May 11, 2024 - The Political Cesspool - James Edwards
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You're listening to the Liberty News Radio Network, and this is the Political Cesspool.
The Political Cesspool, known across the South and worldwide as the South's foremost populist conservative radio program.
And here to guide you through the murky waters of the Political Cesspool is your host, James Edwards.
And welcome back as we continue part five of 12 now of TPC at 20 retrospective.
If you're tuning in this hour to hear us chart the course for the reclamation of our people's destiny and how we will found our own ethnostate, you're probably going to be disappointed.
We are going to have a little fun tonight, and it's okay to have fun from time to time.
And the inspiration for this hour was actually given by Warren Bailog, who you just heard from in the last hour.
When I was on his show earlier this week, he was asking me about some of the very unique interviews we've done over the years, and that's what we're featuring here.
One interview, one hour each month, some clips from that with fresh reaction from yours truly and Keith.
And I was rattling off interesting people that you might not have thought would have appeared on the political cesspool or would be fans and friends of the show.
And I mentioned the name Sonny Landam.
And Warren said, hold on.
You mean the guy from Predator?
That guy?
I love that movie.
And yes, Sonny Landam was not only a friend and a regular guest, he appeared at the Political Cesspool.
He was the keynote speaker at our kickoff party in the winter of 2004.
And he was authentically on our side on these issues, folks.
This was no opportunistic gesture on his part.
He used to speak at Council of Conservatives.
Yeah, we got him involved with the Council, and he did a movie for the Council of Conservative Citizens.
And his official bio reads that Sonny Landam first broke into mainstream film with a bit part as a police officer in Walter Hill's gang film The Warriors, then other minor roles in Southern Comfort and Poltergeist before being cast in his first major role as James Remar's gun happy criminal partner in the high voltage hit 48 hours.
Landam continued to turn up in high testosterone films of the mid-1980s, including the sci-fi film Predator, Lockup, and Action Jackson.
Yes, that Sonny Landam was a good friend of TPC, and he made countless appearances on the program, not all of which you can find in the broadcast archives, which now only date back to 2009.
He made a lot of appearances from 04 to 09 that are not there.
But we're going to revisit one right now that I think you'll enjoy.
Unlike the other guests we featured in our retrospective series, Drew Lackey, Anthony Kumi, Zelchko Glasnovich, and Walter Jones, who only made one appearance apiece, Sonny made many, but we picked one and is just talking about his career in Hollywood.
Let me say this.
If you haven't seen things like Predator or, you know, the other movies that Sonny had, do yourself a favor and watch him.
I mean, I think he totally stole the show from Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator.
Well, we're going to talk now, or rather listen to Sonny talk to us about his first breakthrough in film, and that's a movie with Nick Nulty and Eddie Murphy 48 Hours.
This is what he had to say.
We worked, yeah, I did, what, three or four pictures with Walter Hill.
And the first one was, oh, what Warriors?
And then I did Southern Comfort with him.
And he always wanted to do this picture, Revenge.
And you remember Kevin Cosnett did it.
And I think Anthony Quinn played the part.
And that was the picture that we kept packing to go to Mexico on.
And the head of the studio was set to go at Paramount.
And this guy was over at Warner Brothers.
And he went home and caught his wife in bed with the pool man.
And then he comes over to Paramount.
And at the time, you know, this was back when a big budget was, you know, $10, $15 million.
And there was a $10 million budget.
$2 million had already been spent in pre-production on Revenge.
And he came in and cut the legs right out of it because it hit too close to home for him.
And it was later done by Cosmo.
And so when they cut that out, that's how we wound up doing 48 Hours for Christmas in 82.
Hey, 48 Hours certainly wasn't a consolation in the least.
You're talking about one of the biggest movies of the decade.
You know, last night they had Tootsie on Dustin Hoffman?
Dustin Hoffman.
And that came out at Christmas of 82.
And that's what kept 48 Hours from being the number one film that year.
Well, there you go.
So that's exactly my point.
And, Sonny, you co-starred.
We were one and we were two.
We were one.
I mean, they were one and we were two.
I've seen both movies.
I like 48 Hours more.
But even though Dustin does have a lot of talent, but you co-starred in that with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, and you said Eddie Murphy was really good to you.
That was your first big, big, big movie where you had a big role.
You liked working with Eddie Murphy?
Well, Eddie Murphy was just a good guy.
I mean, he was all the way.
He comes from a good Christian family back in New Jersey.
And, you know, he's only 21 years old.
And he was just a sweet young man.
I mean, a good young man.
And very talented.
And he progressed to do some really, you know, good films from that.
And, you know, it was his part of the thing that made it go so much.
It was his first film.
And he was a big star on Saturday Night Live.
Right.
And his audience went to see the film.
And people, you know, there's only 20 million, there are only 20 million approximately back then.
