Glenn Beck and Pat Gray dissect President Biden's Telemundo interview, rejecting his comparison of Trump's election to MLK and RFK assassinations as historically inaccurate. They critique Nancy Pelosi's border funding compromise, debunk claims of withheld hygiene items for detainees, and condemn Elizabeth Warren's proposed reparations for gay people as government overreach. Aaron Watson joins to promote his album Red Bandana, discussing tracks on mental health, suicide, and the Route 91 shooting victims while highlighting his independent career. Ultimately, the episode frames current political narratives as manipulative distortions of history and reality. [Automatically generated summary]
Today, back in studio, we've got border talk, a lot of border talk, reparations for gay people, concentration camp rumors, and Bitcoin.
We got Bitcoin hitting 11,000 over the weekend.
Biden comparing the Trump election to the MLK assassination, Biden on segregation, and Booker trying to take him on.
And yet, we found something that Booker said just this weekend that we thought, wow, pot, meat, kettle.
And Aaron Watson, who has his next album out, Red Bandana.
It's fantastic.
He's with us as well.
All on today's podcast.
You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.
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Let me talk a little bit about the president.
Last night he did his first Spanish-speaking interview.
He didn't speak Spanish, neither did the interviewer, but it was for, I think, Telemundo.
It was incredibly unfair.
It's everything that you would expect.
Okay.
Why are you ripping families apart?
No, I stopped it.
I stopped it.
It was Obama.
We're not talking about Obama here, sir.
Yeah, but I stopped it.
It was Obama.
We're not talking about Obama here, sir.
I mean, it's that kind of stuff.
So it's just so frustrating.
I just, I endured it once.
I don't want to have to endure it a second time.
Although he did a really good job.
He kept his cool the entire time.
He just kept restating the facts.
I thought he did an excellent job on that last night.
And the media is so convinced that they're right on this.
And I don't think they are.
I think people are seeing, and I mean Hispanics and everybody else.
People are people.
We all want secure jobs, secure neighborhoods, safe places for our families.
When he got into, well, you said that MS-13 members are coming over, but there's a lot of other people.
But mixed in those people, if it's one in a hundred, that's too many.
We don't know who these people are.
I think that actually works for the average person.
And I'm not talking about, man, I've been traveling the country here this summer, and I just don't think people are playing the politics game like talk radio plays it, like certainly like the media plays it.
We're hyper-focused on this, but the average American is pretty much done and they're just watching it, you know, from a distance.
And if he can remain calm and cool as he did all the way through, he's going to make an impact because this is getting worse and worse and worse.
And the Democrats, this compromise with Nancy Pelosi that they announced this weekend, did you see that, Stu?
On the border?
Yeah.
Yeah.
He announced he was going to do these raids.
And then he said, at request of Democrats, I'm going to delay the raids for a couple of weeks to see if they can work something out.
So she did.
She worked something out.
She's going to provide all of the funding so they can move on and help communities deal with all of these, but nothing for actual security.
Just, yeah, we'll help get these people out and on their feet.
No, that's not what we were asking for.
And I think that the average American is going to see through this game.
And I think the Democrats almost, I think they want him to act through executive order.
Because they're not acting reasonably here at all.
And I really think that they want him to take this on.
And quite honestly, I'm at that point.
Mr. President, just we're going to lose our country.
We're going to lose our country.
You can't have this kind of influx.
I find it interesting, too, the way the media looks at this, because if you go back to, let's say, when Republicans were saying, we don't want Planned Parenthood funded, and then they quote unquote shut down the government.
And the focus was constantly on the victims, right, of this shutdown, the people who didn't have their, you know, the military people didn't get their paychecks.
And like, they went through every case they could to try.
And when, you know, when the military paychecks came, then it was another thing.
It was always some desperate person who was being affected by the Republicans.
And the idea was, you know, Republicans should just get past this little thing they have with funding abortion and give the money to the people who need it.
Well, look at this situation.
Tell me it's not the exact same thing, right?
Like Republicans are asking, saying, look, give us money to deal with all of these asylum claims and all these illegal immigrants that are crossing.
You keep saying that we're detaining them in this horrible, inhuman way when we need more money to deal with them.
As everybody has noted, the numbers are up in incredible amounts.
So they've asked for it.
They've asked to take care of the problem Democrats are identifying, right?
That these detainments are not the best, right?
They want to improve them.
So what do they say?
I mean, if it was handled the same way, we'd say Democrats should get over the idea that they should not fund this and they're pushing all the politics that are difficult on Republicans and deal with the actual victims here.
No.
