Mike Wolfe’s amazing American Pickers life-journey

[music] [music] Mike Wolf, the founder and visionary of American Pickers. Hi, Mike.

> Hey, how are you? Thanks for having me.

> I’m good. As you know, I watch your show. You keep [laughter] me sane. >> Yeah, I literally do. always fascinated people like you. How do you get there? And people ask me all the time, you know, how did you get into radio, you know?

Yeah. Yeah.

> And so you were born a picker, right? >> Yeah. Yeah. I think we all are, you know, because children are, you know, they’re treasure hunters. They’re curious. They want to discover things. And so I think we’re all born as pickers. And then another thing is that we all uh love story. So, you know, I mean, I remember reading my daughter Charlie stories before she could really even understand what was happening, you know. So from a very young age, we’re reading stories, we’re looking at pictures, we’re fantasizing, we’re romanticizing about these books and these places we can go in these books.

And then, you know, as we get older, there’s some of us like myself that didn’t grow up and kept a lot of those feelings like wanting to discover and wanting to treasure hunt constantly every day and wanting to um move the needle in regards to like make a living doing it, you know?

> So, in high school you were >> Oh my gosh. In high school, I was always buying, selling something, trading something. And when I was four or 5 years old, I was always digging in the garbage. My mom put me in kindergarten at a very young age. So, I would walk to school. And when I would walk to school, I would dig in the garbage, especially on the big garbage days, you know, or the once a month, you know, they let you throw anything out.

>> There were bicycles and I found stickers and I found wheelchairs. I was buying I I had wheelchairs for a while just cuz they had wheels on them. I always wanted to be in the Guinness Book of Worlds Records. So, I um thought, you know what? I’m going to do the world’s longest wheelchair wheelie. And so, I got my wheelchair and I everywhere I went that summer, I was wheeling. I was wheeling everywhere, following my friends on their bicycles. And then I went to see my grandma in Colorado for a few weeks. And I came back and my wheelchair was trash. those guys had taken and jumped it over ramps and the wheels were all bent up and it was like, you know, I was uh I was I was my my dreams were shattered. I I obviously they don’t have a category like that. I

was trying to create my own, you know, in the in the Guinness Book of Worlds Records, but I was but I I guess I I found that in a junkyard. You know, we used to get out go down to Old Man Get’s junkyard and, you know, dodge the junkyard dogs and dig through the glove boxes. We were always looking in the glove boxes looking for like matches that had advertising on them or registrations.

We always would make up stories of the people that own the cars and where they came from and how they landed there. And you know, it was it was like a like a we were like detectives, you know, down there. It was it was fun. It was a good time. Probably 12, >> you know, when we were going down to the junkyard. It’s kind of like that movie Stand by Me. Remember that movie? We were always walking the railroad tracks.

We were always getting in trouble.

>> At some point, you graduated from high school. Yep. >> And then what happened? >> Well, I graduated from high school and all my friends left to college and I was like, “Wow, >> I’m the only one left here. What am I going to do now?” [gasps] Um, worked some odd jobs, always collecting still.

And um, and then moved out to Colorado for a while. And then I hit then that led me to California. and, you know, just kind of trapesed around for a little while and I was always buying and selling, you know, something here or there. And then when I finally got back home and realized I wanted to come home, I started working at a bicycle shop and the guy that owned the shop had an antique bicycle collection. And I’d never seen an antique bicycle before, like stuff from the 30s and the 40s. I was blown away by that stuff. And so I just made this like huge push to find an antique bicycle. I remember this guy riding one down the road, man. I saw him in this neighborhood and I chased him on it down the road in my car and I finally got I was like, I’m going to buy your

bicycle.

> Any farthing? >> No, it was uh like a balloon tire Schwin. It had a Springer and what they call a can lever tank similar to like a Schwin Phantom. Anyway, it took me like three months. I finally bought it for like 200 bucks and that was my first bicycle I bought. my first high-wheeler, the owner of the bike shop got a call on a highwheeler and it was expensive. It was like $1,500, you know, and and this is a long time ago, 25 years ago or something. He goes, “I’m not going to buy it. You can go look at it.” So, I go over there and look at it. The guy’s name was Cheryl Benner, I remember. And there was the highwheeler was sitting there, man, in his barn. And I bought it for $1,500. But he had all this other stuff. He had like music boxes and

Indian motorcycle parts and he had wizards and he had an Isizetta car and I kept going back back and that was like my first honey hole that I ever experienced. I was like buying stuff from this guy for like a year. They had a split window bug. I didn’t even know what that was back then. I missed that.