There were 20 million moviegoers.
And when I say 20 million moviegoers, I mean people that go regular.
You know, they're people that go to see love stories.
They're people that go to see comedies.
They're people that go to see action adventure.
You know, karate films, they had a niche audience.
Any karate film would make $25 million worldwide.
And Eddie, I mean not Eddie, but There's some people, there's a portion, you know, that go to see everything.
They just, you know, just love movies because, you know, whatever it is.
And we sold about approximately 45 million tickets in the United States.
And to do that, people were going back to see 48 Hours five and six, seven, eight times.
I mean, they just going back and kept going to see it.
All right, so that's Sonny Landam right there.
Keith talking about his breakthrough movie, 48 Hours with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte.
And again, having a little fun this hour, but I think the point is this is a testament to how we at TPC have made our issues attractive to where you can have a guy like that.
And this guy, you know, really did become a close family friend.
Sonny Landon passed away in 2017, unfortunately, but he spoke at TPC's kickoff party.
The original first event in the winter of 2004.
And wasn't he an American Indian?
He was, in fact, he was half Cherokee and Seminole.
And I got to say this about the Seminoles.
I mean, they fought.
Osceola?
Well, and the Cherokee were, you know, the topic.
They fought with the Cherokee.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And see, Sonny was just, you know, he was may as well have been George Wallace back in 1962.
He was nicely down on our own.
He knew all of our issues, and he came down and he spoke for nothing at our kickoff event.
And we became friends from that time until the time of his death in 2017.
As a matter of fact, I was at his wedding.
My wife and I went to his wedding back in the mid-2000s.
It was his fifth wife, but we were there for his last.
I remember it.
And there's one thing you can rest assured of: that Sonny would not be lacking in female companionship.
Well, it was a fun.
He was a larger-than-life guy.
And I mean, the movie Predator was maybe, along with the Alien franchise with Sigourney Weaver, Aliens and Predator.
And of course, they did so many crossover, Aliens versus Predator.
But Aliens and Predator were the biggest sci-fi action crossover films ever.
And as you said, in that action-packed blockbuster film, Predator, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sonny Landam was really the character who stood out.
He was the last guy to die.
We're going to skip breaks, Liz.
He was the one going to fight the Predator with just a bowie knife, and he slashed his.
Yeah, that slashing scene was an ultra macho.
We're going to skip this break.
We're going to skip this break.
But yeah, yeah, so, I mean, everybody remembers Sonny Lando on the bridge of that film.
And we, of course, talked a lot on the air and off about his experience in the movie Predator.
And you can listen for yourself now.
You know, hey, just like any other movie, you form a family for, you know, so many weeks, 12, 16 weeks, and you're there together.
I mean, it's like anything else.
I mean, everybody's on a new job, and we're all together, and we're going through the same, you know, stuff.
And it was a great bunch of guys.
It must have been something in the water that three people out of the cast ran for governor in three different states.
That's right.
Arnold Schwarzenegger winning in California.
Jesse Ventura winning in Minnesota.
And you falling just short in Kentucky, Sonny.
Yeah, I mean, that was, you know, CNN said there must have been something in the water.
I'm glad you brought that up because that was something that I didn't want to fail to mention while we're talking about Predator.
As Sonny just said, three of those actors, three of the stars of Predator, ran for governor.
Sonny was one of them.
And speaking of something mean in the water, y'all filmed, you know, everyone surely has seen Predator.
Y'all actually didn't film that in a sound studio or a soundstage set.
That was filmed in Mexico.
And, you know, the water purification system, you know, went out down there and nobody told us.
And, you know, there are two things.
One, you drink bottled water and you brush your teeth with it.
But you're bathing in the water, which makes you, you know, which gets into your pores and into your skin.
Also, you go into the bar and they give me a scotch and soda.
Give me a Jack Danielson water, whatever.
Where do you think the water's coming from?
Where do you think the ice is coming from?
They don't make the ice with bottled water.
And everyone on the set, crew, cast, producers, everybody came down with commonly known as the Tijuana two-step.
And it was a mess.
I mean, the stink on that set from people going in their pants, and I mean, uncontrollably, and throwing up on the set.
I mean, that was a stinky set there for a while.
Just one of many stories behind the scenes that Sonny can and will share with you.
But speaking of there being something in the water, there must have been a couple of things in the water down there to cause that.
And then the novelty of so many people running for governor out of a relatively small cast.
Did you know when you were making Predator?
That's the only time in the history of film that you had three people running for governor out of a film.
I wouldn't doubt it.
I mean, that's incredible.
That's a history-making thing about that film.
A lot of history was made with Predator.
Did you know, Sonny, that when you were on the set there, and you've been in a lot of movies, and we're going to go through just a laundry list of some of the A-listeners that you've co-starred with.