This again falls on the Republicans as the problem.
The Republicans aren't doing enough to help the illegal immigrants.
And then they talk about whatever Trump tweeted last week.
Well, why don't the Democrats have to get over their ideological upset with the president on this?
Why don't they just have to give him the money?
So here's a very good point.
And we all know the answer, I think, that there's, you know, there's no real honest broker on one side.
You know, what the Democrats are now proposing is you have a leak in your bathroom and it's just pouring water out on the floor.
What they're suggesting is that they will help.
They'll help.
They'll help rebuild the walls.
They'll help, you know, rebuild the floor.
Well, wait, I don't, I need help right now shutting the water off.
That's what we need.
Shut the water off.
Well, I'm going to make sure that everybody can get in there and all the kids have boots.
I don't want my kids having boots.
Shut the water off.
That's the problem.
And, you know, it's we can say that it's for whatever reason, but here's the reason the Democrats are doing this.
And I'm, I'm convinced of it.
I don't have I don't have any evidence except past and past performance in exactly the same situation over in Europe.
All of the same people that are saying, open our borders, open our borders, open our borders, are the ones who said, you got to take on all these migrants.
You have to take them on.
You have to take them on.
And people like me were saying, you can't take them on.
You can't just have open immigration.
You're going to have all kinds of problems.
You're going to have more rapes, more violence.
Some of these people are good.
Some of these people aren't good.
You're going to get extremists that are coming across your border.
You can't do that.
You're also going to upset all of the people who feel like they're not being listened to.
So what's happening now in Europe?
Europe is being torn apart.
And what are the people in France talking about?
What are the people in Germany talking about?
What are the people all over Europe talking about?
In Spain, in Greece?
Direct elections.
Full democracy.
No republics.
One man, one vote, full democracy.
What are they doing here?
They're trying to get rid of the Electoral College.
What the left is trying to do right now is bring the world to a place to where you have true democracy, which is majority rules.
Now, in Germany, they're afraid because it's the Uber right that is asking for direct democracy.
Because the right is the one saying, you know, you brought all these migrants in, and now everything's going to hell, and you're telling us to shut up.
We can't talk about it.
Well, we're tired of listening to you.
You have the power.
You've had it too long.
And you're trying to shut us up.
And you're letting all these people in and they're changing Germany not for the better.
They're not adding.
They're bringing their stuff and then telling us with your help exactly how we're supposed to live.
We've had it.
So in Germany, the left is very afraid of direct democracy.
They're trying to stop it there.
In France, they're not trying to stop it.
So what's happening here?
Well, we have our migrant caravans, just like you had the migrant boats going up into Europe.
They know this destroys a country.
They know it.
They see it happening now in Europe.
That's why they're trying to keep our borders open.
They know that it will divide us even more.
They know that it will cause chaos.
They know that it causes political unrest.
I know that sounds like a crazy charge to make.
I know that.
And I expect everyone on the left and in the media, if they would ever cover anything, they would cover that as a crazy conspiracy theory, et cetera, et cetera.
But give me another reason.
Because this is not compassion.
What you're doing, chaos is never compassionate.
Never.
You must have triage.
If you said, you know what, we got to get rid of triage.
Everybody is hurting.
We got to get rid of triage.
That's what they're saying.
The United States is the hospital, and they want to get rid of triage.
Just everybody needs to get to a doctor.
Well, what's that going to do to the hospital?
More people will die because of that.
More chaos.
And in chaos, you cannot heal anything.
So tell me exactly.
Give me a better explanation because I don't buy compassion.
Chaos, as I have told you for 15 years, is the operative word of the future.
What do we have going down on the border?
Chaos.
Anything that encourages chaos, run from.
The best of the Glenn Beck program.
Hey, it's Glenn.
And if you like what you hear on the program, you should check out Pat Gray Unleashed.
His podcast is available wherever you download your favorite podcast.
Hello, Pat.
Hello, Glenn.
You have a list of three things that Democrats are very upset about.
Yes, because they're policy turnarounds by President Trump.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
And so he's receiving some pretty heavy criticism because, you know, he was going to attach tariffs on Mexican products, and he didn't because they complied with what he wanted them to do.
Then he was going to attack Iran and pulled out of that at the last minute because he had heard that 150 people were going to be killed in that attack and he thought it disproportionate.
Then he announced that ICE was going to begin deportations this week and he delayed that.
And this is causing America to just be a laughingstock now.
And is it?
It's even like a red line in the sand?
It is, yeah.
A little bit like that.
And it's a national security issue, in fact, because people just don't know where we stand on anything.
