Billy Shelton: Training The Luttrell Brothers & Friends, Untold Stories From High School & The Importance of Having Supportive Friends

The Team Never Crip Podcast is brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union. Navy Federals played a key role in helping the military community for over 90 years. You can learn more about this at NavyFederal.org. I don't look at them like a marine or a Navy Seal or a hunter. They're my kids. I mean, I love them. I love these guys with my heart and soul and I think he's not just a person. He's my son, he's my son, he's my son, he's my son. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the TNG podcast. I'm your host, Marcus LaTrell. Every week it's my job to fire you up, to ignite the legend inside of you, and to push you to your greatness. Join me every week as I take you into my briefing room with some of the most hard-charging people on the planet. They're going to show you how to embrace the stuff of life, teach you the values of working your ass off, and charge through whatever life throws at you. This is the Team Never Quit Podcast. Don't buckle up, flutter cup. All right, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Team Never Quit Podcast. As always, just wanted to thank everybody for listening, watching, viewing, and if you have not yet, please hit that subscribe button. Before we get into today's awesome episode, let's kick it off with our Patreon question of the day, which is, if you're in the gym, what is your go-to pump-up song? Let's wrap your alley. It never works like this. These questions never coincide with the guests ever. Yeah, yeah. Melanie set this up. She's not good. No, they come in. I had no idea what it was. We probably got some good answers for you on this. All right, so I'm just going to go since being in the great home state of Texas. I'm going to say Mouth for War by Pantera. That's my go-to song if I'm going for a one-rep max. When's the last time you're in the gym? Oh, sorry. You had to walk through it to get in here, folks. And only somebody your size would call me a bitch. Period. And I've been waiting for you to come in here. I built myself up just to sustain the podcast. So slow. So slow. And just so our listeners know, they have been friends for a very long time. And working out together for a very, very long time. What are you listening, Dave? Welcome to the jungle. That's a good one. I take my kids to school on that one. That's a good one. So I'll throw in Roy Jones Jr. and have to be a go-hard to go home. Anything Roy Jones Jr. bodyhead, that bodyhead bangers ball, you can throw on that whole album, man. It'll freaking get you right. There you go. I'm obviously not a gym rat at all, but if I am working out the gym, I like good vibrations. Mark Wahlberg. Mark, you do it. I mean, sometimes, you know, you just throw your ride. That's my guy. He plays my stunt double. Yeah. Yeah. I'm freaking awesome. It's because of the height, right? I'm his stunt double in real life. Yeah. That's right. Don't cuz your ads are so good. How about thank you? All right, son. Wait, what about Billy? Well, I think for the first time, I think I've been in a gym a few times, but I have to agree with a bunch of these young guys go bigger, go home, cuz I don't put up with a bunch of shit in there now. Yeah. And there's Marcus Morgan and boys ever started out there. What's the song though? What's your song? Man, I have no song. Death is my wish, baby. Come on in and get your song. I always heard any guy to be there, right? Yeah. Hunter, what's yours? Gotta be some rap song. You know, mine is probably gonna be more on the EDM side, big electronic dance music kind of guy. I feel a generational gantt. Don't tell anybody that son. I wouldn't know what I'm sitting in here. Yeah. I'm telling you, I could put on some music that would get you pumped. Here we go. All right. Now when I do watch Blade, they do the techno music in that. That's about the only stuff I was gonna say. That's because you know what's gonna happen. Well, it's gonna be a supporting father here. Okay, you are, you are, you are. Hunter, you might have to do a little splice in of some of your music versus like a hand-to-air. I probably show you up too. These boys from Arlington, Texas, man. Pantera, welcome to it. Are you from Arlington? No, huh? No, I born born in Beaumont and then raised in Dinn and then yeah, and then close to know. It was Tyler back. That was for Raisin, Arlene. Yes, Tyler. I was born and used to be Morgan and I went to pot at Point first. Yep. Yep. We were right on and right beside you. Yeah, and came to school. Yeah, 12 miles. 12 miles, that's right. That's so crazy. Okay, so today's episode is a little different. We've got a group in here and these are a bunch of good old boys from Marcus and Morgan's way back history. Childhood. Yeah, childhood. And the infamous Billy Shelton that has been talked about in the book and honestly, in the 13 years that we've been together, we get asked more about you than anybody else. It's like whatever happened to that man that trained y'all. And then what I also did. It is. Hey, it was. I didn't know that that was even happening to us till the newspaper article. But people stole this. The people who, what I get the most is they want to hear about that. They do. They want to see how I grew up through the seal teams, the combat and everything that we did. All they want to hear about is how you made all of us. They are very interested. So, we thought we would bring you on. But then Marcus was like, well, Billy's going to come on. We have to have some of the guys that trained with us. And so we have Tommy here with us. He also went into the military right afterwards. And we have David Thornberry with us that also trained with him. So. Prove me or cattleman in the state of Texas. Yeah. Best cattleman. That's right. Thornberry's looking up. Good. That's worth it. There's a reason why I keep bringing him in here. Yes. So, today's show is going to be a little different because we have multiple people. But we want to hear, Billy, if you don't mind telling us just a little bit about you, where you came from and how you got started on this. Well, I come out. I come out of Waco Texas. That's where you're born? No, I'm born in San Antonio, Texas. My dad worked for Farm Bureau. We got transferred up to Waco. He was a claims adjuster. I went to high school. There, got out of school there. Thought I'd try college. Went up there. Texas Tech, South Plains and all that. Went as smart as I thought it was. So, I dropped out and had to go into army. So, I went into army and started working there and got pushed around, pushed around. When I first saw my recruiter, I just said, I want to sign up and I want to go to Vietnam. And that's only the questions here. Ask me. What sign here? I saw a sign here immediately. Got my wish. What year was that? That was 1966. Okay. Signed up to go in in 1967. Come out in 1970. Went overseas. Got to do the 60, 80, 69. Got out and worked with Major General Howard F. Schuels on the east coast. Then, when I finally got out and went back to Lubbock, where my dad and mom was, and when I got home, my dad got transferred down to Condro, Texas. So, I said, well, hell, I'll go down there and see him. So, when I got down there, I said, man, this ain't bad. So, I went back and got my stuff. I was in Lubbock and moved down there. I grew up there and started going to the gym. Started working out. Then, I got married and we moved out to the country out to the little place called Willis Texas, moved out on County Line Road. When I moved out there and we got set up to the little kid. I used to see him cross the street. Wouldn't four or five years old, I guess. So, man, I was out there one day doing something in the yard and he'd come over. He walked up to my wife and he looked at my wife and he said, can he come out and play? I looked around. I'm looking like a hoot. Who could come out and play? His name when he ended up with was a kid named Scott Grader. So, I started playing with him because his dad was never home. So, when Scott had gotten schooled and got an eighth game stuff, I started working out in the gym and there I just got in the gym. You got it. All right. So, you got a daughter though that we grew up with. Yes, named Dougie. Is that why he came over there? I'm kidding. She's gorgeous. You moved over to Cotton. You already married mom when you got back to in the water. I didn't get married to 1975. When you got back? No, I got back in 1970. I spent a couple of years trying to go to college and where did you meet her at? Where did you meet my man? I met her in a place called Macmillan's in Conroe, Texas. Conroe, okay. She's a local bar. Is she from there? She is from there. She's fourth generation Conroe. Roger that. I don't think I ever knew that. Yes, she's fourth generation her mom, grandma, and I come from no strictly an old family. How's that? Yeah. All right. Okay. So, y'all got married win what year? 1975. You're your born. Yeah, right. Great. Sure. Yeah. Talk about it. Yeah. Same. Your Schwarzenegger win. Mr. Olympia too, if you want to look it up. Yeah. Big guy. Big boy. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know a lot of Tommy. It's a big, my goodness. I don't know what you're saying. I don't know what you're saying. I don't know what you're saying. I'm saying, when did you start working out? I started working out probably when I worked out before because I started working out in the high school. I went to college and still worked out when I got in the army and I got back from Vietnam. I didn't get to work out over there. So, I pulled the trigger on that. But then I say that word. And then I got back and I started going up to the high school because my kid went to work school. I'd pick up Doudy when she got out of school and she'd ride down to the workout gym and set the dead gun band till we got there working out. And that's where I saw Scotty because his freshman year of football, he got beat up so bad and was whining and crying about it. So, I had to slap him one time. I said, look man, you little bitch ass ain't never going to get run over no more. I got him at 160 pounds, worked out that summer, turned him over to a guy named Coach Stone at two over two. I did. Yeah. So, I don't see him in forever. That was it Willis? Yeah, huh Willis. Yeah, this is when we get started. Look, they put him on the scales and looked at me and he said, my God, what's he doing? I said, shit, don't worry about the son. How's he look? See, he looked at me. We need to start growing till our ninth grade year. Yeah, I don't think y'all did. I didn't even, I went a lot of play with y'all at all. Hey, I remember when they were told as I was. Now, I'm the littlest thing on the block. I was working out gym there because I was a taxpayer and I got to work out free. Of course, I had a little football player cost street from me that I'd been with since he's a little bit of kid playing named Scott. So, I'd drive him in the ground. He's just firing right now. Yeah, he's firing. I think he's a captain or something like that now. So, I started working out with him in the gym and these two little old guys come along. And back then, they wasn't big as a minute. I know I could push them around. So, we started working out and we're all... I'll never forget walking and seeing here, this is before we started training. You were just in the gym yelling at everybody. You could hear him because Scott, he would come out of there. I remember the transition from when we were in eighth grade and ninth grade. Seeing him. And we were together through the summer too. He's in the yelling at football players and then we were in there because we were on the tennis team but we were just in there working out. And I remember when we were badasses though. Badass tennis team. And he would, when he started making his way... I don't know man. I feel like I threw that. Thank you very much Andre, I guess he. When Billy would start making his way to the side of the gym that we were working out, we quit what we were doing to go back to the other side. Terrified. Dude, the way he would... Because greater is a tough one. Like he's big yoked up. All those boys, he's like Joe, Kevin, who are working out in there with our badasses. To the stage. The star matters. Some of them. Some of them. And you could hear him screaming in there and then he'd be like, man bitch, I'm freaking this hat and the other. And then he started working his way because he'd make us do stages. Make the rounds. Yeah, make the rounds. And anything he made us do, he would do. That was the problem. I wouldn't ask him to do nothing I couldn't do. I can remember going into the gym when I pull up and going the front door. Hell, they'd run out. People went out front of the front. They'd run out. They'd be room full of power. Go in there and about since I walked in two or three steps, hell, there ain't four or five guys left. I remember we were days working out one time and hell, that's doing pretty good. No. I'm trying to be nice. I was about a big round of this water bottle. We had to. We're doing the brain. The brain busters. And the door was open. It's hot as shit. Yeah. And he's put the stack that thing with the tens on the other side of 10 pound plates on the other side like four or five them and then put benches on either side so I couldn't dump the weight. And I was trying to do those. He did it first. He got down. He did like 15 of them, 20 of them. He's like, man, give me like 35. So I started, I did four or five of them and then he dropped it on my head. And I got it down to my chest. I couldn't dump the weight and I'll never forget this. I was looking up. He kind of looked over the top of you. You know, you can just see eyeballs in a nose. Do that. Do you know what I'm about? I'm a breath. He's like, man, bitch, what the hell are you doing? I'm like, I'm trying. I'm like, it's too heavy soup. I can't. I can't lift it. And he lifted up off of me and then it dropped back down. He's like, man, what are you doing? I was like, I just, he's like, man, bitch, I hope you die. And left. He really left me there. I was like, oh, remember that? He was sleeping. No, that's just in the beginning. The end. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So when are you just training in there? Are you actually just working out yourself and all these kids are just drawn to you and they want you to work out? Yeah, both. Both. I think initially he was in there working out and then he saw how harder we could have worked out and wanted us to be at his level. Okay. And then once a few of the kids got in there and started doing them, we just kind of, we just funneled in there. But his coaches didn't care. They were all gone. They say nothing. Yeah, they liked it. I used to go to every football practice there was talk shit put on a helmet with stone and one of the rundown football. Our coaches would beat you to death. Look, yeah. I mean, back in him days, they didn't care. Walk in that, he didn't walk in that weight room with a paddle. Coach don't meet. They didn't meet and get mad. There wasn't no finishing medals back then. No, no, we were growing up. No, they had a paddle. And I'm saying them lining up in that weight room and bust that. I don't have it, too. I mean, for the probably for the first, I don't know how many months at the end of the workout, we had to do push-ups. Yes. And not even on flat on the ground on the bench. Yeah. Remember that? And I couldn't do one. And I remember a tray in Mojo having me by my head. Those umbrellas shorts on. Yeah. Then he grabbed me by the pants. Trying to pick me up and do them damn push up and just my arm. And then he kicked me out of the gym and I'd be sitting out in the yard 10, 15 minutes waiting on everybody. He cuts me from inside. I get here. I'm talking shit about me. That little bitch don't ever let him back in here. That's what he's saying. I've been by with it. One time I was working out. Mark was down and had them weights on him. And he hit his chest. He just trying to drop off. He's trying to get up. Here come Mojo. Brother Mojo, come over there. I want to pick him up on that end. I lift him up to get him up. I wouldn't let him. I said, get your ass out here. He caught him trying to save me. Oh, Joe. Get your ass down there. He said, well, how's it going to get up? I said, shit, I get to go and die there. Let's go. That's what he said. Hey, am I lying? No. He was funny. I didn't realize I was that hard on him. I just thought I was trying to get some potential out of him. So this is junior high high school. Then when we finished our high school, we all wound up in college together. Wait a second. So is that how you learned how to work out with someone? No, I worked out. We started working out with a dude named James Barnum in Vietnam. We had sand shapes. So we started doing this little workout and I kind of put some shit together because over there you didn't have nothing. If we was on the base, we found these, oh, cinder blocks. That was our weight room. So I just started calling them to soup bone workout. Then the center blocks kind of grew on me. And they grew on these other boys too, because they used to have kind of like cross fit before cross fit existed. Yeah. I can't admit to that being who I am right now. The way they cross fit. I'm sorry. I can't do it. Hey, they made us the gym had that first. Yeah. We had the cinder. I still have them out in the property. Really? Like if you drive when I wanted to train them. It was like the original high intensity. Yeah, it's a certain, yeah, it's a certain training. Well, I don't know how when we was working out there, we really started working out in my front yard. These guys, I don't know how they got these guys from Sam Houston or school to come down with them. They had drive one or two guys down here every day. That's how I started after we graduated from high school into college. Yeah. But we would drive back down to work out. Remember when y'all come to my house wanting to work out? Angels. Is that Angels gate? Angels gate bed and breakfast. Yeah, we had right in the middle town by that bank. Yeah. Yeah. They used to watch it. I'll never forget that. Yeah. They used to. We'd have to get up and go swimming in the mornings. We'd have drive 45 minutes or so to go swimming in the mornings. Then we'd come back, go to school at the end of the day. And then at the end of the day, we'd have to drive back down to go work out. Y'all were life cars weren't you at the school? We were all of us. They was everything. They had both of them. That's what you want to call it? Full time school on two or three jobs. I don't know how they did it. We try and kill you in the middle of the night and then we try to heal you during the day. Yeah. Well, I made them sleep a few nights. I guarantee you. Because they'd be pretty wore out telling me to let my house. So Tommy, what about you? When did you come into this? Did you meet the boys at Sam Houston? Yeah, it was the lifeguard. It was one of those things where you had two, I'll just say I'll be humble and say two titans clashing in Mojo and myself. So John, like each other. I'm getting that all zero. Matter of fact, nobody liked him. He was looking back to his credit man. He was 100% marine. And he walked it and talked it, lived it, slept it. It didn't matter. And that rubbed people the wrong way at that time. Except for the judge, right? Oh, yeah. Except for other Marines. Yeah. Richard Duncan. Oh, yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. That's how you got in there, right? Oh, dude. Because he was old. How great was that man? He has an old recon marine. Ah, dude. That dude was. I love that guy. He's like top tier of the individuals I've ever met in my life that I will always hold as pristine. Best dude. Because he gave him my job, you know, because I ended up being a gym supervisor and I was a lifeguard. And then I had to get through it. I'm a point of fact, time had to get through me because I was leading the tryouts for life guarding. That's right. I remember that. Oh, yeah. I bet you do. And you saw a tattoo for all the other, you were already a marine. Yeah. Yeah. He had already gone through a, he had already gone through basic and it was the first part of OCS. Yeah. And all the other lifeguards that were there were like, man, don't hire this dude. And I was like, don't worry. He won't get through the, he won't get through the, he won't get through the test, the tryouts. And he smoked everybody in the tryouts. And so our boss. Like bad. Yeah, bad. Yeah. That's right. And so our, so boss lady, Swingle, was like, she was kind of, she wasn't read in on the way the rest of us told about Tommy. She was like, Oh, he's amazing. And so I hired him, but nobody wanted to work with him because he was just so intense. Right. He was that guy. He was the marine on campus. You can't see his intensity tattooed on his arm. So that's kind of, that's what you're doing. Fiking riding. Yeah. So I, every shift, he worked with me, every shift. And how it ended up, he was talking about working out and I was talking about working out. And then I told him about Billy. And he was like, I'll go down there with you. And I was like, all right. And