Richie Walls - Emmy Award Winning Producer, Behind the Scenes in Hollywood, Movie Magic - ECS EP32

Richie Walls is an Emmy Award Winning TV/Film Producer who has worked with James Cameron, Johnny Depp, Chris Hemsworth, Burt Reynolds and some more of Hollywood's biggest stars. He's worked with talent agencies, modeling agencies, production companies, and recently launched Nashville's newest production agency Seen Entertainment. 

Most people aren't too familiar with how the entertainment industry really works, this podcast sheds some light as Ed and Richie sit down to talk about the reality behind the 660 billion dollar industry that is the U.S. entertainment and media industry. 

Stories from Richie's early days in the business give listeners a glimpse into the fast-paced like of a Hollywood agent, insight into the tips and tricks that Richie used to get his foot in the door around the industry, and some of the wild stories from the eccentric personalities that run the TV and Film business.

Enjoy Episode 32 of The Ed Clay Show with Emmy Award Winning TV/Film Producer Richie Walls!

#hollywood #entertainmentindustry #movieproducer 

Links for Richie:
https://www.seenentertainment.com/
https://blackwallsentertainment.com/home/

Show Sponsors:
https://www.beatdownbbq.com/
https://healthquest365.com/ 

Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Getting into Hollywood, Mark Wahlberg Deal
00:11:00 - Chris D’Elia, What Happened to Hollywood?
00:22:04 - Entertainment Industry, Bringing Movies to Tennessee
00:34:21 - SEEN Entertainment, Putting Together Movie Projects
00:44:03 - James Cameron, Michael Bay, Johnny Depp
00:52:35 - Amber Heard, Burt Reynolds
01:05:15 - Richie’s Biggest Accomplishment, Travis Pastrana 
01:12:59 - Life as a Cyclist, Lance Armstrong
01:20:49 - Miss USA, Elon Musk Wants to Nuke Mars
01:30:39 - The Clown World, Satanism in Hollywood
01:40:09 - Kevin Spacey Scandal

Transcript

you worked with James Cameron Chris himsworth Bert Reynolds Johnny Depp that's really cool what was that like I'll never forget going to his house and I'm like walking around and obviously you're looking for him so I call him like hey I'm at your house he goes yeah I know I'm like where are you he goes France but yeah I'm having the party tonight you guys have fun I'm we [Music] okay spending all that time in Hollywood did you hear about like demonic type parties never did I I mean I was in the thick of it I feel like there's layers what's it like seeing what happened in La gotten a little crazy right sad yeah James Cameron comes in my office one day was like if I could do one thing in the world for you what would you want I want to go to space see him a couple weeks later throws a ticket down on my on my desk and he's like all right we're going to space and I'm like what the [ __ ] I just get into I had about a 30-minute conversation with Elon just oneon-one he told me how he's going to Nuke Mars and live on it and I'm like is that legal Richie walls welcome to the podcast glad to be here so uh Richie is my good friend just for everybody knowing he's my good friend uh an Emmy awardwinning producer uh you've work with James Cameron Johnny Depp uh Chris himsworth uh Bert Reynolds uh Bert was also I know uh your friend yeah uh you own the scene entertainment uh agency and uh we'll get into kind of all that stuff and then um uh your production company uh as well uh yeah welcome to the podcast yes thank you yeah so um tell everybody a little bit you know where you're from uh you know you're partners with John T uh who's now a good friend as well and uh you've done a lot in the entertainment industry but you're from Knoxville yeah you're from Tennessee yeah I was actually born in Chattanooga um and then we moved to Bristol Virginia and that's kind of where went to high school and grew up and um you know kind of like he's even circled back to this year but then my brother went to Tennessee to play football was the kicker won the National Championship in ' 98 played the next few years what was your brother's name Alex walls okay cool yeah yeah so we we had a very like athletic past and you know it kind of had zero interest in this or you know everybody wants to be a movie star growing up or I'm probably more a rock star but um we we were really focused on Athletics and you know I was kind of traveling the country we kind of grew up with Lance Armstrong and Greg lamond and those type of guys that are still kind of my heroes and and and then my brother was off doing soccer and football and then played at Tennessee and went to the NFL nice where did your brother play um he went to the Bears from Tennessee nice nice nice yeah and so what did you study uh in school um I really had zero idea what I wanted to do so I was running track on a scholarship I was doing cross country in the fall track in the spring and indoor track in the winter so I was like a full-time athlete and I just kind of did basic studies and and literally like when I got out of school I called my agent i' fell into um the modeling world and and I had been recruited to like do some Fashion Week stuff and I didn't really like it just kind of I liked the agency part of it and that's kind of how I fell into it called my agent told him I wanted to be an agent and um you know went up to New York and Miami and some places and then you know finally settled in La awesome awesome yeah uh I knew that you ran track but uh uh I didn't realize you did that that in college um so how did you decide like what was the Catalyst in deciding you wanted to to get into to film well I was I was in Hollywood and I was running one of the top fashion modeling agencies in the world and you know we had Paris Hilton and started most of the Victoria Secret angels and all the Miss Universe girls that's how we fell into the Miss USA stuff what was what was that agency it's called warning models okay and we were top five in the world literally like every night I was you know taking peris Silton to whatever she had to do and we were booking all these major campaigns during the day and I definitely was living the Hollywood Life I didn't really even realize that I literally was just bar you know at that point barely sleeping you know just kind of in the Hollywood mix and I um really wanted to do TV and film I really I was like if there's one show I should work on it's Entourage and so I kept submitting and kept calling Sheila jaffy and she'd never called me back and and I finally one day just kind of was like I don't know if I snapped or so but but I um called in Switzerland into my office that's actually how I know Brando is through her through Miss Switzerland yeah through Miss Switzerland how did Brando know Miss was dating miss swizerland that boy but um we uh I sent her over to the Entourage office and literally was like get off on the fifth flooor walk down the hallway and act like you're lost mhm and Miss Switzerland literally is like walking around walks right into like Doug Ellen's office or Mark walberg's office or whoever was over there at the time didn't get a phone call so I called another Miss Universe girl the next day called a playmate girl the next day called another model the next day and I was just determined so finally after about 2 weeks um I got a phone call and literally it's Mark Wahlberg on the phone and he's like you think you're funny don't you and I'm like well I'm you know I got the phone call and he's like here's your shot and I sent 50 of the top models in the world to the Queen Mary in um Long Beach and what's the Queen Mary um it's like one of the big ships okay and they were shooting Vinnie's birthday party and I had like a couple Victoria Secret angels and girls like that that that i' had sent for the show they basically auditioned the on set call me like you're my guy um that could have ended another way cuz also the Queen Mary is you know you're familiar with LA it's that could have been probably two hours in traffic for these girls and I could have lost all 50 clients if they' showed up and they were just messing with me yeah so you they showed up and and what happened they put them on the show and you know it's one of my favorite episodes of the series that's kind of where my career kind of started and you know they gave some of them lines and so they you know we basically worked on that show for the next seven years um in that time my buddy started Marvel Studios with Stan Lee um he took an opportunity that Stan was kind of blowing him off and Stan Lee was was like yeah you know come back when you have $200 million and my buddy David miselle um he he showed up like probably two weeks later with $250 million and basically Stanley just says okay guess we're starting a studio what's your favorite movie and it was Iron Man I mean what's your favorite superhero and it was Iron Man so they did that first and so what did you do with that they would always call me um for all the pretty actors so at that point we we started signing more people um we started focusing more on the acting um we had the background of having all the models so I became kind of the guy in Hollywood that everybody came to for pretty actors and pretty models so how did you start within the the managing models um when I got out of school I called my agent and just told him I wanted to be an agent and I kind of jumped around what the Florida um and like when I really kind of locked it down and got serious um I went to went to New York and worked for a company called MMG that's one of the big powerhouses in in New York and um and you know New York was amazing and I was there for a while they they gave me a lot of rain to kind of you know do what I was good at there and but when I got off the plane in La for a convention that we all went too I just never I never wanted to go back I I knew I was home when I landed in LA and that what year was that it was like 2005 okay yeah cuz I remember uh gosh my old girlfriend from 20 years ago uh AJ elmasi yeah uh we talked about that the other day I didn't realize that she knew her she did a a Hawaiian Tropics MH uh event I guess that you put on in Knoxville yeah yeah I remember that I I went with her to that thing that was the world like finals yeah yeah and uh so I guess we we cross pass then yeah did you ever work with AJ mhm I was her agent Yeah we actually um I think we put her on a movie poster for like one of the V Wilder movies we definitely we definitely put her in a bunch of bunch of things but that's funny man that's a small world um yeah she moved out there probably well it's like 2004 I think it was she moved to LA I drove her out there you know it was like my first long-term relationship we were together for like four years that's W and so yeah I was uh I spent a lot of time out there my mom worked for American Airlines so I was able to you know fly for free so it wasn't that big of a deal had a Non-Stop to LA on American and uh yeah I was I was that that was the start of me being in La you know on a regular basis I mean those were the good days I mean that's like that's when we were out it was like Paris every night and Britney Spears and you know that's when everybody it's kind of like pre-team Z era that everybody go out and have a good time and nobody is like on their phones the whole time you're kind of enjoying the moment yeah those those were the days I was going out to um we would hang out The Comedy Store yeah with Eddie Bravo and Joe Rogan so um those were some some great years when I look back that's like the that's about the only thing I miss from La um is the nightly Comedy Store Laugh Factory improv kind of rounds with with with the guys yeah and that's what I like you know it's one of the things that we share in common because a lot of people don't have that experience but when we became friends uh and met in Hollywood you're like let's go to The Comedy Store I'm like yes yeah and you're good friends with uh Chris deah as well and I knew Chris from his exgirlfriend Cassie yeah and uh he's actually a great guy yeah I mean they dude solid yeah I mean he's he's one that that's like I said I miss that being able to hang out with him like every day but you know they have to be there and they have to be in that circuit and rounds and that's where they're prepping their specials and um but yeah man I love Chris I mean he just came to our premere in La a couple weeks ago and I went to see him in Chattanooga like literally the day I got back from can I got in my car and went went to see him down there yeah I mean Chris he's been at the house here he went to one of the