We know exactly where he stands.
I know exactly where he stands.
Mexico, tariffs.
It worked.
Cooperate or I'll give tariffs.
They cooperate.
No tariffs.
The next one.
Iran.
Iran.
The attack.
We're going to put a stop to this.
Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
150 people that may not be worth an even exchange for a $130 million machine.
That you would think that liberals would love.
Love.
Because that shows compassion.
That is honestly the best message I have heard a president send on any kind of military action.
You know, it's either weak or it's too strong.
The Game of Tariffs00:15:06
This guy is like, look, we could pound you in the sand, but not a single life was lost on our side.
And so I don't want to do anything that's going to cause you to lose life because I don't think that's fair.
And I think that's, what do they call it?
Even response when they say it's proportionate response.
That's what they're always.
This is way out of proportion.
And that's what they would have been saying.
Yes.
Had we done it.
Yes.
I actually like this, this call from the president.
And I have to tell you something.
I am sick and tired of the press wanting it both ways.
They were the day before.
This guy is reckless.
He just wants war.
He's just rushing into everything.
That's what they were saying up until he changes his mind.
Then it's he's reckless because nobody knows how to view him.
You know, he drew a red line in the sand.
And now what do our allies think?
Now what does Iran think?
Because they know they can cross that red line and not get any punishment.
Oh my gosh.
I can't take it.
I can't take it.
There's no way he can win.
No.
There's no way he can win.
And then the third one was the ICE deportations this week.
Since when are they for deportation?
Since when do they want ICE to follow through with deportation?
Plus, the other thing that we found out is the acting director of ICE said that because of the leak, that they were going to start the deportations, the ICE agents would have been in danger this week.
And they went to Trump and told him that.
And he didn't want to put the ICE agents in danger.
And the ICE, the acting director of ICE says that's why he delayed the deportation movement.
Because they knew, essentially, people knew it was coming.
Yeah.
There are some.
Some of them are not maybe people who are just here for a better life.
Some of them are criminals.
So warning them that this is about to happen, probably not the best thing.
Could have been dangerous for them.
So he delayed it.
I mean, even if you don't necessarily follow the exact storyline of the Trump administration, right?
Where you're like, where these things, he makes these big threats and they always work out.
At the very least, the media knows this dance, right?
Trump comes out and he makes a bold statement about some policy.
And then he's using it obviously as a negotiation tactic.
And they all know this.
Like they act, they take whatever is the worst interpretation of whatever he says and apply it to that moment.
So like, okay, it's deportations.
Well, he's the worst person in the world.
He can't, he wants to get rid of all Hispanics.
Oh my gosh, this guy's basically Hitler.
And then he says, all right, I'm not going to do it.
And it's like, well, this guy can't make his mind up.
What is wrong with him?
I mean, I thought we needed these deportations.
It's almost to the level where they're going to start arguing for the deportations.
I love the access to it, where they absolutely are convinced that he's Adolf Hitler with concentration camps and he's Adolf Hitler.
Look how much he hates immigrants.
And yet he's the one going, it's the lowest unemployment rate for Hispanics in the history of America.
And I remember Adolf Hitler saying, it's the lowest unemployment rate for Jews.
I mean, he didn't say no, that wasn't his priority.
Look at what's happening.
And they just dismiss all of that.
It's honestly, it's like fighting with a five-year-old where the five-year-old, you see what the five-year-old's excuse is going to be.
You see exactly what they're going to say long before, because you were five once.
And they keep making this excuse and then keep changing their reasons for why it should.
He's just eventually like, you're five, okay?
I'm not even arguing with you anymore.
That's where the president just needs to be.
I'm just, I'm not even arguing with any of you anymore because I think he's there.
It's kind of funny.
I think he's kind of there.
And he doesn't really, and he shouldn't care what the Democrats, because he's never going to please the Democrats.
This was a game that George W. Bush kind of got caught up in.
He started to try to please the other side of the equation, too.
No, no, no, wait.
Hang on just a second.
It's not that you try to please.
It's that you try to appeal to the reasonable people on the left, but the people, not on the left, but in the Democratic Party.
Because I tried to do this.
I'm not trying to.
I'm not going to appease.
I'm not going to change.
But I will try to appeal to the reasonable people out there.
But the reasonable people never stand up.
No.
They just never stand up.
Yeah.
So it does no good.
It does no good.
It does no good.
It didn't do any good for Bush.
They hated his guts even more when he tried to appeal to him.
And the same is true for Trump.
You can't win that war.
The idea that he is the most anti-gay president ever.
I'm so ridiculous.