But out of all the movies you've been in, did you know that there was something special about Predator before it was even released while you were making it?
Did you know that was going to be one that was going to be a little bit bigger?
No.
No.
Look, you never know.
I've done films that I thought, gosh, this is an Academy Award winner.
It was total flop.
And you do films like this, and, you know, you didn't think it was just another sci-fi movie.
And, you know, it's comic, really a comic book.
You just do it for real, and look what happened.
And it wasn't even a hit when it came out because of political, the political background of the movie at the studio.
And they really didn't push the movie.
It only made $53 million of $53, $55 at the box office.
And that was like 13, 13.5 million tickets compared to 48 Hours, which sold 48, 45 million tickets at the box office.
And it didn't become a hit, you know, a cold hit until it was on television.
Well, and it certainly spawned from there because now, I mean, they're still making Predator movies.
And they still are.
I mean, that franchise has become one of the most successful sci-fi action franchises of all time.
And as far as I'm concerned, for my money, he was the star of that movie.
When he passed away, Arnold Schwarzenegger had this to say, quote, Sonny Landham was such a joy to work with on Predator.
So talented, so fun to be around.
We'll miss him.
My thoughts are with him and his family now.
This was something Warren Bailock and I talked about last, or rather earlier this week.
It was interesting that the guy who descended from his father, you know, Arnold's father fought for the Germans in World War II.
Arnold turned out to be the cuck, and Sonny turned out to be the based one.
The Seminola Cherokee guy turned out to be the bass one.
But I had so many good times with Sonny on and off the air.
There was a time, it seemed like every time Sonny was on the show, something was up.
We had scheduled an interview, and Sonny's on the air with us live, and there's a knock at the door, and it's the driver for a limousine contracted by Fox News to take him to a studio so he could announce on Fox News that he was running for governor.
And while on the air, you could hear him brushing the driver off, saying, when I get done with the political cesspool, I'll get in the car.
And so he was on our show, and he let it be known to our audience first, and then he went and took the ride over to the Fox News studio where they're affiliated with him.
He had his priorities right.
And then there was another time where we called him, and this is just total dumb luck.
I mean, we didn't plan this.
We called him, and he was getting prepped to go to surgery.
He was in the hospital.
He answered his cell phone to do the show.
And I could hear people chattering in the background.
It was nurses.
And they were, you know, saying, you know, Mr. Landham, you need to put the phone down this.
And he said, you know, we'll do this after I get off the show.
Nothing took precedence.
That really happened.
In Sonny's world, nothing took precedence over the political cesspool.
That really happened.
And certainly and easily, one of our most colorful guests over all of the years, I mean, for his success in Hollywood and the movies that he had appeared in.
And then these behind-the-scenes stories, having spoken at our keynote event at the launch of the political cesspool.
I mean, he was literally there at the birth of the political cesspool.
But in the movie Predator, he was able to work with the very talented director, John McTiernan, who directed the movie Die Hard with Bruce Willis, which is maybe the biggest action movie of all time in some ways.
And he talks a little bit about that and working with John McTiernan.
Let's take a listen.
The director of Predator knows Slouch.
He was also the director of Die Hard and many other big, big movies.
What was it like working with John McTiernan?
John was a good guy.
John was a good guy.
The funny story about John, though, is I did Firewalker.
And, you know, this wasn't our greatest day.
I mean, it did not turn out.
This was a film I thought would really be a big hit.
It's interesting, Sonny, not to interrupt you, but someone just called into the studio.
They didn't want to go on air, but they wanted me to ask you what you remember about Firewalker.
So this is pretty interesting that you'd bring it up.
Well, Jay Lee Thompson was the greatest man I ever met.
I mean, Jay Lee could hypnotize you.
And I met him at the Sharon Netherlands Hotel in New York about doing the ambassador with Rock Hudson, Robert Mitchum, and all in Israel.
And that did not work out.
So when I got to do Firewalker with Jay Lee, I was very excited.
And Jay Lee told me that, you know, there were parts that would never be cut.
And so I worked out where the patch moved from eye to eye in the film.
And in doing that, at one point, it showed that I could see, you know, where I just raised the patch.
It was to look at Melanie Anderson.
Well, this whole film, they either chopped the setup line or they chopped the punchline.
And it was a disaster.
And so John's wife saw me and she said, you know, we went to see your film and we went to Westwood and saw you in Firewalker.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, I see John.
John said, Sonny, I saw Firewalker.
I stayed for about 15 minutes.
And he said, I got up and walked out.
He said, it was the worst film I ever saw.
I said, well, thank you, John.
I appreciate that.
John was a great guy.
He was very talented.
Director.
And, you know, John was, he looked at the film through trigonometry.
And he lost a few people, but he was a good drink, good wing.
