"Buckskin" Bob Black - Tongue Cancer, Promotions Career, and "B.S." - Ep. #12

0:16 That's it, man. That's it. The main thing is, it's good to see you. Good to be seen. It's really good to see you, Brad. I miss you. I miss you too. It's been, what, 3-4 years? 19 I think you left the station. Been down here for four years now, yeah. And I don't know. I don't know that we've seen each other since. I don't think so. I don't. Think I don't think we have. No. And by the way, I'm Buckskin Bob, kind of a celebrity out of the UP in northern Wisconsin. They call me Buckskin Bob. I don't have no clue why. All 5 1/2 deer from Alpha Michigan, which is well above this map, right on the border, yeah. I From the reviews I've been seeing this year, there might only be 5 1/2 deer left.

1:01 And the whole UP we got a few extra wolves though our state representative right now is introducing a bill to trap them and take them downstate. Don't think it's going to happen, but it's one of those issues, you know and so far we have a mild winter on the on the drive down it took Me 2 1/2 hours typically, two hours typically, but slush, sleet at 1st and then fog and then now down here cleared right up. Yeah, crazy winter so far. If you want to even call it winter, it feels like October is there. Is there even snow by you? Right now there's snow, but by Christmas, no snow. Yeah, and this is a couple days before Christmas. Oh, we left the cat on the bag.

1:43 It won't be released for a while. Yeah, yeah, but the the the the airing is a couple days or not the airing but the taping is a couple days before Christmas. My my advice is stay off the ice. Remember, I give those all the time. You know Brad, Brad and I tell everybody how you and I met. Yeah, we we worked together. I was a chamber director, Iron Iron County, Michigan, which is right above that map, right on the border. All four UP counties are on Central Time, which I coined. Cheese time. Yeah, you know you worked in radio, got hired and I was friends with your boss and it's your fault that I got in radio because you said Bob, you got a good gig, he come in here you can sell it because if I've I'm a good, I'm a natural born salesperson. You were iffy on it, man.

2:30 You remember it. You. Were it took me. You're iffy on it. It took a while to come up. It ended up being a good fit for you though. Salesperson. And then I became general manager and award-winning. I won the Performer of the Year. I'm on air 15 minutes a week. For Buckskin Bob's weekend report. Buckskin, Bob's Weekend and Outdoor Report and everybody. I'm the Guy Fieri of the Northwood. These sunglasses go everywhere. Do you? Do you still do you still take pictures? Of all my food and any gimmick I do, I'm a gimmick person. You know, man, you and I are totally different. You know what? I would like to come in as a professional wrestler. We that it always worked really well, man. It always worked really well because we are different. Even with the studio there's not there's not much gimmicks or frills, right?

3:14 And you were you're very good at that, do you Is the Blues Fest still going on, going strong? I'm a gimmick guy. You got the shirt on. I got the last T-shirt 2019 end of Summer Blues Fest. No COVID killed at 19 OK and or not 19 at 19 was last year, which was great. We had eight years running and then 20/20 was COVID. 2021 Wisconsin was open, Michigan was not open. The governor said, oh, you can have 500 people. Well, I had 1000 to 15 or people in a little village. And then so 500 people said it's not worth it. And then I said, do I put it on or not?

3:55 And then she said, oh, you can only have 250 people by the time. So I'm glad I didn't go through with it. And then the next year I got cancer. Yeah, somebody that talks, sings and dance. I'm not very good at it, but I entertain. Got tongue cancer. Yeah. And we were talking and. And I always need something to drink. The radiation. I went all the way to Chicago Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Lived there for two full months. Yeah, you were there for a long time. Lots of chemo, tons of radiation. It burnt my neck. I got scar that that bump is scar tissue. I've got scar tissue in the inside. They just dilated my throat a couple weeks ago so I can swallow pills and I'm almost two years out by this.

4:38 By the time you see this, I'm two years out cancer free. But I can't drink really good water, water, thin liquid was like coffee unless I thicken. It goes through the epiglottis, the flapper and goes in my lungs and I aspirate. How do you thicken coffee? What would you They make it thicken, or if you're lucky enough to live, to go to see grounds in there. No, they actually make thickener for liquids for old folks home. So if you're lucky in about 45 years you're going to see it. But I have to drink carbonated goes down. Well, milk or or milk products like almond milk. I drink that because milk produces mucus. I produce no saliva or very little saliva. Milk is bad for me, but milk will go down. Cottage cheese goes down, applesauce goes down. Something that goes down really well is. And I quite in this one too.

5:31 My Wisconsin water made in Milwaukee with my Blues vest. It's all cheesy, but you remember that's WIKB on the bottom there too. You know where, where. And I worked on telephone time, and so the Wisconsin water was is my drink of choice. Which you can still have. I've been wondering about that, man. We haven't got to talk very much since it happened. But that's like that was your that's your thing, man. Going out for drinks and and dinner is your thing and that had to put a binder on that for a while. It did but then he watches. You know I'm Bob Black on Facebook. It's just easy to find.

6:11 And no I've not done any super social media. But I'm on on some Youtubes. I've done three or four TV commercials. Have you seen any of those? I should. I've shared them on Facebook. Biker Bobby. This is Biker Bobby. Look twice. Save a life. Motorcycles everywhere. And then this year was don't mow the grass in the yard. Don't be a Jimmy, you know and and please don't litter because I got turned in for littering because I threw a sign. But you just look up WIKB on Facebook you got. You got turned in for littering. Well, did you get a fine? No, no, it's a $10 sign. It was on private property. I'm not going to get but somebody they called a complaint because a biker, Bob, because I dressed up in my full biker gear, full Dresser bike, and do not, you know, look twice, save a life, more cycles everywhere.

6:55 Then I threw it behind me and I left down the road. And then it says listen to buckskin bobs. We can have to report 9:15 at wikb.com. But I threw the sign behind me on the radio station property. Some people like a dozen people probably called in and said, yeah, you know, that you're making bikers look bad. They shouldn't let her. So they blocked that part out. So this year's ad was don't blow grass into the street. It might be illegal. It's ugly, clogged sewers, and it's like black ice for bikers. And then I said, look twice, save a life. Motorcycles everywhere with the sign, I said, and please don't let her. And I hand this sign off. And then I drove away at a tractor mowing grass into the grass, full biker gear, and I waved at the guy that's sweeping the grass off the sidewalk.

7:39 It's a cheesy commercial, but it's great. We did one for Telephone Time, too, that I directed. Nice. Yeah. So Doctor Larry's in and he said to say hi. Yeah, I haven't chatted with him in a while. Yeah. He said to say I didn't tell many people I'm coming down just in case it didn't happen or something. And yeah, we're old. We're old buddies. I was a chamber director and every Friday came in at 9:15. You and I talked. BS I'm, I'm Buckskin Bob. But BS Bob is even better. I usually sign it. BS Bob fitting it is. There's no doubt about it. It's more fitting. And we had fun together. We'd go out and have a few beers and and we did a couple events together and things like that. Of course you were. The people wanted to see what you look like 'cause you're the telephone.

8:23 Face with the name. Yeah, you got that for a couple of years. Yeah, everybody knows what I look like. I mean, I got a wanted poster out, wanted poster, Buckskin Bob for drinking Missouri water in that's a Wisconsin. That's probably a what, a 35 year old Bob right there. No, this, this year. That's this year, this. Is this year? I'm not sure if they could see that or not, but go ahead and read the what what you you could actually find me on the weekend if you find me during 9:15 Friday to 9:15 on Monday. Prizes worth hundreds of dollars I. I carry prizes with me and they say, hey Buckskin, Bob, what you got for me? And it's like, well, what's the password, man? And some weekends it's it's like for an event or something, Yeah, yeah.

9:06 So I tie it to something and you'll. Have tickets on you, I'll. Have tickets, coupons. You know drink chips. Yeah, you know sometimes a couple 100 bucks worth of tickets to Mall of America or or I can't. Wisconsin Dells, they're they're pre. Double cheeseburgers, Exactly. And all my restaurants give me coupons, 'cause I I talk about my sponsors, you know, I promote, Yeah, so. But this is, this is somebody made that for me. The the new kid at work made that for me, so that's pretty cute. Yeah, that's awesome, man. So how'd you how'd how'd you find out about the cancer? Like when it happened. I don't a bump on my side of my neck. Went to my doctor and at the 'cause I'm old and fat, I said I got a little bump, he said.

