Tom Arnold: Family Trials and Triumphs...and Donald Trump.

Can a shared background in a meatpacking plant teach you resilience and camaraderie? Join us on the Jack Hopkins Show for a riveting conversation with the versatile Tom Arnold. We kick off by re-living his classic moments in "True Lies" with Arnold Schwarzenegger and exploring his latest endeavors in Netflix's "Fubar." Tom’s heartfelt stories from his early days, intertwining with our shared Midwestern roots, offer an emotional and often humorous glimpse into the life lessons forged in tough environments. 

Ever wondered how political authenticity resonates with rural America? This episode boldly tackles the shift in political landscapes, particularly through the lens of figures like Donald Trump. We dissect how Trump's populist rhetoric has swayed historically Democratic regions, leaving certain communities feeling both abandoned and hopeful for change. By contrasting Trump’s approach with past leaders like George HW Bush, we shine a light on the moral responsibility and the nuanced dynamics of political engagement that are essential for reconnecting with neglected communities.

From personal battles with addiction to the inspiring resilience of children facing severe health challenges, this conversation with Tom Arnold takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions. Discover how his family's struggles have shaped his understanding of redemption and resilience, and hear about his sister Lori's tumultuous journey through life. We also explore the impactful social initiatives of the Shriver family and the incredible strength exhibited by young warriors battling life-threatening conditions. This episode promises to leave you feeling inspired, thoughtful, and deeply moved.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast, where stories about the power of focus and resilience are revealed by the people who live those stories and now the host of the Jack Hopkins Show podcast, jack Hopkins.

Speaker 2: 0:19

All right, welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast. I'm your host, Jack Hopkins, and today's guest needs no introduction Tom Arnold, best known, I think, by a lot of people for his 1994 co-starring role with Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies. Do you get that a lot, Tom? That's what people I do.

Speaker 3: 0:46

But old people they remember the Roseanne show from six years before that. But a lot of people they like that movie. You know it holds up. They don't all hold up, jack, I've missed all those. I've made 150 movies, four good ones and that's one of the good ones. And you know people still. You know I was up last week with Arnold Schwarzenegger up in Toronto filming his Netflix series Fubar, which it has a lot of similar tones to it. Nice, but people liked that one and you know, after we made it it was a big hit, you know, and we all stayed friends. I thought I bet every movie is like this. It turns out no movies are like that. I was lucky to be in it. I'm moving my thing over in case it helps my eye line. I have to have my kid come in here and set it up for me.

Speaker 3: 1:40

I hear you, yeah, it was great fun.

Speaker 3: 1:47

But you know, uh, yeah, it was great, great fun and uh, you know, I and I just want to say I appreciate I'm here because I appreciate what you do and a lot of people, uh, out here in my world appreciate what you do and you have random. You're the fans. There's people from the miami housewives appreciate what you're doing. There's big, big-time lawyers that are, you know, killers that appreciate what you're doing. It's always funny because they'll send me your stuff. I'll get texts about what you're up to and things and I'm like you guys know him okay.

Speaker 2: 2:17

That's a good thing, though, buddy. Well, that's awesome. That's awesome. Let's talk a little bit about your beginnings, your upbringing, because you and I grew up not that far apart in the rural Midwest, or even a time where I still kind of consider rural Midwest. We're out here in the middle of you know, when did you grow up? First of all, I grew up in trenton, missouri, which is about an hour west of kirksville oh, I did, yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:52

Yeah. My sister went to northeast missouri state. It was called that is, oh yeah, oh hey, kirkville. And so I had to say something. And ktvo our our television station. I was watching uh, I don't know if it was out Wagner or somebody and they had these. It's a Sinclair station now, people being concerned, he's too old. Every of all their 50 stations. They had lineups saying the same words about it, like here's what you need to do. And I was like they saw me in a tub while I was going to go down there and talk to them.

Speaker 2: 3:40

Shaked up. It's kind of crazy. Interestingly enough, just just last week and it will air here in a week or two I did a podcast with a lady named sue wilson who is, uh, she, she worked in that industry and who is now out talking about the changes that need to be made, and sinclair was a big part of that discussion. So yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a problem.

Speaker 3: 4:07

I don't even know that the people of those small towns that work at those stations realize you know what's going on, but the fact that it's the station for Etobicoke, iowa, my hometown, I was like, oh my gosh, I got it, okay, yeah yeah. So it's interesting.

Speaker 2: 4:25

I I was watching a recent podcast that you did and you said that about three years after high school for about three years after high school, you worked in a meat packing plant in a tumla, and I kind of had that experience too. I worked in the same food processing plant that my father had worked in for 40 years. I only lasted a year. The day that got me was when a friend of mine that worked there we were sitting out in the parking lot and you're familiar with this of a Hy-Vee grocery store and my buddy we were both just like 18, 19 at the time and he said I guarantee you, if we pulled into town and knew nobody, we could sit in this parking lot, watch people get out of their cars and walk in and be able to tell you who worked at that food plant, Because they're humped over, they look like they're broken down, they don't care anymore. And that's when I knew I had to go.

Speaker 3: 5:29

Well, you know it's hard work. I worked on the kill floor. I started livestock, which is outside, you know, outside Iowa a little bit, and then you kind of move up as you get better jobs, you and your thing will come up. Well, there's a better job Pulling leaf lard. That was a terrible job. You're figuring out some more. But then I go to the kill floor, which is hard work. Everybody's working very hard and people always ask me how do I get a job that I don't get fired from? And I'm like, get a very shitty job. They didn't care if you drank. They didn't care if you drank.

Speaker 3: 6:02

They didn't care if you took speed. They liked it. They didn't care if you kept this light on. You had to go out to the union hall. Everybody's got very sharp knives.

Speaker 2: 6:17

This is not the truth.

Speaker 3: 6:19

Not bad, go to the union hall. Then everybody after work would pull back to the union hall. We'd have a little thing and a couple punches thrown, then everybody would pull back the idea you know, we have a little thing, you know, a couple punches thrown, then everybody would go to the bar and everybody had to buy a shot for everybody. So you have to eat every night. You're like god damn. Then you, I'll say the old timers uh, there was a couple that I really liked and they would just come into work vomit every day and they'd go about their work like they they had and I did go about their work, like they had a job.

Speaker 3: 6:46

And I did see happy people there. You know my grandpa had worked there 50 years, my dad, my uncle. But I wanted to get out of there. Because I wanted to get out of Iowa, because I had this crazy dream of being a stand-up comedian, you know. But the money was good back then and it was. They had benefits and everything. And I remember after the second year I started looking around like how do people stay here? Okay, they get married, they have a family and I see how happy they are there and I was like that's going to be, maybe I have to do that, Maybe I have to surrender to this. And then, my third year, I got fired. When I got arrested for public unity at an old folks home, I called it sick, like just getting arrested for public unity.

Speaker 3: 7:36

But you call it sick and I had two strikes at the time. You know our union was pretty strong back then he got three strikes and then every six months one strike would disappear. So then once I go down from two to one now I know I can screw around again, but this time I blew it because I had two and the meat-packing plant it was Hormel. We went on a very famous meat-packing plant strike. There's a documentary about it, called American Dream, that Barbara Koppel won the Oscar for. I don't know if it was like the 88 or 89. It was after I moved to Hollywood because they asked me to. Harvey Weiss was the producer. He's like nobody else out here has worked in a meatpacking plant. I go, yeah, but it shows how ridiculous that strike was. You know how our union guys got just completely snookered. You know, because Ornell would say you guys are. You know what you guys are going to be profit participants. You know. So you have skin in the game. You work 38 hours a week and that's what you get. You pay for all the time, even if you don't work it, and at the end of that or if you have to work more at the end of the year you'll get a big check for the extra hours. They didn't want to pay us overtime but it was kind of a good thing. And then, as it got towards the end of the year, then they just said stay home, stay home, we're going to die, were kind of blind. They were really tough. I just went go on this strike.

Speaker 3: 9:07

And the plant in Austin, minnesota, had been on strike for like a year and a half, like that's their home plant and we go on a strike to support them and they fire everybody at a time. They fire everybody at the plant. And so Austin had gone back and they fired everybody. And then we said, hey, hey, guys, why don't you come out some more tonight? We have too long. So, hormel being very smart, very evil, they just changed the name on the outside of the building from Hormel to XL. They made exactly the same product, the curating one halves, exactly the same bacon and all that, and they changed the name. And then they broke in the union so that they hired people for half the wages and you know there were a lot of migrants that worked there, people these big companies complained about, but they do. It worked for the migrants, you know, in our food industry there would be no food industry, there would be no farming?

Speaker 3: 10:03

Absolutely, because my four younger brothers did want to work in the Meatpacking Black because it was too hard.

Speaker 2: 10:10

Yes.

Speaker 3: 10:11

They hired people that were really happy to work there and it changed that. First of all, the Meatpacking Black shutting down in the 80s and the other plants that shut down was very devastating for the Midwest and my town and we're still trying to kind of recover from it. I think we're on the way back with the union stuff coming together, but it was a pretty devastating thing. And then the drugs came in. It's my sister's soul, my sister. A documentary series about my little sister called the Queen of Net. My little sister was the biggest drug dealer in America. People are like was it embarrassing having your sister be a drug dealer? And I'm like not. When I was doing drugs it wasn't embarrassing, it's frustrating. But you know you really look at the economic thing. I mean it was just ripe for that stuff and you know pretty devastating what it did. Economic thing I mean it was just ripe for that stuff and pretty devastating what it did. And I think we're still kind of coming back.