And I really like John Tierman.
He was a great guy.
John McTiernick, you can check him out, folks.
He got into some problems out there.
Ollie Wood is not like it used to be.
There's, you know, it's just totally changed.
They're turning around trying to remake every television series.
And you can imagine where he goes from there.
But we're talking about his experience with the director of Predator, who's also the director of Die Hard, Die Hard with a Vengeance, the third installment of that franchise, also the Thomas Crown affair, and others.
John McTiernan, a heavyweight Hollywood director, and Sonny talking about that.
Now, I want you to hear what John McTiernan had to say about Sonny.
And you'll hear a quote from Sonny from the movie Predator and then what John McTiernan had to say about working with Sonny on the movie Predator.
There's something out there waiting for us.
Sonny was a hoop.
The insurance company wouldn't let us hire him unless we got him, got a bodyguard for him.
The bodyguard was not to protect Sonny.
The bodyguard was to protect other people from Sonny.
So we had this six foot eight inch tall giant man who just had to follow Sonny around 24 hours a day the entire time he worked in the movie.
And make sure that Sonny never missed me.
What do you think about that one there, Keith?
That's Sonny, though.
I tell you what, he was a force of nature.
Well, it's just one of the more colorful chapters in the history of TPC who, while never sacrificing our opinions or beliefs, we have made ourselves attractive to people who you wouldn't think.
And this was not our only celebrity interview that we've done over the course of the years.
A lot of entertainers, musicians, actors, but Sonny was the one who broke through on a familial plane.
I mean, this is a guy who has been a guest in my home.
Got to know my wife very well and the children that we had had before his passing, my parents.
And Sonny's still in my phone.
I've still got his number in my phone.
He's been back to him.
2017.
But you know what I mean?
I mean, I can't bring myself to delete the contact.
And still, I mean, these iPhones, they never delete a voicemail.
And I probably have, oh, I don't know, 100 voicemails from Sonny over the years just calling to check in.
Hey, just seeing how you and your wife and the kids and your parents are doing.
You know, Merry Christmas.
I mean, that was the kind of guy he was.
Salt of the earth.
He was really one of a kind.
And we'll play a little bit more of that interview and a few more reflections.
It just all goes into the baking of the cake that has been TPC over the last 20 years.
Unlike any other show.
Unlike any other show.
We'll be right back.
Stay tuned.
Your daily Liberty Newswire.
You're listening to Liberty News Radio. News.
I'm Laura Winters.
An extreme solar storm, the strongest in 20 years happening across the U.S. and the world.
Stunning pictures of auroras circulating right now on social media.
Stunning colors in the sky as people look up and see the northern lights in states like Maine and Wisconsin.
The northern lights in green, pink, and purple.
Folks in the south in the northern part of Florida, also able to see the show.
Turning now to developments in the Middle East.
The Israeli military ordering the immediate evacuation of certain neighborhoods in northern Gaza as it targets Hamas terrorists.
128 Israeli and American hostages still unaccounted for.
They were kidnapped on October 7th.
The Israeli cabinet approving an expansion of the military operation in Rafah.
The U.S. rushing new shipments of weapons to Ukraine as Russia launching a new assault on various fronts, including the second largest city of Kharkiv.
The Pentagon confirms that new $400 million aid package is on its way to Ukraine.
It includes Patriot missiles and armored vehicles.
Turning now to sports, basketball in the conference semifinals, game three, the Pacers beating the Knicks 111 to 106.
Jadlen Brunson says his lingering injury did not affect his play, and if he was seriously hurt, he would sit it out.
If I'm out there, I'm playing.
There's no excuse whether I'm hurting or not.
If I'm hurting, I'll come out.
Here's Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle on how his team handled Brunson.
You know, the idea was just change the matchup, get a little more size.
And Aaron, you know, Aaron did as good a job, I think, as you can possibly do.
It's just, you know, Brunson's so good.
I mean, he's the best scorer in the playoffs.
The Knicks lead the series 2-1, game four, tomorrow afternoon at 3:30.
On the ice, the Hurricane's hosting the New York Rangers tonight at 7 o'clock.
The Rangers leading the series 3-0.
And I'm Laura Winters, USA News.
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Sonny, yesterday my life was filled with rain.
Sonny, you smiled at me and really easy pain.
Now the dark days are done and the bright days are here.
My sunny one shines so sincere.
Sunny one so true.
I love you.
I remember learning about Sonny Landham's passing and talking to his wife and I Just couldn't believe it.
I had, I remember calling him on the way to the Republican National Convention in 2016.
That was obviously in the summer of 2016.
I was driving through Kentucky on my way up to Cleveland, and we had a long talk, and we talked a few times since then, but just I knew he was having some health issues, and just you never really expect anybody you know to pass away like that.
But what great memories.