9:55 That's probably just your lymph node. You got a cold. I said no, I'm singing, dancing. I mean, the buckskin, this thing was tight on me, you know? But it's a. Little loose. You used to call yourself fat and sassy, didn't you? Yes. I did call myself fat and sassy. I was never shy and and he said a couple weeks I'll give you antibiotics so two weeks went by Christmas of 21 it was ish gave me antibiotics didn't go away didn't the swelling didn't go down. Couple months later he gave you the ultrasound and they said, oh it's just a just a cyst. If it if if it stays in 6-8 months, we're going to take it out six months down the line or we're going to send you the Wausau to have it removed because you know they you don't want to go to a hospital in the UP to work on your carotid artery, your area, you know. Hey, I got a pocket knife for you, right? You love it.

10:47 But if you have a heart attack north of an amasaw, it's pronounced amasaw. By the way where I go wolf and and moose hunting with a camera of course. So they said no, we're going to send you to Wausau to get this cyst removed. I get down there and I've already seen the surgeon. I'm, I'm laying on the Gurney, but ass naked nurse was getting me socks, 'cause that's cold. He comes, feels it, and he says, I said it's been getting bigger. He goes what? He looks at the paperwork, he looks at me and I'm looking up and this. Is on the operating table and they're going to take the. Gurney, the Gurney going into the operating room, he checks me before they knock me out. So they're going to bring push me into the surgical room, you know, And she's ready for the IV. The nurses there got me a blanket, my socks, and the surgeon checks me before he's going to go scrub up and they're going to knock me out.

11:35 And he goes, the wife of almost 25 years, do you believe that Christine is known as Tina? She goes, tell the doctor it's getting bigger and he's looking. He said, yeah, it has gotten bigger, 'cause you only see me like a week or two before he feeds that. We'll just remove it, see what it is, he says. I'm not comfortable. I look at him. I'm not comfortable either. And was. This the same Doctor or a different Doctor? This is Surgeon. This is the. Surgeon. Surgeon down in Wausau. He didn't feel comfortable to doing the surgery. So I go back down in river the next day and do a full blown CAT scan. Oh, we got larynx cancer. So hang on, my wife says, yeah, we're we're out of here. We're out of these bandit hospitals in the UP. We had a friend go to the cancer treatment centers of America now called City of Hope out of Zion, IL. It's not really Chicago, it's closer to Kenosha, which I love Pleasant Prairie Kenosha, know every part in Euro spot in Northern Illinois, in southern Wisconsin. And so she went to the doctor, made him sign. She goes, he goes, well, we're not sure what it is. What's been 10 months, signed the paperwork. She made him sign the paperwork for. Like a transfer for a referral you. Get down there.

12:48 I I'm there for one whole week. I got to see a three oncologist, 2 surgeons, ear, nose and throat surgeon, a rabbi, a minister and a priest. Really. Sex therapist. A new naturalist that picks mushrooms and stuff. Of course, I taught them a few things too. We need tech mushrooms before the end of the day and all the herbs and all that good stuff. And they took a biopsy of that cyst or or lymph node or whatever, and they did a CAT scan and a PET scan, and it turned out that I had tongue cancer. It wasn't larynx cancer. It wasn't a dumb bump like they first thought. So my doctor's up there misdiagnosed me twice. So it was your lymph node that was swollen, but it was because of the tongue.

13:38 Cancer that your nose and throat surgeon scoped me, went up my nose and you can see it on TV and I got to watch it. She was, oh, your tongue is really big. And she goes, you're a smoker and said no, my parents were bad smokers. My dad died 43 because, you know, basically smoking, mom's heart attack, 43 smoking, I'm smoking, but no cigarettes. You know, I'm I'm smoking hot this. Is so cheesy I I. They they know. They know my personality there. You know, oh you're the you're the radio star guy. You're the I sing and dance fat and sassy and all that. I used to say fat and sassy and the ear, nose and throat surgeon from scoping me, she goes, no you don't have it from smoking.

14:24 She goes you have HPV, human papilloma virus which all the young kids. You're too old for that I think. I don't think you got vaccinated for it. But anybody probably 30 and under, got vaccinated for it and they see all the commercials on TV. It's, yeah, it's. In the commercials. Yeah, it's it's kind of like shingles. We all have it in US. Is it going to come out or not? OK. And now they're vaccinated. All the kids that, you know, 2530 and and under are vaccinated and when they took the biopsy of my lymph node, Yep is HPV. You got tongue cancer. dot it, dot it, dot. So a a ear, nose and throat surgeon not doing surgery diagnosed it.

15:06 And she said you're going to get so many radiations, so many chemos, this kind of extra chemo. I had 12 chemos, 296 hours of chemo in a person, a PICC line going through my heart, and 35 radiations in a row where skin was melting off my neck. Dang, Yeah. So that that surgeon not taking it out probably saved your life save. My life save my tongue. Yeah, 'cause they that's very hard to do a tongue surgery, OK? Yeah, that. And that's the logical next step, right? Like what? What's happened since then? How, how long did those treatments take? And then I've been kind of watching on social media, but that's from afar, man. You know, and I post on every day almost.

15:48 So you really got to watch me almost every day because I'm eating somewhere with my famous glasses. You see my I remember license plate. My front license plates is pair of sunglasses, is it? Really. Yeah. I remember the first couple of times I noticed you post food again and I was like, OK, Bob's might be getting back to it. I still have a hard time. My well, the whole treatment is 2 months in the hospital never left. OK. Two. So you're there two months, two months? Eight weeks total. OK 'cause I was through Christmas and New Year's and they don't do surgery and or chemo radiation on those days. So yeah, I was stuck there 'cause I had a pick line one of the weekends and the next, well you can go home for a three day weekend.

16:29 I was not feeling up to it. Yeah, if they said, oh your radiation won't catch up to you for about 3-5 weeks and chemo, you might get sick to something. But here's pills for you. Excuse me. First, first or second radiation. By the way, they they take, they put you in a mask. Have you seen a picture of my mask on Facebook? Bolt you down to a table. They make a mask for you. Just you bolt you down to a table. Put you in a tube for about 30 minutes. 2530 minutes. Excuse me, Beer makes you. Did they have to put extra like mobility in yours for talking so much you? Bite on a mouthpiece, OK? That had to be pure hell for. You only you know that, Brad.

17:16 But when Bob Black talks, people listen. Yeah, fucking commercials from the 70s, but you're in this tube for 30 up 2530 minutes doing radiation and the first couple it reacted with my fillings from the 70s. I've got the shitty feelings like the mercury and all that bad stuff they put in your feelings. My tongue turned purple and this and that. It was so I couldn't eat for the first couple of weeks, then that went away by then about the 5th or 6th week. I'm sick now from all the chemo and extra radiation, so I stopped eating. I lost a total of about 8590 lbs and muscle, even though it was a fat guy. How many brads could I pick up? I mean, I could pick up two people at a time. Easy.

18:00 Not, you know, being a AMMA person and a firefighter instructor. I mean, I taught people how to carry people and how to slam them. You know, I had my own martial arts gym. So you. Can take them out and save them. Save. Yeah, so. But after I got home, pretty much stuck at home for the first couple of months and they want to be around everybody because I was compromised, you know, being sick and I was like white as a ghost. Well and. You're probably working through it like, what is life? Now at that time, yeah, like I relearned to eat about four months later. I had a feeding tube. I have an extra belly button, had a tube. I had to put liquid diet in there, so I was taking about 3500 calories in a day, plus whatever I could chew and get down and swallow and I still lost 85 lbs.

18:48 The feeding tube saved my life. Yeah, I didn't have it. I've been gone. And you know some of your size couldn't lose 85 lbs. Yeah, so. Could you could you put the fish fry in the blender and dump it in the funnel on the top, you know? You could, but it didn't. Or it did. You know, somebody said you can put a shot of whiskey in everyone you just because you don't feel like it. Yeah. What a trip, man. And didn't have a beer probably for a good six months. And I had to relearn how to eat my mouth because there's so much and I still have to do exercise. I'm still no more chemo, no more radiation. But I'm still in treatment, as in exercising, jaw stretches, massages. I wear a mask at night. The compression fitting to keep it from my lymphedema. From going like this I had big fat neck like here and now. My neck's kind of skinny but scarred. And then all the exercises and and my Ashley Heidemann, she was my speech therapist down there and and she was one that saved me through everything.