I'm so sick of this.
He's the only pro-gay marriage president to ever be elected because every other president, every other president was against it when they were first elected.
And he wasn't like, because I've run it, I better say this.
No.
No, it was years ago.
Years ago.
Years.
He's always been gay friendly.
I don't know what you people are talking about.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Yeah, I mean, obviously, he's not Elizabeth.
Is it Elizabeth Warren that now has come out with this?
Yes, preparation for gay people because they didn't get their gay marriage ruling fast enough.
That's a fascinating one.
But like, you know, this is there's another story that's been going on.
Do we buy everybody toasters?
Is that what we don't know?
Like a wedding present that we it's interesting because they didn't get tax breaks all this time.
She's saying that they should get now the tax breaks from marriage, which has never been something the Democrats have ever liked anyway.
But apparently now they do because it applies.
I don't even know.
I can't even understand.
This is why I am against tax breaks for marriage entirely.
Oh, yeah.
Still, the government shouldn't be in it.
It should be in it.
It shouldn't be in it at all.
So there's this viral video that went around on the left this weekend about how the Trump administration is trying to prevent and arguing in court that detained immigrants should not get soap or toothpaste because that's not the government's role.
And of course, this is a concentration camp.
I mean, even in concentration camps, we give soap and toothpaste.
And there's people like coming out and saying, I was detained by Syrians and they gave me toothpaste.
This is unbelievable.
Well, what they don't include in the context of this video is, of course, that the Trump administration, the government lawyer now in the Trump administration, is arguing a case that was brought up in 2015.
It's an Obama administration case that has just continued into the Trump administration.
And the government's position is not that they should not give soap or toothpaste.
It's that it's not a specific violation of the Flores Agreement.
We've talked about that before over the years, which is one of the things that set up this idea.
So they are trying to talk about a very specific legal thing.
It gets tossed out there as if it's this Trump violation, but the violation actually occurred during Obama.
Doesn't stop every one of your dumb friends from sharing it, though.
With you know, with the context of the left that has no idea that this was an Obama problem.
This is not a Trump problem.
The Trump argument is coming as a continuation of a case that started during the Obama era.
But it just doesn't matter.
And I don't know.
Like, we used to, you kind of come up with this.
Well, maybe we'll come up with a logical reason and these people will understand that they're being misled, that they'll see the truth, that they'll see the facts.
There's no such thing.
It just seems hopeless.
I mean, they just don't care about it.
They care about signaling whatever's inside that makes them feel like they're superior to your Neanderthal grandpa, who's that horrible white conservative that we all have such distaste for.
And they have this, like, that is the motivation.
The motivation is never the truth.
The motivation isn't for these immigrant families.
It's the last thing in the world they cared about as evidence that this thing happened during the Obama administration and none of them even know it.
How could you have clearer evidence that they don't care about these immigrant families?
They don't care.
It's just a little piece of the puzzle to allow them to show their friends that they're better than everybody in, let's say, this audience.
And that's the goal.
The goal is not the truth.
The goal is not to help a family.
The goal is not to protect a woman's right.
None of these things have anything to do with the reasoning behind it, which is just signaling their virtue to everyone else.
And that's what's going to, that's, that eventually just comes undone.
That just eventually comes undone.
Oh, I have something I got from the New York Times, the Daily.
They sent a reporter over to Germany because they're now in Germany looking for direct democracy.
And that just goes to mob rule.
That's just majority rules.
And do they not understand that?
Do they not know that?
We went over to Germany to talk to some of these radicals that are trying to get majority rules.
You will not believe this.
I'm listening to it and I'm thinking, these people are so stupid or so dishonest.
I'm not sure which one it is.
Is there a combination of the two?
It could be a play here.
Could be.
It could be.
Just so stupid that they don't see.
And at one point, the guys are like, the New York Times reporter is saying, well, what about the death penalty?
This is very controversial in Germany, death penalty.
If you're against it, apparently, because of Hitler, nobody's for the death penalty over there.
So they took the most crazy thing that everyone is for, okay, no death penalty, and said, what happens if people just voted for the death penalty?
And the guy from the group that wants, you know, direct democracy said, well, that's ridiculous.
We'd never do that.
And then the New York Times is like, well, how do you know that they wouldn't do that?
I mean, are you, you're saying that you understand your group so much that they will never go that way?
Because remember, once you have majority rule, the majority could rule on anything.
And you can't necessarily stop it then.
You won't be.
Hello.
Hello.
Isn't that what you're doing here in America?
Yeah, but our side wouldn't be crazy.
Oh, okay.