Speaker 3: 11:14

I think that my party made a lot of mistakes. The Democrats. You know they forgot about the people that were Like County Wapakow, county Iowa was the biggest Democratic county in the country per capita. You know they voted against Abraham Lincoln. And the first time I met Maria Shriver in 1980, she came there with her uncle who was running for president, I believe and that was the place she hit in Subtle Iowa. And now I see you know like Trump goes in there and he's speaking at the Tom Arnold Rec Center, which pisses me off. They have a community college there, but you know people are, you know they're very much Trump stuff and what we have to do is convince them.

Speaker 3: 12:01

Well, you like insurance, you like that, you like the low-cost prescriptions. By the way, with the last lowering of prescriptions I had the last hand. He put down top hand and he pressed it from $700 to $30. I had three of them. I have some issues. So I was like, oh, that's amazing, I got those all cut down. We have to do a better job. We did. We did slip up and forget about that people that you're talking about.

Speaker 2: 12:49

Do you find that there's this false sense of well, we are Republicans, we support him, so this mean shit that he says he's going to do to people won't affect us, because you know we're on his side. And my thing is once Trump would, once he was in, the whole Republican Democrat thing in his mind would just blur. It's just people, and now he's king shit yeah, he cares.

Speaker 3: 13:14

I've known him for 40 years. He cares about one thing himself these people buy into it and they don't really. It's important for us to lay out the facts. Well, here's what you will lose. You know. He said he would have a new insurance. They get rid of a bump here, but better, cheaper. He lies all the time. It's good to be like. Sometimes you need to hear lies to make you feel good. But yeah, he's not paying the tax cuts to the richest people. Down to the, to the other people, I think, whatled down to the other people.

Speaker 3: 13:45

I think what happens in this country is, every generation, someone comes along. There's a disenfranchised group of white people, every generation, and they come along and all of a sudden the guy comes up, the political guy. He's like I'm you, I am you, I'm going to fight for you. You're screwed. I'm going to fight for you. Nobody cares. They're giving their jobs to people of color. They're giving. They bypass you, but I am like you. In fact, I'm worse, like I am, whatever race and stuff, and these guys get behind this figurehead and then at the end he collapses and what happens is the rest of the country, the people of color, women, whatever they move up a notch, but this group of white folks Southern Midwestern that got behind this crazy birth, they stay the same. So it happened every generation. You could look and they go, because they're looking for one guy and he goes you are better, you're down there, but you're still better than the best black guy. That's really what they want to hear.

Speaker 2: 14:46

Right.

Speaker 3: 14:47

And they're still at your top and they get the fear going and a lot of it makes zero sense because they have jobs or they don't want to do those shitty jobs that immigrants will do the hard-ass physical labor jobs, but they're like, they just want to. They've been wrong. And finally, so is standing up for the white people and this guy. They think he'll do it, but Trump lies every time he promises Again. I've known him. I wasn't going to blame my manager with Trump People. He did my sports show.

Speaker 3: 15:23

You know, I remember the late 80s Rosanna and I did an HBO special at one of the Trump casinos that went bankrupt and he said at the time we're getting ready to do this show. He goes hey, I got a great idea. I got a guy who has a Bugatti or some 1920s car that was worth millions of dollars and all in all I have them packing up, bringing up here to Atlantic City and then I will drive that, we'll build the stage. I'll drive that. I'll be like Roseanne's chauffeur. We'll drive that big, beautiful car out there and Duesenberg, I think it was and we'll drive that big car and I'll be like her chauffeur and she'll get out of the car on stage and I remember thinking, well, that's it, now he's in the show. He figured out a way to get in the show, which to me was pretty funny, so we did that. You can see it. You can see what happened. And then about four months later I get a call from the HBO people. Four months later I get a call from the HBO people like hey, that farmer who owns that car, that has that car on his farm, that bossed it up and drove it all the way up to Atlantic City.

Speaker 3: 16:30

Trump never paid him for that. He's probably paying $30,000. He never paid him. So what do you want to do? I go, let's pay him. It's a funny little joke. It's a joke about Donald Trump, the bullshit in his bad. That seemed funny. But to understand, well, that's really how he debates and you know I knew him, which is fine. He's the Donald Trump guy from the fake reality show, which I'm so grateful I never did. I'm so grateful he does his twice-four show, best-says-four-show period, which is one of my favorite jobs to do at that show to promote the Apprentice.

Speaker 3: 17:08

And first of all, he does the thing when he's with you, like me and Mike Lervage and John Sally and all the guys and right when we start filming, he goes. I just want to say I am here for tomorrow. I am here because of my relationship with Tom, which gives you a little tingle in your spine. That's what he's capable of, that with people. And you're like well, that's a nice Thank you. That's very gracious. And afterwards he said I have a new vodka or tequila, whatever.

Speaker 3: 17:35

We come to the Playboy Mansion with me. We're having a party tonight. I go yeah, I'll go over there with you. He goes I want you to meet my new girlfriend. I go oh, yeah, he goes. She's a playmate. She's so freaking out that I go okay, I'll go there with you. And so I go over there with you and he's I meet carrie mcdougall and she's got the buddy thing on. I think she's playmate of the year. Seemed like very nice gal and I talk a little bit and he's like oh well, audio is here too. And my daughter like then they all pose for a picture together. This guy does not care. I've worked with athletes and didn't seem to care.

Speaker 3: 18:10

But this guy is, you know, and then when he says, get around for president, I was like that that is unacceptable, it's gonna be a horrible I'm trying to wrap all the people that do him, like I did you for the Apprentice or Miss Universe, and it should have been when he started the Berkler stuff with Obama. That should have been it right there in 2011. Because I'll tell you, as a Jew, if the first Jewish president, if he would have went on TV and said I demand to see your birth certificate, he would have never done it again. He would have never. He would have never done it again. He would never. We would have got together. I'm disappointed we didn't do that for the first time, so I made a slide, let it slide.

Speaker 3: 18:54

and now here we are.

Speaker 2: 18:56

Yes, you know, when I was in the military we had amongst each other we had a saying you know, trust me with your life, but never your money or your girlfriend, right, and it was just kind of a ha ha thing between between each other. But that to me, that the last two encapsulate donald trump in the way he lives his life 24 7 except he. You couldn't trust him with your life either. You couldn't trust him with your life either. You couldn't trust him with your life, your money or your girlfriend any time.

Speaker 3: 19:29

No, no, no. It's plain as day. And here's the thing he is authentic. Donald Trump is authentic, authentically who he is, authentically bad. That's who he is. He's authentic. Rodgers had us try to run as a Donald Trump type. He wasn't authentic at all, and people recognize this. They're like well, nobody will vote for him if you're not authentic. And what's happened with Trump is the people around him have changed, people that used to be legitimate United States senators that cared about different issues, or whatever. Or America or the Constitution, or the people serving, or whatever. Or America or the Constitution or the people serving, or whatever they have molded themselves into being.

Speaker 3: 20:09

You know and these guys do they do better. They said it when they were running against him, you know. They said all this stuff and now they've molded themselves into being psychopaths for this A better version of the vice presidential job, where he is literally running them around like idiots. He is making them fawn over him and you know he went up to Capitol Hill. They all kind of gathered around him and I will say this, when he first started doing that with his cabinet like James Mattis, the military people he was going around the room and we wanted somebody to say something good about him on camera and you know, james Mattis was like, yeah, this is not how it works. I am going to. No, I'm going to. In fact, I'm not going to be here anymore these meetings because I want to do my job, you know, and all the good military people that worked with him, you know, and all the good military people that worked with him, you know, his chief of staff, all these people, the good ones they will never forget, because they all talk these stories and Trump's like, well, I'll get shitty.

Speaker 3: 21:16

Let's say I'll get people that will do exactly what I want to do and I have no plans or anything like that. There's no policy stuff. There's. No, here's my goal. I'm just going to do this. No, I'm just going to fix everything, everything. The america is shitty, shitty, shitty, dark, shitty, shitty, and I'll fix it on day one. And uh, and, and that's not even you know. You want things to be better, but how stupid do you have to be to go? Okay, he never did it in four years.

Speaker 3: 21:46

But now he's really going to do it.

Speaker 3: 21:47

He is going to do it and I also think it's important. People remember the last year of his presidency. There was an international pandemic and thousands of people were dying every day and it was a scary time. It was a scary time for me and my kids it was. You know, I was so grateful that he had his Operation Jetstar or whatever that got the vaccine Like that was a really great accomplishment during his administration. Now he can't admit that because, exactly, yeah, because his voters, they hate the vaccine. And he's like now I can't admit this really great thing that was accomplished during my time.

Speaker 3: 22:30

And the last thing I want to say is he will never say anything bad about anyone that goes through it. It could be David Duke, it doesn't matter. The problem always is that he is incapable. If you support him because it is all about him, he's such a narcissist he will never. He'll pretend he doesn't know about your crimes, but he'll never put down anyone that he supports him. And you go back to George HW Bush, which won. There's a Republican convention of these far-right racists trying to participate and he got up and made a speech. There's the door. You're not welcome here. Can you imagine Trump doing that? I think this will be a reckoning, for we certainly have to do everything we can and hopefully this will pop the boil and him and everybody around him will go up a cliff, and that's going to take a lot of work?