19:50 You say well why do you need a speech therapist? But she helped me relearn how to eat my my teeth. When I first they measured me. They measured all your head instruments and stuff. I was my mouth opening was 55mm. It got down to 20 like this. They had a hard time putting my feeding tube in. They had to stretch it and hurt me. And knocked me out and put my feeding tube in. It was not it was not fun. And right now I'm I'm basically I went from a 55 to a 22 cent a millimeter. I'm back in the upper 40s now so I've worked it back but I so I still have to do exercises. Wear a mask around you wake up in the middle of night you got this thing choking you. It's not fun.

20:32 I do a thing that that massages your lymph nodes. It's ahead and and vest, and it massages my lymph nodes so the water doesn't stay here and doesn't, you know, make sure everything drains correctly so it's constant treatment. I could do treatment. I've had dry kneeling done. I've had extra massages done, but I could do 8 hours a day of treatment. Yeah. You know, some days you're going to have to like it's time to live, yeah. So now you're cancer free though? Oh, I've been. Cancer free the PET scan The second PET scan post cancer. They had to wait like 3 months because you have so much radiation in you and so many other things. I turn the lights off. I glow, you know, it's and like a. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, correct? Turn the lights off.

21:12 I would glow. I'm not kidding. I mean, it was bad. And Speaking of glowing, this is a rock. This is a upper light. That's the. Upper light, That's a. Upper light. That's another present for you. So you knew about this? And I know. So that's the thing. These glow when you put the right kind of light on them. This is a upper light. The only ultraviolet light I got is 1 from like 1979 and I've had it in my bedroom for years. So okay, you have a special flashlight and they glow. OK, so this is that's a. True upper light. Ed the diver would be happy to know about this he was talking about. These myself, did you? Yeah, are. There like a there a bunch of them. There's a bunch of them, but I got them at Smarty's Bar in Negaunee. Picked it up for. A dollar or two. And next door is Tino's Pizza and Lori Hayes from the Flat Broke Blues Band, who's played in like half of my Blues vest. She's got a business right there in Negaunee too, so oh nice, another shout out.

22:05 And of course they could make a shout out to Sons of Legend and The Sons of Legend, which I sing. I'm a member of the band and I think you you were there when they made you. You. Were already the honorary I was. Already I was the first member of the Sons of Legend. And yeah, yeah. Wasn't there there's one song you would do right, I'm. Messing with the kid. Messing with the kid I. Do you know what to do? Ner, ner, ner. Paul Sundquist made a song for me, and it's We played every 9:15 every Friday morning on the radio. Oh. Really. Yeah. Before your. Before my show. Before your show. Yeah, OK. Nice. So you're still buckskin, Bob's weekend reports. Still buckskin. Bob's Weekend Outdoor Report every Friday 9:15 Central Time Cheese time set.

22:45 Your set, your set your clock to it, yeah? You got it. And Paul Sundquist makes a song. It's messing with the kid, but it's it's following Buckskin Bob, OK? Yeah, nice. Just say. I've had my cell phone on me. I'd play for you, but I put it over there and the phone rings when I get here. But they've become infamous in a way too, you know? And then people know that I've had the cancer and then they see me and they go, you know, I've been almost out two years. By the time this airs, I'm out two years and I've gained about 10 lbs back. Got a little flush, no beard. I always had a goatee. The radiation killed this. Lost my hair twice. I lost my hair from here down. And then this summer my thyroid went bad because of all the radiation and for about 6 months, up and down with different drugs and things.

23:35 And they finally got it worked out. And in September, just a couple months ago, I lost most of my hair and now it's came back. I don't have as many Grays as I had. And it's thick. It's thick. Yeah. And I don't have the curls, 'cause last year I had curly Gray hair. I mean, curls, you know, beauticians and stuff. Oh, I pay for that hair, you know, And still it's thicker, you know, But I lost it in September. That was always part of your shtick, man. Was your hair. It was always on on point. It was. I mean, I kept, I had a haircut every four weeks no matter what. And I went through three hair changes in two years. Because of the cancer treatment or conditions because of the cancer. Yeah.

24:16 Well. But I'm here and I'm. And I know somebody says, hey, nice to see you. Nice to be seen. Yeah, man. And that and all the other cancer survivors out there too. You know, yeah, that probably rings a little bit differently after that experience. You know just you truly mean that when you say nice to be seen and here with you and. The thing is you know and you know I'm, I'm, I'm the the. I was a face of telephone time. You hid behind the mic. You were the voice of telephone time. Yeah. I was the face. I went out and you got me a job there or they wanted me for a long time. I. Talked you into it. You talk me into it. Twist in my arm. And our old boss, you know, he never wanted me to be in the studio other than doing my show.

24:59 Doing my. He wanted me out in the public doing things. Because everywhere I went as a chamber director, there was a WIKB sign behind me because I know how to promote, you know, so I I had that stick and it stick pays sales. If I like it, I can sell it. I've been offered job to to to travel downstate Michigan, northern Wisconsin and UP to sell parts for a factory. No. Yeah. I'd be you know couple $100,000 richer. But I like my my life. I like to hunt. I like to fish. You know we have tons of wolves. I trail cameras is I I bear guide. You know that was my big thing to remember. I love to bear hunt. And I got out in the woods last year with the trail camera. I'm out at 4:00 in the morning 'cause I just can't sleep 'cause my sleep I'm.

25:42 I'm asleep in the easy chair at 8, up at two or three. I put my my slip of gun in my pocket and and put my my not Crocs, but they're my Shimanos. They're like a a deck shoe, but they're like Crocs. Remember people used to make fun of me wearing shorts in the winter. And like Crocs, I said they're not Crocs or Shimanos. They're deck shoes. They're boating shoes. But I'd be up at 4:00 in the morning feeding bears. Yeah, you know, so. And not only this year. Did you guide anybody this? Year. I helped somebody this year, but they didn't want to really get into it too much. They're too busy at work, so they weren't successful last year. I helped him when the guy was out of town, stuff like that.

26:23 So I did more of a guiding last year. But if if I'm the 100% guy, you're going to be able to see a bear. I mean, guaranteed you're going to see bears. Yeah, your your method worked pretty well. Oh. I've got a down pat. Yeah, I. Remember talking about that a lot? Oh, with the with Wishigan outdoors. Yeah man. You and Randy. Yeah that was a good time. That was that was a radio show back on 8 to 9 Saturday mornings on WIKB 99.1 W ikb.com but make sure you listen to Buckskin Bob so we can outdoor report you're gonna you're gonna have so many cheesy endo windows and. I'll have to. I'll just send them to you so you can use them. Well, I'll I'll tape the whole show with them. Well, I'm glad, man.

27:06 I've been. I've been, you know, wanting to have that conversation for a while. We just haven't seen each other. But I'm glad you're light at the end of the tunnel. And and I'm glad for you, you know. Well, I assisted you with getting married. I was your. Yeah you did. I was your ordering minister. You know popped in there pretty quick and and the suits actually matched too with all the other guys too. It looked like one of the guys and then, you know, a year or so later you had a baby and and you were always wanting that, you know, you were always. I'm glad for you. Yeah. Yeah. It's good, man. It's. Good. It's family's. Family's good, there's no doubt about it. So my family's expanded. Yeah, tell me about that.

27:47 You've got. You've got a, a. Year ago we lost our son Clifford. He was he passed away in an accident on the way to the another hospital because the local hospital couldn't help him. So instead of taking an ambulance there, he was driving to that another hospital in X County and he rolled his car and got killed. And he was a single father of a 10 year old or 9 year old at the time. He's 10 year old now, autistic son and he's in the middle spectrum. He's not autistic. It's so different. But he also has an eating disorder on top of it. So he's got to eat oatmeals and puddings and come pudding, kid. Come pudding kid, Yeah. Today I took spaghetti. He wanted spaghetti meatballs before I I left and he goes, I said, you want them hot or cold, you want them cold.

28:29 Put them in a bullet and he ate the whole can. Cold spaghetti, meatballs. But he loves them, you know, in certain things I could. He goes out with me and he can't eat nothing, you know, unless I have to Put them in the bullet, you know? Nope. They're good, you know? Put it. In the bullet put it. In the bullet, yeah. Is it like a texture thing? Something like that. Yes. And he's got some kind of my wife would know that the true diagnosis of it, there's only like 20 people in the whole country. That's got it. Really. Yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah. So he's we have a 10 year old plus he's special needs you know so.