It's really nuts.
It's nuts.
Thanks, Pat.
Pat Ray Unleashed.
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Let me get to Joe Biden.
Here's some audio of Joe Biden saying that the Donald Trump election night was a little like something else in history.
Listen.
People get out of jail.
Idea.
We give them 25 bucks and a buck ticket, a bus ticket to go under a bridge, so they, but they don't qualify for public housing, they don't qualify for food, they don't qualify for for uh, pell grants.
That's crazy.
We should be doing the opposite.
You know rev, you've been calling, i've been calling for a long time there should be job training in prisons, not training people how to be criminals.
There's so much we can do and it's within our capacity to do it.
That's the interesting thing, and I think what's happening now is, I think that uh, Donald Trump may have reawakened the sensibilities in this country to say whoa, maybe we can do this now, just like our generation was awakened when Dr King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated, a lot, whole generation said, i'm back in.
Man, these millennials, they get it, yeah.
And now they want to get in.
They get it man, they get it.
These millennials, they get it man.
Wow man, it's like when our generation man woke up.
Man, you know man, because I, I really hate the.
You know the argument that you should get in trouble for comparing things like, they'll always be like.
Oh, you know, going back compares, you know, Nancy Pelosi to Nazis and like you're and you'll be like okay.
And you're like well what's, what did he say?
And he said, well, I don't think that you should have this policy, because you know one of the reasons why I mean this has happened before like this is the first step down this road and and we shouldn't go down the road anywhere near these things.
And you know like like, you're making an analogy and, of course, when you're making a point right, one of the things you do is go to the most extreme level of that.
Right, like it's to set the precedent that the argument is theoretically possible.
Right, like you know, if you were to say well, I don't want any government intervention, all right, I never want war.
Well, what about World War Ii?
Right doesn't mean you're comparing whatever conflict you're talking about now to World War Ii.
You're trying to set the precedent that, in theory, you might be for war actually right um, and I so I usually hate that argument here, though he really is just comparing it.
He's saying there are certain things in our history that get people started and this should be considered on the same level.
Right, he's saying people assassination.
Now, think of this, think of this, my my father told me.
I asked him one time, what were the 1960s, like dad?
And he said, well, they were different because the vast majority of people were You know, on a sane side.
And so we kind of all stood around watching our television sets going, this is crazy.
What's happening to our country?
He said it wasn't as universal as it looked.
Now, he's giving a Pacific Northwest kind of analogy for him, which didn't have a lot of that.
But he even talked about, he said, when Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were shot and Malcolm X, he said, we thought the whole world was coming undone.
He said, it just felt like everything was coming undone.
Now, he's just put the assassination of Martin Luther King, the civil rights icon, and Robert Kennedy, another icon,
the assassination of those two into the same category as Donald Trump winning an election as saying that's as shocking and it shocked the system.
When the World Unraveled00:04:01
Do you really think that it was as shocking as Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy's assassination?
And by the way, what did those assassinations do?
Between that and what happened at Candlestick Park, the left kind of fell apart.
The left kind of fell apart.
It was kind of the beginning of the end of the radicalized movement because people had had enough.
They had had enough.
So are you implying that when you woke up, because what he's saying is people woke up to that and they decided to stand up.
Be more active.
Be more active.
No, actually, normal people stood up and said, yeah, okay, we got to stop this.
This is craziness, what's going on.
The Civil Rights Act was already moving forward.
The Civil Rights Act was done in 1964.
So we had already moved that barrier.
We were moving forward.
And the people led the politicians on that.
Correct.
Correct.
And it didn't take the assassination of Martin Luther King or Robert Kennedy.
That happened four years before they started shooting people.
I mean, the best version of his point is essentially you get to this idea that things are good racially, right?
And things are fine.
And then there's an assassination.
And you're like, wow, people really do hate minority figures.
And then you have another assassination.
People really do hate other people.
And then this is kind of what I think he's saying, which is we got lulled into sleep by the wonderful Obama years.
And this is coming from Joe Biden.
And then we realized that, oh, wow, we haven't passed these race issues.
Donald Trump got elected.
And so we need to get active again.
Of course, we had, you know, we, and we pointed this out at the time.
The Obama election came at a time where I think we had really had moved past a lot of those things.
Not because of Obama's election, because people don't care.
People don't care about your stupid skin color.
Who cares?
Like, how anyone can make a decision based on that?
And anyway, by the way, that includes things like affirmative action and all of these other things, but you don't make decisions based on skin color.
Thought it was something we all agreed on.
And then Obama gets into office and it's the constant focus.