Speaker 2: 23:30

Yes, absolutely. And you said something, tom, that I think is so key. You said he just comes in and says you know, I'm going to fix everything. And when I hear him do that and I think this will resonate with you, when I hear him do that, and I think this will resonate with you, the area that I grew up in, it's the kind of language that they speak.

Speaker 2: 23:50

For example, if I were to, let's say, have called an uncle of mine who I knew his car broke down, and if I would have called him and said what happened, he would have said, oh, it's all fucked up. If I said, what are you going to do, he'd have said, ah, fix it. There wouldn't have been any detail about it. There wouldn't have been. I think one of the pistons the silver was, and then okay. So what we're going to do is this the floor, the silver walls and then okay. So what we're going to do is this. Trump zeroes in on those easy, ambiguous but specific sounding things and to a big section of America, we're going to fix this Sounds very specific. It's a crazy phenomenon.

Speaker 3: 24:43

We just want to be able to sleep at night. We want to. The president says everything's fine phenomenon. We just want to be able to sleep at night. We want to. President says everything's fine, I got it. I got this. Go to sleep this war, whatever we're into. I got this Now, that's a really good thing for a president.

Speaker 3: 24:58

You know that's a Reagan had that. You know Obama too. But when there's, when you see that his body of work and there's just not going to happen. I mean, when Trump got elected, he had the Senate and the House, like all three, all three, and he never got anything done. He did the tax cut, which raised the deficit $8 trillion, but he didn't get any of it. He was always like I'm gonna do, repeal this thing and do something great, or I'm having infrastructure week or whatever, or I'm building the full wall. And then he just people just had to start lying and saying, well, he built the wall. It's time to think you know, you know they will do that, so, um, he won't do anything and he'll blame everybody else. But just starting from a place of America is this shitty, dark, evil, terrible place. The economy is just terrible. You know, if you care about facts, our economy is better than any place in the world. We're not as shitty.

Speaker 3: 25:59

We're the best place in the world.

Speaker 3: 26:00

It's fighting Donald Trump and our military is the best military by far. It's not even close. So you know, if your pitch is, hey, we're all screwed. It's terrible, it's dark, it's evil. We're being overrun by people who are different, god wants me to do this thing. I think it's on them to believe that. I certainly feel like women saved this last election. Women in general. Us guys were like, okay, that guy, he's kind of funny, we'll compromise the shit out of stuff, we'll make deals. But I think women who don't always get involved with politics, I think there's a lot of women who think it's stupid and they've got better stuff to do when they do get involved, when they're like, oh, this is it, this is over, I cannot take, I don't want to see that guy again. That guy, this show is over, I do not want to watch this show. And they get involved and angry and vote and then that changes things. I hope it.

Speaker 2: 27:06

I hope it doesn't get this stuff too yes, I want to contrast your life and your relationship with money and donald trump's, because donald trump came into the world in a family with a lot of money, never knew poverty, never knew a hamburger helper. You reached a pinnacle where you had more money than you ever dreamed of, but you didn't start there. Tell me a little bit about growing up. I know your mother left at one point and your dad was she left when I was four, my sister of three, my brother's one.

Speaker 3: 27:45

I know your mother left at one point and your dad was. She left. When I was four, my sister of three, my brother's one. I'm glad she left. She realized this is a bad thing. My parents got married at 18 and 16. And so when my dad was 22, he had a four-year-old, a three-year-old, a one-year-old, which is pretty awesome. He said you need't play with us more, he goes. I got to work at it and he was. You know, once I had my own kids I'm like, oh no, he was killing it. So, yeah, so there's that. And so there was never. You know, growing up I knew, okay, if I want something, I got to mow yards. You gotta bill. Hey, I gotta. And I did get a lot of self-esteem from you know, these are things that wouldn't happen today. Where you're 10 years old, you go down the church parking lot, get on a school bus full of trip chairs to go house and details accord with bed right and uh.

Speaker 3: 28:36

But you know, I remember the first real job that I got a dollar 48 hour'm like this feels good and I packed my lunch. And when I was 13, my boss was 15. And you know, 15-year-old boys are just huge assholes, so they would always be. And my 13-year-old friends just gave a shake and they'd fire us one day, out by Ostalusa, which is 22 miles from the tunnel, and they fired us and there's no ride home. So we had to hitchhike and I still had my lunch, but my lunch failed. So I got home and I took everything out and I hid it and I just did what my dad's going for because I got fired, because they left me. So I called Leo McCurdy from McCurdy Scene. He never got a call from a kid or whatever I said. Here's what happened. I was working real hard meeting my buddies and this guy and this guy. They wanted to take off. They fired us and I want to come back to work tomorrow and he's like, wow, again, that was ever. So I went next. I didn't have to tell my dad. I got fired.

Speaker 3: 29:40

I would have loved to have a rich dad. I'm not going to lie to you People are like I bet you're grateful that your dad never gave you anything. I'm like no, no, I would have taken a rich dad. You know, if I wanted to go to college, I had to pay for college. If I wanted to do this, I had to do this. If I wanted to have a car, if I wanted to have, you know, whatever, and it isn't.

Speaker 3: 30:00

You do think of things. You know, I can't imagine having a father that is so wealthy, gives you basically $420 million from his tax stuff. I mean, that would be. I love that, I love that. But it's not the way that things go. And you know, on the other hand, I get out here, have these dreams come true, do a lot of fantastic things, make tens of millions of dollars, and then you know, I get divorced four times and I give my money. So I would have liked to have paid a little more attention when I was at University of Iowa studying business administration.

Speaker 3: 30:40

I recommend that to everybody, because when you do, when you have nothing and then you've got all this stuff, you assume that's not real money or you assume that's always going to be there and you just want to. You don't really plan for things, and so you know. Then you get later on you're like what happened to that? Where is that? You know? I have a funny thing about my old college. It's called the Tom Arnold Net Center. You know how you get your name on a building. You have a lot of money. Sure.

Speaker 3: 31:12

I remember one time when I was trying to figure out the money situation I was like, wait a minute, did I give them that, or was that like a loan? I feel very lucky. I've been in a seven-year legal thing with ex-wives and kids and cops just awful stuff. So I'm just so grateful to have these guys. And my dad didn't do anything. I said, dad, I need a couple of dollars for the store. And he pulled the clock and said Bobby, you got no money and I've done that with my kids. Daddy, can I have something? I go hey, I got no money. I pulled the clock and said what do you do, dad? Hit your pass, hang it in your bedroom in the front pocket.

Speaker 3: 32:07

You got $97. Your pass hanging in your bedroom in the front right front pocket. You got 97 dollars. Like you know, they keep track of that stuff, which is good, but you do, um, you know you do have a. You've been truly poor. You know where you're looking for boys looking for, you know. You see, and, by the way, when I first started comedy I was that poor. But the reason that I loved it so much, it was my dream. When I was a kid. The only time we heard our dad laugh really hard was when there was a Bob Holmes special on. Bob Holmes was this comedian who went around to entertain the troops in Vietnam or Germany, wherever, and he did his act and he brought beautiful women and there was a lot of double entendre jokes that my dad loved and I thought I'm going to do what that Bob Hope does.

Speaker 3: 32:55

And one of the first things I did. I moved to Los Angeles here in 1988, and I did a Bob Hope special and Bob Hope was there with him. He follows my dad, he signs all this stuff for my dad. It was so cool and so my dad, in the same living room, same TV that he used to watch Bob Hope specials when I was a little kid, is now watching Bob Hope and his son is standing next to Bob Hope. Like that's a magic that you can't. That is crazy. You know, I have to say this. A lot of the kids go to. I like the school they go to here. We had a bit of a drive, but I like it a lot.

Speaker 3: 33:35

And at first I'd hear a lot of parents like that Dream it be it, like you can do anything you want. I used to think I think I've been split the difference with my kids. You know I don't want to get too uh. But then I thought, wait a minute. Every dream I've ever had it's come true, like literally the dreams I used to have when I was chiseling heads at the beat, you know, being robbed, players, being friends with rob, that you know all of them. So I can't tell them well, no, you that won't come true, because it really has. So I don't know how, but I'm very lucky.

Speaker 2: 34:07

I heard you mention hauling hay. I too hauled hay and mowed yards and I will tell you. I won't tell you because you know anybody listening. If there's anything in life that will inspire you to do something else, it is hauling hay in 105 degree weather.

Speaker 3: 34:27

It's awful, it's sticky, you know you have to take your shirt off. It's so freaking hot. It's got valet stack of hay, just anything with hay, and what was you know? My kids I bring them to my work once in a while. I want them to. I don't know they don't have to be actors, they don't have to a while. I want them to. I don't know they don't have to be actors, they don't have to be producers. I want them to just see what we do, because that's what my dad used to be doing so far, and I realized I don't want to do this. I do not. This is I'll do it now to make money. And do you know?

Speaker 3: 34:57

hang out, but this is not what I want to do Now. There's a place called Underwood Bars out here. That's about an hour and 15 minutes out there on the 101. And I drive my kids there and the other kids from school and I pay $125 each day for them to get out and pick fruit and vegetables.

Speaker 2: 35:16

Nice.