Fourth of July parties years ago and uh when I'm when um Cassie started dating him uh she's like oh you got to meet Chris and I flew out there I mean just really actually was I was in LA for work and so had dinner she's like oh you got to stay at the house got to stay at the house I'm like look Cassie I don't know this guy he's he's very nice but I don't feel comfortable just staying at this guy's house like I can get a hotel it's no big deal and you know Cassie can be persuasive she's no you got to stay you got to stay she so we're having coffee uh one morning with her and and Chris and uh she's like Chris Ed staying here next time I'm like oh my gosh and so next time I came in I stayed at Chris's house and I'm like this poor guy he doesn't know me that well and knowing Chris too that's funny yeah I mean I'm just like sorry I mean we joke about it now but it shows you how how you know how nice he is really because he didn't have to do that I he knew I was onc like bro I'm I'm not going to lie you know Cassie is one of my best friends but you know I'm uncomfortable to staying at your house but as you can tell she keeps bringing it up so I'm going to say yeah I was like all right and U I mean he's building the most incredible family right now I mean he you know he went through a lot through the whole like cancel culture and and I mean you know having his first boy like kind of changed his life and and then he got married to Kristen and then they just had another kid and I mean they're building a house right now and it's just it's it's been it's been great to watch him grow into who he is as a family man because kind of I feel like we've all were we all were like you know career single for yeah for a long time well and that whole that whole thing that happened to him happened to a lot of people andh you know when you get the mob against you and at that time you know you just had mobs of mobs of people uh attacking for and I don't know the specifics of it but I know that he got attacked by the mob yeah and um you know it's good to see somebody come out the other side and stay focused and you know build his family build his career and those type of things it's all it's all positive yeah he always he jokes about it now but I mean his his new stuff is just incredible I mean he's he's just kind of like all right yeah you know you canceled me once you're not going to cancel me again he's like I'm going to say what I want and I'm going to do what I you know what I think's right and his his his new special is going to be great I mean we're we're um probably going to produce it with him and and get it out there next year that's awesome yeah his drunk girl uh little skit you know that that's one of my favorite uh skits out there I mean anybody who watches that has seen that drunk girl mhm oh yeah oh yeah yeah there's not one person that like oh like I know the name oh I know the drunk girl immediately exactly yeah so uh I mean I'm going getting back into movies and a bunch of things too I mean he's he's too talented of an actor not to do it again I mean that Flex screwed him really bad I mean they took him out of they spent like I don't know like $5 million to take him out of a movie and I mean I mean he can speak for himself but it's just it's just a crazy scenario to to not have done anything yeah absolutely well I mean I feel like the the pendulum's been swinging you know it was swinging One Direction and it got completely insane and crazy and now it's starting to swing back to some some normaly and people aren't afraid uh as Afraid Anymore yeah it's like you know before you know you get these statements that people would put out and be like you know I need to do better and do better if you ever want to like read all those do better people like do better do better it's like [ __ ] off just do the right just do the right thing to begin with and you're not going to have problems ex exactly um but now you know when the mob comes uh especially if it's complete BS uh people now can stand up and say you know what um I don't care you know try to cancel me and and if you're successful then you did what you wanted to do but I'm not going to change who I'm being or go hide yeah just to allow the mob to pass I mean I feel like I flipped the switch at the end of last year and just was like I know what I'm doing I know what I'm doing right I know we're going to do it we're going to do it here mhm yeah um and that's yeah that's uh that's what more people need to do I mean what's it like uh you know seeing kind of what's happened in La uh with the because it's got gotten a little crazy right sad yeah I mean it's it's even worse to be there and then kind of it's not the same place anymore I mean you know it my my highlights of the last few years when I'm there is when people like you come out out that we get to kind of go around and do some fun things and but it's really not normal I mean it's you know it's just not safe anymore it's it's you know there's been so many strikes and and people have to leave because they can't basically afford to live there and they're not working that you know you know like a lot of last year the strike was going on um after can so from the beginning of the year to go to this amazing event and then go back to LA for the rest of the year and just like people aren't out people aren't eating they're not they're afraid to go places because of crime and it's just you know it's just not not a great place to be when I don't know like when I started there it was I mean it could have been its own country at that point and thriving yeah that's changed a lot I mean I always like to stay at the um Roosevelt and I love that hotel I love that hotel and when did we go when did I go meet you out there um it was probably six months ago when were you living there was about probably was like last fall last fall okay yeah six eight months ago and uh I was oh I remember it was it was September of last year because uh Laura had a concert she was going to and uh uh I flew with her and you know I didn't really want to go to concert so she went with her friends and then you and I went out yeah that night we had a great time that night but you know got back was a little drunk and have Sherlock our uh little Shih Tzu and I wanted Pizza it was like you know late night drunk want pizza and I walked about a mile down Hollywood Boulevard at 1:00 a.m. looking for a pizza shop with Sherlock Sherlock was my little and you know looking back I'm like what was I thinking yeah not safe not safe at all by myself you know um and Hollywood Boulevard has just gotten I mean it's like it's not it's not the tourist attraction that it used to be it's literally just dirty and it's it's a lot of a lot of crime yeah a lot of crime I'm glad nothing happened yeah when I was there the time before someone got shot right out in front of Marshalls which is across the street from yeah that's happened a couple times at that one spot even I think that's like something going on in like that corner yeah um but what what's your favorite spot to go to right now in uh La is there any good spots like left I like the restaurants I mean toy I mean that's where Quint Tarantino wrote a lot of his his projects and spend a lot of time it's my favorite high place on Sunset the catch restaurants are amazing I mean like like those yeah we went to the catch in La during the Grammys and it was awesome yeah yeah you went to the the rooftop one or the steak one the steak one yeah oh yeah they're great that's and then you know really this last trip I was there a few weeks ago for for our premiere for it's a project called last night on earth and and literally I mean I stayed in Beverly Hills um and I went to Soho house once didn't even go to catch I kind of like just kind of stayed in Beverly Hills and just too uh too dangerous just was bored I mean it just I'm like I you know I was talking Shane West is actually he's the lead in that one of the leads in that movie and last fall I was just he I was like man I'm so bored and he's like then come back to Nashville yeah like cuz I'm just having fomo seeing everybody doing things here and then there I'm like just just was like you know just wasn't the same yeah I mean a lot of people have moved you know it's it's really not the same place but you know everybody there I mean you know all the door men at any of the restaurants or clubs yeah you can just walk in I mean you were the guy in the mid like you know 2000 area that uh had the models all you know that you were the agent of so all the clubs want models and you got them right yeah yeah I mean that was that was fun I mean yeah it's still like residual now like we still go back and it still happens everywhere we go so yeah you know it's like you know Hollywood will always be in my heart and especially you know I'm a doart Laker fan and love the Dodgers and um but yeah it's just I I I feel like I I finally feel like I'm at home here yeah you know and haven't haven't even told you this I mean you know in December I decided um I was sitting with my parents and was I was supposed to go back to LA in January we were going to do a movie with with John and Brian Conley and Conley Entertainment Group and I just I was just like I just feel like I'm being pulled and I need to like do this on my own and and came here in January got a place moved in my new place and hadn't really told anybody that I was here and and literally I literally go up to the gym I'm on the treadmill and I it was like a life- changing experience like literally the clouds are like it's like one of the brightest Lights I've ever seen in my life and I'm literally like having a conversation with god on the treadmill and and i' I've never felt more at peace completely happy and and just know that I'm what I'm doing is like my plan yeah that's awesome yeah the uh you know after covid and dealing with all this stuff um a lot of people are trying to find their their purpose and what they want to do with their life so Nashville is a good place to kind of settle down in and uh especially with it's growing so fast um opportunities for scene which you just you started this year uh are pretty much endless right yeah it's been crazy I mean it's just like I had to kind of like step back even the other day we got off a off a call and I was just I looked at Brando and Drew and I was like is this our lives like this really happening because it's just like everything everything that we've worked for and we've really worked hard for it and you know kind of like you have like wins and losses and it just keep having these amazing opportunities that we're really trying to trying to like have the infrastructure to do MH yeah I mean um so let's go back though a little bit uh to you know you started working in film um it was kind of the the modeling access that got your foot in the door um what was was your your next step with that and what year was this so we can kind of follow along um I mean if you fast forward probably to like 2011 or 12 yeah about 2011 um you know I kept having these conversations with you know we were we were the agency and you know I thought about this the other day too like it was kind of like like you hit I've always had like the personality when I hit a certain point with something I'm like oh okay I did it let's try something new and I didn't realize that you know a lot of people stick with that and that's how you become successful as you keep stick sticking with the success oh yeah and you know around that time um I had had so many big managers and big Studio heads and at that point you know um I was hanging out a lot with like Tom poock Tom poock had been um the chairman of Universal Pictures and he retired and the first movies you know he he had done were like road trip and Euro trip and um you know he did um um man my I'm brain farting what's the old school and kind of got into like you know all the fun movies that we like and and you know they were telling me man like you should be a producer like you should really be a producer and I'm like but I'm so good at being an agent you know I'd have to be a manager to be a producer and it finally clicked I'm like why not like you can do the same thing that you were doing as an agent you can be a manager you can still help these people you can have the same dayto day but you you can learn how to produce and I partnered up with a with a company called film engine entertainment they they did the original butterfly effect with ashon Kutcher they um they did The Rum Diary with Johnny Depp and and you know when I