He's constantly highlighting racial divides.
He spends eight years telling us how much white people hate black people.
When I don't know, I mean, I'm not saying there's no racism.
Of course, there is.
But like, generally speaking, I mean, you know, I don't have, I mean, I don't see it.
And I should see it.
I'm a conservative in Texas.
Shouldn't I see racism all the time?
And, you know, you talk to, we have David Harris on News and Why It Matters today.
And he made this point yesterday.
He's like, we're not victims here.
He's African American if you don't know him.
He's like, stop calling us victims.
Stop making us out to be victims.
We don't need reparations from you.
We need to be able to do the things that we want to do.
We need to be able to live our lives without your involvement in them.
If we don't want your involvement in them, we don't need the government getting in our way.
And, you know, that is, I think, where the average African-American is, right?
Like, we want to be able to do our thing.
Stop, you know, getting in our way.
And yet, this is constantly highlighted by the media.
It's that, as if the only thing that anyone cares about are racial divides to the point that even Joe Biden is on the wrong side of it on the Democratic Party, that even Pete Butige is on the wrong side of it.
You can't even be a liberal white person who says every single one of these arguments is true and push for basically reparations.
That's not even enough.
There's nothing that's enough.
And that's the lesson here: you can't, the extreme elements of these movements are not able to be reasoned with them.
Reasoning with Extremes00:12:45
Wow.
That monologue was almost, I feel like we just witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ there.
I don't know.
I don't think that's just crazy.
I think you'll see the results of that as the storm clouds gather.
This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.
Hi, it's Glenn.
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Thanks.
Mr. Aaron Watson is joining us now.
In case you don't know, Aaron, and you're a country music fan, where have you been?
Aaron Watson is the most successful independent artist, I think, of any genre of all time.
Definitely.
I like that.
I like this.
I'll go with that.
Yeah.
Is it just country or is it any genre?
I like just saying any genre.
That sounds so much better.
Doesn't it?
Doesn't it?
You could throw worldwide.
Yeah, worldwide.
Universal.
I don't know.
Yeah.
But I think you are.
Thank you.
I think you are.
It's good to see you.
Good to see you.
Thanks for having me.
You've been working hard getting this new CD ready.
It's called Red Bandana.
Yes, sir.
And I listened to all of it.
I called you, what, four weeks ago?
Yes.
Yeah, you released a couple of songs.
I used to be a program director of music stations.
And I was fairly good at picking hits.
I don't know if I could do that anymore, but I heard a song on this CD when you only replaced, you know, you only released a couple.
I think it's called Kiss The Girl.
Kiss That Girl Goodbye.
Yeah.
I think it is a smash.
Thank you.
If people will play it on radio.
If they'll play it.
It's a smash.
Thank you.
Can we play just a little bit of Kiss That Girl?
Goodbye.
Rainy days are just no good for leaving.
No need to mix in misery and jam.
So it goes for icy days, heartache and slick highways.
No time to wait.
You're gonna break if you bend and bend again.
But ain't dressed new start.
We'll warm your heart like the sun breaking through a cloudy sky.
If ever was a good day, it's today that boy and kissed that girl goodbye.
Just like a red-eyed light, two tillins in the night.
Come spread the wings and fly that boat.
Kiss that girl goodbye.
Just like the westbound train, you're drinking cheap champagne.
Got no more tears to cry.
You'll hold on like a whisper in the wind.
That boy can kiss that girl goodbye.
That is, that is, that is the hook of the year.
Thank you.
That is amazing, great.
You know, my daughter, she's nine, and when she was listening to the album, I said, girl, what do you think the first single should be?
And she was like, um, kiss that girl goodbye.
So she was, and that girl.
She's right.
Oh, she's absolutely right.
You'll sing that all day.
I heard that the first time.
My wife and I were in the car driving, and we must have played it six times.
I love it.
I love it.
It was just great.
You know, I had so much fun making this album.
I really feel like as a songwriter, I'm catching my stride.
I think so too.
And I poured my heart into all 20 of these songs.
Some of them are lighthearted, like that one right there.
That's lighthearted.
It's fun.
May I just say, first of all, you're the first person to put 20 songs on a CD, all penned by you since Alan Jackson.
Alan Jackson, yeah.
Okay, so nobody does this.
This is, I'm a fan of yours.
I listen to your albums.
I know you've been around forever, so I don't know necessarily all your old stuff, but I know your last four.
Yeah.
This is different somehow.
This one's different, and I think better.
I think it's your best one.
Thank you.
But I noticed that there is, there's two, there's two sides to this.