Speaker 3: 35:17

Just love it and get a bat and I watch it. Every time I'm like that is such a crazy thing to me, being a sign a Simon back in the middle of this freaking field, right. But you know, that's you know, and I hope that they see things that I you know the acting thing I've done some independent films. They're like will you do this? So I go yeah, if you'll give me two hours in the studio with my kids and shooting something. First they have these little studios where they have a court and they have a boxing ring, a police station. You go room to room. I said let us figure something out. The kids write something out. My son likes to go down and set up the license stuff and build the set. He's very interested in that part of it. My daughter likes the other part If it's what they want to do. There's a lot of different jobs in my business. But you know, if it's just like I want to be famous, I'm like, well, that's not how it works. You're my kid, here's what I'm saying for you. There's tradesmen, there's craftsmen, people it's not all just the people on camera. There's a lot of you working hard to do all this stuff. There are opportunities.

Speaker 3: 36:30

I think it's been a couple of shitty years for us with the strikes and we're not back up to 100%. The studio's really back on the strike. They had all their content, like they do. This is how long the strike's going to last. We're going to say bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. This is not a good time to strike. We're going to say all that shit that they always say, and then we'll settle when we need it to settle, and that's what's happened.

Speaker 3: 36:55

And now we're waiting on the crews they have until July 20th, I think to sign there with first aid, the riders and the actors you can't do anything without. And now the crews may go on trying. They're negotiating because this ai thing and hopefully they'll get that done and one of the things anytime they're. You know I am a very pro, pro, pro union person and I I know the ups guys. We see a lot of liberty guys. My son bought himself a what do you put a stack of boxes on, and he likes to. Oh yeah, he just loves to get out there with those guys a dolly or whatever he's got a dolly yeah a flatbed too.

Speaker 3: 37:34

But but you know, the UPS guys want to strike and then when they solve it, settle it. I was like that is good news for us, the actors, the writers, because any time a union, whatever kind of union it is, works something out, there's a sort of a ripple effect, because that, you know, that will eventually get to us. And it's the same way people bust a union somewhere or people decide not to vote, they commit to vote against the union. You're like okay, that's a little bit of a negative for us. So the more you can encourage these people to be brave and go out and do this thing, the better it is for everybody.

Speaker 2: 38:16

Right, I've got a question about your industry. How long because, here you are, you have this dream. You start off in a tamua, you you make your way to LA and you talk about in 88, you know you're on stage with Bob Hope and your dad's watching. How long is it before you have that feeling and realize I am now one of them? I would assume that takes a little while to realize I'm now a star.

Speaker 3: 38:52

Yeah, Well, I have to Sad. Five guys is here at the door.

Speaker 2: 38:59

Five guys is great. It's expensive.

Speaker 3: 39:04

It's like I'll order from there because I'm like I won't eat the bud, great prize. I will say eat the bud, great prize. I will say I was crazy. Like I thought, oh, I'm part of this. I remember saying if I could just get to the University of Iowa, I started so that's a meat pack. But if I just get up there because they've got a stage and I get on that stage and in six weeks I'll be on the David Letterman show, that's what I really believe. And of course it takes eight years or whatever it took. But I had to believe that to get up there and do what I was doing and I wasn't good at it, I had to learn to get good at it by working with people who weren't good at it. But I needed that crazy thing. Like I'll do anything. I had $100. I got a job offer in Minneapolis in a comedy club and then I packed my trash bag and clothes, got on a bus with $100, went to the place and, by the way, the only reason I got a job offer was because a real comedian from Minneapolis would come down to the University of Iowa or I would open up for that and my 15 friends that went to every show we'd drink Everclear punch, which is Everclear and butter Gatorade. It's strong, but my kids would get drunk. And then when I did my set we'd all get out and go party. And then the club owner's like, yeah, maybe next time you get your friends to stay for the real comedians and if you still want them to stay, then I'll give you a job in Minneapolis, this comedy club. And I'm like, well then, we're staying, that's it. So when that happens we stay for them.

Speaker 3: 40:44

I get on a bus, I go up, I land at the comedy club the comedy cabaret, it was called. I go to the front door, I say I meet the guy. He said, listen, I'm here for my job. I don't have a car or a driver's license, so I'm actually somewhere very close to here. And he's like, whoa, you moved here, I go, yeah. Yeah. He said I had a job. He goes, you have a job for one weekend, opening up for $17.50. I go. Well, then I got to get another job. So I walked through this bar, this pub, this huge, got a job as a bouncer and a bar back and met a waitress who was looking for a roommate for a hundred bucks and what. And that was just it. And then every you know I worked real jobs. But then every comedy thing you know I'd sleep on people's couches, go for nothing.

Speaker 3: 41:33

Do all this because I really loved it. I really thought this is going to lead to whatever you know it leads to. I just wanted to be on TV one time because I thought if I'm on TV one time everyone in my hometown will love it. And it turns out that's not true. But you've got to have that craziness to keep you in it, because it makes no sense. Nobody's going to tell Lyle he's on TV. Nobody went to be a comedian. That's just not what we do. But from the early age I do, I'm going to do this thing. And you get lucky, you get in the right position and what I thought I was going to do, that evolved. I thought, well, I'm going to be a stand up comedian.

Speaker 3: 42:17

And then back in 1983, when I was 23, roseanne, who was a very good comedian, not famous yet, and she came to the club owners at the comedy gallery and said I saw this woman at Denver. You guys are going to hit it off a bunch of work together this weekend. And we did and uh, we uh, borrowed the mc's car and never came back. But she, she was a very good comedian and and uh, the trick I think with men is we know we're good looking, but if you tell us we're funny, like you got us, got us forever. But he said I was funny and then she asked me to write some jokes for her, for her act. And a couple years later in 1985, she went on the Johnny Carson show and I was watching back and she did a couple jokes I'd written and she killed and I thought that's a good feeling. So I came out to LA, did an HBO special with her, played her dream husband shockingly in her hbo, and then it came time to her tv show, said first of all, she said I want you to play the husband. I'm like I haven't really acted, but I'll come out, I'll see how that goes. And then went out. We auditioned together, fortunately, john goodman, so many shows, but you have to write the show because you don't like character more than anybody. I go, yeah, I'll do that. So I went from writing some jokes to okay, I was a comedian, now I'm a writer. This is what I'm going to do.

Speaker 3: 43:40

I brought in half of the staff from medias from the Midwest I lived with that I knew were very funny and I thought they were funny. They have a point of view. They don't know how to write a script. I can teach them. Here's how you write a script One act, two acts, whatever. That's easy. We can't teach people to be funny and so that you know that it was a lot of responsibility and you know, especially to look out for her and her you know point of view. It's her show and people were not accepting of it being her show. The older Hollywood tights, and I'd be like, okay, well then you got to go. I mean, you really, they'll throw you out a window.

Speaker 3: 44:20

It's her show, you know, and so that worked for, you know, six years. And the second year the other writers were like dude, because my dad and Rosanna and I were dating. They're like people know this, it's everywhere. You've got to be on the show, you've got to act on the show. Let's write a character for you, artie Comet. I go, okay, I guess I'm an actor now. Then this happens and I write and I get a job in a movie or this or that. I go, I guess I'm doing that.

Speaker 3: 44:52

I do a lot of things now. You know, I act in movies and TV. I do stand-up, which I've always loved. I go, you know, side comic cons. Again, I have four ex-wives and two little kids. I have to do this.

Speaker 3: 45:05

I give sobriety speeches about sobriety and mental health around the country, which are very satisfying, and so I'll do whatever. You know, again, I've been in court with this last nut for seven years and it's not going to change. By the way, the cops won't come anymore. You know she swatted us, did all this stuff. But well, she my ex, the court really respected court therapist, psychologist, uh, looked at all this stuff. It's all public record, it's crazy and she said uh, this last march, we were there. Uh well, good, dude, she's not a psychopath who wants to murder you, I go well, that is good. She's a sociopath who wants other people to worry. She's a narcissistic sociopath, I go well, what can I do about that? She said nothing. I go well, what will she do about it? Nothing. But what you do is you recognize patterns. You can kind of see it coming Like something's up and then she's out of the house. You know, it's always good. There's nothing I can do. I can protect my kids, you know. I can talk to them about stuff which my dad didn't do.

Speaker 3: 46:16

When I was a kid. My mom would show up, you know, drunk inside the drugs, and fall into the Christmas tree and dad would just laugh because, you know, he thought that's taking the high road. And I knew that my mom wasn't a mom, like there was nothing. She would say I'm not material. I don't know, I'll never tell you. I loved it, but my sister was a year younger. My mom was her idol and my sister. It affected my sister later in life. A lot of it became the Queen of Meth, you know, because she worshipped this woman. You know I moved in with my mom when I was 15 because I wanted to do drugs and drink and grow my hair and have no rules.

Speaker 3: 46:52

Like I made that decision, like my dad had a lot of rules and I knew immediately it was a bad decision. But it's like this is what I said I wanted to do, you know. And I actually went and set myself up with my dad's type. That's just stupid. Like I go, let's go, and he's like okay, okay, let me just try. So he takes his fist and just a second, I just want to measure something. He puts his knuckle here, he goes, I'm just measuring and this hurt. It's not all so rough.

Speaker 3: 47:20

I'm like that hurt. The other shots were really going to hurt. So I'm like, okay, let's not do this, but you know we'll go through. And I knew it was bad.