It was in the weeds. You know this guy uh they had a motorcycle shop at one time in his family. So they just had everything. No, this is in Andalusia, Illinois.

> You know, across the river from us. And um I remember the Isetta. I go, “If you get that thing running, I’ll give you $500 for that.” This is a long time ago.

It was rough. He called me about two days later. He’s like, “It’s got it’s running. Come get it.” So, so I went over there with my brother and um [clears throat] I go, “I’m driving this thing home.” And he goes, “Well, you can’t drive it.” He goes, “There’s no brakes.” And I go, “Well, does the emergency brake work?” He goes, “Probably.”

So, I started down this gravel hill in front of his property. It was really steep. And the thing just started sliding everywhere because they got three wheels on them, you know, and um I was pulling the emergency brake, man. I barely made it down to the bottom without dying. And my brother pulls up.

He’s like, “Let’s just put it in the back of the Toyota.” So, we put it in the back of the Toyota pickup truck, the Isisa K. Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] Man, we got so many stories like that over the years. And, you know, that led me to doing it for a living full-time.

and I had bicycle shops and obviously you can’t sell a bicycle in Iowa in January. So I was always uh on the hunt buying and selling half of the year more so than most. And uh and then eBay came out and I was like, “Wow, what is this?”

And the guy goes, “You should get a computer.” And so I got a computer and I got on eBay and I was looking at it and I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is crazy.”

And it was like literally like two months later I closed my bike shop. I was like because I just thought, “You know what? This is it for me. This is what I’ve been waiting for my whole life. I don’t have to have a brick-and-mortar store. I can do what I want. I can go where I want. I’m just going to be a nomad, a gypsy, and just hit the road. So, I bought a cargo van for 3,000 bucks. I got a cell phone and a website, and I just hit the road. And that’s where it all started. And then eventually, I bought a camera and started filming myself and filming Frank.

> Yeah. Tell me that moment, that epiphanous moment when you go, “Let’s do a TV show.”

Well, it really wasn’t about a TV show at first. It was just I would come home and I would have a van full of stuff and my friends were like, “Where did you get this?” And I would tell them, and they would be like, “Oh, yeah, right.” You know, they didn’t believe me. I’m like, “You should see these places I go.”

> So, you were just recording.

Yeah. I just wanted to document it. And I thought, you know, I had a website at that time. I could use the video, you know, to drive traffic to it. And then once I started filming myself with these little mini DV tapes, I realized that like, you know, this could be more than just me documenting what I’m doing. And I met a guy locally that was with a like a local college that goes, “Hey, I heard what you’re doing. You know, I’d like to like to be a part of that.” I worked with him for a while. And >> how did Frank fit in at that moment?

>> Well, Frank had a job.

He had a job and that was my I was full-time picking and I was I was always trying to get him to quit his job. I’m like, “What do you need a job for?” God >> with him. >> Oh yeah. I’ve known Frank since 8th grade. But imagine being around a friend all the time is trying to get you to quit your job. [laughter] He had been at this company for like 25 years. He worked for this company called Perar and he was their guy that like sold fire extinguishers, you know, when you go into a place, you know, and then you’re constantly servicing them too, you know. So he was always seeing stuff in basement and attics and he was selling stuff a little bit at flea markets and everything. And we would set up at flea markets. We actually used to set up at the flea market here in

Nashville. And then we started filming with each other. I’d film him, he’d film me. A lot of times when I was on the road, if I was buying something from you, you’d film me. I’d hand you the camera and you would film me.

> Just on your website is where people would see it.

> Yeah, just on my website. But then it’s a really odd story. So, a friend of mine that I went to high school with, I saw him at a funeral and he was a UFC world champion. Do you know what that is? Like that fighting stuff?