Yeah.
One is, one is just fun.
Just fun.
Lots of fun stuff.
And others are really deeply feel personal and heartfelt, even a different sound in some ways.
Am I right on that?
You're right.
You're right.
What happened?
I think as I've gotten older, I'm more confident letting people know that I don't have it all together.
And.
Can we go to a song?
Because you just said that.
Let me see.
It is trying like the devil.
Yeah.
Let me just play a little bit of this and I want you to listen to the lyrics because I think it's, I don't know what you were thinking.
Yeah.
But it's an interesting set of lyrics.
Well, that golden halo doesn't go so well with my red bandana and blue jeans.
God knows when I'm good, I'm good.
And when I'm good, it's seldom.
So it seems.
So they say fools play with fire.
I'm trying my best to not get burned.
While I soak myself in gasoline, one would think by now I might have learned.
But I've never learned.
No, I'm not the man they think I am.
It weighs heavy on my heart and mind.
Yes, I stumble every step along the way like a wino who can't wall the line.
It's like Todd Boat walking on a windy day.
There's heaven in her eyes and hell to pain.
And I'm solid as rock and sink and sand, trying like the devil to be a good man.
So what were you thinking when you're writing this?
Why did you beware of broken glasses?
This is a you know the next verse goes so beware of broken glass should you stare into the window of my soul and judge me not.
I only bear it all so you know that you are not alone.
And I think everybody, my wife, she's amazing.
She's the closest thing to perfect that I know.
She never gets mad.
I've never heard her say one harsh word.
You've never loaded the dishwasher then?
Well, because every time I load the dishwasher, I get a harsh word.
That's not the way you don't put this on the bottom and you don't put this on the top.
Yes, that, okay.
All right.
Excluding that.
All right, okay.
I thought that was just assumed with every man.
All right, good.
I thought so too, but I thought maybe she was the freak in the unicorn.
The unicorn.
Right.
I wanted to write a song.
I don't know if I was feeling depressed.
I don't know if I was tired, but I'm very much, I like to write how I feel.
And I've always been like that, but I've only shared usually the positive moments on albums.
And I think that's in some ways taken the heart out of some of my earlier albums.
This song, Trying Like the Devil.
There was a local boy who committed suicide.
He was one week away from becoming an Eagle Scout.
And everyone just said they never knew that this boy was experiencing such pain.
And his dad put something on Facebook that just said, I wish people would be more open and honest about their struggles.
I wish celebrities and singers would be more honest on social media, not just put forth this fake perfect imagery, you know.
And I wrote that song because I was like, you know what?
People need to understand that I try to be a good husband and I try to be a good dad, but I fall short.
But I keep trying.
And I think that's the biggest thing is you've got to keep trying.
And I put this song out.
And then two weeks ago, we played the Grand O'Opry and a soldier and his wife came to see me play.
And he said he struggled with PTSD.
And he has had, he said, I have suicidal tendencies is what he said.
And he said, this song, Trying Like the Devil, I listen to it every morning and it gets me in the right frame of mind that like it's okay.
I'm not alone in this.
Because I think that's what, I think we all want to be viewed as something spectacular.
And we all want to, we want everyone to know that we have it all together.
But I think, but we don't.
And I think being honest and going, you know what?
I don't have it all together.
You know, when people are like, you know, you know, you're, Aaron, you're a Christian.
You have it all together.
I go, first of all, I am so messed up that I need Jesus more than most.
So let's just set, let's set the bar really low for me.
But I poured my heart into this record.
And there's, there's lighthearted moments, but then there's moments where it's like, I need to be honest with my fans.
I need to share my heart with them.
They deserve that.
They deserve something that's real.
If it's truly going to be music with meaning, then it needs to be the whole heart.
We're back with Aaron Watson.
Do you want to explain this song first or play it first?
I'll explain it.
The song's called 58, and it's a tribute to the 58 men and women that were killed at the Route 91 festival in Las Vegas a few years back.
We played that festival the year before the shooting.
And I was home that night, that Sunday, when I heard about the shooting, and I had friends there, and just heartbreaking.
And then a few months later, we played National Finals Rodeo back in Vegas.
And some of the people who had been injured came out to my show.
And of course, you and I have talked about this.
I have that song, Blue Bonnets, that I wrote about my daughter, Julia, that my wife and I lost.
And this person who had been injured at the festival, who also lost a friend there, she said, your song, Blue Bonnets, has really helped me.
She goes, I really wish you would write a song for the victims and their families.
And I said, okay.
And I thought about like, gosh, how do you write a song like that?