Speaker 3: 47:28

But my sister, the first drunks we ever, or the first time we got drunk, was with our mother and my sister worshipped her. Her life was great until she was 14. Great student, great athlete, great, great. And then she was with our mom. Our mom's, like you, are my. We're going to be drinking buddies, drug buddies. She says that you are my best friend and I'm going to make you marry a guy 22 year old. Immediately she drives her down to missouri and uh, and they makes them get married to this guy that you know. She gave her choices. Hey, you can dump them, or I can have them arrested, or you can marry him. And you're 14, you think you're in love. You're dumb ass, you're like I will bury him. So it was a terrible thing. Her life was off the rails. The guy beat her up and when he died, I'd go get her. He ended up dying in a mysterious fire in his bed.

Speaker 3: 48:19

This is true, it's hard to tell. They didn't really investigate it. Then my sister was done. You can't go back to junior high if you've been married. My sister was like I've got to make something of this. I'm smart, this drug you know my mom's low level, whatever her bullshit, I'm going to do it and I'm going to make it a real business and do it very big. And so that's what she did. And she, her next husband was a biker, president of the grip reapers, the grinding rapers. We called them grip reapers motorcycle. He hated me. I did not like him either. I thought I was preppy, me and my buddies were preppy. We'd come into their bar. I wanted to enter the bar, you know, even his biker buddies just wanted to, you know. But you know she did that.

Speaker 3: 49:05

And the first time she went to prison. You know the documentary series is good because they have the da guys who were, who had hearts. You know they actually liked my sister and they had a big one of the drug deals that she did. She had, uh, there's three da's and she doesn't realize that and uh, they're making this drug deal. There's a couple hundred thousand dollars, a bunch of drugs and my sister ravella takes her god and sets it on the table. And they you see them, look at each other. You know and uh, uh, you know they're like okay, what they'd asked to report. Are you afraid to do these deals by yourself? She was no, it's such a good. That guy got her 10 years of christian. That's a mandatory minimum. You could negotiate the rest of it.

Speaker 3: 49:49

She went to prison and I really blamed her husband, who ended up dying in prison. He went to Fort Leavenworth and died because he would not apologize. I mean, he's like this guy, the green gray, getting off. He would not apologize for what he did. My sister apologized and turned on some people for the Mexican mafia that had given her the product to to you know, build her underground lab and tell her to create all this. And then she got out that had given her the product to build her underground lab and tell her well, I'd create all this meth. And then she got out and I got her a job at Hormel. That was the best job in town. Then I got a call. She quit her job.

Speaker 3: 50:23

In essence, she's drinking, she's not close to drinking and she started dealing meth. But if you stop right now we will bust her. So I fly in, there are seven kids in the family. I'm able to get everybody together picture with our dad. You know we take a picture with dad and I walk out and I go, lori, I talk to the sheriff, the DA guy. They know you're dealing, but if you stop right now you're not going to get busted. She goes find your own fucking business. And then she got busted again. And then that husband, she had a new husband and he died in prison. So she had two husbands it is not them, she's a mastermind to this, but she's doing very well. She's driving a forklift up in Ohio. Knock on wood, got another big, giant biker husband, but she's doing well, man, and you know two 10-year terms in prison I mean it's a rough thing, but you know there are consequences to behavior and I hope she just keeps on the straight and narrow, you know. Oh yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 51:28

But for the grace of God, that's me, you know, you know. Oh yeah, oh yeah, that's. But for the grace of god, that's me, you know. I put it. The only reason I couldn't deal drugs didn't because I had to do so, there was no, I never went to sleep with any extra drugs. Sure, and you know, when I moved to la and you get big quantities of cocaine, reasonable prices you know it was a, it became a real deal.

Speaker 3: 51:49

And uh, I remember roseanne kid and said, do you do this every day? I go, yeah, yeah, I do drink junk chat. She goes, that's not good. I go, is it just? I thought you only did it every three months when we went on the road together. I go no, no, it's an everyday thing. Well, that can't, you can't. Okay.

Speaker 3: 52:05

So at that point, with those, I can't even realize I can't do drugs in front of her or anybody. I'm'm going to have to keep this secret. I didn't consider quitting, but this is going to be a secret. And then, you know, it escalated, it got out of hand and in 89, it went into rehab because she lost like everybody did, and so I'm very grateful about that, I'm grateful to her, I'm grateful about that. But you know, it doesn't always work that way with people. And now you know my sister's like well, now, these drugs. People die from taking a blood pill, which is true, I think people die from that. Their lives are certainly screwed up and people were. There's a lot of crime and etc. So she's doing well, and you know here we are.

Speaker 2: 52:55

Well, and that was up through about I think I read 89. I graduated in 84. So I'm pretty confident that some of my friends probably did some of your sister's drugs.

Speaker 3: 53:08

I'm almost positive.

Speaker 3: 53:09

Yeah, she went to prison the first time in the 91, I believe and yeah, I got her a very good lawyer and went down and talked to the judge and said you know, she's a mother, it's seven. I hate her, you know, because they want to send her to prison for life. Back then I said you know, I know she needs to go to prison. Well, maybe there's something we could do and give her a chance. Give, give her a chance. And this poor kid, her son, was seven and all of a sudden they had this big raid with the helicopters and battery rams Because they couldn't tell the local police they were going to bust her. They had to share this big bar with the underground lab Because the local police, including my seventh stepfather worked for her and he was the chief of police he worked for Lori. That's true.

Speaker 3: 53:56

They had to come in hard the best, and you know they took the parents out. That was the last time he saw his parents. For him, that was the last time he saw his father for 10 years.

Speaker 3: 54:06

And his dad he never saw again. His dad went away and died in prison. So we helped raise him and thank God this kid I mean he has never done drugs, never drank. He's married to a nice Jewish girl. He works four jobs. He's a giant. Of course he's got some issues. I'm a little angry, but you know that's a miracle. And the other kids it wasn't just my sister went to prison, it was all the people that worked for her, our town, just a whole generation of parents gone and grandparents are trying to raise these kids or whoever. And a lot of them didn't make it. A lot of them were right back in the cycle. I tried to employ as many of them as I could at the farm, trying to give them some self-esteem. But if you could not follow your parents to prison, it's a success. Where I'm from, I'm sure your friends got drunk.

Speaker 2: 55:03

Now? Do you still have roots in Iowa Family? Do you go back and do things in?

Speaker 3: 55:09

Iowa. I have my friends, guys I grew up with. We're still very close the guys in a belly on a jail naked, no question about it. But I go back. I go back to Iowa football games, iowa basketball games. I was close to the university, a loyal Hawkeye fan, and there's not as many people. My stepmother died this fall. She was the last. I am now officially the oldest person in my family.

Speaker 3: 55:40

You do go back there and I like to go back a couple days at a time and see the old Hawks. My kids love it. My kids say this is great, this is like Disneyland. Look at all this. Look at that farm there. You can ride four-wheelers. Can we do I can't say this is great, this is like Disneyland. Look at all this. Look at that farm there. Look at all this. You can ride four-wheelers. Can we do that? Yeah, you can do that. You know it's just exciting for them to do nothing and drive and drive, and drive. And you know, stay in a little motel and do our thing. You know they take really good care of me back at the forget which hotel it is and they give me two rooms and the patient. Nobody bothers us. Let's give the kids.

Speaker 3: 56:22

I do like it and I do need to go back there for myself, because I spent 23 years there. It's not like I grew up in Iowa a little bit, then went to Hollywood no, no, that something like. I grew up in Iowa a little bit, then went to Hollywood no, no, that's where I grew up. There's a lot of great things about it and there's a lot of things I care about. Back there, it's good to have. I don't want to go back there forever. I'll tell you what. It'd be a lot cheaper. Yeah well, you know, actually gas was $2.99. I was like what?

Speaker 3: 56:56

Let's get it was taking out the drive back or whatever.

Speaker 2: 56:59

Yeah, I filled it up yesterday it was $2.99. Yeah, it was cheaper.

Speaker 3: 57:05

Yeah, that's funny with the gas prices. I'll get that down. I say you know gas prices kept up. You stopped buying gas. You start with whatever you can Gas bacon, eggs and if you stop buying it then they go. Oh, we better lower the prices. That's always how it is. We're pumping more gas and oil in this country than any country ever. No, joe Biden, is something you don't have to brag about. We're pumping, we're doing more than we ever have, than Trump in any place ever has. So you know, I do like the idea of splitting the difference between wind energy, solar, what will work. But you know, that's just. And people, you know that Trump and his guys are really good enough saying okay, inflation is way down, the stock market is working and it's a buy Right. Cost more for eggs at no, and that is true. Well, you gotta do. I see a lot of stores are lower right now because, yeah, you're gonna stop. I mean this. Five, five guys. Hammers, holy shit, they're expensive, like $150. You know, with fast food holy shit.

Speaker 3: 58:11

They're expensive, like $150. But they're good. You know you can come with a fast food. You know I don't. I try not to order fast food every day. You know, as a single dad sometimes. Why are they called Happy Meal? Because they make the kids happy, right, what do we? Got A toy in there, yeah, so I try to split the difference. I cook too, and I never cook anything that I won't eat, because I'll end up eating what they don't eat. I have that weird thing with my dad it's hard to stay in shape when you're afraid to throw away any food. I eventually will sit there and go. I'm going to eat this because I don't want to throw it away, and you know it's hard. You've got to get some of your fat, is what I'm telling you.

Speaker 2: 58:59

Let me ask you what kind of relationship in terms of do you catch any heat, either directly or indirectly, from Trump these days?