And getting back to it now, just some of the conversation we had with him over the years, unlike the other people we have featured in our TPC at 20 retrospective series who made single appearances.
Sonny was a regular guest, a couple of dozen appearances over the years, but this is one that was kind of fun.
Instead of talking politics, we were talking Hollywood, and we will continue that discussion right now.
And this is talking about some of the co-stars he appeared in films with and some behind-the-scenes stuff.
Look up Sonny Landham's filmography, you will know that he has worked with some of the biggest.
Eddie Murphy, as we mentioned, Nick Nolte, Craig T. Nelson, Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Sizemore, Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone.
They've all starred in movies with Sonny.
Any favorites, Sonny?
Yeah, Sylvester Stallone.
We were friends, and Sly, I mean, Sly is not a better guy than Arnold or Bill Duke or anybody.
You know, all these people I liked.
And Carl Weathers, I loved.
Right.
But Sylvester Stallone was a total filmmaker.
And Lee Marvin.
I loved working with Lee Marvin.
You know, in the Dirty Dozen.
And, oh, I noticed on your website, I was very upset.
You said that I was in the Great Train Robbery.
I did?
Yeah, I was not in the Great Train Robbery.
I don't know if I put that up, Sonny.
I don't know what website you're at.
Now, I was not in the Great Train Robbery.
I read for it, but I wasn't in it.
Are you sure you're on my website?
You know what the Great Train Robbery was, don't you?
I think you're pulling my leg on something.
Well, the Great Train Robbery was the first silent movie at the Weston.
I knew that had to be.
I know you too well.
I knew that had to be something.
And I wasn't in it, but I read for it.
You know, I got to ask you this.
One more thing.
You got me on that one.
You know, actually, Sonny, I'm going to share a story from behind the scenes.
You know, it is possible to get Sonny upset at you, and you don't want to have Sonny upset at you.
So I started to sweat there when Sonny said he had a problem because one time we brought Sonny down.
Do you remember this night, Sonny?
We brought you down, and we did a show.
And I think you were down to do an autograph signing at a video rental place or whatever.
You didn't do the show the night before.
I was out there with you.
Yeah, no, yeah, no.
You were in the studio with us down in Memphis.
And I said, you know, let's go to the casino.
He said, okay, good.
How far is the casino?
I said, oh, it's about 15, 20 minutes from here.
We drove for about an hour and a half, and you were hot when we got out.
Oh, I was hungry.
I was hungry.
But you had driven all the way down from Kentucky to do the show.
Yeah.
And I was hungry.
But we did.
But you know what?
We went down to that.
I forget the casino was.
Sonny, Sonny, hold up right there.
It was the Gold Strike Casino in Tunica, Mississippi.
I'm going to tell the story when we come back, and then we're going to go to listener questions because God knows we got another commercial break.
All right, we're actually not going to take that break.
That was in the live show at that time.
But Keith, I will take a quick pause before we continue this behind the scenes accounting of my time at the Gold Strike Casino Tunica with Sonny Landam.
You knew the movie.
He was pulling my leg, and I was wondering what the punchline was.
You knew the movie, though.
Yeah, right.
I know that much about motion picture history.
Even a blind hog will find a good icon every once in a while.
We're going to play one more extended clip of this conversation.
We get into some behind-the-scenes stuff, some of the funny stories with Sonny and his relationship with PPC, and some listener questions that came in at the time of this interview, which was on New Year's Eve of 2011.
That's the interview we're replaying right now from New Year's Eve 2011 with Sonny Landam.
And then we will close the show tonight with some parting shots.
So sit tight and enjoy this.
I want to quickly finish this story up.
I mean, Sonny Landham and I have made, I've been fortunate enough to make a few memories with Sonny over the years.
I told you about him coming down to Memphis.
He was the keynote speaker for the kickoff of the show.
We had a packed house, arrived fashionably late to it because Sonny says that's the way a star does.
You don't show up on time to your event.
You come in a little late.
Sonny taught me that.
We put Sonny up at the Peabody.
I remember walking around on the streets of downtown Memphis with Sonny and people coming up to him, recognizing him.
Oh, you were Billy and Predator.
And it was just, you know, for me, before I had my first shot of celebrity, I mean, it was just an incredible experience.
I remember we did one radio interview with Sonny a few years after that.
Sonny, you were in the bed.
You were in the hospital.
You'd had a heart attack or something.
Something was wrong with your heart.
You were in the hospital.
A nurse came in to give you medicine and you shoot her off saying you were doing a radio show.
I said, Sonny, you know, we can do this later.
You said the show must go on.
So that's another big memory of working with Sonny over the years.
You know, that time that we spent down at the, you know, at the casino that night?
Yeah, I remember it.
We did go and get good steaks and the Major D got us got me a comp suite.