29:14 Yeah, that's a life. Changer. That's a life changer, Yeah. Probably, you know, life Changer in a lot of different ways, right, That after going through what you just did and kind of coming out the back end, there's probably a lot of perspectives changed about that too, where, you know, there's positives. Yeah, right. Well, you know, I'm good with kids. Yeah. I mean, what don't I do? I mean, if you list you, you don't have a long enough time to all the jobs I've had. Yeah, school bus driver. That's one of them, I thought. About talking about that today. My list. Of jobs. About your career path, Yeah, because that's a it seems to be a topic that we've got into, but I don't know your career path is so winding well. I've been at the radio station for nine years and. That's probably one of your longer 10 years, yeah. That's right.

29:59 Like other than my own ventures, right? Your. Entrepreneurship. Yeah, I mean, I was always a business person of one sort or the other, you know, and things like that. But I was a school bus driver, still have that, all my credentials. And kids. Now the kids that I took to school come up with their kids. Hey, bus driver, Bob. Hey, look at the little junior. And you know, I hug everybody, You know that I still can't have a bus driver's license. I keep my realtor license going. I let my mixed martial art judge license go, and I almost became a judge in Wisconsin. There's not many fights in the UPI mean, there might be fights, but not legal fights. And my last fight and. Ones that don't need a judge, Yeah, you. You need 911.

30:42 Just the juror, just the 911, just the juror. Yeah, you know, But I didn't really like judging as much as announcing cause I can pitch my voice now, but I don't have the voice I used to have fighting out of the red quarter or you know, I love announcing because I could drink beers, flirt with ring, ring card girls. Miss Katie, Miss Wisconsin, how you doing? I've been talking to you for a couple years and and dance and sing on in the ring you know in between the fights and have fun and then they legalize it in both Michigan and Wisconsin and now you have to have blood tests you got which is all good thing and. Being a judge is a lot more serious. I'm there with my wife, can't talk to anybody, can't talk to the fighters, can't interview the fighters, can't talk to anybody because it's a license event.

31:29 You got to be on the straight and narrow and Wisconsin said. I didn't have enough fights underneath my belt to get a license here in Wisconsin, but I could go to a school for 1000 bucks. Oh. So it's a money grab. Yeah, they, you know, I could probably go to Detroit and get a couple more fights under my belt and then that's going to cost me a couple 1000 bucks to, you know, I did it for a night in a hotel. Free beers, your pictures probably. Going to go to the fights anyway, so you might as well be a part of it and. I'm in the front row and my last fight and I used to own 2 gun shops in Elfa, Michigan. I owned one in Elfa, Michigan, was a gun shop martial arts gym and the other one I moved from Alpha, which is population about 200. It's. Hilarious in itself. The gun shop martial arts gym.

32:11 But just hang on, right? Then I moved to big town of Crystal Falls, MI, the capital of Iron County, and I had a it got rid of the martial arts, but I had a gun gift ice cream shop, and I could marry people. And for one year I had Chicago, Vienna hot dogs and Italian beefs Sell your real estate, marry you right on US too. And I had a 10 foot, I had a 10 foot grizzly bear in the front yard holding a gun. You can't make that. You can't make. It up if you try. You If you cried on you ever cried yet on your podcast, you're coming close to it.

32:53 I've. Probably been brought to tears I I haven't laughed so hard. You're almost crying now and I'm doing a straight face. It's. Hilarious. I know. It's great. But I I stopped selling Chicago, Vienna. The true Viennas I got actually got trained down here at to Pier, some Chicago place that had Viennas. I met the the contractor from Chicago and I'm in the UP met me here in the pier and he taught me how to dress the a true Chicago docks. I'm officially trained. I mean my credentials. I mean a federal licensed gun dealer getting trained to serve a hot dog. A genuine. A genuine. Exactly. I'm a critic. You know, I have the hats, Oh darn it. I have those in the cartoon.

33:36 They keep them around, you know, give them as gifts and stuff like that. It it. I know. What a sugar hot dog. Yeah. OK, you tell me and I'll give you a hat if you win, You know, things like that. But. That list of stuff, man, that list of stuff where your interests have and you didn't even, you didn't even delve into the the Jaunton to the running for political office either. Well, I was a politician for years. Yeah. I ran for office in 96 as a Libertarian in the UP, and they couldn't even spell it right. They put Liberian on some of the, you know, paperwork and what the heck's a libertarian, you know, excuse me? And then and the whole UP was all all pretty much conservative Blue Dog Democrats in in the in the 90s. So.

34:21 And I ran again in 98 and I won Libertarian of the Year down in Detroit living in the UP 'cause I just promoted freedom. And then and then I said, OK, you know, I'm, I like the political thing and, you know, and and I helped get the gun law changed, you know, from a May issue to a shallow issue, Became a licensed gun dealer and I taught close to 4500 people in concealed weapons training. Plus I can take you in the ring and show you martial arts too, you know, things like that 'cause I might run out of bullets I'd come into, that's another story. And then I then I ran as a pro gun Democrat in in 2000 and or I'd have to be a a pot smoking Republican and we had zero Republicans in the UP by that.

35:03 You go into Wisconsin, they were all Republican. Just. Either way, trying to walk the fence it was. Walk. It was a walk defense and and I never really walked the fence, but I had two choices, you know, pot smoking Republican or a gun toting Democrat. So I picked gun, gun toting Democrat and lost the election. My last name is black. I lost a guy named Brown. Not by a he didn't win by a lot, but I still. But I was up and coming. Then I became county commissioner and and got experience. Made millions of dollars for the county, saved him millions of dollars, got my teeth wet with that. And then I ran again in 2010 and another gun toting Democrat beat me. He actually got endorsed by the NRA running for a state Senate.

35:46 So I mean it's pretty, you know, the UP is a different way of life. Totally. I mean for politically wise. Oh yeah, now it's changed. Now it's pretty much all red other than Marquette County. It's changed because of the the Trump era and you know, the past and stuff like UP is. An island, man, It's an it's an island that it's a it's a unique spot. If if you haven't been there, you gotta you just gotta go to know it's a it's a unique spot. I've been there 31 years. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. What's it you know? I don't know that were were there any stops between Rockford IL in the in the UP? Never. I was born and raised a fib, and if anybody doesn't know what a fib is, it's Illinois back. I mean, it's rooted.

36:26 Wisconsin. They should know. Well, yeah. Oh, don't forget to tell your folks that said hi. I will, I will. Yeah. I love your folks. Anyway, your dad's retired, so I'm not sure if he can listen to me anymore or not, 'cause he used to listen to you on the radio once in a while. Yeah. They used to listen sometimes. Now they're they're on the retirement schedule, man. I don't. Know what they do. Yeah. Good for them, but yeah. I born and raised Rockford, IL by a hillbilly and a farmer. So on the weekends we go to Grandpa's farm down at Dixon, IL and then for summer vacation we went to Bloomington IN and farm for a week. That wasn't vacation. Summer.

37:06 Vacation that was not good. That wasn't good at all. But I learned how to farm. I squeeze the teats and I could shovel shit and drive the tractors. Farm is not away from me, but I like it as a hobby. You know I grow shiitake mushrooms. You still grow mushrooms. I still grow mushrooms. Yep, still pick wild mushrooms. I actually did an hour long program on the radio this year with what? What about picking wild mushrooms? OK, it was the brew master from the the Alpha Brewing Company, Lydia Novisky. She's been picking them for about 10 years and I've been picking them for over 20. So we did a radio show. Talking shrooms, Talking shrooms with Buxing and Bob and Lydia. She's a brew master, really good brew master. Yeah, I know you're not much of AA home brew kind of person, but the Alpha Michigan Brewing Company, another good sponsor of mine.

37:56 And we got to say a good shout out to your friend Brett Favre himself, Sam Koski. He's one of your he follows you guys too. Yeah. So he's always been a a fan of us. You know, he's been listening for a while, yeah. And. And he's own up. There's Brett Favre. He'll buy a drink for me at a bar in the middle of nowhere. Some Wisconsin dive bar. Oh. So the next time you go in, it's like they're waiting for you. It there's a beer chip for Buckskin Bob and assigned Brett Favre. I said, look, Brett Favre, you can't make this stuff up. Yeah, you know. Just 'cause he knows you're going to be there, you think there's a bar in within, like, say, 100 miles of Crystal Falls that you haven't been in?