Speaker 3: 59:09

Well, you know he was with Michael Cohen. My goal was anything for him not to be president, to get my friends and the friends put out all those awful. They were funny until he's running for president. Now they're not On the best-selling sports show by a clip producer. Sports clip producers are genius. They can put shit together. His brother was the executive producer of the Apprentice, the guy that talked to Trump more than anyone before every take, after every take. And you know the Apprentice is a game show and in this country it's a federal law because we had a game show scandal in the 50s. So legally, if you're the host or the star of a game show, you have to be filmed from the second you get there until the second you leave. So they know you're not influencing your face, Because that's what you have to have and you have to save that footage forever.

Speaker 3: 1:00:10

Anytime the show syndicates they're legally required to have it. And you have to save that footage forever. Anytime the show syndicates, they're legally required to have all of that footage, the outtakes of this, that to even sell the show, that never leaves the show. So you know there's a lot of stuff and there have been outtakes of me from my best-seller sports show and stuff that people saw I would never get elected president. Disgusting things, best-selling sports show, stuff that people saw I would never get elected president. Like they'd say you know these disgusting things, you know, and you know people, you know, and it's hilarious, but so with him, yeah, I thought that's, that's not acceptable. I tried to get those executive producers to step up, tried to figure out a way to get me that page-settling scene, and you know it was trying to figure out a way to begin the page-to-page scene and you know it was.

Speaker 3: 1:00:54

Anytime you get involved in politics before you know, in my business people say everybody's liberal, everybody's not liberal. There are a lot of conservatives, a lot of Republicans, a lot of people that have a lot of money and support, you know, and they got behind Donald Trump too because they're like he is going to make us more money. I'm Jewish. A lot of Jews got behind him. Oh, he's going to make us more money, and that is true. But you know you have to. At a certain point you go. Well, what, where does that lead? Because he's going to this. Next time he'll crash the economy. He doesn't want to. He has all this weird stuff about, you know, isolating America and stuff. Right, it just won't. You know, it just will make things terrible. He's got a lot. He's got the really terrible people at this time. He had some really good people at the last time. They're like whoa, that's not. Hey, let me talk him down a little bit, but this time, a lot of people time.

Speaker 3: 1:01:49

I think that I have a responsibility in democracy. It takes some work. It takes work to get it started.

Speaker 3: 1:01:58

It is my responsibility, especially as a dad with young kids, to, if I see something, say something Because it will matter. It will matter to my kids more. I'm sure I'm not trustless. It's funny because as I get ready to do the Trump stuff, I realize, well, that's a guy I've got to get to flip on Trump. So I go out to New York and run into him. I knew what hotel he was at and this is before he flipped and I'm like you've got to flip on Trump. He's terrible. He doesn't like you. It's a bad. You've got to do it hard. You've got to pull the bandaid off.

Speaker 3: 1:02:34

I literally stayed there until he did. He got out of the elevator. I'd be there. He was in on it. We posted pictures together, as you can see in this trial. Trump was seeing the pictures and saying what are you doing, man? He hates Tom Ireland. Why are you with him? He's the most powerful man in the world and you're messing with him. But you know I'm not. You know everything I say about Trump he knows is true or his family you know, so he's.

Speaker 3: 1:03:09

Uh, I got a video of him slapping me doing pretty funny one. So you know he's. I got a video of him slapping me. It was pretty funny one time. But you know I have nothing, I'm not. The only thing I fear is that bad things are going to happen to my country and my kids in the future because of him. And so you know we got to. You know, like I said, I've never been this political. I supported Tom Harkin, who's a great senator from Iowa, a Democrat, a president in 1992. Rosanna and I did. Rosanna I supported in the Clinton administration in our house. Now she apparently faced their criminals.

Speaker 3: 1:03:43

But you know you do that stuff for issues, issues. What is this issue? Is this going to be good? Do they support unions? Do they support insurance for people that have pre-existing conditions? Whatever the basic things. School lunch there's a lot of kids that don't have lunch at school and support that stuff.

Speaker 3: 1:04:06

I always depend on the Republicans to kind of keep the fiscal not out of control. When I grew up in Iowa, democrats, I always depended on the Republicans to support. You know, kind of keep the fiscal. You know, get that lot. If you're a Senate you've got to get out of control. And when I grew up in Iowa Democrats, you know the social stuff and then you had these great Republicans and then you met the middle and when I was in high school, what we did was we went our domain coach would be like you're Democrats, you're Republicans, let's go to the Iowa State Capitol and we'll pass the bill. So we all went in. That's how you did it. You worked together, you worked on top of ice and we had some great Republican governors. Robert Ray was great, different people. So that's you. My dad was Republican, everybody you know. So that was the old way and now it's not that way, and you know. So I am. You know.

Speaker 3: 1:04:58

I think people like me have to continue speaking up. I'm doing research. My friend Lauren Winzer, who goes on oh yes, she went into the Supreme Court. You know you got to expose stuff, you got to be see transparency, and a lot of these people don't care. They're like I'm going to just say this stuff out loud, right, it's pretty shocking. So I depend on great journalists in this country to write great stories, to tell the truth to you know, trump's got a thing where he's like liberal media, liberal Me Too media they're all liars. He asks if it's people, they're all liars and they're all people they can listen to. Where do you get your news? Research, the internet?

Speaker 3: 1:05:44

You know nothing to make a comparison it's the worst comparisons, the saving pedophiles that died by Superman Having that new Jeffrey Epstein better than anybody period. They hung out with him at parties, with Young World and him and Lou Lovat. You could see the videos of it and you know, but somehow they're like well, we want to see the Epstein tapes and stuff. You know who flew on his like. Well, we want to see the FC teams to stop. You know who flew on his plane, the truck plane. I didn't fly on his plane. Yeah, he did fly on his plane. They say he's better, that's enough. Perfect. I never flew on his plane and I thought just probably would have. He's like hey, you want a free flight. I didn't know that much about him. I, I didn't know that much about him. I bet him Right. I'm sure I don't think he might have ever gotten to save the world yet, but that's just. You know, we all learn a little bit. And just the fact that you know he represents all of this, you know the worst of the worst.

Speaker 3: 1:06:42

And I do get why people say they're. Oh, he's because, like Roseanne said, when he said Rosie O'Donnell was like that big and I said you got to defend her, rosie O'Donnell, and she said, well, he never called me big Like that is the thinking. There'll be a black guy that thinks well, he never called me the N-word, he never called me that you think you're the one person and you're not. That's why he is very good about massaging that part of your ego. That's how he raised his kids Really shitty to him.

Speaker 3: 1:07:18

One of his kids had a drug and alcohol problem, got arrested Trump kicked out of the family. And who took care of him? Me and my friends Took care of him. I would tell him listen, man, your dad's an asshole, but he's like that old school thinking where you know drugs. The best thing he can do is you know he doesn't know how the real story of this happened. I'm sure eventually he'll be back, yet you know, but you got to take care of yourself first and so you know. That's what good people do, and so I don't know, I don't know. You've got to believe that he is Jesus Christ, to not look at everything else around him Like it has to be something to do with God, because otherwise it makes no sense to be a guy. That's, you know, so disgusting Right.

Speaker 2: 1:08:14

Well, one reason I among many that I wanted to have you on and you mentioned Lauren Windsor, who I'd love to have on the show as well. You and Lauren have put your neck out there and see. That's what I mean. There are some people who are willing to talk in their private circles about Trump, but there are too few people like you and Lauren Windsor who come out publicly and relentlessly and just keep hammering home these important points, and we need more of that. Do you see between now and November, do you see anyone else in the Hollywood industry doing that, like De Niro?

Speaker 3: 1:08:58

yourself. You know De Niro, I love him. How do you? He's like 80 years old out there and you know some people love business, or hey, let's not talk politics, let's not. He doesn't give. He knows who Trump is. He is nobody's more New York than Robert De Niro and he's not going to stop. And it's Robert De Niro, so you really can't go. Well, this hat whatever. I mean Trump, yeah, right, but maybe the most respected actor of my life, and he's putting it out there Like he's, you know, and what I need is that people, younger guys, that worship him and work with him, that allow him to also step up. People need to also step up. I get it. It's hard. There's so much chaos, it's traumatizing. Turn on the TV, turn on this, and it's getting worse. Fox News is getting worse. They're all in.

Speaker 3: 1:09:50

They're going to criticize Joe Biden all day and not say a bad thing about Trump. They're all in. This is their deal. I hope they go out and slip too. I assume that after this election, if Trump loses, they will sell boxes.

Speaker 2: 1:10:05

Yes, we have to make sure that happens.

Speaker 3: 1:10:09

There are a lot of people that only care about money out there. They don't have any. If they really cared about money, they'd have a little bit of foresight to go. Well, what's that going to happen after? How will that be financially after this guy burns everything down? You have to look at that. And more people have to step up. They're being like Jeffrey Kastenberg, who is a studio owner. He's up here and sometimes those guys don't want to do that. He is really taking it on. He's with the Biden campaign all the time. He's very smart. He's smart about communications and you know video stuff and he's rounded people up. There's a big guy over in Sene that I don't hear that you're including. A bunch of people are doing a thing. I think Brock's coming, but he Jeff Casper organized that and he's staying on it. See, a lot of times those guys are like well, I've done it before in the 80s or 90s, I'm not going to, but this guy is. I was reading about what he's up to in the Air Cups. He's a great guy and he's very, extremely powerful in our business.