And after you left, you know, I won $2,000 in the casino.
See, aren't you happy that I drove you an hour and a half out of the way?
Oh, yes, I was then.
Let me tell him that story because let me set the table.
Sonny drove down from Kentucky to Memphis because we had an event that weekend, but he also was going to do a show.
So he'd already driven, you know, 10, 12 hours down to Memphis.
We did the show.
Then we, you know, we ended up driving about an hour and a half down to the casino.
And he was a little hot at me when we got out of the car, but we went in and he said, I'm not going back to Memphis.
You know, we're just going to get a room here tonight.
And the first thing I did was I go up and say, you know, we need a room.
I need a room for, you know, for Sonny Land.
And they said that they didn't, you know, or I said, I needed a room.
And they said that they didn't have a room.
And I said, Sonny, man, I'm sorry.
They don't have any rooms here.
And you said, yes, they do.
I said, no, I just asked.
They don't have any.
They're all booked up.
He goes, watch this.
Sonny walks up to the counter.
Not only does he get a free room, they supposedly didn't have any rooms, even to buy.
He gets a free room.
It looked like some sort of a Prince of Persia suite they put him up in because Sonny's in movies.
He can do these kind of things.
So they put him in this palatial suite for free, comp is room.
And then the Mater D is coming in and serving us this flawless steak.
I tell you, we've had a few stories.
And I'm thankful to be able to retell them, Sonny.
No, we had a great time, though.
That was a great evening.
That was a good casino.
We ended up, it got off to a little rocky start, but we ended up having a great night there.
Of course, my wife and I joined you at your wedding in Kentucky in 06 to your beautiful wife.
And I tell you, it's a lot of fun memories and still many more to be had if I can have my way.
Amen.
Now, what about any more questions coming in?
All right, here we go.
We got a lot of questions.
And here's what we got, Sonny.
I'm going to break it down how we're going to quarterback this thing.
We've got about eight minutes left in the show, and we've got more questions than we're going to be able to get to.
So I'm going to read them as quick as we can.
You answer them as quickly as we can, and we'll see how many we can get to.
First one, I guess we've kind of covered this already, but Robert in Phoenix wants me to ask you: what is your favorite movie?
He doesn't specify if it's one you've been in or one you dislike, but we'll cover them both.
Favorite movie you've been in, favorite movie?
My favorite movie is High Noon.
High Noon?
The one I had the most fun on was oh, what did we do in Louisiana?
Southern Comfort.
Southern Comfort.
Thank you.
Southern Comfort.
And a good movie.
Folks, listen, you can't go to Blockbuster anymore.
They've all gone out of business, I guess, but you can get them online.
Netflix, rent some Sonny Landam movies.
Start your new year off the right way.
He's been in a lot of good ones.
Elizabeth Sonny in South Carolina asks, have you ever considered running for office again?
I'd support you if you did.
That comes in from Elizabeth in South Carolina.
Another bid in your future, Sonny?
Thank you, Elizabeth.
We've thought about it.
I mean, life is not over yet.
I'll leave my options open.
Hey, that is a politico answer.
We're going to be talking politics with Sonny.
Sonny, let me ask you this.
I'm going to take the floor here for a second.
Ever considered running for something less than governor?
Maybe a state house seat there in Kentucky?
No, because you have to whip these people in the line.
I'm not going to stand there and play politics and, you know, like the guys that, you know, the Tea Party people that went to Washington and they're swamped by these professional politicians, be them Republicans or Democrats.
All right, but that's for next week.
Next question.
Okay, next question comes from Rick right here in Memphis.
This has to be a question written by Memphian for sure.
With it being New Year's Eve, we're going to skip this break.
Is says Rick.
So if you're having a drink tonight, Sonny, at midnight, what's it going to be?
Peach tea.
Peach tea.
There you go.
There you have it, Rick.
Okay, this one gets back to Predator and John McTiernan.
This comes from Kevin in New York City, Sonny.
I don't think I've even asked you this question before, but I've heard about it.
Kevin writes, in the special features DVD of Predator, I remember the director saying that the movie studio had to hire a bodyguard to protect the other cast members from you.
Was that a gimmick to raise interest in the film or is there a story behind that?
That was John McTierna trying to be funny.
That had to do with the girl that I was going with.
And her grandmother was almost kidnapped in Mexico City.
And so we had bodyguards there for her coming down.
There you go.
I had a feeling that was going to be the case and that that was the case, but that has gotten some play on the internet.
Okay, now this is something that I didn't know about.
Rebecca in Florence, Alabama writes that she hears that you still go out to autograph signings.
She had a friend in the UK meet you at a collector's confab over there.
Do you know anything about that, Sonny?
Yeah, I have done, I did went out to a lot of conventions, autograph conventions.
But with the Economic Times, they've gotten so bad.