38:37 No, because this this covers 100 miles. You find me? It's gotta be within the radio listening distance. No, I bet no. I bet that there's That's probably close to not an exaggeration. I bet there's. It's not an exaggeration. No, I can so mote it, be I I testified to that, you know, Yeah, you know, 200 miles. Oh, definitely. I'm. I'm still hitting on those, but with my work schedule, you know, And The thing is I've made so many friends over the years, I can't get back to them all. I'm so busy. Life's got busy because of my my grandson now that we have the 10 year old and then mom still, she just turned 92 Monday and she's still driving. Except we did not renew her plates, so we're going to sell her her minivan.

39:24 Oh, so she's got a she's got a license, but you're going to sell her. Should be on board with. That she offered it. So yeah, she's she's slowing up. Yeah. And because 9292 all the way from the Deutschland, Have you have you ever met her? No, we never met. You told me so many stories about that one she. Call and saying happy birthday to me in German. Yeah, remember that. I do. She called telephone time and it was my birthday, which is February 23rd if anybody wants to know. My address is a sense of stuff. Just just put the Bob Black Iron County. It's going to get to me. I mean, I'm not kidding. I get stuff, you know, with no address. Those you know, just Crystal Falls. But she called up you and sang Happy Birthday with either in German or really thick off the boat.

40:09 German accent. Yeah. And she's been here since the 50s and she hasn't lost it, you know. And for many years, I'd take her back and forth to Florida. She's a snowbird. Or was. And I would drive her down to Florida and I'd stop in Rockford seeing my mom. I had my favorite pizza, spent the night, played cards and and drank and smoked all night. My mom smoked. I drank and played yachts year cards until 3:00 in the morning, get up, go all the way to Alabama, see my oldest son Dustin. And then we get to Florida a couple days later. You know, make a small trip out of it and I'd be in Florida opener house up down there and I have it hunt and fish. I've shot hogs, wrestled alligator. You know, you've seen my alligator and seen pictures of me with it live and dead.

40:49 You know, you know, rest. I've not, you know, And I did that. And then I would, I would fly back home and stop at whatever Army base my youngest son Tyler was at. So it's out and see him and his family. Which Tyler and and Whitney's got three. I have 3 black grandsons. It's well, Tyler Black and Whitney black, of course. And then we have Harley Raylan and Weston. So. And there are brutes like your grandpa right off the old block. I mean, yeah, they were going to measure their heads and stuff. And my daughter says, no, don't worry, grandpa's got it. Big heads and big feet. They all got big heads and big feet right up there. You can just, you can just see it.

41:29 And then I'd fly back to home, which is probably Appleton or Green Bay. And then in the spring, I'd fly back down, see my kid in the Army, wherever he was at, fly back to Tampa and then close up shop there and see my other son in Alabama. Stop seeing my mom and grandma in in Rockford or Dixon, IL. So I made a trip out of it. I did that for like 20 years but that's before I got worked at the radio station. Took the job the radio station November 1st, 14 my my mother-in-law had a fall and she fell out of her trailer backwards and busted open her head. So she that was her last year in Florida. But for 20 years prior to that I take her back and forth. So but I mean I had crab traps wrestled alligators. I mean, I I wish I would have done more stuff in Florida. Yeah, you know, I could be a tourist guide. Yeah, 'cause.

42:15 You were there a lot. Like I actually lived there a little. I mean like 3 weeks, 4 weeks at a time sometimes. And the bar is all new. Be down there too. Go figure. And and eat. Oh, the food. So. Are you back to that now? Like, I know you're talking about different stuff you can drink. Like, can you eat all the foods you want to? No. I cannot eat a doughnut, thick bread, a biscuit, sausage, biscuits and gravy. No, But I eat sausage gravy on everything else. Like toast, toast. If it's been and and done OK. I still choke a little bit. I had a my second steak last week. It wasn't that good. My It wasn't. That good? Hard. To chew hard it it wasn't as tender, but I had 1-2 weeks ago Tina bought one and she goes, I tried, you know, I'm going to we're going to try it. So I cooked on the grill, haven't cooked the grill much because I can't eat much off the grill and it was really good. I mean, I haven't had steak for 18 months. Yeah, yeah, talking yummy.

43:13 And I can cook. I mean, people see me eating out all the time. I know how to cook. But, you know, so there's certain things I have to be careful with. And by the time, you know, you and I sit down to eat and you can have your meal done, I'm only half done. And before I can take, it's gone. And now it takes me a lot longer. My jaw will get sore because of the cancer treatment so but food is a passion of mine. I know man. I mean I I I can cook. Plus I like to go out and I'll eat anything when people put on that Facebook, you know here's 60 items. What how many? What you eat. I go and Nutella, I'll eat it if I had to. I don't. Know if I've ever tried Nutella Actually is. There anything you won't eat?

43:59 I'm not a, I don't know, like won't eat. Absolutely not. Probably not much. I try mostly anything. Enjoy eating their stuff. That's a different story, too. Well, actually, I think you didn't. You get food poisoning for mussels in in Florida? One time? Twice. Twice. Yeah. I'm not a big fan of mussels. I don't. They were, they were raw oysters and I've been sick twice. Been in the hospital because of it too, you know. Not a huge fan of that. I stopped eating those just because maybe I could have a reaction to it. It's like people eating mushrooms. It might be a good mushroom, but if you overdo it or your body might react to it differently. So anytime you pick wild mushrooms, you just eat a little bit the first time, give it a couple days, then you can eat it. If you don't get sick, even if it's like a Morel. Yeah, some people, it's too rich for them. You're the first person that ever told me you could eat a puff ball mushroom.

44:50 I was. But they're not worth eating, yeah. But who'd have thought you could? I'd. I'd never do that puff ball. You could actually. Lydia taught me this. Cut it up and you make it like tofu and add it to your your sweet and sour soup or your hot and sour soups from Chinese so you can make it like a tofu. And absorbs anything, just adds like a filler type material. Just adds A filler. Yeah. OK yeah, so. So you still eat quite a you still pick mushrooms I. Picked a lot of mushrooms this year. Buttons Crystal Falls is known for the humongous fungus. Among it's the largest, maybe the biggest mushroom, the role. I know Matt was on your show too, and that show was great, but I've known Matt for years too. And thanks Matt for the offer to make a statue of me. Yeah.

45:34 I think, I think his thing with it's the largest contiguous, right? Yeah, but people argue. But it's on the side of a U-Haul truck. Yeah, Crystal Falls MI, it's good on EU Haul. It's Crystal Falls MI. And technically it's a Mastodon Township, which is Alpha, you know, but it's Crystal Falls the the next well they had. To go with the metropolis, of course. All 2000 of us, the whole county's only got 10,000 like the 6th largest county in the UP and you know 10,000 people. But the UP has got 133% of the the property but only 3% of the population. So if you don't like hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, that's. Why it's quaint. And and winter and me losing 80 lbs mother jacket I have in the car is one of those heated ones you just hit a button and oh. You get cold easier now.

46:24 Oh yeah. You know, I used to love winter. Remember that? Yeah, it never bothered me. Yeah, it bothers me, you know. Yeah. Yeah. The wife's retired next year. I know. I've got a few years left. And we'll become snowbirds. Yeah. Go visit the kids where they're at whatever station he's at. Or Alabama. Or find some. Different mushrooms there, right? You. Go with mushrooms. You go from one state to the other, or one country to the other. They. They change what? Are some of your go to's. What? What kind of mushrooms do you like? I like oyster mushrooms best and them are the ones I used to have the cans of. I used to travel all the way to Loves Park IL. Buy them in a can a 15 oz can for a buck 9. Now you buy a little teeny can of button mushrooms for for $1.50 but I can't find him anymore down there the.

47:05 Canned oyster mushrooms, yeah. I think Covad killed them. Yeah. They're not shipping them or they're caught in somewhere else. You know, they shipped them in for Taiwan and they were oysters and they had Shatakis too, in cans because you can farm Shatakies. I farm Shatakis. I'm not as good as Matt, but I don't work. And I have a or other things going on, you know, But I've been doing shakies for almost 30 years. Yeah, but oh. Really. You've been doing it that long, Yeah. Way before I met you. Oh, I didn't know that. Just. Not. I thought that was a project you picked up when we knew each other. I didn't know you had been doing it that long. Maybe you got like a new new shipment or something? I got a new toy. It's you. You buy a a side angle grinder and you buy an auber bit for it and you can drill 100 holes in about 30 minutes. And before it used to take you 10 hours. Yeah, and that's what it was.