Speaker 3: 1:11:19

This slide I got into with Mark Burnett. It was a Jeffrey Gass print party, which is the all the stars in there. And you know, first they were like they're going to kick me out. I go, well, they better kick his ass out and let me know, because I'm going to be waiting for him to finish this shit up. I thought it was a man-capped story. Okay, tom, you go back. But here's the thing If you see him, don't throw down on him. I won't see, I won't. He started it and just was. So you know the game back in that party, spent the rest of the night at that party. It was the best party I've ever been to. Everybody's like what the fuck? I said what up, you know, and it was great.

Speaker 3: 1:11:59

But you know people like that and I think there are, you know, a lot of reasonable people. I will be. I'm always happy with the Jews, my fellow Jews. This is just. You know why move the embassy or whatever, you know, which is a complicated thing. And also he brought the evangelicals with him, by the way. Evangelicals, I have more power to them. Why evangelicals? But here's the thing they say they love Jews. They don't love Jews. They love Israel, the land, israel, and what I'm told in the rapture, this thing they believe is that Jesus comes back. We. Jesus was a great Jew, you us. It's not God. He's like one of the best human beings of all. Time he comes back and what ends up happening to the Jews is they need a bunch of incense and then we get incinerated. If we don't convert to Christianity, we get incinerated. So their plan is to incinerate all of us. Those are trespass buddies. Now, I don't believe in the rapture, but you know these guys do. Anybody who believes in the rapture should not be in politics. Jesus comes down, incinerates everybody.

Speaker 3: 1:13:11

That's what so you know you shouldn't be. Your long-term thinking is, you know you don't care. Well, this goes sideways with this war. Whatever Jesus will come down and I said to this and I can promise you, jesus is not coming down Right right. And things should happen. There is a thing I believe in the universe that is bigger than me. Right, all of this I didn't. You know you've got to think that way, that you are not the biggest shit and there's something more powerful out there that has you know.

Speaker 3: 1:13:48

Otherwise it's a lot on your shoulders. I think Trump believes that he is that guy. He doesn't have any religion, or the Bible or the Constitution. He's never read any of that. And.

Speaker 3: 1:14:01

I like when he's called out, he's like well, I don't want to share my favorite Bible verse, but if these lady evangelicals really cared that they say they care or live like Jesus, they would not be when they care about his power and controlling people, controlling women, and you know it's sad and people are stopped. A lot of young people don't get involved with organized religion because it worked for a long time saying okay, if you don't do this, you're going to burn in hell. Like that was scary. Some of you would be came up with that like we're losing people, we need to stop. Some of you would be came up with that like we're losing people, we need to. We're having to. And now young people, you gotta.

Speaker 3: 1:14:46

I think these religious organizations have a great service. You know they're community centers and towns. It's gotta be by. You know you get by promotion. You know like you get by promotion. You know like you'd have to do this. It's like you want people to go. I like what they do, like they are. You know they've got some peace here and I like what they do To sell young people on this stuff. It's just they're like yeah, I don't think that's. I don't believe in that. I have a bigger worldview, but you know you need to attract people by doing attractive things and say this is how you'll feel better if you're part of our thing.

Speaker 2: 1:15:30

I don't know Right. Well, speaking of young people and doing the right thing, you've been involved in a lot of charity work and I know one I believe it's called Miracle on First Street, which was providing toys and other services to children who were in some unfortunate situation and this was something about Arnold day one, I guess, 35 years ago.

Speaker 3: 1:16:00

He's always been. You've got to be observant. By the way, nobody loves this country more than Arnold. It's just a fact. He loves. He's an immigrant from Austria, he loves America. Like being in Washington DC with him and him going out and looking at the monument is so annoying. There's a Lincoln Memorial of Memorials there. He loves this country. He never nothing, every dream he's ever had has come true. But he always stressed you've got to be of service, you've got to be of service, you've got to. You know.

Speaker 3: 1:16:31

So the miracle of First Street, something we've done for 30 years and we give out 10,000 gifts to kids that live in South Central LA that don't get it yet. It's this way, they'll get it. And the police we work with the Halibut Police Division out there they wrap all the gifts. It's hard to let you out and do the you know with Santa and do the thing, but it's really been a great thing to see. You know, we had Mayor Birgosa was our mayor of LA, anthony Birgosa, and he came down there with us. There's always politicians there with all parties and that was where he got his Christmas gift, at the Hall of Back in the day, like that was just one gift. And you see, these kids, people light up a couple days before and you know it's just a great feeling. We give them gifts. And you know, thanksgiving we have everybody turkey dinners. You know I make my kids come down. They like coming down to see what this is about giving back and that's just what he did and Arnold's done that. You know he's given hundreds of millions of dollars. He's got the After School All-Stars that I help with. It's an amazing organization for kids that are at-risk, kids in the inner city that you know would never get an education otherwise and he just pays it forward.

Speaker 3: 1:17:56

And you know his ex-wife and her family. You know I think that was one of the big attractions with Arnold and Maria Because you know, first of all, her family is very loving and he didn't necessarily have that. His dad was a drunken Nazi and his mom, you know, because that war very, very cold. You know, and he sees Maria's family. He's like these guys are loving on each other and all this stuff. I want in on this. And you know her father-in-law started the Peace Corps and his mother-in-law, who was a character, started the Special Olympics and this is what these guys did, and they really did it. They really were involved. I mean, I got to meet a Special Olympics ambassador, or whatever you call it for the National did it. They really were involved. I mean, I got to meet a special Olympic ambassador, or whatever you'd call it, for the national which are held in Iowa.

Speaker 3: 1:18:46

So I was with her all the time and she weighed about 80 pounds. She had a 400 pounds. She'd get in and from the early days when they started, all her grandkids had to be involved with it too. You know, all those kids, all the other kids, and they had a big pool out there at their house and the kids would go out there to swim and if one of the grandkids wasn't doing it right, wasn't teaching it, she'd strip off and jump in there. You know, these people are true and true, you know, and there could be no more heroes. I know that JFK and RK are heroes, but Univ Shriver went to JFK and said we're starting this special living. So he was like, well, I can't, no, you are doing this, this is why I'm going to raise a hell, I'm going to raise a cow. He's like, oh my God, we have to do this thing Because these intellectually underdeveloped kids are not getting any respect anywhere One of the things I did too with the US.

Speaker 3: 1:19:50

So I went over to Okinawa. I went over to Japan and Okinawa, the islands, to see the troops entertain. They had like five bird games. I gave, like you do, all the cool stuff, but also they were having the first ever Special Olympics there and people, the Asian countries specifically, that you know, they kind of did not want, you know that to be seen as something and it was a very cool thing. You know people from there, from Japan, and the athletes from there, and it took a long time to get it where they'd be. Like I'm bored of this and it was very that's what this family does. They do this. And then you know San Diego's, like they have to go out and support it. It's a wonderful thing.

Speaker 2: 1:20:44

And that has to be, I would think, one of the cooler things about your success. You know, the money, of course, is always nice, but just what it's allowed you to connect with in terms of other people that we've read about and known about and that are, some of them, kind of the hero status, as you said, and not only to meet them but to be working with them, and I'm guessing sometimes you just have to say, wow, I really have done well.

Speaker 3: 1:21:23

It is. You know when I was sitting with Arnold, you know when we started acting last week or whatever up in Toronto. You know you could tell immediately how close we are, immediately the chemistry. They have other good actors there but you can just see we're back where we've always been. We're doing this thing. He has to basically schnitzel for lunch. We sit outside of his trailer. We spoke to Stogie. He makes some videos for my kids and I really thought I like this feeling and I think when you get in a chaotic kind of a situation with a kid's mom that had for seven years, you forget. First of all, your circle gets very small because you're like I need to be on point for these kids and nobody wants to hear about this. I do recommend getting. I got a couple of single moms who are just killed. They give me good advice you need to have a mom at school like a school, a school wife.

Speaker 2: 1:22:24

Yes.

Speaker 3: 1:22:25

Because all of a sudden you're cut out of all this stuff. They'll say it's crazy hair day or it's teacher's birthday, we'll put it together. So I know a lot of great moms and I know a lot of great single dads too, that I I didn't realize there were so many single dads that are killing it, that have been in similar situations. Now theirs may be better now, but you know, you reach out and you realize, oh, these people are. Yeah, it's not just what I'm dealing with, but you know my job every day and I feel like this I've had some health issues which, I knock on wood, I've recovered from, but you know my job. Every day that I'm alive is one day more that my kids have this great parent in their life you know, it's so busy for me.

Speaker 3: 1:23:10

I get most of myself seen from this. I make mistakes, I do this. I get you know, all this may be a better father. Don't tell her that, because I think nothing for granted every day. You know all this gas may be a better father. Don't tell her that, because I take nothing for granted Every day, you know. And I have to compensate. But I, you know, you get a little wall of protection. If she does something, shows up and gives her I think Bob's outside I do say you know, if she does something, I do take a moment and go, that wasn't okay. My dad never did that. I go. That wasn't okay.