> Yeah. He was a UFC world champion. He had a gym downtown Bentonorf. It was called the Militic Fighting Systems. His name was Pat Militic. And I told He goes, “What are you doing?” I go, “I’m trying to” I go, “I think I might have an idea for a TV show.” And he was the only one that didn’t laugh at me. He’s like, “Oh, really?” I go, “Yeah.” And he goes he goes, “Well, come down to the gym.” He goes, “We have production companies in and out of there all the time. He goes, “They’re always in there filming my fighters.” I go, “All right.”

So, I came down there and met with the production company and I met with the production company that was making history’s number one show at that time called Digging for the Truth. And this is a long time ago. This is almost 20 years ago. And uh they’re like, “Wow, we really like what you’re doing. We’d like to film you.” So, they started filming me and Frank and I, Frank and I. And they and they shot a sizzle reel and then they started pitching it. And they pitched it for a year. I mean, they pitched it to everybody, to history, to everyone. Discovery, everybody passed.

So, they finally called me and they’re like, “Everyone’s passed.” And I said, “Okay, what do you want to do now?” And they’re like, “Nothing. We’re done with it.” You know? [laughter] And I’m like, “Well, we can’t be done with it. There has to be something that we could change, you know?” So, then another production company called me and um they were making a show called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

> Yeah. And um they worked with me for a little bit and uh we parted ways and then you know >> you have to do funding out of pocket.

> Oh yeah. I was funding everything. But see the thing is I was already traveling. I was already buying and selling. I was already doing what you see me do. I was doing it anyway. So I thought you know what? I’m just going to bring the camera anyway.

>> But finally it got to the point where when the production company would pitch it, I would ask them who they pitched it to specifically. and they pitched it to a woman at TLC called her name was Sarah Kak and Sarah Kak. Um, I emailed her. I found I Googled it and found her email.

]I said, “Hey, you looked at a project of mine. I was wondering why you passed.”

And she emailed me back right away. She’s like, “I didn’t pass.” I go, “I” she goes, “I loved it.” She goes, “No one else loved it.” She goes, “I loved it.” And I said, “Will you talked to me?” So, she let me call her and I said, “You know, we’ve been pitching this thing for over a year now. What’s wrong with it?” You know, and she goes, “Here’s what you have.” She goes, “You have all these leaves, but you have no tree. You have no format.” She goes, “I just finished doing this show called Flip This House.” The very first one, I don’t know if you anybody remembers this. This guy was the grandfather of all of that. His name was Richard Davies. He was in Charleston. He came up with the whole idea of flipping the house shows. So, she filmed that and she

goes, “If you can take that format and plug it into what you’re doing, you’ll have a show.” So basically what he was doing was he had a woman that would go out and she was in the office and she would look at the houses or help him with the trans you know purchases and all that kind of stuff and then she was kind of the project engineer like per se. So when he was on the road doing other stuff so I thought okay well I need Danielle then because Danielle was that person for us you know I didn’t really ever include her in filming because it was just me always on the road. So I got her into it and then we just started really covering it from the business side. I was really so entrenched in story with people that I didn’t cover it from our story, our

perspective of like what we were doing.

Like what are you guys doing? If you if you watch the first two seasons, the network was really adamant about us explaining what we were doing. And to be honest with you, people had a hard time with transaction on television because there was artifactual television, which was antique road show, but there wasn’t artifactual transactional television.

Meaning like, oh wow, this is cool. Your grandfather had that clock on the mantel. What do you want for it? Nobody ever said that. What do you want for it?

]And then when they said, I want $50. And you said, well, I’ll give you 35. Everybody was like, “Wow, what what there’s you’re negotiating with them?” You know, it was it was a it was a really weird time, but it you know, it kind of set the bar for so many collector shows to come.

There was auction kings, auction picker sisters, there was um you know uh storage wars. I mean all of a sudden, you know, think about this. So, this is was a a time, I think, in America that will never come again. One, because streaming wasn’t that big. And two, because two junk shows, Pawn Stars and us were beating Monday Night Football.

> Wow.

> Yeah. Between the two of us, I was on for an hour. They were a half hour, half hour. That 2-hour period, we had 14 million viewers. Monday Night Football was pulling about 12 and a half, 13 million. And people were just like, “What the hell is going on? what what is going on? I mean, it was like it was like the industry was on fire. We got to get a junk show on the air right now.