47:56 Cost me 40 bucks. World changer. I go to a shiitake training class. I thought I learned something. I left and gave him my tools and said just return them at work for me, you know? So it's a world changer. Yeah 'cause it was hard work before, now it's easy work. You gotta make work easy 'cause that's it's too much work. But now I've been picking mushrooms for 30 years. Been do growing shiitake over 20 for sure 2025 years in kits on your you know you can buy a kit you know buy them from any mushroom place and you know there's one that peshtigo Matt's got them fungi perfect in in Washington but then I started drilling in the logs and doing the plugs and stuff like that and then I like going picking mushrooms. Lion's mane's another one that's delicious. There's a lot of chaga up there but you don't eat chaga that's good for arthritis.

48:47 You got a story about just because of your wedding. That's a mushroom story. Just hang on. What's another one? There's well, the humongous fungus Humungus. There's also, let me think of anything else I eat. There's head in the woods. That's that herbal supplement. So And I go out there and try to learn new ones like black trumpets, chanterelles, stuff like that. But they're you have to hunt for them. It's not picking. You're not going. Just like you're hunting deer. You know you're not shooting. You're not killing deer. It's not. You're hunting and so when you go for morels, you're hunting morels. It's always a hunt cause some this year I got none.

49:27 I think Lydia only got 3 or 4, you know so but you got to be in the woods of finding you can't find them sitting on your cell phone. Oh it's this one. And you look at stuff too And and on Facebook, you got you got these mushroom clubs on Facebook and people are snobs. Well, is this edible? You know what? All mushrooms are edible. Once, yeah, you know, and I've picked poisonous mushrooms, I think. Did I I bring mushrooms in when you were in the studio? All the time you would bring them in shoe boxes, shoe. Boxes. Mushrooms in, Yeah, shoe boxes. And see the thing. That's what made me famous because I think Mitch started, you know, photographer. I mean, videoing my. And then I'd come in and wear costumes and you can see those. That's how I got Performer of the Year, whatever. Personality Personality of the Year 2019. Because I'd come in and and wear the doors of Chicago came to town.

50:19 Did you didn't get to see him, did you? You moved that year? I don't think so. Yeah. Yeah. You got. Yeah, I told you to come in or get your free tickets. So it doors, what do you call them? Celebrity bands or cover bands, you know, And the guy looked just like Jim Orson, acted like him, Raymond Zurich. I mean, it's one of the best sober concerts ever been in my life because they don't serve beer there. But that week I came in as Bobby Morrison, had an Afro on and had a doors, T-shirt and necklaces and gold shades. And I think people are strange when you're strangers. And and Mitch would always videotape those and then he and then he did a congamer and sent it in to the Michigan Association Broadcasters and I got personality of the year. It's funny, just for all the I wear a different costume every week.

51:05 And little did they know that you didn't like you used to do costumes before there was even video you would do, you would do. The business after hours. You'd come walking in for buckskin, Bob. You would come in with Boas around your. Oh, Bobby Flair. Yeah, Styling, profiling, Kiss stealing, good looking son of a gun. That was Bobby Flair. I got a lot of personalities. So what was the mushroom story? You said there's a mushroom story. OK, which I was heavy. I got my and you got married. That was the heaviest I've ever been. I weighed about 3:40. OK All right, I'm down right now about two 35240 ish.

51:46 But I was pretty heavy. 340 is heavy for five to, I mean, I had, you know, big, big pork chops. So we call these pork chops, Big pork chops. And I was crying a couple times in the studio before about the week or two before he got married. Bob, go see a doctor. My knee was giving me shit and I used to wear a brace. You were limping around heavy. I got off. I got off. I got off of taking chaga and you come out of the studio. Bob, I can hear you crying. You know, I mean, I'm in the room next door and your studio was in there. You're, you know, doing your telephone time show. Bob, go see a doctor, would you? So I go see doctor Larry. So you just got arthritis. Really bad man. And you know, hot, cold and cold, cold, cold, you know, and and my my wife's a nurse and she said you got to, you know, cap it off. But I forgot that I stopped taking chaga for about two months.

52:35 So I got back on the chaga, took it easy for 3-4 days, listened to doctor Larry and and the boss Tina about my wife and I took it easy, got back and I could not dance at your wedding because I was in such pain. And I love dancing. I mean dancing sober, singing sober, doesn't matter. I can do anything and but you're waiting. I couldn't dance one song because I was in that much pain. And the Chaga and. Then I got back on the chaga that next weekend, boom. Another week or two later, I'm singing Larry Catala and Paul Sunquist was playing at the same place where you got married and I'm up there dancing my wife, doing dancing, dance by myself. I didn't care. That's That wasn't the first stage you ever danced by yourself on. Oh no, that was new.

53:19 Not shy at all. There. Was a man. Well, I can't even remember what type of event it was, but it was a sit down thing like we everyone was sitting down eating dinner and. All I Remember Me and Stu it was. At George Young and you and Stu I. Just came off a surgery for my second gallbladder. That's right. When I became general manager and I got sick, I had it. They they shipped me out of Dickinson for eight days. I just became general manager. I was your boss for a month at the most. Not really. I mean, I didn't treat you like I said, did I? I can't remember.

53:59 No, I wasn't. No. I treated you as, you know, I'm not a good boss. That's another story. I'm not. But, you know, at the end of the day, I make it happen, though, don't I? Hey, it. Is it black or red? You red. You're losing money, Bob. Black's making money. That's what counts. But I had a gallbladder that they left in me from 2010, and that's another reason I was getting sick. Now you remember I had to go to Green Bay. It's coming back. Yeah. And I was in the hospital for eight days. Miss My son's waiting down in Alabama. OK. Yes, I do. And that. Was in April of 2019. It was a couple months before you quit and they had to go back in and by the time I got to Green Bay, I became jaundiced. They had to go inside and flush my liver because of my gallstones that I didn't have another gallbladder, but I did. The original doctors in the UP ripped it, left the chunk and it's still formed.

54:57 Why do you think I got fat and was lethargic, you know, and I was never lethargic. So what? Like it turned into a Like grew another gallbladder. It grew another gallbladder and stones and for eight days you can't make this stuff up. And I shouldn't have been doing that. But OK that the next week I get to Green Bay. On Thursday in a snowstorm. The surgeon couldn't get to Green Bay and he lives down here by you somewhere. He felt bad. He, I said, well, you first can go through the snow, you know, we made it so. And I turned yellow. The next day he see me on Friday, he goes, oh man, your liver's going down. So they had to do emergency surgery on me on Saturday, go in there and flush my liver, put a stent in and a stent. In your liver stent.

55:40 In my little, there's you have your liver, your pancreas, you have your liver, you have your liver, your pancreas and your gallbladder. You have a little Tubi thingamajabra, they call that they're all connected. That's. Probably what it's called Tubi Tubi thingamajabra I. Didn't coin that one, but I did today, I guess. But they went and and cleared it, flushed it out, put a stent there. So there's any more stones it's going to come through and then Monday I, they went in and re removed my, my extra gallbladder. So I've had two gallbladder surgeries laparoscopic. So anybody wants to get laparoscopic, you might want to just open it up and make sure they scoop the whole thing out, they do that, they get off.

56:20 But then three days later we had business after hours at George Young's, George Young's, that's. What it was for a business after? Was a chamber event, chamber event. Erica was hosting it and I was feeling pretty good. Got some cocktails in me and it was dueling pianos and they were singing paradise by the dashboard light and I took over. Did not need a mic and I sang the girls part Stu saying the the Stuart. When the originals for the Alpha Michigan Brewing Company was singing the guy part. I sang the girls part with the D boys, like just singing the girls part. And we were dancing and singing. People were wetting themselves. I mean it was, it was funny as hell, you know? And my doctor said you should have been dancing after three days of surgery because I had stitches and I had, you know, all the internal work. But I sound, I felt good.