Speaker 3: 1:23:42

I don't treat people like that. I want you to treat people like that and then we move on Because it is a response. You're predestined to love them. Oh, my son reported what. This kid loves me unconditionally. That's why I've always looked for a marriage. You know, get a marriage and he loves me. If I was a shit dad, he would love me. So I'd like to be the best dad I can, I think, being of service. I have a heart cap Last 22 years can't have no cortisol Biggest heart cap in America for cancer, heart defects, heart disease, and I get so much self-esteem out of that. And not only that, but it saved my life. I didn't know I had heart disease or heart failure until I got out of the camp, until I didn't know I had heart disease or heart failure until I got out of the camp, until they handed out the cancer A pediatric cardiologist one day. I weighed about 320 pounds. I was like I was panting. You know I'm in the med tent with all the nurses who I love.

Speaker 3: 1:24:31

All were counselors and volunteers, you bet. And a new pediatric cardiologist looked at me and goes whoa, have you ever had your heart tested? And I'm like my heart buddy, my heart's off. It is so fast and so loud. It sounds like someone's beating on the cabin right now. Just take care of the kiddos. It's not bad to use the LHR. We want to do this test with you, and so I did and they gave me and I immediately. They went right into the surgery and put a stance in me and you know it saved my life, and so it's a very selfish thing. Plus, these kids inspire.

Speaker 3: 1:25:10

No matter what health issues I've had, I had organ failure four years ago early in COVID and a blood penny stroke two years ago and this last year I've had a couple pretty big cancer surgeries and complications with the infection, but these kids live with it. You know, at one time during 2010, I went into a phone Like I had something blew up inside me. Yeah, I woke up after three weeks and you lose a lot of weight. Oh, there's what I looked down, the doctor showed me well, this is what you're buying. It's like, you know, it's the open wound that I had to have a wound back on for a year. It's got out the dead stuff for six months and then he goes down to New York's White Science and I have no philosophy there are a lot of. I go, oh, okay, I got to finish this, but I thought let me tell you you're lucky because, uh, it's not permanent, it's 90 days. And uh, uh, I'm like okay, and then he told me later he told me it would only be 90 days because he thought I could suppress. You know, what I found out is this wound, this giant, has to look different and and to get this taken down. So I had to print a picture of that, how that wound was supposed to look, because it wasn't healers. I put it on my mirror and every day it just kind of manifests that.

Speaker 3: 1:26:29

And 90 days I went in, they took my philosophy down and I prayed for that. And, by the way, before that even happened, there's kids in my heart care who have always had, he told me, and are swimming and he just, I had no idea it doesn't bother them, that's just the way it is. I know a lot of people that live with it. Anyway, he took it down and then I got, I prayed in the way of the hospital. Please, please, please be able to take this down. But I didn't pray, please make sure I don't get MRSA during the surgery and my, I had no love handles for a moment.

Speaker 3: 1:27:10

Like I looked at my body and I was like this is awesome, it's, you know, cut here. I still don't have a belly button. My kids are like are you with me? But I said two days in, they're like your pedicure's out three days. Okay, you got her. So my dad told me to back up. I go what about the plastic? No, it'll stay now. So you know, there's always some kind of weird complications. But when I see these kids, they're just four years old and they have. I'm trying to be as efficiently important now. But they're not. They're like let's get into. You know where you have our cafe down at the Adelaide Island, let's dive in the water. Like they're not going. Oh well, let's see.

Speaker 3: 1:27:54

You know, they just do it, they live the life. And you know my kids have had two heart transplants. They're out there at the camp this year In fact the camp this year that's in August and the kids at the camp this year would not have been alive 20 years ago when I started. Because it's the advancement in the you know these brilliant doctors do in utero heart surgery and the devices that we have now they can put in their bodies. And I went down this last at our gala we entered a guy that invented a heart valve that you don't have to crack your chest open. It goes into the pubic area where your stents go in.

Speaker 3: 1:28:34

And I will say this you can pre-shave but there's still a bit of shaving. True Waves out and then it opens up and because I assume what he sees I'm going to have to have that Earl's had a couple and what a much better way to get it than cracking your chest and going in and just the innovation that's going on. And there's kids at the camp that have these that way and you know it just inspires you. There's kids at the camp that have these that way. You know it's just inspiring. And the kids a lot of them, if they knock on wood, you know go to camp every year from 9 to 7 and 17. They come back and want to be counselors or they want to get in health care, they want to get their degrees. It's pretty amazing.

Speaker 2: 1:29:17

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:29:18

When I first started, the kids were embarrassed about their scars and I said we have a scar competition. I took my shirt off and said look at these. I had no value in that, whatever. And so I said we've got to be proud of our scars guys. And so the boys every year we have a scar competition. They're so excited.

Speaker 3: 1:29:39

I get to look for cash prizes and I get out there every year we have a scar. They're so excited. It's like a cash prize and I get out the other day oh, I have a kidney. So I got a scar back here that I think I'm going to win this year. And the other thing is that these kids, they have never slept away from home.

Speaker 3: 1:29:55

You know, you imagine being a parent, how freaked out you'd be, how freaked out and this is the first night or five days ever and we do not let the parents talk to them. If there's an emergency, we've got a whole medical thing there, but we don't let the parents talk to them. We'll keep them posted and that's hard for the parents but it's so liberating for these kids. Again, as of social media, you know these guys are the only kids in their gym class with a scar. Now they've gone to a camp with 400 other kids who have those scars. They keep in touch on social media Year-round. They have this whole thing.

Speaker 3: 1:30:36

We get the parents hooked up with therapy and insurance. We help them. We never taken a dime from a kid, but it's a whole year thing. It becomes this part of a group. We all need to be part of a group or several and this group was pretty easy to isolate themselves, fearful parents, and I think that's the best thing we do. We give them the gift of having fun at summer camp like every other kid. That's really the goal. Our goal is not to heal anybody or solve the world. It's that these kids get to have the same fun I had when I went to the Y camp outside of Ottumwa, although we don't let them do the gun thing.

Speaker 3: 1:31:20

They can do it. They can do it you know law although we don't let them do the gun thing. The last thing I'm going to say when I went to White Camp out there in Waffle County, they had a kissing group. They would never do this at home, when our 14-year-old counselor, 15-year-old counselor, would, and the women who I was in love with, who had no butter, these 14, 15-year-old women I loved you could pay a dildo and they would kiss you. I'm the only one who's dramatic and back of the line. That's great. We just had the love that I had for these beautiful counselors.

Speaker 2: 1:31:57

Right.

Speaker 3: 1:31:57

Now that probably wouldn't happen today. Beautiful counselors, now that probably wouldn't happen today. This whole kiss I got for many years and just seeing it like this is amazing.

Speaker 2: 1:32:09

The full woman kissed me, it would be at least a dollar today right. I mean you know that's sad they don't have that and so it's so multifaceted. Like you said, you've got counseling therapy for the parents, so you're not just changing children's lives, you are changing entire families' lives.

Speaker 3: 1:32:32

Yes, Wow, and that's what you. You know, you just want to be a part of something, and again you'd be so much self-esteem. Jimmy Kimmel's son, billy, has had three heart surgeries and his cardiologist is worse than half, and so when the first time they saved his life, we said, well, now we've got to get Jimmy involved. Yeah, selfishly, my thing is always we've got to raise some money. So Jimmy Kimmel's one of the best guys ever before this, and you know he came out and did a gala. He auctioned off. He would come to people's houses and make grilled cheese sandwiches. Oh, wow, and we made like $400,000 because he'd go okay, I'll do, four People were paying. You'll come to my house and make girls? Yeah, and he'll really do it.

Speaker 3: 1:33:22

And you know you also feel grateful that when my kids are born you know you're older and who knows what happens in life. But to me you have a lot of empathy for these parents. These families are like oh shit, what is this need? What is? Because that's a? You know everybody would agree that your kids are thieves you care more about them.

Speaker 3: 1:33:45

You can negotiate other things with the kids. That's the deal breaker. Anyway, jack, I've got to get in there and see what's up. I hear my son yelling at me hey, tom Fortnite, I'm swearing. And when he swears it was funny. He's like like shit. Talking to her, I said I should talk to my friends when I was young too. But don't. If anybody outside this house or other parents hear you, or at school, you will have no friends. And I'll once in a while hear him swear and I'll I go. Where the fuck did you learn this? He has no cadence. So I'm like okay, I have to do better, right? I?

Speaker 2: 1:34:26

hear you. Hey Tom thank you so much for doing this. Wow, maybe in the future, as we get down closer to the election, we'll reconnect. But fantastic things that you are doing. You're not somebody who has just Achieved success and greatness and then said, oh okay, now I'm going to kick back and relax. You're making a difference in the lives Of people that probably would not have a chance without it, so thank you.

Speaker 3: 1:34:58

Well, thank you. Thank you, buddy, good luck. And we take it easy.

Speaker 2: 1:35:02

And this is Jack Hopkins it, so that's why we're here. Well, thank you. Thank you, buddy, good luck. And it's Jack Hopkins, and I want to thank you for tuning in to the Jack Hopkins show podcast on this episode with my very special guest, tom Arnold. Please check out my website, jackhopkinsnowcom. That's my newsletter and that's where I focus on putting out material articles, videos, posts on how to build and maintain emotional resilience. I know a lot of people during these times are stressed and fearful, and that's the whole focus of my newsletter is to get people over that hump and into a place where they've gotten past just surviving and can start thriving. Thank you again for tuning in to this episode of the Jack Hopkins Show Podcast. Please be sure to hit like and subscribe. I'll see you on the next episode of the Jack Hopkins Show Podcast.