he did. And smart broke broke it off. broke it off. I don't even, he kept coming back though. He, he like, I'll go get, you can tell one thing about my workouts, one deep, these young guys brought somebody with them. Oh, it's the worst. Guess what? And if they couldn't do it, guess who had to do it. Navy Federal Credit Union would like to thank all of the brave men and women in the US military for their unwavering dedication and commitment to our nation. For over 90 years, Navy Federal has made it their mission to help people in the military community by opening to all branches of the military, veterans, and their families. As a member, you can enjoy plenty of benefits, including a savings rate of four times higher than the industry average and award winning 24 seven state side service. Show your own support for our troops with hashtag Mission Military Thanks. And since it's military appreciation month, I would like to give a very special shout out to my pops Marcus for his hard work and sacrifice while fighting for our country. You can learn more about how Navy Federal is celebrating the commitment that connects them to their members at Navy Federal dot com slash celebrate Navy Federal is insured by the NCUA and the dollar value shown represents the results of the 2021 Navy Federal member give back study. That was the worst. Dude, when you started doing it, because we would show up with somebody new when we transferred to college and then, you know, we'd walk up and sure enough to have laid eyes on them and then be like, man, on a percentage scale, what do you think you are? I'd always ask. And we'd always say, man, don't say anything good. Ever. Like, man, you know, I'm on board. We need to tell the immortal DAX story. But hold on, though. So when I'm talking to the other side of the flip side of that coin, right, is that I thought this dude, because I'd already, you know, I'd already cut my teeth in the military, right? And then I found out that this dude is going to go in the Navy. And of course, you know, there's a good rivalry between, you know, between branches, nice little, you know, throwing jabs at each other. All the time. That's a thing. All the time. It's a thing. I mean, it's nothing but love. But I mean, we're going to throw jabs. That's just the way it goes. You talk trash. That means you like somebody, right? But I had this arrogant, cocky dude sitting here thinking he's going to break going off in me. So I was like, all right, there ain't no way I'm going to let this dude do anything to me whatsoever. Dad gum Navy, he's not want to be Navy. He wasn't even in at the time, you know? And I didn't know that these two guys were like already Delta Tau Delta freaking legends in the dad gum Sam Houston. I didn't care. What about what nobody these guys weren't going to phase me. I'm just going to keep going. This is like mid 90s too. We were going through all this. That helps him on it, right? The atmosphere is like, I feel that it does, right? It was a bit competitive. Yeah, yeah. I mean, right in that transitional period, it was man. But but the thing is, is that he tried to scare me on the way down. You know, on the way, he's just like, Oh man, this thing's coming. You ain't going to understand. It's going to be like a bulldog coming out. I was just giving you the rules. I was like, Hey, we go, we actually go down to get up together. If you can't do it, I carry it for you. If I can't, you care for me, don't ever say don't come back. I was just doing that. Yeah. But okay, he was setting a pretty good smokescreen. I understand what it's like. I live with it. Because he did. And you know, it was like trying to scare me, but something, something of lore of legend. He's like, don't worry, man. You'll see he's angels. It's not not not helping me, but you're not. These there goes to these angels, but they're gonna grow horns by the end of the by the end of the work. Don't you worry about it. And you'll see his big old bulldog. Don't look at him in the eye. Don't look at him in the eye. The place is called angels gate. Don't let that get to you. Ben breakfast. Yeah. But it was just one thing after the other. And he came out and I remember it was just two words that Billy's told me. That was my introduction. It wasn't, Hey, how are you? I'm Billy or nothing like that. He looked at me and goes, you ready? And I looked over at Morgan, he goes, I see him with that little sarcastic smile. He's got, you know, like all his boys about to get some, you know. And then, and then, but he knew also bringing a new guy and I come to find out later, you know, that the new guy, you know, I guess, write a passage or whatever would always be going through there. And it was always a harder workout because he was wanting to take the screws to him to make sure they got it. And they wanted to come back and they were worth his and the rest of our time. So yeah, that first workout was awful. I thought it was good. He'd always say he's like, man, can this, can this dude go? Yeah, that's what he'd say. He's like, man, can this guy go and ask at us? Yeah. Yeah. But it was like an initiation workout. Well, if you bring them, fricking worse. And I would ask everybody, man, let's get one 10. Well, yeah, brother, I need to know man. So I get his scale. He would always lead him. He's like, he's like, man, he's like, are you, are you strong? He's like, yeah, I'm pretty strong. Can you run? Can you do some pushups? I can knock out some pushups. Can you run? Yeah, I can run. He's like, all right, who are we going to do? We'll knock out 175 straight by 25 each, 30 seconds in the rest of us. It's not 175 out there. We're going to go on with a run with a block. And nobody ever expected the rock. Fricking a rock. Right. So you run in with a center block, the whole you never go anywhere without your blocks or your tires. And that's where it separated where people, yeah, I can run. I can do push them. Could you do it all together? And it was just start to fit a nonstop. You didn't, if you're resting, you're resting in a pushup position. If you're on your back, you're resting, you're holding the block above your head. You know, it's just even a lot of, with your legs extended, there's constant. Yeah. The water. Dude, there was a, there was a spigot about maybe a foot and a half that was curved over. And he'd be like, y'all will get a drink of water. And if you, you better run to it. No, and both of you run everywhere. You had to run everywhere. That's like run everywhere. No. And when you run to it, and you pretty much are diving under the water, because you only got so much time. And the spigot should look like a short cold dick hanging out of the wall. Do none of us can get to the motherfucker, right? It was just about the size of the ground. It's the closest you ever come to kiss with a man. I mean, running to tell my dudes, the water break. And you came in from military. We all did. David, you came in for what? He was going on a hunt. We got on a hunt. We're back. Back sheep on up in the Yukon. Okay. So when you came in, where were you born? 75. Where? Where Conroe. Right. Born in Conroe. That's right. Raised in Conroe. Oh, yeah. That's we hadn't left that. Families all there and everything. You came into the, when did you meet suit? Was it was that the first time? That was the first time we came in with McGee. McGee got you. McGee got me in. Yeah. We're doing some. We're doing that. We hadn't introduced him. Mother Goose. He's coming. I was just too dumb to call. Yeah, he's coming. Y'all enjoy him. Best storyteller on the planet Earth. Yeah. He got hold you at the bar. Yeah, he got hold me at the bar and they told me I couldn't do it. That's how we get you. Yeah. And so anyway, there I was. I was talking earlier when we left there, my phone rang. Rooney was calling to see if I made it. And I couldn't get to the phone. So I had to lean my head over the phone. I couldn't raise the phone to my ear, but I lived. That was the main thing. Tell about Nathan. Oh, man. So there was this one kid. So we always brought multiple guys coming to bring somebody in. You never wanted to, but you kind of like, hey, because they always wanted to know where we won, where we got the attitude, because the three of us at school, I might as well have been, we all, it must have been twins, had to have been, all of us are triplets or whatever you call it, right? Because they always had the three of us together, but we all had the same attitude, the same flair. We talked the same, walked the same, and they want to know what the heck, why is it like that? Even when we're apart, we're like, you just sound just like the other one, you know, and it's not like we were born that way. It's because we just got made that way, you know? And it was just, it was the intensity, it was the brotherhood, the camaraderie, the culture that was promulgated all then and there. So anyways, you had, it was like, almost like a gang, you know? But we always bring guys in, and we brought this one cat in, and he was going in the Marines, and he was going through kind of the similar route. We got guys across the board. We just don't have seals or any of the other guys. No, not at all. Some people happen to do both, because they can't figure out what they want to do in life, you know what I'm saying? But no, we've had army guys, you know, come through. Firefighters, firefighters, all types of officers and hunters. Yeah, boxers, hunters, it don't matter. It just, all you had to do was have the heart to keep going and then be able to survive the culture. You had to have, you had to know somebody there. Yeah, that's if you want to know, it's by and by and by and by and by. Exactly. When we brought this kid in, and he, you know, turned the screws on him, the first workout, and he's a skinny old little kid, but you're one of one of 10, what are you? Yeah, scale one to 10. Don't ever say anything above a five. But the funny thing is, is that Billy always gave negative numbers every time. Oh, it was the worst. Every, you know, minus 500. Bitch. Go home to your daddy. That's it. Go try the corn flakes. I don't want to hear it. Just quit and go. Wherever you wanted to go, don't do it anymore. So this kid anyway gets the screws turned on him by Billy. I take off, you know, and Billy's about, you know, getting ready for dinner or whatever. Miss Diane and looks out his window and his kids car is still there. I mean, it's like 20 minutes, you know, and he goes out there and the kids just sitting there like this and he goes, man, you okay? That's hunched over his hands down. That's hunched over his hands down. And he's like, and Billy