's gonna be a fun ride.

Hey folks, please send us your ideas for topics.

Like I said, we're changing course here a little bit

and love to hear from you.

We can be reached at carsthepodcast at gmail.com.

I think it's pretty easy to spell.

I think I could spell that.

You can spell it with crayons.

Hey folks, signing out for this week,

Don Swear.

And I'm Joe Black and I appreciate you all.

Thank you.

New co-host Joe Black: Instagram, TikTok & YouTuber with questionable taste and a penchant for loud cars. Griot's Garage, Cape Cod and Santa Rosa.

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