57:06 And from that day on I I lost 30 lbs that year, got down on a 300 and then the cancer took the rest of the 80 lbs off. Yeah. And you were. You were definitely you. Well, you and Stu were the only two dancing that. Were correct. And we're both happily married, by the way, but but we had a fun. You could tell we're having fun. I actually signed autographs that night. People I had, they seen pictures. There was pictures of me singing and dancing. You remember the Christmas trees? And they had pictures of chamber members doing things. There's a picture of me on one side singing, dancing in a suit. It was down in Illinois. I did a wedding down there and I was singing some Blues Brothers song. I had my my sunglasses on and microphone and three piece suit and on the backside was Jeff Austell.

57:49 So it was like Christmas things on these trees. I still got it in my card. Nice. But somebody says, Bob, would you iron graph that for me? Really. And this gal comes from a band. She's she can really sing. But hey, I like to entertain. Yeah, that was funny. Yeah, I remember that one pretty well. Not my first time singing and dancing in in Young's either. So you said you got a you got a couple years left working yet? Yeah. I I want to, I still somebody's got to pay my bar tab. Yeah. You know, you know I used to run the, I was a realtor and and I shut my businesses down to run for state office and I lost by that much you know and I mean Iron County came out 85% margin there but Houghton County's and it's the largest area east of the Mississippi.

58:41 The UP you know, for for congressional seats, for House seats, state seats, you know, we have less population. Oh, you mean largest geographical area? Yeah, you know, that makes sense. East of east of the Mississippi, you go, you know, Montana, you got one Congress person, you know Montana is a different and that's really desolate. And so I don't let him know where he's going with his story. Now a couple years left of work is where we started, yeah. I want. I want to sell things and stuff like that but I don't remember exactly what was going on. Chemo brain. Chemo brain. But a couple years left. I if I if I can sell. I like it. People's asked me to get back in politics. I really don't want to, you know, It's ugly and today's times I don't want to get into it.

59:23 Yeah. But everything I did 20-30 years ago he circle. Hey Bob is right, you know. Oh but you know I I did take very good percentage in in Iron County. In in Houghton County I lost by the same percentage because that gentleman that beat me won by 85% in Houghton County. But then we became friends. And he's actually got a declaration when I was, you might even have been there when I was a chamber, Iron County chamber director, the governor, the state Rep Scott Diana, who beat me, he signed it. And Tom Casperin, where they declared Buck Skin Bob, a promoter of Iron County. And if I can, if I like it and promote it, I can sell it. And I I'm going to be a salesperson doing something. Yeah, you know, I don't know what it's going to be, you know, and I've never really invented anything that I could go promote it and sell it myself. Blues Fest.

1:00:11 You did well with the Blues Fest. I did a long time, man. That was a cool event. You really built a cool thing there. No chance of that. They're talking about it now because they got a little committee going on. It takes more than one person to promote something. And Michigan laws suck for this. Wisconsin. I can make it happen in Wisconsin because you really need at least a beer and wine tent minimum. And in Michigan, you cannot get a beer license very easily. So you go to a nonprofit and they're the ones allowed to make the money off the beer. And probably 80% of an event, at least in UP, is off of beer sales in Wisconsin too. You know, beer sales is is big event.

1:00:52 I mean, what event in Wisconsin you've been to with it with no beer? None. So the yeah, so the the promoter or the creator only gets ticket sales and like that's it maybe sponsorships, sponsorships and like, but nothing but. Nothing off the other, nothing off the alcohol food. Maybe food. That's probably a whole another can of. Rooms too because how much liability you want that which I I made it happen and one year I think we lost money but most of the years in 2019 it was really good you know you know I had five the. Last one. Yeah, OK. You know, it's it's happening. It was. Growing every year, yeah. So I got a picture of you eating the bluesberry pie eating contest. I usually put that on your Facebook page of your birthday in August. I lost that. I lost.

1:01:33 I can't remember. To a little bit, yeah, I think a little girl. Well. She could eat good pie. All some of them, Yeah, exactly. I can't eat fast anymore. I can eat. I can eat hot and spicy and I can eat different things, but not not fast, you know? Yeah, but yeah, we, we had the vendors. You're not charged. You know, we had a lot of vendors there that year. All the food people ran out of food. So you know, beer people almost ran out of beer. So and then what? I mean, COVID came And then you, COVID. Killed it for two years, a year and a half. But 250 people? Why host a party and? Then you just decided then. I had cancer. Oh, right. So I suppose, yeah, so. This year would have been my first full year that I could possibly do it well. 10 year old 92 year old working two jobs at at the radio station so.

1:02:22 Are you teasing right now? An August Blues Fest? Right now? Coming up next summer. There's a chance of it, but the July 4th committee, they've got a nice committee that came up with a committee this year and they had a lot of workers. Their biggest July 4th in Iron County ever. They had 10810 food vendors, 20 craft vendors. I was made myself. My grandson was the Grand Marshall, not just the parade Marshall. I was the Grand Marshall. I did the speech at the at the at the village hall that day at the flag raising and I used to be a fireman there. I was an Alpha fireman for 17 years, school bus driver there, gun shop. People know me Alpha Blues Fest and I was a guest speaker. There was.

1:03:03 I was pretty honored with that. You know, I didn't have to work it. I sat drink Bloody Marys in the morning. They brought a Bloody Mary they gave. The speech they gave. A speech. Bloody Mary's at 9:00. Speech was at 10. Don't quote me on it, but I had at least one enemy back-to-back. Yeah, back-to-back. But so that with that committee and then with the Sons of Legend, who's been in like like half of the more than half of the Blues fest with Jay Davis, he was originally from there. He wants to bring it back as well. So I've got a maybe a committee musician who knows how to wrangle stuff too. And he's been a big volunteer fireman there in Elf as well. So 'cause I can't do it by myself anymore. I mean, I got people to work, but I had to be the supervisor. I need supervisors underneath me to handle the, you know. Yeah, Colonel.

1:03:48 Then you got your majors, then you got the infantry, you know, little soldiers. I used to be everything. So yeah. That was pretty much a one man deal. Yeah, it. Was it was tough that? Was it was a lot for that event like you said you had, you would get good turnouts there? I was singing everyone. That's part of Why did that band let's just sink off? Because I'm paying them. Yeah, I did as a joke. But pay for the mic time? Yeah, exactly. But that was always fun, though. And I always did karaoke, you know? Really. Right now my voice sounds halfway decent. I think it sounds deep enough. Just don't with with the liquid. My Wisconsin water, it's it's keeping me OK. Yeah, that's interesting.

1:04:31 You said you don't make saliva anymore, so you just got to constantly just be drinking a little something to all. The time. And then I produce mucus too, because of those saliva, your body. So the first couple months out of treatment, I I sat in my chair or bed with a little Tupperware so I could just drool into it and it was not fun. Yeah, and everybody's different. And they said, well, you know, these chances are you everything was going to happen. I hit the lottery. I hit everyone, I mean. You grew a second gallbladder, you know? Yeah, put that one out there. But even in my thyroid this year, you know. Yeah, that had to be. That'd be difficult for you for a while, man. I mean, you're you're as extrovert as extroverts get like.

1:05:13 You thrive off of people energy. That had to be tough for you for a while, kind of being holed up. Couple months. I was two months in hospital, then probably two months at home, yeah. And then it started to get back out, you know, and and I lost so much energy. I mean muscle mass, yeah. Social media was probably helpful. That probably kept you connected to, yeah. To a lot of people, yeah. Yeah. 'Cause I mean, you like your alone time, but I mean, you're extrovert, man. You, the people energize you. So it does. It does, you know, And I used to fall asleep at 4:00 and now I'm, I'm, I can stay up till eight, 9:00 unless I purposely go out and do something, you know, that I make sure, yeah, I regulate my my time because I can wear myself out a lot.

1:05:54 I'm not going to get back in the ring fighting again. That's another spot where we're always fire and ice, man. I'm at 9:00 to Bed Guy. And I was out till when you worked, when we worked together, I was out probably till 11:00 and we both got in there at six, 7:00 morning and and no big deal. You know you're even to bed early. I'm still doing stuff, you know, and and and my wife, I I'm 57 right now and so I've been out for almost 2 years from the cancer treatment and I and I said, well you know maybe it's time for slow down she goes you need to slow down like 10 years ago. Where'd I get that energy from? I mean, you see me. I mean I I was always a pistol. Yeah, you know so but it's just everybody's different. And and our old boss always hated me in the studio because he said, Bob get out and sell because if I like it, I can sell it and go in there.