goes, hey, man, you okay? You all right? You up here going? He's like, oh, yeah, I feel great. He goes, well, what are you doing? He goes, I can't lift my arms to drive. He can't start my truck. So he's got a call. Go ahead. I had a call him in Huntsville, took him, he'd been gone 20 something minutes. I said, pack me a man. I said, he said, what's my suit? I said, shit, you got to come get your buddy. Why? I hell, he can't drive. He's like, come get this bitch out of my yard. That's funny. Look at the scoopy mouth. The pain I was laying. Just get the buddy. Show. Everybody was a bitch. Oh my God. I've ever gotten this back when the phone was still connected to the wall, too, man. I couldn't reach the phone. My hands were like, can't get off the toilet. You know, he keeps saying, this is the worst. That was the wheel he was talking about. Shower. The shower with the two hands. Yeah, bending over. Yeah. I remember one time after we worked out, I was doing something. Mojo and Marcus was already home after a workout. Probably the 23rd, 23rd mess. I went over to do something. They're laying in the damn floor in the den like this. Like mama's over there, baby in the rats. But there's arms hurting and so then you can't feel it. Yeah. It's just that they don't. No. It's failure. It's a weirdest thing. I never experienced it anywhere else. You figured out what failure was. You know, we all laugh about that workout, but this is probably brutal. I think the biggest takeaway from the workouts, because no matter how you showed up at what shape, you'd eventually get us there. You stuck with it. Oh yeah. It was the mental game that separated everything. Every other workout we ever done, it was the mental anguish that you put us through, but we did it together. That's right. And that is. Watching somebody else, that was the best. You didn't want to bring anybody, but if you did, you knew they were going to get it. But then you were also going to get it from the comedy in that. Because everyone's so different. And when everyone is different and you're suffering together, you want to talk about it. If one of your buddies came down and they were struggling and failing, it always puts you in a position that you had to help them. Like moving forward in the military. Like if somebody, if there was a weak link, you were forced to get down there and get them. And since you taught us at such an early age, the transition into the military was just seamless. Yeah, I'm going to be tough. I've had a hand on my belt. Pulling up doing pushups, man. When you were really hard on them, telling them that they're, I'd finish it and have burned them and all that kind of stuff. I did. No, that's pretty nice. That's a nice term. Dude. I remember looking over and I was like, what did he say? I don't even know what that means. Well, they always speak about your wife in terms of the dear men. Was she always the opposite of you? Just kind? Oh yeah, she'd come out there with me. It was hot. Come out with me. Ice pitcher come out with two glasses, man. And man, she said, Billie, you're going to kill these guys. Now you're going to kill their ass. She brought his piece. We had this whole chicken rotisserie chicken she brought out like you get from Boston's market or something like the end of the little container and put it on the grass for us. We went after that thing. Like you couldn't even believe it. That's the right truth. I keep purposely trained as like that. I'm attacking that damn thing. My honey and John, whatever the neighborhood coming to this is all wizard. That's where Larry was. We were in the push that was just Larry kept throwing up on them back on my neck. Oh, he's a throw up candy. And it's super like, thank you, Larry. Thank you, Larry. It just kept them just missed. That was a workout. Wow, it was a workout. Larry became a worker. Remember, his puking is running down my driveway to the damn road. The hardest dude on the planet earth, David, you advice? This is Larry Furman, right? Yeah. That has to be. And Morgan tortured. The beat that's snot out of it. Every time I say, Morgan, I said, oh my God. You're going to hurt this kid, boy. Oh man. He didn't care. He'd show back up. He was not great. He was a masochist. He could take pain like nobody's been. Is he still living? Yeah, he's a lot of money. He's a lot of money. He's in jail. He's doing great. Actually, his kids, it's select ball. He's very shelly. So that's safe. Yeah. You know, she's a great, you see, right? Yeah. And then Taylor and Jack are, they're great. He's unchanged. He's gotten older. I guess he has changed. You can't say. Well, it's like Jack is kind of starting to take his spot on being a prankster and all of that. Yeah. If Larry gets back half of what he dished out, you all know that's going to look like. Yeah. Very well. I remember one time Mark brought this kid down. And Mark and I got to say he was getting him pretty damn good shape. He brought this kid down. He was a total shit case. And there's only blocks going to push up. Marking was resting his in that push-up position. You can see them on second. And this kid trying to do them push-ups. He'd get down. He couldn't hardly get up. Marking looked at him. Looked at him. You do these push-ups on my whoop your ass. And the worst one. He couldn't have been a kid. The kid and guy who showed up had born to kill tattooed on his body before he'd even been in the military. He couldn't do nothing. Yeah. But Billy wouldn't let him leave. Yeah. And we had to sit there and do all that. I don't know. I mean ours took us to knock all that stuff out. Well, we worked as a team. Everything we did, we did as a team. So if we're all doing, if we're doing push-ups, hell I'd get down to push up too. You know, I'd count them. You get out of sync. Guess what? We're going to start over. I don't know how many times we start over one day. Every day? It's just robotic though. It's weird how it all happens. Instead of 25, we ended up doing 150. And that's like what I once said. But so for our listeners that are super interested in working out all of that, what is a typical soup-bone workout? Misery. Well, I think that was the, that was, that was so special. It was never the same. There were certain things you could guarantee. No, you didn't do it. Boy, our blocks. Yeah, it was just what we had to do. Everything was a warm up. She always had to warm up. So we was warming up on push-ups. And he was very methodical about it. So we'd start out. I mean, everything was a test initially. But as we progress, he progressed. So you're like, all right, hey, we're going to warm up. We're doing 200 push-ups for warm-up, just to warm the chest up. And on your blocks, or you're on the chair, but you can't come out of this position. So you knock out 25 or 35. You come up and you hold it for 30 seconds. And then you knock it out again. And then after you do that, you immediately transcend. No rest. That was without the block. That was the kick. That was the kicker. That was no risk. Yeah, and you talk about the evolution of it, right? So I remember one time when it was me and Mojo for the longest. Right? And... Because Mark's already gone. That's because my bad ass already been through there, chump. Oh, for all right. What happened when you came back? What happened when you came back? What happened when you came back? What happened when you came back? All right, yeah. Okay. Yeah. I was getting to that. I slipped up a little bit to that. I'll get to that. Whatever. I'll get to that. So like that, the middle. No, but the warm-ups. What I was saying though was that he graduated with me and Mojo to it was like 75 Taibo Hyne's four count. Remember murders? Yep. Remember those? Yep. So he'd have this double set of like red bricks and it would be like down in backs to the different driveways, right? And he'd get a different driveways. He's down in back, down in back. And then I'd, he'd put the tailgate down and Mojo would be... While one guy was running, the other dude had his foot in an incline with his feet on a tailgate and then on the block. Yeah, but he was wrestling. But then he's barking orders at us. Yeah. So like he's like, hey, you go down and touch the pole, but you have to run around it. And if you went down there and didn't do what he told you, we all have to start over. If you ever remember correctly, we was all out there. We had them new guys too and y'all was wore out. We had a pretty rough workout and it was getting close to the end. I said, hey guys, you see that stop sign about two blocks down there? It's probably three or four blocks. I said, y'all run down there when you hit that stop sign, come on back. I said, do you understand? No, I don't know what I would always ask that. I always ask that. Do you understand what I'm saying? Pay attention, little things. Attention to detail. Do you understand? He would ask that. He would ask that. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, we got it. We got it. Sure. Hey, what did they do? They go down there. They go around it. Here they come back. They just grin like a possible meeting shit when they got to me. Forgot to say something. None of them, no, no, no, they didn't hit it. Hell, they walked around it and come back. I said, guess what? Bitch, I'm going to get in. You say you understood what I said, didn't he? It started day over. Ah, nailed that ass. Whole day over. They didn't hit that stop sign. Did I say hit the stop sign? That's right. I got nothing but time. I got nothing but time. It's all about you showing up late, you miss your ride. If you're not paying attention to detail, somebody dies. We should have played a point on time. We're all hung over. All the greenberries are in town. Yeah. All boys are in town. They're homies. When we would come home off leave and everything, so the Thornberries would show up. We'd put out a call. This is while y'all are already in the room. Yeah, we're in the team. Yeah, we're in the team. We're coming back. But when we come back, we'd always bring people. Yes. And then the guys that we had brought before, they come in from different states. I don't know how it worked out, but we would, man, there'd be a mess of us here. 10, 12. Just having a ball. We don't need Billy. Y'all want to work out in the morning? He'd find out we were here. He's like, we all doing. Oh, you know, we just... Oh, good. You'll be here for a workout then. Yeah. Yeah. See you at seven. Seven. We leave the bar, you know, around six. Yeah, and then rubber band band comes out. I've crossed this life test. I'm already in... No, we kept going. No, no, no. We showed up late one time. God, he whipped us a bed. I was even, I was throwing up bad that day. All of them. Everybody was Pete, Jay, y'all. They'd be eating, peeking, beer, and all that stuff. Ow. They'd be with rubber band. Oh, yeah, they were the last three that burned. Want me to have them over here. The chair, iron chair. Iron chair. And then he had them. He found out that the railroad tie. We started working out with that. And then the, what was it? The wheelbarrow full of rocks? Yeah. You got to run with them. Oh, I remember. David, feel that? Uh-huh. Let's go. Catapulted over it. Freaking catapults over it. David has never seen a human being catapulted over the front of a wheelbarrow. That's a front gun dip like that. Do you have wheelbarrow with rocks? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I passed the training on. Yeah. I went to get that. I went to get that. I was just passing it. Did I train him? He's good. What, I mean, to... Can you make Hunter do wheelbarrow with rocks? Wheelbarrow. Reasing rain, like this is just a- Right. He had a flat tire. Jay-wearing. Right. You got a right on. Yeah. It didn't rain on us. Never. He was in height a lot of like- Dude, I remember we were in Virginia, had a two foot of snow on the ground. I got a, what, 4,000 square foot house. I made my kid bear crawl in the snow around the house because he did something wrong, but you know, messing with his mama. And he didn't go fast enough, so I made him do it again. But he, but I tell you what, the kid's tough as nails now. Yeah. That's not a discipline too. Yeah. What I do for a workout. Yeah. I mean, my just made my kid work out. Absolutely. So. So. Which every time. First every time. By the answer to your question about the regular workout, there was always some sort of a dynamic effort warm up, right? That got us all warmed up. It wasn't too intense. Unless we made him matter, where we got out of sync or something like that. Then it was usually something with the brick, where we do squats, we do overhead press. He'd have us on the back, holding the rock with doing flutter kicks. And then the, the insurmountable amount of push-ups. Which that's one thing that I really respected about this guy right here. You too. You had it when you came back. Yeah. You lose. I, I've never seen a human become a machine in push-ups. Because I always struggled because I always had, I was always heavier. And I guess I just didn't have that strength or whatever. But it's like you couldn't, nobody could out push more ever. I would have people come up and like say, I dare you to try to do more push-ups than this guy. But as soon as he got on that rock, it's like this thing went off in his head. And he goes, I'm just going to keep going at the same pace. And you're going to catch me or not. So when you were boxing David training for the Olympics and doing all that stuff like that, that was before when we were, we were. Yeah, I quit boxing in 2000. And then that was like, oh, one, we were at 102. And I was training with y'all. Man, speaking of David, man, I remember one time talking to your dad, after you'd been working out with us and everything. His dad told me and they, he said, I paid a lot of money, get my son in shape. But he ain't never been in kind of shape. You've got him, man. Did he say that? Oh, for sure. Yeah. He said, my son never been in shape. She put him in. And I'll fight. We still do this stuff together. He said, David threw a race yesterday, right after he turned quarantine. Right. Like, we'll do a center ball. We got a race coming up for Red Wing. Yeah. We still meet once or twice a year and do these stuff. Well, I need to come to another one. I've been to one. Oh, it's, it's the 30th of June. We're doing a, we're doing an Olympic try in the neighborhood. Oh, man, I got to be there. I turned about. Should be interesting. Yes, sir. Well, you know, you can't push on them too hard. Hell, they've done their, they've done their duties. So. You're still training though? Well, you know, if I got a good one, man, but somebody's kid, because we're not bringing anybody in. Good. Like good, as I said. Well, getting a little lower, man. I don't know if we can go with that. I don't know. We were kids. You said that when we were done, like after we trained, we went to war, we came back and we were older. We would all just sit on the front porch and drink sweet tea. Right. He did say that. He said that. Always said that. Yeah. If we thought it'd come. I didn't either. He's like, if we made it back. Yeah, we're going to sit there on the front. Because all of our guys are busted as shit. Yeah. Everybody in our crew, this sucker, especially Mojo, Tommy's worst, probably got the worst at all of us. I don't know, Greg's got a pretty bad. There's, there's a few of us that got a pretty bad, right? Yes. But we all made it back to drink sweet tea. Oh, yeah. Sweet tea. I'll never forget. You say, you say it all the time. So how has that been? All of the guys that you've put through that have actually gone to the military, have you followed all of their careers? Well, you know, I tried to, you know, follow them. But it seemed like besides my, my kids, these are my kids. They, I don't look at them like a marine or a Navy Seal or a hunter. They're, they're my kids. I mean, I love them. I love these guys with my heart and soul. And I think I'm, he's not just a person. That, he's my son. He's my son. He's my son. He's my son. And I'm getting older, you know, but they steal my kids. I don't make a shit if you're a 17, I'm a hunter. They're my kids. You know, and I just, you fall in love with them because when you, when you do this and you got a certain group of kids that's in your stable that you're working with, you hear everything that's good and everything most just is bad about school, family, work, study, this or you, you, you have to, you have to mentor them all the way from the bottom to the top to send them on their way because what's my God, what's going to happen if I send these guys off to work overseas and one of them gets hurt. Well shit, that that's basically my, my fault. I didn't get him ready. And man, you know how long I would have to cry and die at night if that happened. Speaking of what was it like when Red Wing went down? Man, from your perspective, right before he went, I was working for KBR overseas, I'd gone to Kandahar. I think we wanted to have supper that Friday night was going to try to. And man, this is no shit. Meant about two to three days before this happened. I woke up one morning and go to work and I got this feeling that come over my heart that I knew something was wrong, something ain't something drastic has happened. And I went right there and quit. They flew me home the next morning. We'll come to find out and the Hindu Kush markets come up missing. Mojo got a hold to me, said ask me if I could get out to the ranch. I said, yeah, I'll go out there with Molly. But you can ask anybody here that was out there. I told him exactly what happened, how he was traveling down the mountain, where he got hurt, pointed to my hip where he got shot and told him exactly how he survived. And when he got back, I told him, y'all don't have to worry, man, he ain't hurt for him, but he's alive. I know it in my heart, I could see him in my vision. I know this is weird, probably ain't nobody ever believed me anyhow. But I did, I told him exactly where you got hit, how you got it, how you survived and how you come home. And I remember when one night when I was sleeping in bed, then boys come up, shook my toe and told me that for me to talk to Marcus and tell him none of this was his fault, that we love him and we're okay. And I think I told Marcus to access him. Danny, do you want to go back home? I told him he had a story when I got back, or actually when I was in the hospital that he was in. They shook my toe, got me about a big toe, my dog was growling. And I know this sounds crazy, but they shook my toe and I set up in bed and saw him. That's what they tell me, you tell Marcus we love him and none of this is fault. And man, from that day on I had peace. You know, I did my heart laid down and I could rest. Were you there? There was a lot of people at the ranch. About 200. Yeah, were you one of them? I was off again, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can't believe who shows up, man. Yeah. How many can't believe it, right? Thank you, man. What's up, dude? What's up about then? Stay that. Hell, I was upset I wasn't there. Yeah, you're supposed to be dumb. Because of the shit. Yeah. There were about 200 people out there night and day. Out back, stay in college, show it up with the caterers. Yeah, they brought the stuff out. I remember what you did show up freaking mama on the porch with a shotgun and a six-shot. Run on girls on. Run everyone off. Everyone off. She goes, if you ain't a Navy SEAL, if you're a local, get out. I remember it was, it was the three of us and JJ. Yeah, she's not a fan. She's not afraid of that. No, mama was on point. She stayed up all night. Yeah. She's pretty crazy. We might be getting a little rowdy. No, he's disturbing us. A little bit. A little bit, you know. Yeah, but there's a common problem to do. Between everybody that ever worked out with this, the submitted that developed into grown men. Well, the best is that once the answer to you, you've got to hold on to it. Yeah. Because I came back after that first appointment. Tommy brought it up. Excuse me. You're welcome. And I had mom's cooking. I mean, it was the first of the war, it kicked off. You know, my pro was for teeing all the guys around. I got out of shape, man. Showed up for a workout. Well, I was like, I remember telling my dad. He's still alive. He's like, you need to go work out with a super mother guy. And I showed up over there about 30 minutes there. I come back home. It's about a 25 minute drive. Yeah. Do you have time to get out of here? And I mean, he wanted to kick custom you up once. For being out of shape. I'm never going to be like, man, bitch, I thought it trained you better. And I was like, ah, day. Well, I was expecting my dad. I expect him to come back. I'll call out and we have to wait and send him where I'll go. Oh, man. So, if he comes back, he's a little stuffy and fluffy. Yeah. Oh, shit. What happened here? Yeah, you're British. I mean, for the next two weeks, I was in the everyday out of my house. Come on, we're in in pain. I was on a free day for a post deployment leave too. Yeah. Yeah. I know I shouldn't have went over that asshole's house. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I hate his ass. Oh. I just got a graduate degree. I remember even looking in the mirror, I was like, look how I think he folds over like that. He'd been the first time I'm belly done. And I was like, I like that a little bit, man. Shit. I'm soothing like that. Yeah. Funny. Mmm. Little nervous. Scott Greta used to work out. And he had to be in there in the gym. He'd be working real hard. And I was trying to get him in shape. And about 3-4-3. There he'd get mad because I was casting him. He'd be a customer. He said, you know what, sit on one with this. Somebody tell him I'm going to walk your ass. I said, that's cool. No problem, buddy. But in the meantime, you do what the hell I tell you. I'd wear his ass out so bad. And when he's over, he couldn't do nothing but pout and getting the van. And me driving him home. Yeah, but he looked good though. That dude, you got him. Ooh. Amanda called him the rock. Yeah, he was a little bit tough. He was that ass. That was the only time I ever seen Mojo flex in the mirror. Hey boy, let's talk about that a little bit, brother. That was a bit deep. I remember he came in. He was in there flexing freaking Miss Diane. He goes, look what your husband has created. He just put that out in the world. No, it's right now. I'm not even being birthday card bros, you in front of the mirror. Who has all of these pictures of this time frame? I got a bunch of pictures. Because we're going to need to splice this into the YouTube so people can see. I got quite a few workout, different kids and different workouts. And I got one from the third up all over his shirt. Oh gosh. So what's it like for you to have all these years have gone by and now look at everybody. Everybody's still talking to each other. Morgan is a congressman now. I know. It's not going to be such a neat feeling for you that you've had part in raising all these people. Tommy's still in the military. I'm a Marine then a Seal. We'll get there in just a minute. But I mean just for you. It makes my heart so proud I could cry. I lay in bed sometimes thinking about these kids and I just cry. Because they overwhelm me with everything. There's still a little bit, some of them still a bit. He gets a little bit intimidating. He gets with them black eyes. When he gets all shitty and he ain't timid. Try a hard time there for a while. I want to do this and they actually didn't want to do it because it hurts a bit. But if you do this I promise you're going to hate me now but you're going to kiss me when this is over buddy. Because I'm going to drag you across the finish line. I'm sure they brought a crowd. That's for sure. I brought a crowd. But can you just imagine if they hadn't gotten that kind of shape and could do what they'd do and went in. Yeah they got run home and then it's my fault. Yeah I remember one of the first times I met you you told me that no matter what you put Marcus through or any of the guys they just wouldn't quit. They would keep coming back. You cannot quit. And it was the guys all of y'all that kept coming back. And that's really all it takes. It's just the heart and the determination that you're going to get better each day. It sucks in the moment. Yeah. But that will be hard. You know something you have to develop into a soul and mind and body. But it's not going to get easier. It's going to get better. Because you know when I'll just start it like when David come and everybody's severed up. Man that first month is just miserable. You hate me. You hate you don't even like to see my place. You hate the rock. You hate everybody. Everything that's associated with me they hate. Oh this is the worst. If you started and didn't show up he'd catch you in town. Yeah. You'd be at a restaurant somewhere saying hey bitch what's up. I mean my line everybody from across the thing maybe trying to duck him back. Oh shit. That's the thing is is that we call each other because we didn't want to stop. He's like hey man I don't know about you but I'm like really sick. I can't come back. I feel like such a win. I'm such a win. And then I'd always get it from one of you two. It's like you freaking pussy. Morgan came to Z ankle in half right remember? Yeah. Broke it completely. Yeah. I don't remember that. Nah. Well just just throw it back together and let's go. Yeah. I remember I gave him. When he opened his eyes he's right there. You remember pulling up on the front porch and received a super on come off front porch. It's gonna be a good day today. Oh that's the worst day. Good day. Good mood. Yeah. No. That was bad but screaming eagle was worse. Yeah. Yeah. Screaming eagle. He come out. He come out with this really just nasty looking smile and just flapping his arms. And you knew that you were better. Oh yeah. Yeah. You better strap one in. And your screaming eagle what it was is that we don't work out until somebody passes out or pukes. Somebody got that screaming. Yeah. That was the only way we could stop. What got you into that? Like what made you think I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna flap my arms and do this. Oh no. This is absolutely the shit that he just comes up with. I mean that's a shit out of the seat. You got a real lot of the room. I'm gonna have crazy. Yeah. Where'd you watch that to talk to me like that? I don't know. I don't know. He brought this. He's got a daughter. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about? This is the district dude walks out of the porch and just brings the hammer to us right. And the daughter sitting back there she's beautiful and great. They're just getting on me constantly. They're gonna kill them but they ain't never gonna talk to you again in their life. I said well I said shit you know what if I can get them through this it's okay. Because by that way we still all love each other. People would talk those people that would stare at us from the bank. Bank. It's like a four-story bank and they would take their coffee and lunch breaks and come over and walk you. Slide the window. Him slide the window. I mean they're sucking window. You know what it's the biggest building in the town. Yeah big spill in the town. Yeah just a lot. Hey we had seven cars stopped out there one day and the police come by. What are you doing that? Asking what he's doing to them. What do you do? You started cult. Yeah the cops. What do you do for you to do them? I'm like just yeah. We got that pole run down the road and I'm hollering running with some folks in the neighborhood. This is like in a neighborhood in downtown. Yeah remember the car? The car was at the railroad side of the church. Yeah. Remember that one? Yeah. That was a run. It was a run. That was a long run. That was a long run. They would always stop traffic. You and I were going to have to kill that telephone pole to Delaago. Yeah. Yeah. 25 miles. 25 miles. 30 damn 40. 10 cell phone pole down down one on five. That's a three-way. Oh my god. I'm so good at that man. I'm so good at that man. Yeah. Well they talk shit man. Yeah that's what happened. We started getting good. Getting good. He's like I saw for you. Yeah because there's only so much you could stick it in the hour. Then we were there right. Unless he was punishing us. That's right. And then so we got once we got stronger and we went to do all that. Maybe which we eventually did. Start getting cocky. Yeah. We were still getting cocky and he's like okay watch this. Cheers. I got something. There was always another gear. I got something just for you baby. I'm going to put it in high. And the thing is he found a weakness in one of us. And then capitalized the other guys. Yeah man. It's like he could do push us for days. I'd start hurting but then. He could run his ass off. Then the run would go. I couldn't run forever. Yeah that's what we're doing. But if you remember when we first started man in markets for starting. He had a what a six month time. Yeah okay so when your window came down then it switched. Your workout switched. Yeah. You had to show up more days. Yeah. It was tough man. It was. But you couldn't feed him enough. I call it feeding him. You couldn't feed him enough fast enough to get him where he wanted to go. He should have given me a year. You couldn't get in shape in six months hardly. It takes a while. The man I had that overload on his ass and they had to pay for it. It's a mental game. Yeah that's true. Imagine the only way you can teach his mentally was to beat his physically. Like that's what I like. Yeah. Our training the pillar you are in my life is my mental capacity. Yeah. It was so physical that it was mental. Yeah. I remember calling him after Hell Week because I'd broken my pubic rain my bone my pelvis like in half the Thursday before Hell Week. Yeah me too. Yeah and I had to go and I wanted to help me too. Yeah. Until it broke my pelvis. How about that? That's how normally that place it. So you know what man it's like you didn't get enough soup bone now. I'm going to break a bone and hang him out from Hell Week with a broken bone. Yeah. And I remember he was in the back of my head. It was like God on one side and soup bone on the other. And both of them were just hollering at me to keep going. And then I'd see them too because we all kept laminated pitchers of each other in our uniform all throughout buds because we know that we're always going to be there for each other no matter what. And we had it laminated. You know you can't quit because you can't quit because you got this guy. We were already in. It was it they were already. Yeah. I was the unfortunate. It was last month. I was the dummy that came in last year. Couldn't figure I was going to do in my life. And I went in old you know also. So it was just I couldn't. I had too much riding on it. And family. Yeah. And family too. Yeah and family too. So talk about that. You went in as you met them when you were already a marine. And then what was your career like? Yeah so I did nine years Marine Corps infantry and then transferred over into the teams after that and I turned 30 at buds. Wow. Yeah. Are you going to hold this? That's like one. Yeah almost probably in your class right. Yeah I was the oldest and most senior in the class. And I was a class leader and. Our mean average is 22 or 23. Yeah. So you got to have a waiver after 28. Yeah and it's unheard of for from the little Marine Corps. Yeah good in. Zero especially with convex. Because they don't ever let them do that. Yeah. Can you tell us why you wanted to go into the teams? I always tell people because I just needed a break from the Corps. That's a good one. That's a good one. That's a good one. You got a good one. You got a good one. Because if it was your first one. You know it wouldn't be a conversation. But it's not. You had a friend