came on I mean they kind of just threw me in I mean all of a sudden I'm I'm the vice president of um of a film company overnight with zero experience didn't go to film school all I do is know how to put pretty people in jobs and and they gave me a great opportunity and I mean I learned quick um I I watched um you know we had meetings every every Monday that I would sit in and I'm just kind of like okay I'm going to take it all in and then I'm going to go out the rest of the week and just try to figure out what the hell I'm doing and and it was an amazing experience and you know Anthony passed away a few years ago and um in in that time we produced a movie called Hunter's prayer with Sam worlington who's incredible and sees in the movie Avatar and through that um became close with the with James Cameron and his family and literally um James Cameron comes in my office one day and literally um was like if I could do one thing in the world for you what would you want and I'm like all right what's the hardest thing to do go to space so I'm like I I want to go to space so the kind of like jokingly conversation over moves on see him a couple weeks later throws a ticket down on my on my desk and he's like all right I'm building a spaceship we're going to space we're going to have a beer on the moon and I'm like what the [ __ ] did I just get into and and um I'm like man I don't I don't want to go to space and he's like what and it was like him and his brother John who ALS John passed away a couple years ago but great I mean the these guys were amazing people and um they're like well you know what would you want and I'm like put your name on my company and I mean we started a company that day wow it was called Cameron rock walls and they just started writing checks wow yeah so you were partners with James Cameron yeah I didn't know that him and his brother and so how did that so so what happened uh with that what all did you do together so obviously he's focused on you know the $1.5 billion that fox has given him to do five avatars so I mean it was just kind of like a f here's money this is what they do um and it was it was a cool experience I mean it was kind of like he had at that point I wasn't really developing projects he's obviously not going to bring me on to produce Avatar um sure but we would we would spend a lot of time together we got to go go to the Avatar set a lot we would go down to the beach we'd have these like two three hour Beverly Hills lunches nice and and I mean it's hard to get things done when you're spending that much time traveling to you know to the studios and then spending all this this waste of time and these lunches it's fun it's cool but what am I really doing with my life here other than taking somebody else's money and just having these fancy lunches MH so I had the opportunity to come to Tennessee 2016 um to meet with this guy named Gordon Whitner he' came up a few times in La he was wanting to get into movies um that's who I met actually introduced me to John black and Gordon um you know I came in you know at that point I'm like okay man like I'm working with James Cameron like it's going to take a lot for me to come back to Tennessee yeah and do a movie in Knoxville and he's like it's with Bert Reynolds I'm like I'm in and we put the company together um we put the project together I didn't even go home I like went shopping and bought clothes for the next couple months because I was going to be on set and we did the most amazing experience of my life doing this project with Bert Reynolds wow um you know is wrote and directed by Adam riffkin um amazing guy he wrote this for Bert he literally waited 10 years to make the movie because at that point Bert wasn't ready um in his life to kind of have a real project that basically mirrors his life okay of him being an older movie star that isn't as famous as he used to be I mean he probably would have beat all of our asses room 10 years before and and we made this amazing project and I went back to LA and literally it was like I think I want to go to Nashville and 2016 yeah yeah we shot two days here and we shot 20 days in Knoxville and you know I had came here with my brother and some people and did didn't really know probably I think I knew like one person that played he played uh this guy Dan and played football with my brother and didn't know anybody and I just was sitting on my couch in LA and I was like man I was like that place just some something's happening yeah and took me about a year and we you know we had our offices in Beverly Hills and and the whole time man in my brain for like the next year I'm like man Nashville Nashville Nashville Nashville and we premiered the last movie star with Bert and Chevy Chas an aial winner that actually lives here now um she was from Modern Family and we premiered at the trebeca festival we our first meeting was with a24 sold the movie immediately um and I had this whole proposal to give to Gordon and it was like I mean it was like a fullon like printed out deck and it was like where I'm going to live and where the office is going to be and what we're going to do in Nashville and and went back to LA pack and moved here wow and uh so that was you moved here in 2016 too that was all year was 20 the end of 2017 end of 2017 yeah and so you didn't know John T before that no oh wow okay yeah and so you know since you started with John and I love John he's a great dude yeah I mean just solid solid human and um he's he does what he says he's going to do yeah and he does some very difficult things yeah no it's he's an impressive guy I mean I really appreciate him um but yeah you partner with with John and what what all have you done you know what have you been doing the last I guess seven years eight years so yeah seven so we we did the movie with Gordon um Gordon they own about 30 companies and they kind of did the movie and that's kind of what they wanted to do and then they move on to do these other other things and he introduced me to John and we put Black Walls together and you know at that point we were kind of putting the infrastructure in for the entire state of Tennessee so you know there hadn't been you had the Nashville TV show but there wasn't a lot of like Film Production going on and you know JN is huge dial obviously you know dialed in politically and you know we just you know met with the governor and did all these meetings and trying to like get more money for the state and and then in that that time frame um there was a guy named Brian connley that was um had done some movies and was from Knoxville and you know John did what John does John dials in sets it up connects it and and then we kind of put a company together with Brian and we started focusing on bringing movies to Tennessee doing projects um you know Brian had done a big horror movie on Netflix called the basement um it's pretty brutal I mean it's like it's a it's a legit horror movie and and we kind of had put together some things and and literally Co hits and you know we had put together I had put together some things with Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider and we were G to bring these comedies and me him and me John O Brian were going to produce these comedies with Adam Sandler and and Rob Schneider and you know then we're raising the money and the whole time Sanders like why you want to shoot in Tennessee like I like to shoot in Hawaii and like these fun places which now I kind of get to but um you know Co hit and and our our I mean the investor that I brought in is just like out never still have never heard from the guy um so you know that that was kind of a hard time and we kind of putting something together trying to you know basically know you know it's it's was impossible to get anything done MH I mean me and Brando got into like the okay let's start selling millions of dollars and masks and gloves to you know to people and we got some big contracts and and I know it just jumped all over the place but um you know we really were like trying to figure out what we could do and as as it progressed and the world progressed and you could finally start doing things um we came up with a movie um from Marcus Efron called last night on earth it's a contained project limited cast they're out in the the Wilderness perfect Co project so we put together this movie for Knoxville again and we shot the end of 2021 and it's an amazing cast you know it's um Shane West he's one of my best friends and he lives here now L Ramen from The Hunger Games Jake McGlothlin from quanico that's on will Trent now um girl sov vad Ruez from Animal Kingdom um it was kind of an end of the world thriller so it kind of fell into like the the horror Thriller type genre and we actually just premiered that in La um a couple weeks ago but it was funny shooting during like the covid restrictions and poor John went through that because you know we just were like oh like it'll be much easier on all of us if if you become the covid compliance officer and you take the class and you handle the covid restrictions all we did is just add an entirely terrible part of the project for John and John was on he was the first one on set he was the last one on set he he had to be there at you know 5: a.m. with the nurses with the entire crew just staring at him because all they want to do is get to the coffee and the catering that's awesome yeah now the uh the um the whole industry is is is weird how it works because when I hear you explain it and you know you had this you know I had this actor this actor this actor and seeing kind of how you put these projects together I shouldn't say weird it's it's interesting to me because it's not what I thought you know seems like each project is individual you have uh money that you raise for everyone you have uh like a p&l that you send out basically this is what the projections are and so every project you have to start over raising money and the goal is to make money obviously on the project uh for yourselves and the investors right yeah so how does that work like you're always the executive producer right you and John and you get like you get a percentage of the project is that kind of how EPS like you get X whatever the percentage is and then the rest goes does a director as well does like how how's it kind every everybody has an individual deal so and now that we're doing everything through scene um you know it's me and Brando are the ones going through and we have you know right now we have about a dozen projects I've emailed you every single one obviously because that's what I do yeah so I guess yeah and your model uh is uh you take movies that are almost done but might need some extra funding at the end cuz I'm sure uh films run out of funding all the time yeah it's like oh [ __ ] always need that last last money yeah and then so it's kind of like uh it's not the same thing but I look at like kind of like hard hard money in a way because they need it and you're like well we can get this but we got to get first out yeah as well mhm right yeah that's exactly what we're doing and it's it's an amazing model because you know we're we're only doing it on the projects that we know are going to be sold big releases big stars yeah I mean because when I see the projects that you have it is like you know uh a bunch of A-list uh you know type actors and actresses and it's like oh I've got this one you want to do this one so if anybody's looking to invest I'm not a a movie investor but uh it's you know I mean as I told you cuz I don't know anything about that I generally don't invest in things or I don't invest in things that I don't understand but you know the more I understand you never know one day because it seems like what what type of returns are are you getting for these people I mean you get two returns I mean you get the the money that you put in you get a big percentage back on that and then you also get the points on the backend so you know you're we're in a waterfall with with everybody in the movie um well that's cool so um you started this company with Brando right is um John part of that company too um this one's me and Brando um and then um we hired Drew Schultz that you know um Drew is running our talent management part of it um me and John still have black walls for certain projects and then we have got seen um I felt very confident in in January that you know me and Brando had something special that we were wanting to put together and and it it's been exactly what we what we thought it was going to be yeah so I mean you're hiring you're kind