You know, we were just kind of the lucky enough to be the one of the first out of the gate, you know, >> and so how did it evolve over time? You know, what was the next iteration?

> Well, what evolved over time was like me understanding what my role was on camera in a different way. So, like I was always, you know, thinking about, okay, well, I got to find something. and I got to uncover it. I got to explain it and then once I explain it, then I’m going to buy it, you know? And I and I was always about story, but I was getting lost in like picking instead of thinking about both things, picking and story.

]And I was I none of us, Danielle, Frank, and I, I mean, none of us had ever been on camera.

> And so all of a sudden, you know, the whole game was different in regards to like how we walked into a place, you know, how we dug in in a in a pile of rust. you know, we always had to open up the camera. We had to do all these things, you know.

> Yeah. Yeah. It was just it was it was it was difficult. It was really really hard. But we trudged through it. And now the first thing I ask somebody when I come onto their property is, “Why am I here?”

>> Mhm. >> And they’re like, “Well, we’ve got some stuff to sell.” And I said, “I know, but why am I here? Why am I here? You could sell your stuff to anybody.” and they’re like, “Well, you know, my father was a World War II vet and um he spent his whole life building this service station and we feel it’s important that you know that uh that we document this.” And I said, “Okay, that’s what I need to hear why I’m here. And then what I need to you you to do for me today is I need you to help me tell your father’s story.

We’re going to tell this story together.” And I think that authenticity and that honesty has resonated to the point where we’ve been on for 11 years now. You know, >> on a separate level from picking, that’s one of the things I love about it. It’s an immersion in Americana, man, in the heartland of America, into the people and the families. There some really touching stuff.

> Absolutely. And I always knew that it could be that, but I didn’t understand at first how to do that because you got to remember like when the production company got a hold of it, they had never made anything like it. There was nothing that, you know, we were actually reinventing the wheel, you know, and and it was it was hard at first and and thank God our audience stuck with us and saw little remnants of like I guess what I wanted it to be, you know? I mean, the network had their idea of what it should be. I had my idea what it what it should be. Um, but you know, we were both in industries that we had never been in before. They had never been in my world, in the antique industry, and I’d never been in the television world. It was

because we were both kind of like >> I guess for me pitching it for five years, you know, I was I was naive, you know, I was naive and and and there wasn’t anybody that was going to tell me no because there was a burning desire in me to help people understand that these places exist, that these people exist, that these items exist, and they connect all of us, you know, all of us, all the connective tissue for all of us as a country, as individuals, as family, as community. It’s all there in this show.

> And another cute dynamic, your brother.

> Oh my gosh. >> Yeah. When did you loop him in? >> Oh, my brother Robbie started getting onto the show more when Frank had back surgery. He’s had a really bad time with his back. He actually had two 17-inch metal rods put in his back. I mean, I’m talking serious surgery. And um after 11 years of doing the show, he was, you know, kind of in and out of it, you know, as far as what what he wanted. And so my brother was there to step up and he was the natural person, you know, him and I and Danielle to work together because, you know, I’d been junking with him my whole life. You know, I’ve been, you know, junkyards and garbage piles and, you know, swap meets and, you know, flea markets my whole life with my brother. So it was very natural to do it

that way. Um, [clears throat] I think the biggest thing for me is, you know, when I see the show overseas now and I see that they want to tell their own history, they’re starting to do that. So now there’s Italian pickers on the air, there’s Irish pickers on the air, there’s uh Canadian pickers on the air, the the air, there’s Australian pickers on the air, >> different iterations.
> Yeah. It’s a it’s a format that’s owned by A&E television when I sold the show, the name, everything that that went with to them. But so this like say for example in Italy when they watch our show, they love it. They absolutely love it. But now they’re like, you know what?

We’re ready for our own version of the show. We want to tell our own history, which is really neat that >> that a format has been created that can be plugged in anywhere.

> You were part of that stimulus when you guys went to England.

> We went to England and we went to Italy. We filmed over there >> that kind of spurred it. >> Um I think a little bit. I mean, to be honest with you, we had no idea that there were that many people watching the show over there. I remember we did a press I guess it was a press conference and um basically what we were doing was uh we went into this really high-end suite in Italy. Imagine like this super super nice hotel and and we walked in there and there was like 30 reporters in there. Frank and I were looking at each other and we’re like, “What the heck is going on here?” And I go I asked them I go, “Are you guys here to talk to us?”