I was supposed to do one in Washington and Indiana this year.
And, you know, you get a minimum guarantee for doing these things.
Right.
And I was supposed to do one in California, but it couldn't meet the schedule.
And the man doing the other two couldn't come up with the money for the minimum guarantee.
But you're still actively out there on the circuit on some of these collectors, I guess, tours, if you will, Sonny.
So you made it all the way out to the UK for that one.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, I mean, I've been to Europe several times, you know, doing these things and all.
But economic times, the money is just not there, you know, for these producers and promoters.
And, you know, they don't want to pay the price.
And, you know, it takes a certain amount of money to make it worthwhile to get out of bed, go.
Oh, yeah, certainly.
Certainly.
And I understand that all too well.
Okay, next question.
Do you still stay in touch with any of your former co-stars, Carl and Indiana?
Oh, yeah, I do from time to time.
I stay in touch with some of them.
And, you know, it's not a regular thing.
We all have our lives.
Right.
Folks, before I forget, I want to make mention of the fact that Sonny Landham has a website, and we encourage you to visit it, sunnylandam.com.
Pretty simple, easy enough to remember, sunnylandham.com.
Sonny, I, you know, I'm an honorable guy, and this is sort of a shameless question to let go through, but it did legitimately come in, so I'm not going to reject it.
All right.
All right, but Steve in Florida asks, what is James Edwards like in person?
He's a great guy.
You don't have to lie.
The brains of the family is his wife, Dana.
And she and his daughter, Isabel, share the beauty in the family.
And James is a very lucky man to have both of them.
Sonny, I couldn't agree with you more.
And certainly that's reciprocated with.
And he has a great mother and father.
And you know what?
They're waiting for me at the house.
And I told Dad you were going to be on the show tonight.
And he was very excited.
And I know he's tuned in there at home this evening.
And when I get home, we're going to be talking about you as we count down to midnight.
Sonny, we got just a minute or two left.
We have several more questions.
I don't know if we're going to have time to get to them, though.
I want you to.
Well, let's just tell Dana, Isabel, your mother, father.
I said Happy New Year and may this be the best year of your lives.
Well, Sonny, of course we reciprocate.
God bless you and all your family, James.
Sonny, you too, buddy, after all these years.
I'm looking forward to next week already.
We've got about 30 seconds left.
Give folks a teaser of what they may be able to expect next week when our conversation together shifts from movies to Polly.
I'm going to tell them where they get abroad, Michelle, Ma Bell, carries a straight razor.
Does Michelle Obama carry a straight razor?
All those answers and more forthcoming on the first show.
We will talk about the real bigots that the Southern Poverty Lost Senator should get old to.
And the race haters.
And that's Obama.
And his Attorney General holder.
All right.
Well, that's how we ended that particular show.
I know you heard the music, folks.
You thought we were done yet.
We still actually have a few minutes left tonight.
But, you know, it's been a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful two decades here on this program, Keith.
And all of the people we've met, all of the friends we've made, I think that was one people didn't count on.
Well, you know, Sonny Landham showed his warmth as a human being.
He's really a good guy.
And I don't think that everybody could have gotten the same interview out of him that you did, James.
You did a great job.
You've always had talent doing that.
And we have so many people like that.
People that aren't normally, you know, in the repertoire of people in the news media to take interviews of.
But we got them.
And thank goodness we got Sonny before he checked out of life.
We got Drew Lackey.
We've got so many people.
And Wallace Jr. I mean, all of these people.
We've got so many people.
And they all liked us.
I mean, that's the thing.
We were able and have been able and are still able to make our message palatable because people see us and they say, you know what?
These are normal guys.
These are good guys.
These are normal guys.
And, you know, Sonny having all of those friends, I mean, he mentioned his friendships with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy and Arnold Schwarzenegger and all of the others, Sylvester Stallone, and he never backed down.
And as a matter of fact, not only did he not back down, he gave us preferential treatment above even that of Fox News because he got to know us.
Nothing took precedence over the political system.
And even in the hospital, and I remember driving up to the Republican National Convention and talking to him, not knowing that a year later he'd be gone.
That was back in 2016.
But I'll tell you this, true to his character in Predator, where he's this Indian tracker who has like a sixth sense.
He can see things coming.
This is a true story.
And I've never, I don't think I, I don't know if I've told this before on the radio.
Maybe I have.
But in January of 2016, Sonny calls me and he would call me a lot.
I mean, we talk a lot, a lot more than I talk to most people.
And he called me that day and we were talking.
He said, you know what, James, I just got a feeling that your show is going to be a big player in the presidential race this year.
And I said, Sonny, you know, I don't know about that.
I mean, we do the best we can with what we've got, but when up against the establishment folks, I mean, we're just, we're not as big as that.