of like a not kind of like you are a modeling agency as well how does like how has the recruitment of the the models been I had a lot of my own clients for the last 20 years and that's how kind of how all these movie projects have even happened too because I have the relationships and people trust me and they know that I'm bringing them the investors trust me and the producers trust me so that's how how that's all kind of happen but you know the same way with the models it's I've I've had a lot of these clients over the last few years and and kind of like where I go they go I mean it's just always they always kind of come yeah and you get but you got some from Nashville as well right yeah yeah I mean we're actively recruiting more in Nashville um it's funny we need more people in Nashville than we do la really I guess uh the big local one in Nashville is um oh gosh what's the guy's name what's what's what would who would you say like uh is another bigger one in Nashville I don't want to say his name okay no I can't even think it um no we do we we work a lot with tribe they're one of the top 50 agencies in the world I mean they're they're a great agency they're local based um you know we we like dealing with Sherry a lot she's probably has the best eye in Nashville she's probably the best agency nice there's a few that have they throw like parties and they do you know they they do a lot on social media but when it comes to actual like the work part of it would kind of it's kind of you know I when I came over here I I kind of just wanted to want to kind of fill everybody out and there's really nobody doing what we're doing because we have the access to to New York and you know we're wanting to do like Miami and um you know kind of book these people all over the world yeah um maybe put an office in Miami too I mean with kind of what we were talking about on some of the other things we're we're already looking at doing that yeah and so I know um you can say you can't say everything but um you you're close to deal with the Playboy correct yeah so all the way back to my first days in La um you know I was working a lot with a lot of the top Playmates and you know they're these beautiful trained you know they want they want to really get into TV and film um so we were booking them directly with Playboy we were booking their TV shows and their films and their commercials and their print jobs and things like that so we've decided to continue that relationship as their rebranding um the entire company right now we're we're doing a a deal that will be doing their casting we'll be doing their um their City searches their management um and we're going to be putting together some Productions um that'll that'll kind of like air all of all of this and you know it's not the not the nudity not the type of thing that we're doing we're doing the the Vintage Playboy image that was like the Playboy club and like the the early days and the bunnies and and the actual Playmate yeah we're going to reinvent the playmate oh that's cool man yeah uh I'm disappointed that the Playboy Mansion sold they did away with the grot I mean legendary stuff but yeah all gone now so we can't ever do a party out there uh that's we're kind of working on that too oh yeah yeah what did that house sell for do you know I I don't know but I know that Hef was able to live there after he sold it oh that's cool and and it's funny because actually when we're on these conversations with the exec and me and Brando are the only two that I've actually ever been to the mansion yeah Brando lived there for a while yeah yeah that's a 16 talk about time to be there yeah he said that he would had the the floats um and he would have his head under cuz he wasn't allowed to be out there when the when the models were something but he would like pop his head above and go under they couldn't see him yeah I mean I can only imagine yeah uh being 16 living in the in the Playboy Mansion once you get Brando to talk about things cuz he'll you ask him about his acting and he'll be like they like oh what are you in he goes eh a bunch of things like he'll never going to go in to tell you what he's done because he's um but I mean if you get him in get him we'll get him into to tell him some real stories yeah now he's done a lot I knew I I saw him somewhere before we met I'm like oh yeah Dexter oh yeah he was the uh what was that Killer's uh Trinity Killer the Trinity Killer's son like I knew I saw you it's funny he actually uh called me last night and cuz he's in Utah doing some production meetings and and literally I turned on Netflix as I answered the phone and it was the trailer for Dexter and I was just like come on yeah that's funny you the funny thing is like when people think about modeling agencies or film and movies you know they don't particularly think about like good people not in a like not it's like just kind of like you you know that's got to be but you know what I know about you and Brando and John like y'all are awesome people like very high values um and you know it's it's a it's not the preconceived perception of what that is yeah I mean I always had it in my head that I'm not going to do anything that's going to disappoint my family and I can always go home if this goes south yeah so you know it's like the the the whole thing with the Entourage Story I mean I was like well worst case I get fired and I go back to Tennessee because you know I'm I'm going to get the show and I'm going to do it right yeah you know what were some of your mentors as you were uh you know kind of growing this I guess James Cameron would be considered one right yeah I mean they're those man I mean those stories are just crazy I mean they're just I mean the dinners and the lunches and the stories that we have and the short time we had with those guys pretty crazy um like what I mean I mean we went we all went to dve Busters once and once they figured out like oh like okay I'm going to have a I'm going to have um a briefcase of $25,000 delivered to Dave Busters because we're not sure how much money we're going to spend and we're like I think these probably cost like a dollar I think we're I think we're good but you know they just funny like going onto the Avatar set um you know time and time and then um we went to watch um James's cut of the abyss and why it's a three-hour movie and it's his Cut's so different than the the original um and he's the reason why like movies didn't go over 2 hours now they go over 2 hours like he was the reason why he wanted the director's cut he wanted he wanted you know to be able to have more say with the studios because the abyss that's released that everybody's seen is not the movie that he released really it's you know his Cuts Like An completely hour you basically take the end of of the studio movie and then add another hour to it wow it's a completely different movie is it better yeah it's it was incredible but I could see everybody you know there was probably like 30 of us that went to see it at Fox and and I could just tell like nobody wanted to get up and be the first one to go to the bathroom yeah and I'm like I'll be first I don't care like I got to be yeah all out I gotta be oh yeah yeah but and and you know just the how there I mean it's just cool to see somebody that you know I called him the last great Tyrant you don't have those type of directors I mean I'm a big Michael Bay fan um so I mean those I like that those type of like characters were you friends with Michael Bay yeah yeah okay yeah that's uhit what did Michael B do what was his he did the bad boy bad boys franchise he did Transformers okay um I'll never forget um I dated this girl forever in LA and she's still close to me I mean she we did her sister's badette party here in Nashville but um I had put her on Transformers too and the night before we're at dinner we literally run into Michael Bay on Hollywood Boulevard and and I I make a joke I'm like I'm like hey man I don't my girlfriend coming home all like dirty and bloody tomorrow and he kind of looked at me really weird and was like why' you say that I'm like cuz you like to blow [ __ ] up he literally goes I love to blow [ __ ] up he goes I almost burned down an apartment building today like he just is huge in his like his character yeah he got in trouble though didn't he like a couple couple years ago I mean well probably because he'll throw yeah I mean he'll throw extras into a stunt scene oh wow you have to be careful that's why you have an agent yeah you have your team I mean like literally my ex came home she was just beaten and I was like what happened and she was like well you know Megan Fox is stunt double lined up beside me I'm like that's when you stop and call me yeah and literally they were like they they were like when I when we say action you run to that door as quickly as possible and you do not stop because everything will be blowing up around you oh my gosh yeah she survived yeah yeah yeah um what are some other you know interesting uh James Cameron stories like you know having lunch with you know one of the greats um and like uh what are some lessons that uh that that you learned I mean I mean we were close I mean I literally still have a key to his brother's house in Hollywood that I spent a lot more time with his brother his brother lived like a couple miles away and we'd spend a lot of time together you know James is more in um he lived up in the Palisades and then his office was down at Raleigh Studios um but they have uh when you pulled up to the studio um there were two spaces and they had the initials like uh dfp which meant don't [ __ ] Park here and he just had like a this he was always just always a step ahead I mean you know he just they love their tequila they love their they love to uh take they do they would do all these toasts I mean you would go to dinner and you probably would do 15 toast which means you probably took 15 shots oh wow yeah it was it would be it was a constantly situation where you're like swapping the tequila with water cuz I don't even I don't even drink liquor to begin with yeah so we're always switching and then like literally when somebody wasn't looking we'd switch it back MH yeah that's good you hit him with the hit him with the real shot yeah um and so what what uh did you work on with them with with that we really just had our company together like we didn't do a project or anything together that's right after we had film engine and done um Hunter's prayer with Sam worington so he was just trying to he was trying to keep me focused on my on my management stuff and just kind of like just was kind of like just kind of paid us to be around it wasn't like I mean I I know James Cameron didn't have interest in me like get Consulting with him sure yeah that's cool though I mean that's a yeah it's an interesting person in the industry to to be around yeah because of all the all the success and I can only imagine like you know the knowledge that you get from from that type of experience yeah I mean we would go go to set and you know people we'd always you give tours of of his Studios and this you know he had a Sound Stage for for Avatar and it's just literally an empty Sound Stage with just like all the cameras that speak to each other within 0.8 seconds or whatever it is and and then like the people that are stitching the cameras together but um it's just an empty set so basically everything within these like duct tape is Pandora and then you'd go to the next Sound Stage and it was literally the Titanic from the Titanic movie and all the props and the cars and then there would just be something laying on the ground over here and it would be like Sigourney Weaver's suit from Aliens and then then you look over here and there's the real alien that's almost like a like a 12 foot tall action figure yeah that's that's wild man I mean you you've just been in it so long it probably doesn't I don't say register to you but yeah it's weird to talk about now You' had a lot of experiences that most people I mean you know a lot of these people are are so famous that uh you know they're just your friends yeah so it's not anything it's not anything weird to you and I me I have that kind of same experience with a lot of my friends are are famous too and you know but you forget from the outside like when I see for instance like uh you work with Johnny Depp MH what was what was that like that's really cool I mean I'll never forget going to his house and you know I mean these are people that you know as I'm coming up in Hollywood they're on a