But then the next day, I woke up with some, with an idea of this, this song that could be called 58 that would be short, meaningful, and only be 58 seconds long.
Just, I wanted to end the record letting those people, those families know that like we still remember them.
We're still thinking about them.
Listen to this.
58 seconds long.
It's called 58.
58 lost their lives.
Lothers and fathers.
Husbands and wives.
58.
Every daughter and son left a long trail of tears.
Long 91.
58 got wings way too soon.
Waltzing across stars and the moon.
58 angels singing along forevermen.
Let Your Dark Horse Run00:04:46
This is your song.
Your album is uh, the.
The album, by the way, is Red Bandana um, and his name is Aaron Watson, and it is, it's.
It's a great.
If you like Aaron Watson, this is the best he's done, I think.
Thank you uh, and uh, we're having him on because radio uh doesn't play Aaron Watson very often because uh, he doesn't have a record label and so he's kind of the guy who wouldn't change, wouldn't wear the skinny jeans and wouldn't sing the songs that somebody else wrote.
He said like, I know, i'd rather just play in a, i'd rather play in a honky tonk someplace uh, than you know, get rich and get famous playing somebody else's songs.
Uh, and you kind of address this in the song Dark Horses, which you've addressed before.
But it's different this time.
It's not about you.
Well, you had a big influence on the direction of this album and i've told you a little bit about this.
Well, we had dinner.
We had dinner and I had told you about what I was thinking and you said Aaron, I get it, you're the underdog, you're an unsigned artist, you're independent.
You know, because i'm independent, it's difficult for me to get played on mainstream radio.
Now we've had some top 40 hits, but it is.
It is difficult um, you know we don't get nominated for awards because i'm independent.
It's just.
It just is what it is and i'm okay with that.
So there is that underdog mentality that I always kind of have to embrace.
But you said listen, you've charted albums number one.
You you've.
You've done things that have never been done before.
You know you are, you are the you said.
I think you said you are like the people's champ.
You're showing them that, despite the industry telling you you can't, you're proving them wrong and you're like you need to write songs that inspire these people, that that don't talk about how difficult it is for you.
You're doing, you're living the dream, you're defying gravity.
Show these people, inspire these people.
That's why they support you is because they believe in you.
I have no recollection, Recollection of saying that I might have been hammered, even though I'm an alcoholic.
I don't remember saying that, but I will tell you when I heard dark horses, I cheered because I thought this is a kind of song that everybody needs to hear.
The lyrics this is the one we're kicking off the show to, the new show.
This is like this song goes out to everyone who's dreaming.
It's like, get out there, work your butt off, earn it, don't give up.
You know what?
Get ready.
They're going to tell you you're not good enough.
Get ready.
You may not get into the college you want.
You may not get this that you want right off the bat.
Whatever your dream is, you need to get ready because it's not going to be easy.
Get ready and get out there and work hard.
Listen to Dark Horse.
Yeah, this one goes out to the dreamer, always out there aiming high.
Don't you let them clip your wings or say that you can't fly.
This one goes out to the loser, losing time and time again and time again.
Keeps on believing that someday they're gonna win.
When nobody knows your name, nobody knows your face.
Everybody counts you out long before you start that race.
You can let them place their bets, let them laugh and drink their wine.
Let them eat their words when you're first to the finish line.
Today's your day in the sun.
You're rolling like a young gun.
Now it's your time to ride.
Let your dark horse run.
They can't measure your heart.
They can't tear you apart.
You're finally catching your stride.
Let your dark horse run through the fire.
Barbara wire.
You're a runway train.
There's no turning back.
This one goes out to the girls.
They'll show the world you can.
Never let them hold you back just because you aren't a man.
This one goes out to those underdogs who aren't afraid to bite.
Change a game, break the chain, get off that porch and fight.
Today's your day in the sun.
You're rolling like a young gun.
Now it's your time to ride.
Let your dark horse run.
They can't measure your heart.
They can't tear you apart.
You're finally catching your stride.
Let your dark horse run through the fire.
Barbara wire.
You're a runway train.
There's no turning back.
Let your dark horse run.
This is from the new CD that is out.
It's called Red Bandana by Aaron Watson.
It is, I don't know if I'm the only one that feels this way, but there are albums that I will always associate with summer.
Red Bandana by Aaron Watson00:00:44
Yeah.
There are things that I will always associate with summer when you had the windows down and you've got the stereo cranked and you're just singing at the top of your lungs because no one can hear you.
Yeah.
That's this kind of album.
Man, that is a great compliment.
I wanted this to be something that people could enjoy.