that was. He's all three. Working for Blackwater. I met him when I was doing some work in his house. I remember like college and I said what was there? This guy was in the Army Navy Air Force. We ran. We were in the blind head kid. Yeah he worked out with us that time. Yeah. We're Green Marine. Yeah. Force Recommering. Then a seal. That's right. We were in Buzz together. We were on the pull deck getting tortured. Wow. And the instructors walked up and said that. They're like you're a force Recommering. You're Green Marines like what the hell are you doing here? He's like oh I just thought I'd take a break. He's built just like Tom. Yeah that's the best. Just like him they could be twins. Man I have to. I just think like. Norley something chairman man dude. Yeah. Tough dude too. It is. Tell us I mean like should swinging an axe back in a thousand years ago. Yeah. That kind of guy. Hell man. It's true. True bad. That's what he said. I need to break. We got him. That's what he said. That's what he said. I'm here to take a break. I met him that time. I called him. I called Morgan on front of the cement. Did you know this through? He said yeah I know him. I said god damn is he crazy? He said yeah he crazy as you are. He came to blame. He said oh shit. But I mean it was. But he was the last guy. It was a great thing. My time was coming through an end. My my my my ground time. I wanted to stay on. I wanted to stay out in the field with with with the boys. You know that was it. And I remember Mojo had just finished. Was it jump school? And you drove up to Lejeune and we kind of chatted for a little bit. Ooh where was I had? I thought it was jump school because you drove up from Bragg. Because I was right after Boggs. That's right. That's right. That was the yeah I was an airborne. And then he was like. And then he goes. Yeah he goes hey man why don't you come here Bragg? No no no I was at Lejeune. Oh Jack. I was still in court when I talked about what to do what I was going to do and everything. He goes dude watch come over. I'm like I don't know man. If that's even a possibility or whatever. You know and he goes dude freaking Marcus knows people. I mean a lot of phone calls for that one. You did. You did. And I made a lot of phone calls too. But the funny thing is is that it wasn't about it. That gave me opportunity. But I remember Marcus always told me he was like look man. I'll set it up for you but you got to knock him down. You know you just go in there and be you. And then it'll happen or it won't but we're pretty sure you're going to get it. It's not a big deal. And then he goes once you get the buds that's all you bro. And the funny thing is is that you know you talk about your friends you think they're going to help prep you for buds or this that and the other. And they're just like well it ain't a soup bone workout. Enjoy. I got nothing for me. Oh my god. Nothing. Well we're actually though what can you tell them. I mean shit if you tap you tap. I mean maybe tricks here in there. Yeah yeah that kind of thing. But the funny thing is that their love showed up in they called all my instructors. Because they had been in combat with them right. And they were waiting for me. What year was this? This was 2007. Oh well. Shit that ain't nothing. Well. That's more than when he pulled up there. San Diego. I just. That's because. That's because. I mean the instructors are still fresh off of hating my ass. Yeah. Do we need to talk about what. Yeah. Yeah well I mean we can if you want. Okay. We got a new stuff story. So can each of you say your favorite motivating quote from Super. I tell you what I remember. Or not favorite but something that stuck in your head that got you through some hard times. Oh man yeah I got one he used to tell me all the time he's like hey look you're gonna cry. And that's okay. There's like I remember you get down you get your racket night you're gonna be lonely you're gonna be tired you're gonna be wet you're gonna be mad for that. I'm saying it's okay to cry. Just always remember Super in Love's you. Aww. That was like. That was like the. That's the going way. He's saying that all time. From Mickey he sounds like the Rocky. Yeah the Mickey's. Yeah it's good. That's like Mickey loves you. But it was true. Yeah. Yeah I got that one too. Yeah I got it too. They're up together down together. Live together. Dye together. I won't forget it. Yeah. Put the put the women and children to bed because the boys are not going to war. Yeah we could do it. Put all the women. Handbits I hope you die. What about you baby? I just I never good straight very good you know I say I'm gonna break this big son bitch. Yeah right. He done real good. He's just jumping up and down on my back trying to make me straight. I'm gonna break this big son bitch down. Yeah. Hey Dave was a son. Hey I was up there man. You want to do this? Cause why? Hell I'm going home. This is the baddest one we got. Oh yeah. The hunter back there. But I said well I'm gonna teach you. I mean the seals are getting the top cover but that sucker in the back with the hat on. Yeah. It's baddest one we got dude. Yeah. Yeah. Baddest one we got. I didn't know how far I could really push him before he jumped on me. Beat me down. That's scary. I was saying big growing up I was like hey man how much did you mess with this dude before he started swinging on? I'll knock your bitch ass out. He's kind of like you beating. Alright. Think about that. I was like you got nice enough for me little whips ass. Yeah. They kept him. So it took me a while to see how far I could push on him you know to get him going but I kind of worked him into my program and shit he did a great job. So before we end this Tommy can you tell your story because not only did you have this crazy life and go into two different branches of service. You also survived a major brain surgery. Can you tell us about that and your recovery from that? Yeah absolutely. So and I'll tie it back into this too because it still applies. So a lot of stuff and this is also a plug for guys to go get their stuff checked right. One thing we never wanted mitt's weakness right we kind of got taught that but at the same time if there is something going wrong you know it and you need their their help out there for you that there really is. So I was having really bad TBI symptoms you know I've been blown up a few times and a couple helicopter crashes and it was just starting to wear on me memory was getting bad the fog was getting pretty pretty rough so there's a clinic up in Boston called Home Base that sees vets you know that are having PTSD TBI all that type of stuff you know and I was I think I was the first guy to go in there that was from the soft community that was active at the time and the first thing they do is a neck and brain scan and you know that you go in with you get your scans and then you go in with the doc and usually it's just you and the doc. Well I walked in there and there was about I don't know maybe eight people in there and I go what's the part of here for what's what's going on and they're like sure we're like you take a seat I'm like why do you guys find a tumor and they're like oh and I went well who told you you you have my attention right so so I so I took a seat and if you remember those old everlasting gobshoppers I have one of those attached to the back of my brain stem and then I had a cyst about as big as my hand that was inside my skull you know inside or outside inside yeah it was inside yeah it was pushing my brain forward creating so it was a gap between the brain and the end yeah yep yep yep so and they look it's kind of funny story you know it's all quasi this you know everything we got from from from the soup bone era I sat back down I was sitting down and they go well what do you got you know what he had to say is there anything and they went in for like a hug and I'm like no no don't touch me I don't want to hug and they go well what do you what's going on we just told you you know and we're potentially gonna have to have brain surgery and this that and the other I said well I got an hour and a half left uh till my next meeting that you guys have where's your gym and they went what I said where's your gym I said I got I got I can lift shoulders before you guys you know do whatever and they're like why what and I go look man this is the way I'm wired up iron therapies the way I get through stuff and if I don't push myself hard then I can't like process stuff on my head right and that's it and they didn't understand that so it's kind of cool going back and forth anyway fast forward three and a half years later it's now the size of a golf ball and the neurosurgeon I was seeing up up at Mass General in Boston he's like hey we need to go in and we need to go in in April and it was what I think it was January at the time and I went well I mean you know no time like the president let's do this rock and roll so I just you know sat down said my prayers um you know talking my wife and kids for a little bit and uh just something came over me it's like look man this is another speed bump I'm gonna get over this just like every other thing I mean we've all been through a whole bunch of rough stuff but it's just it's just another hurdle that's all it is I'm gonna come out everything's gonna be fine so now what are we gonna do I'm gonna start training so I trained I came up with a workout program and just trained like I was going on deployment right like I was going after you've been logging who named your guy you know I was gonna go after him and just gotten shape best I possibly could because I knew that the better shape that I was going in going into it the easier I was gonna be on recovery so they went in um what was supposed to have been a eight hour surgery ended up being I think like 12 I had a stroke during surgery and um one of the docs that was part of the surgical team had covid with my skull open so that's cool too um that's one way to get it I mean you know if you're gonna get covid you better do it the man you know what I'm saying I mean let's direct let's see if you got it straight to the brain let's see what you got and I never got it so what does that tell you anyway uh uh but it did get me quarantined in my room for the entire time I was in ICU afterwards so you know they they did the surgery um when I woke up I was blind in my left eye because apparently it was pushing against one of my um optic nerve optic nerve yeah so and that was a obviously a great big concern they happen after right yeah this was when I woke up I woke when I when they woke me up they're like hey hey and then they start doing