And he said, well, James, you're just, I think you're going to be surprised this year.
No one could have known it, could have known it then.
Because I've been on the radio since 2004.
Our first night on the air was before the Bush, the Bush carry race in 2004.
We went on the air a week or two before that.
And through all the presidential races, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016, you look at all the people who were primary contenders.
Not one time did ever a presidential campaign contact us or have anything to do with us.
So I thought, no, there's just no way we're going to be, you know, we're going to do what we can.
We're going to serve as a voice for our audience.
I'm happy to be the shepherd of this particular flock, but, you know, we're not going to really register the scale on this.
He said, you know, you're wrong about that.
This is funny.
In January of 2016, a month later, we get credentials to go to a Trump rally.
I remember that.
Days after that, the Trump rally, the Trump campaign contacts us to have Donald Trump Jr. on the show.
And from Super Tuesday, March 2016 through November of 2016, we were in the news every single day.
And what did Donald Jr. say about his interview with you?
That it would follow him for the rest of his life.
And I think we will play that interview on our retrospective series before the end of the year, maybe a little closer to the election, maybe.
But Sonny Landham, for no reason, or, you know, there was no reason for him to have said in January of 2016 that we were going to make a lot of news and make some noise and have a sixth century that he had.
But just like his character in Predator, he was right.
And it was a wonderful thing.
The Scottish talk about the second side.
He had it.
From our kickoff party in 2004 to his wedding, not some years later to his passing in 2017, we never lost touch.
And good times, good memories.
TPC at 20, 20 years, a retrospective, one time, one hour per month this year.
We're going to revisit one of these classic interviews.
It's fun stuff.
And that's the installment five of 12 for the month of May.
And we've got still some good ones up our sleeves going forward.
But already in our retrospective series, we've revisited interviews with Drew Lackey, Anthony Kumia, Zelchko Glasnovich in March for March Around the World, former Croatian general, then member of parliament, Walter Jones, the United States representative last month and this month, Sonny Landam.
And who else has a lineup like that?
On our side, nobody.
On our side, nobody.
But it is interesting.
The people behind the scenes who listen to this program, who are unbeknownst to everyone that we hear from and who have never been on the show.
But you know what?
I'm listening and I support.
We've heard from a lot of people like that.
You know, interesting interviews we've done that we may not play in our retrospective series, but how about, you know, my pastor and I, Keith, interviewed Ray Stevens together on this show.
And then we also had on this program a former Victoria Secret model who kind of left that life for, I guess, born-again chastity and faith.
And that was an interesting one.
We even interviewed on this program Sidney Leathers.
Do you remember that, Keith?
No, jog my memory.
Sidney Leathers was the one who brought down Anthony Weiner.
All right, he was the one that Anthony Weiner was sending all of the messages to.
And Sidney Leathers, at the height of the whole Anthony Weiner scandal that brought him down and took him out of office, she came on this show and she said, you know, you're so much nicer to me than the liberal media is.
Because, of course, we were happy that she had been the downfall of Anthony Weiner.
Not that we agreed with her on anything.
But you just never know who's going to pop up on TPC.
And over the course of 20 years, it's been a lot of people.
Very interesting.
And to revisit some of these things this year has been a lot of fun.
Everybody that doesn't come into an interview with you with preconceptions comes out singing your praises.
Well, you know, and Sonny went and he spoke at several CFCC conferences, including one up in Indiana, that he and I both spoke at.
And then he did a DVD for them on political correctness and the Frankfurt School of Man.
About American Peril or something, I think it was called.
And he appeared in that with Gordon Baum and a lot of other usual suspects.
Well, a lot of the people that were really the progenitors of the political cesspool, the people that talked about the taboo topics of race, Jewish power and influence and things like this back in the day.
And we got him.
I mean, I say we got him to do that.
We asked him to do it and he did it.
And so it's just, I mean, one of a kind.
I think this show is one of a kind.
And I think our last 20 years has been one of a kind.
And we'll see how many more.
We're strapping in, getting ready for the next one.
Yeah, we got another one.
I mean, you know, this is another election year, and who knows where we'll be between now and November.
But looking back on it, that's one of the things I wanted to do on our 20th year is one hour per month, 12 segments, 12 installments.
This is the installment for I doubt that I'll be around for the next one.
I'd be 93.
Well, I don't know.
Your mom's 96, and she's still alive.
But at any rate, what do they say?
You know, this is like life is like a box of chocolates.
You never know what you're going to get.
Go watch Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sonny Landam before we talk to you about.
Son Comfort's good too.
Next week, 48 hours, all of them.
Action Jackson.
Yeah, I tell you what, Sonny Landam was one of a kind, and we were blessed to have him as a friend here at the Political Success Board.
We'll talk to you next week, ladies and gentlemen, for Warren Bailog and the late Sonny Landam.