whole another level I mean I'm going to Marshalls to buy these fancy pajamas to go to his pajama party like I'm not going to Ral Lauren or you know Roo drive right and I'll never forget I get to his house and I'm like walking around and yeah kind of like looking for obviously you're looking for him and look for him and and I'm like no like like where is he so I call him like hey I'm at your house he go goes yeah I know I'm like oh yeah I'm like where are you he goes France I'm like wait it sounds like you said France yeah France like you're in France he's like yeah yeah yeah I'm having but yeah I'm having the party tonight you guys have fun I'm like okay he had a party without without him there yeah that's kind of crazy very rockar yeah yeah but youall have fun was it a fun party it's great yeah yeah I mean I met uh yeah I met my first girlfriend and in Hollywood there yeah that's awesome how how did you meet Johnny Depp just being kind of being in the scene and um our company film engine um had done the Rum Diary with Johnny Depp in um in Amber herd actually oh really did you ever meet Amber herd yeah was she bat [ __ ] as as they say yeah yeah yeah I mean yeah total total I watched that trial it it was crazy I mean she pooped on the bed yeah I mean that was real it was really crazy to the point of like okay wait like they met on our movie and then here's everybody in the world like watching this your movie almost ruined his life yeah he turned out looking good though like I'm I'm a bigger Johnny Depp fan oh yeah now that I saw that Tri that's who he is I mean he's just JD I mean he's just kind of like he's like the guy I mean like you know Hollis and hollis's story is William too so and how me and him didn't because we were kind of like intertwined the whole time yeah I mean it's uh it's cool that trial I mean I don't really follow Hollywood Etc but how can you not when the woman is being tested uh being questioned on the stand about pooping in a bed you know they're crazy when they poop in a bed like that's as crazy as as it gets I mean to me it was like her being her being a phenomenal actor by just she was just I mean everything's going on around her everything that she did she did and then she's just still like staring Straight Ahead like but I this yes it was just so weird it was weird and she's like talking to the jury but it was it was awkward too it and then the uh Johnny Depp's uh attorney was so good at asking these questions yeah and um and Amber herd's attorney I mean when she asked questions like she got tore up yeah you know it's hard though I mean think about it you're a lawyer your client [ __ ] the bed literally literally and you know was being questioned about that on the nightstand I mean it it was pretty hysterical and Johnny Depp was super cool super laid-back um you know it it was obvious that he got hosed because you know he married this crazy lady yeah I mean he was just honest I mean he was just himself and honest the whole time and that's kind of you know that's what we all want to be like we want to be that good person and not yeah well you know he he admitted certain things were wrong yeah basically I know this is screwed up I was dealing with an addiction and uh yeah I appreciated how open he was with it because you know I think he helped out men a lot in there because you know when you get these crazy crazy women yeah we needed to show that hey sometimes you get a lady that's batshit and if you're watching that trial this is how I knew like there's certain things I do to test how how wacko people are the people that supported her like you're the ones like okay stay away it's like a a box to get it don't let them close ever and uh you know but Johnny Depp he was like a freaking stud there just you know just being honest acknowledging you know where he did wrong but you know clearing his name the fact that he fought till the end to clear his name because before that the headlines were really in favor of Amber herd I mean that before the before the trial but when the trial came out it was like it was obvious this guy was taken advantage of by he was abused he's abused by an insane lady mm that [ __ ] in the bed that's all you got to say yeah she was so mad and crazy that she pooped in the bed you know she left a hot turd like sitting on the that's wild to think about this like heat coming off of thaty malicious it's yeah of course I mean and uh but there are you know there's crazy people like that men and women like that yeah but if he wouldn't have taken it to trial and had a public trial nobody would really know that they would have given him a bad name for it yeah so um that took a lot of guts I mean he was still going out and doing Rock shows like in England and places and then coming back to court the next Monday is pretty wild to watch yeah it really was but that's what you get he's such a good guy and you know he's just he's a rock star yeah I mean he's he's definitely uh definitely a rock star and he's been through it I mean Viper Room back in the day yeah you know um just all the stories from all the years those days uh were pretty I miss going to The Viper Room and you know I don't tell anybody but I I dated Britney Murphy back in those days and post Ashton ccher and and that was that was a fun part of Hollywood I can only imagine I Can Only Imagine was in Hollywood back then too and uh he was in Brazil for a little while during that time but uh a lot of our friends that were Fighters were bouncers at all the all the clubs so we had pretty good access as well we never had to wait in line and always got tables and those type of things um but uh it was fun man I mean it really was fun we spent a lot of time in The Comedy Store of course MH but um you know it's it is different now but I also wonder because I'm not really into the clubs I don't I don't go to clubs anymore I have't in years but we did that one night yeah we did we did yeah struts that was fun though yeah that was that was a good time yeah last time we were in La together we we went to went to this club Laura went to a concert and then I had a sneeze attack in the club that was a real sneeze attack it was I'm like dude I'm sorry but it's not going to stop about true and everybody's looking at me thinking Co it is La so you know you have everybody worried about covid like is he spreading like oh the particles are spreading on everybody here but um it was uh yeah that was a that was a fun night Luke spiller's birthday for the struts yeah I started listening to the struts after that they're they're a cool band they're fun yeah Bert Reynolds mhm became your good friend yeah what was that like getting to know Bert man I mean like I said that was just a magical experience I mean it was I mean I remember how intimidated I was to meet him the first day on set um we also had cast Chevy Chase as his best friend um and Fletch is one of my favorite movies um but getting to know Bert for the the months that we were together um you know we brought him to Nashville because we were shooting in Nashville and I had never heard of Manuel and we took him to Manuel's studio and Manuel I mean he he made all of Elvis's jumpsuits he made all Johnny Cash's clothes he um him and Bert used to hang out and putting them together and literally it was like Hey man remember that time that night that that like that John Wayne knocked the horse out I'm like okay like you got to tell the rest of the class you know yeah and it was just always like these just incredible stories of like he was literally the biggest movie star in the world he's the only person that had been number one in the Box office for like five or six years straight I mean like that doesn't happen I mean you have like Brad Pit that's like two years in a row it's got um just he was the icon he was the ladies man he's the man everybody wanted to be people don't realize that this is like Bert Reynolds was as big as they get as big of a star as you can be back in his time yeah and first day on set um we shot in Nashville and we moved to Knoxville and we're shooting at nean Stadium where my brother played football his entire college career and for me like I'm just standing in the end zone looking at the stadium just being like I'm back here like how am I back here this is just so crazy and I feel this hand on my shoulder and you know we literally had a stunt guy walk for Bert like he was not he did not move well and we had you know we had um this amazing guy Paul Kelly that John Black's friends with um we're all friends with him but but John black knew him and um he worked with Bert every single day on set and he would stretch him out and make him Lumber and like like we not sure Bert would have made it through um or been able to complete the shoot if if Paul hadn't worked with him like he had and and like kind of make him you know able to move around and cuz we're working 17 18 hour days I mean this is like tough on anybody and I'll never forget this hand on my shoulder and he like leans in he goes you know he goes sometimes life's full circle and at that point I just was like everything's great that's awesome and he just you know he was always he was always funny I mean he was he had a Florida State flag out of his trailer cuz he was a huge Florida State fan and you know we would be having catering and I mean Bert's like you know I'm 80 years old I'm eating cheeseburgers and he'd be in his trailer eating cheeseburgers and um you know we did we were like everything's going so great and I was doing the casting and um we had this wedding shoot day and I was like you know we're going to have 50 extras at a country club like let's let's invite all of our friends and family let's just make this like the family day and you know had my entire family there um everybody had their families and friends and and Bert's at the at the top of the wedding and he gets up on stage and he's singing with the wedding people for the scene and I'm like what is Bert doing and I'm like is he winking at my mom he was like hitting on my mom in the middle of the shoe oh that's funny and and I I walk up I'm like Bert that's my mom he goes I know and my dad was like I think it's cool Bert Reynolds is hdden on your mom but he was he was just like that all the time that's awesome yeah he uh yeah he was as big as a as big as they got really I mean people don't realize I guess most Millennials or Jin Z wouldn't know who bur Reynolds is well I should Jin Z probably wouldn't know who bur re is some Millennials would but um yeah he did what were all the shows that he did back in the day you remember I mean obviously smoking the Bandit I mean I want I still want one of those cars yeah um I mean he went back to Gunsmoke um we even had had um Kathleen Nolan play his ex-wife with um dementia and they had a scene from Gunsmoke black and white beautiful blonde movie star Bert and they do this brace and kiss we put that scene in the movie M um and then she she was in the movie as well like later on so nobody knows that that they were like the same person um and then yeah but smoking the Bandit and all the Cannonball runs and I mean he turned down James Bond he turned down Han Solo I mean he turned down pretty woman W that's the one I think he was still he should he thinks he should have taken that one but you know he didn't want to be James Bond because he wasn't English and and he I mean he would have been awesome yeah he would have um he would been awesome anything he he did back in the day um he definitely regretted some of those decisions because he definitely went for the more commercial pictures yeah well I mean you have to make choices in life and I'm sure he did did what he thought was best at the time yeah made sense at the moment and hindsight's always 2020 I actually took my dad um to his funeral and there was about 50 of us that went um Gordon that I mentioned that produced the movie with us he came and there's really about only about 50 of us at the funeral um in Palm Beach and bird actually spoke at his funeral oh yeah yeah cool what did he say they they played um where he had spoke at like a Christmas sermon they kind of just they cut and put it together and it was pretty cool nice and it was funny it was just like 50 of us and like it was like vanilla ice and like some crazy like people you'd never expect to see a Bert Reynolds funeral yeah I'm sure I mean you you have a a lot of interesting friends yeah over over that many years I still spend time with him at like they they he has this statue at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in