all the function checks you know for everything I was like and they go well you see anything wrong I'm like well I got feeling this that hey is it weird that I'm blind in an eye and they thought it was weird that I was cracking jokes about stuff like this you know and they're what you know and the neurosurgeon came down hey I was like look man let's just give it a night let's see what happens swelling yeah yeah exactly next morning oh my all season blur like it's like I look I saw white yeah just like that yeah exactly I'm like whoo all right cool so then I'm just like again comfort comes over me everything's gonna be fine the physical therapist comes in says hey you know oh she's all upbeatness that nail she didn't know what she was walking into or who she was walking into right so I'm in the bed and I'm sitting there doing flutter kicks and they're like what and they put that in my chart and the dot came in and said what the heck's wrong with you and I go well I got to get it in you know what I'm saying that that's just it's just the way we're wired up it's it's just what we do we don't stop ever it doesn't matter if we're down doesn't matter if we're hurt it doesn't matter if somebody thinks they can beat us we will not stop no matter what I had I had the I you got pictures and video of me with that little stick what you call it that has all the the Ivy bags and yeah the Ivy bags and then I also had a drain okay yeah the Ivy getting going into my brain right coming out with brain fluid I got picture of it and I pushed all that stuff to the back and I'd found a recovery band and I've wiped that over the top and I'm sitting there doing tricep press downs oh my gosh on it you know and then they're like what the heck and I said the PT came back in and she was with her but you've been doing you're exercising I said yeah I said I've been standing up on my own too like well we haven't cleared you stand up I said I know but I want to see what I can do and they go I said well what are the requirements for me to get out of here because they're like well you need to walk forwards and backwards without with good balance and walk up and downstairs while I was quarantined in the room couldn't go up and downstairs so I figured I was gonna I saw what I did was I grabbed hold of that that band remembering rubber band man days right put my foot inside of it and started working my foot like as if I was stepping you know working step ups and then all those old school rubber band stuff he had us doing around a tree yeah I was doing it around stuff in that room and all that stuff started coming back and that started memorizing you guys were in my head everybody that ever did anything good for me was in my head man and that's what was that's how I was recovering and I'm like my boys are there they're waiting on me no matter what it was just it was almost like I went all the way back you know and it's I'm like at the end of my ride and just no matter what it's till the end yeah you know um and and I just kept pushing it and I said hey what's the procedure what do I need to do to get out of here and they go well you're gonna be an ICU then you're gonna go to step down and then we'll you pass the PT test and we'll get you out of here I said okay so the PT test is my requirement to get out and they said yep I said cool in five days you're gonna get me out you're gonna release me you're gonna give me that test and you're gonna release me straight from ICU and I'm going and I'm gonna start my workout my routine and uh they're like what I said just trust me it's gonna happen and I did there work myself out all I had to do was let was work out in the room and did see and test myself I'd pushed all the monitors and all that stuff away and I was walking with one hand on the bed doing laps best I possibly could you know um but I had you guys there I had other friends calling me family calling me and it was it was cool having that support uh background and I was like all right I got I got my team we're gonna it's time to get back in the fight and then uh and and then sure enough five days later they let me go and then they're like look you're gonna have um you can only lift five pounds because I said when can I get back in the gym and start this and they go well the road to recovery is gonna be on you you're gonna set your own roadmap there was nothing given they didn't have one they're the experts and the best they are at cutting into it and getting getting stuff out of your brain but the recovery aspect is something different nothing was written down so I was like all right I'm gonna write something down so from day one to what it took me it took me 14 weeks and one day to get back to where I was right before going into surgery oh my gosh all drive determination and I wrote every single thing down and it was and I went back and I tried to give them the you know say hey here's the blue print yeah here's the blueprint they didn't want it went went back to human performance team here's the blueprint cool man nice at that that's interesting stuff okay I mean it's not like I'm trying to force something on I'm trying to help other people like this this will tell you this is a road map to help people that have gone through this surgery no matter what age they are that they have a fighting chance all they have to do is have the fight in them you know so there was only one crew of people and that's the boys up at West Side barbell up in Columbus Ohio give them a shot that's it everyone knows about them you want to talk about culture you want to talk about team room style behavior you want to talk about an awesome group of individuals just a little shout out to everybody West Side for getting my boy back right yeah and they got my head right and they they brought me into and I discovered another family outside the the military but yeah they're way up there too aren't they a little bit but what I'm saying though is it is it even during all those times during Hell Week during the worst pains that I've ever been in my life it always went back to Angels Gate every single time for the pain started thinking it is my seat it is so do you still have Angels Gate no we sold it oh you did when we left the orange the y'all already see I like hey you put it there that was good that was good that was a good transition that was a good transition I dropped out of all the altama gonerot's that the yard's not there and that's cool that's all right really I haven't been there man yeah I'm a you actually sold the house and everything mhm business we used to do weddings yeah I love walking in here I smell like a bed bathroom behind me going there and just I mean yeah the yard was a tear yeah but the house but we got it all fixed up and toned up Morgan used to help a lot in Tommy and the markets they renewed the vows yeah 25th yeah one day yeah had a heaven she went out back sidewall they did their they renewed their vows and they did 25th anniversary in the back they were there and Morgan said yeah we were all there I remember I remember first time they'd start to work out Morgan Morgan rolled up there and he worked out with me first Morgan I think was skiing somewhere it was I was the first guy on the porch yeah you went skiing yeah yeah remember that yeah so that morning more Morgan showed Larry with me no it was just me by myself right and then you worked out then I brought yeah somebody somebody well I remember telling Morgan he showed up from that ski trip he's like is it tough is it hard it was hard he's like how many do we do in the beginning how many how many do we do he tried to get the answer man what he said man we were on the porch yeah we were we had our feet up on that on the ledge there and you're like give me 100 yeah 100 just from Morgan being going Martin popped off talking smack he said simply can we real no yeah yeah all this we said oh I am you're getting ready dude I'll never forget that when he said that we said the markets and you could just see firing his eyes oh hey soup gave me the hey man are you good you can can you go how many think you guys like oh I'm going to go quick on it easy shit I'm not gonna do it he said American are something like that he said something he's gonna be real proud of me super I'm doing a hard push ups of that day he's like give me 100 right now he looked at me like he could that's what we're gonna start out with like say what that be the warm up yeah and then you have to keep going and then you have to stay with each other and then if you just got me together okay yeah come out loud yeah had to freak count out loud and do it you better go you better go like and one would start dipping dude and it he on it like just that back down shake hey you know what the house trying to get something like that 10 11 15 30 you know and you come back and go home and they're doing together don't let me look up that when they do all of them oh my god one because he gives some astronomical number number you know but but the thing of anything is though is that you didn't know you could do it yeah everybody goes in there's like hey man what's a lot but like 50'd be a lot no one everything all right give me 150 you're like 50's not a lot yeah when you hit when he hits you with that matter of fact we get the 50 quick yeah yeah yeah yeah warm up warm up the warm up will say oh this hell yeah that was the worst man so are you you're not training anybody now are you you're retired from it well i'm 77 girl come on i know but i'm telling some of the best people in the world my goodness i feel like you need like a youtube of your own of videos just to keep the legend going on well i just wish we could have seen what what's in my heart and i wish come with David all these kids i've trained that's really good succeeded we're reaching our whole second pass pass it on you know pass it down to somebody tell me said that he trained somebody and got him into the team yep good he just checked in team four mark mark mark is he got do you know he he sent my retired he could take a really tight counts people thank you suit i appreciate that offer what else you do yeah what else you do we're gonna wear the car man we'll provide i hope i hope this workout leaves on hey does hey thank you for coming out and being part of the suit man thanks for being in our lives we love you she got you in here a long time ago but time has been busy and david's you know we just all appreciate from from all of us yeah even the boys very much thanks so about y'all my love he goes bigger every day you're saying my heart and live with me if you want to die so amen thank you god bless thank you super long so