1:06:48 I go into a into a business I've never been into before it. You know the round Iron County, Florence County, Forest County, Dickinson County area. And they're listening to telephone time. I've already got them in my pocket, you know. So do you miss radio? That's a good question, man. I mean you're doing the podcast now and and you like the people and then and you're in charge I. Miss the conversations. I miss the conversations more than anything. And the podcast. That's so when I was thinking of the idea for the podcast, a lot of the conversations would ring through my mind because that was by far the coolest part about that job.

1:07:30 The The different people that I got to talk with and like get to know on a deep level. You know, like ends on air and off the air. Like I can't count how many people I talked. With Wichigan Outdoors, which is Wisconsin and Michigan outdoors, you and Randy, Randy brought in people like biologists from lower Michigan and lower Wisconsin. And one played a joke on you say I'm coming up I'm going to go fishing and you said it's my wedding weekend. That was great. We we we played a couple good jokes on you. Well, he goes. I guess I have to take Buckskin Bob instead, he. Was such a jokester I. Forgot who that was, but Randy set that one up. Yeah, Randy from Wilderness Outfitters, that was that was a great show, but you got to meet dozens of people that.

1:08:11 Was Yeah. So that's what I that's what I missed. That's what I still miss with is the the conversations. But that's not radio. That's such a unique thing. That thing lives and breathes by itself. Yeah, well. Telephone time has been on fit almost 59 years. Yeah, 3 hours a day, six days a week and you get characters and they die off. Yeah, you know Julius passed away this year. Remember Julius always selling the safes. I've. Thought about him? Yeah. There's some other ones, and I've cut people off. I cut two people off this year. We call it the bubbles list. You remember her? Oh yeah. She's a card in herself. I mean, I love her to a point, but then she gets that way and you actually blocked her for a couple of times. And there's other ones you had to block, 'cause it just took up too much radio time.

1:08:57 And it was negative. Well, somebody was being negative again. I pulled my my car over, dialed them on my carpet. I I finally went digital on my car. Now my other car had it too but now in Michigan you can't you can't talk and and drive So I got I get in the studio and they put me right in. Hey Buckskin boss. They call me Buckskin boss now he goes what I said put that guy in the bubbles list and people all over said what what is that? Well, you know you get out of hand. You know I let people go for a long time that's see where I'm I'm not a mean person. You know, and you would get you know and the people before you too were even meaner than you and you were never mean.

1:09:37 But you know sometimes when you're in public figure there were. Certain things that didn't need that couldn't be said, Yeah, you know, across the airwaves to kids listening. Yeah, we. Had anybody from kids to 99? There's a lot of 99 year olds listening. Yeah, you know, and it's. A this, you know, it's a different environment. This is, there's a different level of responsibility with that because the public tuned into a radio station. Public Radio and you don't FCC license FCC. License this. Someone clicks the button, they choose to listen. They they're the master of their environment. They choose to listen. And that's a that's a different level of responsibility that's, you know, you try to entertain them.

1:10:18 But if it's something that, you know, they don't want to hear, if there's kids in the room or something like they're listening to it on the radio, businesses are playing it. Like there's just certain things that just, yeah, couldn't be said, you know, you. Know we call it buy, sell, trade community events and I'm big into community events. You know I would have done the if I was a millionaire I would have done the chamber job for free. I love promoting that stuff. You know I brought in brought in flea markets and garage sales. I mean citywide garage sales the place has never had it. You know the Blues Fest with Blues Fest is one who knows what I did back then when I was a self promoter. You know, I just love promoting and I still promote and I don't make any money off of the the nonprofits. Very minimal.

1:10:59 You know what are you paying for for newspaper at Why I pay so much? Well, that's what we want too. So I I made that kind of a rule, you know so but I'm solid promoting. But you and I work together when before I work with you. I came in every Friday morning 9:15. We never talked and you didn't know what things I had and then you just we just played off each other. You and I could have went national. It was entertaining. It was very entertaining. People loved it. I mean I come in and in the in the fall like this time of year or or or or early winter with the survival skills, you know what you have in your car. Remember that and I and I would demonstrate and people would understand, you know, over radio how what kind of tools I had and stuff.

1:11:40 And then I brought in mushrooms. And then I talked. Bear hunting, ice fishing. Who knows what I couldn't talk about? There's one job I wouldn't do. I wouldn't ride AAI, would not ride a a live bull. I would not become a professional bull rider. I've done the fake ones, you know, so. Yeah, that'd be a tough gig. I mean, I got. A friend that did it and he got broke his leg. I've been in put it this way. I've been in the ring with the wild bulls before, but you know, like a rodeo clown would you? Do the would you do the thing where they draw the circle in the middle and then they put a bunch of chairs in there? That's. Called bull Poker I 10 years ago. But yeah, I wouldn't do it because they they put you in a bulletproof vest now.

1:12:26 No, I couldn't even get in a martial art fight because my bones are so brittle and stuff like that. I couldn't even get in a fight A. Bull proof vest they give it. That doesn't protect your neck? No. No. But do you ever see them? They wear the thick vest that most of the bull riders now and and bull riders now wear a helmet. Now 2A days they can't I I. I really doubt, yeah, the bull riders do. I really doubt they still do that like they used to do those crowd engagement things where they would put members of the crowd in that circle and. You just have to sign a waiver and. You're the last, I guess. Yeah, you sign a waiver, but that's my John. Hancock's not going on that line. Ten years ago, I definitely would have done it. I mean, I've wrestled alligators, killed one with a pocket knife. I got a nine foot or 260 lbs amounts at my office, Got pictures to prove it, Put my wife on top of it with the mouth opened, you know, 'cause she was smaller than I am, good size gal, but she's still smaller than I was. I mean, it weighed the same as I did, but I got that, you know, I trapped it, caught it, killed it with my bare hands in a pocket knife, a Kershaw pocket knife.

1:13:25 You know when I seniors with with your thing with Ed the diver and you guys were talking the sturgeon and I sturgeon fish too, and I got two of them. This year I got a 26 inch, 26 inch and a 36 inch in the Menominee River, which you can fish with either Wisconsin or Michigan license. You're only allowed one sturgeon a year. It's gotta be 60 inches. So as big as little Ricky, you know, little Ricky's my measuring tape. Remember the little Ricky, he's still going strong. Yeah, I don't fish with them as often 'cause I got a real job. Damn it, I got a real job. But I'm gonna add also those part time jobs. We go hunting and fishing and you know, excuse me, it's not COVID, just cancer.

1:14:06 You know, I had to do that, you know, I mean, I sometimes I get in a coffin Jag. Sorry, it's not COVID. It's just cancer. Just immediate I. Mean I forgot to tell you this February 28th I was in Rockford, IL coming back from coming back from Chicago Zion stay at my buddy Pete's house and they had they had traveling stand up comedy shows. I came off of the state after off the floor in one second place. Doing stand up, yeah. Never done stand up before other than maybe with you. I mean what I've done is that kind of stand up, I guess in a different way.

1:14:53 Kind of the closest thing you do to stand up. I mean, you're a very good storyteller and that's being good at stand up is a lot of telling stories you. Know certain people take off with that storytelling too, or feet off the audience. So what was? Your bit what did? What did you talk about I? Talked about my cancer treatment that I and I had an underdog shirt on too, which I had the underdog tattoo and how that came about. Out of how many people? How many people were in the Goddess? I had five, but I mean, they were all on. They were already signed up and I hear the first guy I'm going. And were they, like, were they, like, actual, like, aspiring comedians? Yeah, and. And they do a tour and I I took second place and if you were took first and at the end of the year you get to compete with everybody else. I just came out of nowhere and.

1:15:42 You just went and you just went up there and just talked, yeah. You're supposed to do 5 minutes. They cut me off after 15. I talked for 15 minutes and it was getting kind of dry. 15 minutes long ways with no prep at all. But I can you know you got. Second, yeah, they must have just counted the 1st 5. You know oh and then oh it it's also called you do I'm, I'm mistaken you do 5 minutes and I got caught off at 10 and then they do the wheel of death. They have a thing, they have a little, a little like a little wheel, and they get ideas from audiences and they're pinned up there. And then you got to like improv on. Improv on it?

1:16:24 Yeah. And I do 5 minutes of that, so I did actually. Do you? Remember what your wheel landed on? What was it? Landed on a guy in the audience. I roasted the hell out of him.