La he's got like front row on the water it's pretty it's pretty cool to go just kind of it's very emotional like I just get to go there and just like I'll just spend 10 minutes when I go to La and just kind of like like really miss those moments yeah man he seems like a a great dude overall um what would you say is your biggest uh accomplishment what what do you look at as a as your biggest accomplishment I think just coming coming back here and just doing what really makes me truly happy nice you know I feel like having good friends like you and and some of the some of the friends that we share and it's just know that we're kind of like like I said on the right path it's just like I felt like my life changed last year and just kind of this year's just been a new Awakening to like what we what we know we can do and what we're all doing together yeah but what's cool is like you know people don't realize in Nashville uh you know it's a a very supportive City you know especially amongst our friends we're always happy when uh uh someone's doing well or got something going and um you know we have a lot of friends that are at different points in their life you know some that are just trying the music thing and haven't got a record deal yet and then you know some with record deals and some that are uh you know doing doing what you're it's like it's it's a good group some that are doing anti uh sex trafficking work and um but I really like that cuz I think that's one of the things that make makes Nashville special um is you do have like a supportive uh community that wants to see you do good and those that uh don't necessarily want that they get kind of weeded out pretty quickly yeah you know yeah kind of like Get seen pretty quick pun intended yeah exactly there yeah what do you think um you won a Emy in 2018 what did you win the Emy for it's for a project called backstabber um so basically um there was a project that was kind of falling apart I had a bunch of my clients that that um they had wanted for it I went to set one day I saw it was happening I I was like hey let me let me take over casting and produce with you and just kind of kind of restructured the whole project and and then um yeah then a couple years later couple years later I literally got an Emy in the mou that's awesome yeah you didn't know that you were getting it no oh that's cool it it wasn't even like a passion project it was just something that I kind of helped with and and I know that I did come in and save the project and and kind of put it together because it was just kind of like this one guy was just kind of like trying to do too much and I was like oh man we can help you do this and do it do it easy and then um and then last year um John black had put together this project called the dragon with Red Bull and they shut down this road is one of the top 10 most dangerous roads in the world they shut it down um for North Carolina and Tennessee brought out the Red Bull Racing team and literally raced it for three days and right after we wrapped last night on earth me and John went and shot that and we were I mean it's 318 turns and 11 miles and we just literally just drove it every day for for three days with this with this Red Bull racer it was pretty cool yeah what uh are you involved with the uh wings for life as well um I've been to some of the events with Greg and John we we're working on a couple deals with Red Bull with black walls yeah that's cool U the stuff they do for the for the um spinal injured patients crazy it's yeah I mean you helped Paul yeah we got to help Paul that was cool um you know Paul was already on a right path I don't like to I can't take much credit for it honestly uh think we help with his pain but Paul his hard work is really what's spin uh made the difference um we all met him at the wings for Life dinner he was sitting at our table in a wheelchair and then like a few months later he's riding mountain bikes again it's crazy yeah for those that don't know our friend Paul was a uh professional mountain bike racer at one of the Red Bull events um he basically fell off a cliff well racing he rode off a cliff and uh had a spinal cord injury he was completely paralyzed M and so um yeah he he went down and did some uh did stem cells uh actually had a it's a friend of mine's uh place you don't have it anymore um it was a company called stema it was their their cells um and they're you know a biotech in the US but they had a a place they were doing clinical trials in Mexico and um and he actually got really good results from that and then uh came down again to us to see us after that after we met and and he kept getting better and better and uh Paul just um completed the the marathon uh I was going to say Music City Marathon I think so but um it's called something else yeah Rock and Roll Marathon here in Nashville so uh he completed the full damn marathon and we had dinner that night after and he's just such an inspirational dude man just such a good spirit kindhearted overcome a tremendous amount of diversity you got to get on the podcast too tell the story but um I feel like like those typ of athletes just have something that no one else has I mean Beaver has that there just like no fear like like just like there's just there's no limit that they can do yeah now beaver's a wild wild guy too I mean I was watching a bunch of his videos and I mean first person to do two back flips double back flip on a on a um um skateboard it's crazy it is crazy have you been to any of those um Nitro mhm circuses yeah I went to we went to the finale uh me and John uh went last year to the finale in Anaheim and it was like yeah he had just done that trick um Travis Pastrana had just done the two on the on the dirt bike and they were just yeah I mean it's just crazy how easy make everything look yeah Travis pastr is another wild one yeah I got to meet that guy he's uh he's incredible he's funny like he's just it's just so funny cuz he's just like this like such a happy guy like just and he even walks happy like he's just kind of always kind of like that guy and then all of a sudden he gets on anything with wills and because that's what they always say like he can he can race anything with Wills that's awesome just crazy to like that's the same guy that was just like joking around and probably smacking you in the balls 10 minutes ago yeah that's funny I I heard if you go to his place you got to sign a waiver yeah and um wh why is that um I mean John will answer more than that but yeah just it's just kind of like he's going to convince you to do something dumb I see I see like I'm risk management I'm like I said that yesterday I was like I was like I saw what he did to Johnny Knoxville's ball sack so I'm pretty yeah what happened to Johnny Knoxville's ball sack they they they did its jump and literally pastrano was like all right Knoxville whatever you do don't let the bike come down on you MH what happens goes up knoxall comes down lands on Johnny Knoxville and it's the tires are still rolling and it just like square and just did some damage and that's where John was saying that uh that literally he stood up and it was like every time his heart would beat there was like shoot he was shooting blood out his like he was felt like he was peeing his pants yeah every time he would Breathe from his balls yeah that's awful yeah it's crazy I mean I I feel like I'm have Z either I'm smart or have just zero interest in doing any of that yeah I mean I just know I'm not I'm not I but you're an athlete yeah I mean you competed at a high level in um in track also as a cyclist what what was what was that like you know back when you were competing in in cycling it was my life I mean I just really didn't think any different I mean I would you know on Sundays I had very great parents to just be like right I'll be back I'm going to go on a probably 120 mile ride to North Carolina and I'll see you tonight sometime wow and I'm just literally on the highways like riding by myself I mean it's very like individual very like like lonely I mean a lot of times and a lot of times when you're when you're in the peak of the race I mean you're you're in your head there's nothing else going on and you know I grew up with Greg Lamont as my hero and he had won the Tour to France you know that's the first race I ever saw was him went in the 1989 tour to France and and um you know it wasn't like social media back then so it didn't really have access to like get a hold of these people but somehow I found his dad's phone number called his family and I'm like hey like I want to I want to ride with your son and and they were generous enough to kind of bring me in their their lives and kind of spent some time with him growing up and and then I was racing at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado and and you know kind of like those older guys and the crew were like Lance Armstrong and George hppy who I want to hook you up with um CU I feel like you guys can connect and bring the cycling world you could change the world with them that' be awesome and um you know those were kind of like the Big Brothers to me were were those cyclists that I just lived to like ride with and and I guess I think it's mentally prepared me for like a lot of the stuff I've done because literally I'm like I'm going to do this and I'm going to you know I'm going to be on the US cycling team and I'm going to race professionally and and that's where I kind of had to make a decision in my life um I had a bunch of scholarships for track and cross country and I was like I can do this or I can go to Europe and be a professional cyclist and make anywhere from like 40 50 Grand or all the way up to like you know the the top guys make millions of dollars but on the teams that trickles down to like not a lot yeah well that's uh that's awesome I know that it's a wild sport people don't realize it's pretty dang dangerous too I mean you you wreck on a bike going you know however many miles an hour 60 mes an hour yeah going going downhill we're in lra there's nothing else yeah there's nothing you're getting all skinned up did you ever take have any bad wrecks yeah yeah I've been hit by a car a few times got um definitely had some fun wrecks a lot of a lot of injuries that way but um yeah I still follow it pretty well like I'm I'm we're about to shoot a movie and Greece um the same time as the Tour of France is going on so some of some of the guys the obviously still involved for like commentating and stuff I'm going to try to go over there and see them at the Tour of France yeah when did you stop racing um about the time I started getting involved more in Hollywood and just that became my life it was more girls and parties yeah yeah so uh and then John black is a uh he does mountain bikes right yeah oh man he has always on his bike yeah yeah so we traded Liv so I'm like can you take the bike I'll take the Hollywood so you yeah you don't go to uh ever go with him no no you ever been into uh mountain biking we did as like um kind of like cross training and things like that I mean talk about Rex I snapped a mountain bike in half um it's there's a lot of uh it's a it's a different sport I like I always like the road like John doesn't like the road M and I like the speed and riding with people and the elbow to elbow and then he likes the kind of like the solo track type um you know Mountain Sports and the jumps and stuff um what's it like meeting Lance Armstrong he's cool man I mean he's I mean it's it's weird you know cuz a lot of these people they like he he wasn't the only one doping you know the entire I mean there's still I mean there's always like the rumors that everybody's still is and things like that but you know you know Greg lemond in his career that was the end of the era of like the clean racing and then you had a lot of these other other teams that started figuring out how to like enhance enhancement drugs and things like that and you know they just made a decision to keep racing and to they wanted to be able to compete yeah and it was a different world and I remember seeing like these I remember seeing like these races to where you're like like the end of the era it was just kind of I guess you say it but was very interesting to watch I mean I'm still I'm still highly into it there's a good um there's a good do docy series called Unchained on Netflix is pretty entertaining to people that don't really because obviously cycling is not a very exciting Sport and well I guess it can be if if presented right yeah it's a good time right now now I mean there's some really great Young Riders that are doing really well and um you I'm still into it to a point like like Greg Lamont sent me a bike um he owns he owns um some really cool like ebikes and he sent me one last year that that I'm riding around town a little bit do you ebike you have you have a cool e got three yeah yeah I love them man yeah I want to get one of those uh there a couple Petty cabs mhm you know that that have people on the back yeah and just drive people around yeah I think it'd be fun just to see people like zipping up the hill in in downtown oh yeah yeah I want to get some petty cabs for the city cuz being right here it would be perfect I can keep them in the garage you know we can have two Petty cabs four seaters each it's eight people eight of our friends can go out get a couple sober drivers we could have our cooler in the back of the petty cab and me and Eric actually did that one night nice remember where we were going he go get in the petty cab we're taking it out I love he had a py cab we we just one yeah yeah no that's it's be fun actually I got this i got this vision for us Richie we're going to have a great time am man we're going to have a great time you got that uh the Sprinter have you ever been out in the Sprinter that we have no oh you got to take the Sprinter out too yeah I mean I think we really want to get one for the like the Playboy casting and and scene just to have around town yeah well Brando we want the we want the van because literally he's been giving me a hard time CU I'm like yeah I've been looking at him online I'm like scene just really needs a sprinter van we can have we can have like the assistant come pick us up in the morning and take us to the office and it'd be our our billboard on the way to work yeah and be working Snoop used to have one that he would like roll around Hollywood with and he would do his meetings and he would just it was it was really cool anything else you want to cover I don't think that maybe just the Miss USA thing oh yeah yeah so uh what's going on with uh missusa I know there's a lot of drama right now uh and you're kind of in the middle of it because you represent the missusa that stepped down correct yeah um so starting out all the way literally from my New York to LA days we represented a lot of the Miss Universe and USA Talent fact because they they are the trained they were they were grown into it they you know their families like I say grown into they were their families kind of did this with them their whole lives from the training to buying the gowns to you know the um you know to the fitness to all of it so we've always represented those girls and then as we kind of progressed you know then I started judging a lot of the states and you know we used to go to Miss Universe and USA and and um you know we' get first pick of all the talent so we were the ones booking their jobs and bringing them to LA and and then I moved to Nashville and got further involved with it and we put together a team a couple years ago to actually acquire Miss Miss USA through Miss Universe and then there's been a lot of drama going in they had um there's been a lot of drama worldwide just through like some of the platforms that they've brought in like like now you've got you know you can have you don't have to be a woman to compete anymore there's there's no ages they took away a lot like it's it's when Trump owned it it was a beauty pageant strict beauty pageant like it should go back to the roots and that was our plan was to kind of take Misha and bring it back to its roots and and you know let the girls compete like like bring it make it basic like that's biological women compete yeah it is what it is like you're a woman compete um you know it's a beauty pageant like you can't be over a certain age can't be a fatty yeah there there's there's there's P there's pageants for anything you want there's married pageants there's whatever like then you do you go do those pageants so we want to make Miss USA USA and literally put the team together um and the woman that that was setting up the meeting literally cut us out of the back of the deck and goes and gets Miss USA and cuts us out of it oh wow and she's went on to do a terrible job um a lot of the directors have quit literally missusa um quit a few months ago yeah three months before her rign was over and there's a reason why I mean like being abused and bullied and and basically like you're supposed to be the face of the company not the person running the company right that's for sure so it kind of like really has progressed worse and bullied and then they have her under this terrible NDA so so they can talk [ __ ] about her all they want but she can't can she can't defend herself um so we decided that you know we we were going to help her and you know she came out to can with us a couple weeks ago got her on all the red carpets and we had a great team that set all that up um you know Mara and Haley and Tom and these people that that we're working with um we have a really strong team and and whether they're not what happens what happens but you know we're definitely pushing and supporting Noelia because she's she deserves she deserves more than what she went through and she also deserves to you know be the face of the industry yeah so what happened with I mean you said that they were uh having her basically run the company which which is really strange CU yeah what I think about Miss USA I think you have this pageant or this you know this company behind you and you are just the face you know but you're not making decisions in the boardroom about oh no no Miss USA was they they the woman that was running the company was the one trying to be the face of it oh I see yeah she was just kind of like bullying her out of the way wow and I mean you know when you know this is nothing Pro anti-trump whatever when when Trump owned it they got off the plane after the pageant they flew straight on his jet straight to New York got out they had their apartment set up at at um Trump Towers and and all the girls were set like there was no failure in the infrastructure there was no like funds missing and I mean the poor girl didn't have an apartment set up at all really like they just didn't do live up to any of the obligations I mean you train for your entire life to get to the pivotal moment for you to take the pivotal crown and then it's just the worst experience of your life like they don't deserve that no so she became missusa but all the things that she were was was promised uh if she were to move didn't happen yeah and they're putting it putting her in like sketchy situations where they're like oh you're a girl just deal with it really no you're putting her in a terrible situation and you're not doing your job you know focus on the brand and the company she who you know the people that are running it just don't know or maybe they know the brand but they don't respect the brand and they're not keeping it to the you know what it what it was meant to be and what it was you know the whole reason that anybody would want to be involved you know yeah no it's uh that's jacked up and they had like uh a biological man that is that Miss Universe or was that miss it wasn't miss it was it was Miss Universe there was a biological man that that owns it yeah uh I know but but that was uh a biological man that competed and one as a woman yeah there's there's been a few of the countries that have done that and then there's been a few contestants in the states I think that have done that I haven't been as involved as I was as far as like all of it but I when you have biological men winning women beauty pageants it's pretty hysterical anything else I mean but think about like men are the best women you know what I'm saying like that's that's what it is is like men really are the best women if they're beating out and you know as a as a guy as as a man uh I know what it's like to think like a man MH and I know those trans women aren't you know that they know the advantage that they have there's differences between men and women yeah and so when you're a biological man competing in a beauty pageant as a woman and you win you're like gotcha you know gotcha or swimming or basketball or yeah any I mean like I I'm not I'm not sure the Olympics they've kind of like taken a stand right or yeah the Olympics aren't letting uh um what's the guy's name uh the swimmer's name the swimmer they're not letting uh her swim yeah but um yeah it's obviously [ __ ] when you got a 6' five man with a bulge you know out of a swimsuit have a have your own pageant but don't change something that has such a legacy like you're just change you can't just change the brand I mean the Brand's not judgmental the brand was built for women empowerment and women to be women right it has nothing to do with them at all like stop making it about them you know like like like they they make it about them when it has nothing to do with them to begin with just stick to your lane do if you want to copy something like that and do something like that then do your own well and think about like for the women empowerment uh type thing you think about how disempowering it is to have a biological man just say he's a woman and then get the same rights and treatment yeah as a woman just because I say I'm a woman means I'm a woman like that's ridiculous and you know the fact that you know two out of the last three years I believe that the times uh woman of the year was a biolog iCal man yeah I mean that's straight up Insanity it's just it's a [ __ ] system I mean it's just like so we get to make up our our own rules now that changes everything yeah I mean yeah it's just postmodernism philosophy where you know there is no universal truth and you know um you know they question uh pretty much everything and they turn what's factual completely upside down and say well that's really just your opinion yeah I mean I want to be an astronaut so okay cool I'm going to die the first day that they I just write my certificate out yeah yeah I'm gonna I do want to go to space though yeah well you mean hey that's all James Cameron it's not to yeah it's not that far off though yeah because I think you know within our lifetime you're going to have a lot of space travel going on if Elon has anything to do with it yeah I had about a 30 minute conversation with Elon just oneon-one oh nice about about that and I was just I'm lit the whole time thinking like you're [ __ ] insane yeah I mean we we were at um I think it was at a Golden Globes party and we were both drinking uh Heinekens and we're like just having beers being Bros yeah and and um he told me this whole 30 minute spill on how he's going to Nuke Mars and live on it and I'm like is that legal like can you just I guess if you had the access to Nuke a planet that's okay why would you nuke it cuz he was going to generate water or something oh wow some whatever it was he was going to make water and make it more like so he can he can chill on it and kind of get away from the crazy people here wow yeah they've they've really uh a lot of people have lost their minds in society I feel like the pendulum starting to swing back though a little bit which is good people are starting to speak out more and more because you you think about when all of a sudden uh it seems that people lost their mind the the the arguments are so simple and logical that you don't even want to say it because you're like what am I missing here like that's yeah like this doesn't like so I got to be missing something I think for you know a couple years a lot of us were like ah what do we how do we how do we approach this because it's so it seems so crazy we've got to have something but now I think the fact that you don't understand it means you're sane means you're okay right absolutely because it's just n i mean like nonsense is always going to be nonsense yeah I mean you try to when you have people trying to convince you that men can get pregnant that's when you know that you're you're on the right side MH uh against those type of MH idiotic thoughts and ideas I mean people look back at our our childhoods and be like oh you know the parents were just being abusive no parents were being parents yes that's the whole point of the system and they're not abusing you to tell you that you're wrong or that or that you're not that you're not you know a fireman yeah well you were competitive Psych I mean you you didn't just get a trophy for showing up no and I still have those trophies and medals and things like that at my parents I mean this just each one of those mean something yeah and I know I know what each one of them is and what I felt when I got it yeah I mean that's yeah that's exactly what it is um what do you think really you next five years or so in society is is going to happen like do you see are you optimistic or you like oh the shit's going down I I mean I'm optimistic to the point but I'm also going to be protective of my family and friends and you know it's a different world I mean it's you know it's went from like 5 years ago you know I probably didn't own a gun and like probably like wasn't taking it places and probably you know was walking around not paying attention to where you know last year you know we went to the air premiere on Beverly Hills and you know we'd had a phenomenal time it was like Ben Affleck directed the movie and it was the one about Michael Jordan and and um he had rented out this place called Wall's and we were all going to Beverly Hills and we are walking down one of like the main streets and I see a guy walk out of a construction site and I'm like Sunday night the guy probably shouldn't be back there and kept want to watch them kind of keep turning a little bit gu was following us down the street and I stopped turned around and just like squared up like looking right at him and he he just stopped and was looking at me and I started walking towards him and he started walking across the street so obviously he was up to no good yeah and then I turned around started walking again crossed the streets following us again and I'm like oh this guy's like literally about to Rob us and I turned around and did exactly what you're not supposed to do I started sprinting at the guy in the middle of but in the middle of Beverly Hills on a Sunday night and I was like this guy's lit probably going to pull a gun on this at some point so you know what did he do ran really ran and I did not run as fast as I can run yeah I didn't want to actually catch him sure but you know and I don't know what I would have done if I did and you know it just it's just being protective over I mean whatever like this year or over the next few years it's just being protective of your life and your family and and you know we we want the same thing and we want the world to be a better place but we have to make it a better place like we can't just rely on the people in charge because obviously the people in charge probably don't have our best interest at heart yeah but we all know that now yeah they don't have our best interest that's for sure I mean and I just hope they haven't convinced enough people or brainwashing enough people uh that's that's too late you know I feel like you know the more we can speak um you know the truth uh about what's going on and calling out I think it's as simple as good versus evil it is good versus evil I mean evil is right out there in front of us now right in front of us and it's being sold to us as good mhm you and we're and we're bad by by being against it that's right and so that's why I believe you know we have you we almost have a duty not almost we have a duty to to call it out because you know ultimately if if it's good versus evil you know the way I look at it it's like God versus yeah the devil it is God versus the devil and I want to be on the side of God obviously and so you know I mean I see this straight out in the media and I hope everybody else sees what I see i' for the first time in my life I've I watched things that I'm like no like that's like I know that's that's just Satan propaganda thrown right in our faces yeah and maybe before people were like oh that's just art or it's it's you know it's just it's entertainment I'm like no it is that is a platform that's being shoved down your throat yeah there's so much so much of that right now yeah I mean propaganda Satan propaganda that's a good way to put it but that's that's what we're you that's what we're seeing and uh you know it's like uh what was it at the Grammys Sam Smith uh a couple years ago you know and it's like this whole satanic uh performance and he's in red it's fire and demons and it's like brought to you by fizer yeah it's like wow yeah there the the video of it or the the picture of it behind you um I mean look at him I mean that's straight obviously that's it doesn't get more obvious on that and then brought to you by fizer yeah I mean in the middle of covid like they are they are that is messaging they're letting they're letting us know MH who they are yeah and it's more and more Yeah by sponsoring that we know when Biden uh won office I thought it was really interesting his uh victory speech um behind him was Chase Arena like you know it's like it was so obvious that you know the message was yeah I'm you the banks are are behind me here Chase is behind me yep um I'm like gosh I can't even find a picture of that online anymore MH it's like they probably you know scrubbed it to where you you know there's not that shot but yeah watching the watching it that night I'm like wow yeah they're not even hiding I mean I mean we literally have a group that goes to church here every week so literally we're the opposite of Hollywood like we're literally like we're like hey you want to come to church with us come to church with us I mean it's just and I mean I don't care what anybody's beliefs are I mean you everybody's their own person but if if if you don't see this and see the way that things are changing or that how more they're or how harder they're pushing it on people yeah it's like this is the world we live in and it's going to it's going to have to we have to change it yeah no absolutely well like you know spending all that time in Hollywood did you see it in the sets did you hear about these crazy what about the parties did you hear about like demonic type parties never that I I mean I I mean I was in the thick of it but I was in the I was in the I feel like there's layers you know I feel like I was in in a layer that most people don't get to experience and and I I and I was always smart enough like I said I can always go home yeah I could always come back be happy with my family and you know I feel like I was always strong minded enough to maybe people just didn't put me in that situation because I'm going to call them out yeah um but you know it there's like I said I was kind of doing a lot of stuff with more of like the Johnny Debs and and the Paris htons and and people and you know when I see Britney Spears now versus then like I knew Britney when Britney was Britney yeah and that's not the that's not the same person I see like it's like whatever happens has happened um is you know not not the same people yeah so I mean she was like at the top of the world and and hanging out at you know and you know and also we're hanging out in surface level places and and we're not going deep into like their lives I mean we're just enjoying what's going on sure but but when I see like her then versus now I'm like that's not who I knew right yeah it's uh it was sad you know kind of watching her um but there are like the SLE bag producers directors you know like the Weinstein and stuff out there we we did we definitely sued him twice on The Rum Diary really so I mean as far as like him being a piece of [ __ ] I mean that was always the case and he didn't hide that but we were not you know I went to some Netflix parties and things like that where they were on like the you know the step and repeat but never spent time with him as far as for the why did you sue him um I don't I wasn't even involved in that part but um it just would have been like contractual stuff like probably like money I see what about Kevin spacy did you ever uh have any run-ins with spacy yeah yeah um that guy's a sleev ball yeah I only met him on an elevator and he was going to Netflix and our office was next to Netflix and I just like looked at him and I was like Mr President and he just broke I mean I I broke him on the elevator that's funny and and that was the entire conversation yeah and then maybe maybe like a month later I saw him in the elevator again and he was looking at me and he was just like I go Mr President yeah there we go but that was our only interaction no I mean uh before all that stuff came out about him you know the sexual assault he tried to do that to one of my friends that's a guy yeah and uh attacked him at a party and he said yeah he was he was there and he was at Kevin spacy's house and he's hanging out and he's he's a musician and um kind of everybody was leaving and his phone uh wouldn't let him call an Uber cuz he's on you know I think he's in Malibu or something yeah I remember those those those Hills days were tough and calling anything yeah and so he got stuck there basically and Kevin said oh come outside and he was he was inside with the girl but everybody was starting to leave and the girl was leaving and so uh he goes outside and Spacey's in a Jacuzzi with a bunch of other dudes all naked and he's like oh he's like uh you know he's not gay my buddy's not gay mhm so he couldn't call anybody he's like stuck you know at this house in Malibu and uh so he goes to a bedroom and to to to sleep basically and he says he wakes up and um spy was on top of him trying to you know get on him he had to literally push him off wow and uh you know my buddy's not gay nothing wrong with being gay but he's not I mean sexual aot of sexual assault I mean that's just so yeah uh and he had basic basically harassed my friend so much my friend had blocked him wow and so I knew about this this was probably uh 2017 or so 2016 yeah before everything had come out so and my friend told me yeah there's other stories about him BL blah and so then when it did come out I'm like damn yeah you know I just saw him on uh an interview last week where he's you know crying I've lost everything but dude that you're an actor yeah you're an actor that's right so um yeah that's that's where we're like we'll never work with anybody that that we feel is not doing is not kind of living our life and kind of doing what we how we want to do things yeah you know that's kind of why we're here I mean we can kind of we can run our own Studio run our own destiny you know if we [ __ ] up it's on us you know we want to do big movies and and you know obviously when you're on set I mean you know we want to work with our friends that we're going to be on set with for 15 20 hours a day and we love every second of it like we're not going to work with these pieces of [ __ ] yeah no that's good is uh Brando gonna do any more acting we're gonna man we I think we're gonna find something I mean one some of these movies if he's you know I think cuz you know he was an American Sniper if if we could find like a a movie like that that he could play a role like that that would be pretty cool I haven't seen American Sniper oh yes him Bradley Cooper and um I mean it it had some accolades but yeah Brando was in it I have to go yeah go watch that yeah we got to have Brando make a comeback it's funny we had a girl come in the office this week and and we have like a lot of the movie posters and he was in Alvin and the Chipmunks growing up and the girl was like oh did you guys do some like voices on that I'm like no Brando's actually in it yeah live action br with the Chipmunks oh that's awesome yeah now Brando he's the sweetest guy I mean just like you know he's very humble you would know the board all the time I don't know I've never gone to look and see what movies or shows he was in but I know he did a lot of stuff he's not going to tell you if you ask him no he keeps it I mean he's never brought up his career once so uh but I love that y'all are doing this now here in Nashville and bringing this you know to Nashville you've got good connections with the state um you know to where you know getting the taxes right getting the laws right thanks John yeah thanks yeah John black yep um but that's that's key and um you Nashville really can because Tennessee is such a competitive State yeah um uh bringing it to Nashville's we can do much bigger things here yeah we just need their support really yeah well I know you'll get it so um uh anything uh else you want to kind of go over here man it's been great well thanks for uh sitting down and chat with me I appreciate your friendship and yeah all your help over the years man you're you're really good to me and uh ith what's up yeah you said don't miss my birthday it's almost your birthday it's almost my birthday yeah you got to come to Columbia man let's go so cool all right thank you rich