And they were all like, “Yeah.” Yeah, they were really excited and and I I half the countries, I’m sorry, I don’t even know where they were, but they were like, “Tell us about this and tell us about that.” And that was the first time that I realized that it was so much bigger than I ever thought it was.

> That’s so cool.

> Yeah. >> You just got back from a shoot, right? >> Yeah. I was just in Texas. I’ve been in Texas for uh for 10 days. We’ve shortened our blocks up a little bit. >> And this is 11th. >> This is the 11th season. We’re we just got an order for 30 more shows >> and um you know we’re very blessed but I think you know one of the things it’s like you know maybe this term’s thrown around a lot but it’s like we just been keeping it real >> you know we haven’t jumped the shark too much I mean I think there’s moments that you know we kind of rode him around a little bit but we haven’t jumped him and um I think uh people they they love the voyuristic aspect of it. They love to like, you know, like I mean, think about

it. It’s not unusual to have a 70 70in television on the wall anymore. And all this stuff is in high depth. So the way my crew films this thing and with GoPros and, you know, these guys with these Panasonic 900s on their shoulders crawling through the same stuff that I’m crawling through, you’re really immersed in these different worlds, you know, that you really, you know, didn’t understand were there. I mean, you know, the guy that’s got 300 gas pumps because he worked at a gas station when he was 16. Like, what what is the mindset there? You know what I mean? It’s and and so I’ve always tried to understand the mind of a collector and that’s a can be a very strange place.

> The one that is hard for me, you’re with this 80year-old guy, you know, and you know he’s on short time and >> and yet there he is with that same passion, you know. No, I don’t want to sell it now, Mike.

> Yeah, you pull it out of the dirt and he’s like, I can’t sell that. Because he knows it’s still there. And that’s the important thing is that he knows it’s still there. And that’s what matters to him. And that is something that I’ve seen for the last 30 years of my life.

You know, even when I was a young man in my early 20s traveling around buying stuff on the gravel roads of Iowa, I would come across guys like that and um you know, they always fascinated me. I always felt like I was special, like I had this um this uh secret, >> you know, that no one else knew about about all of these different places. And then I thought to myself, you know, if I could share this, if we could do it right and bring it to light for people to experience, the world’s going to be a better place >> because it makes us all think about what our family’s life used to be like.

what our life is like now. And um it it uh it just resonates because it’s hands-on, >> you know, this is hands-on history. And I think that helps >> like time travel.

> Yes.

> Because it’s that literal connection with a moment in time. >> Yeah. There was a guy we did a show with in Pennsylvania that lived underground. You know, the mole man they called him. And he was underground. And he was underground since he was probably 13, 14 years old. And he was a junker. He c he came out on during the day and dug in the garbage and then he would bring everything back to his house underground. And he was a fascinating person, very smart, very smart guy. But his uh his he he wanted to surround himself with things that he found, you know, and that to me is fascinating. And um and I’ve never lost that passion to want to tell people’s stories for one way or another, you know. Um, like when when you and I first started talking and you showed me your old truck, you know,

I mean, we all have things that we’re proud of that are um are things [clears throat] that someone else was proud of before us. Yeah.

> You know, and and um and I think that’s pretty cool. I surround myself, if you look around where you’re at right now, the things that I really truly enjoy, you know, I I surround myself with that stuff. I have to. That’s I I can’t imagine living my life another way. Give me just kind of random two or three of your most coveted touching.

> Oh, well that’s easy. Um, right behind you is a 1907 Indian Twin motorcycle.

Um, right above that is just a a wooden tail section to a wooden windmill that I got out of a barn and uh in Colorado. To the left over there is a 1910 Harley.

Um, the dealer tag on that Harley is from Savannah, Georgia. Um, I’ve got some old microphones here.

> Yeah. Isn’t that cool? I love that. And and I’ve had a lot of my friends that are musicians want to buy that pretty bad. And I love I love music. So, anything the memorabilia, anything that connects to it. I love um all of these old western cowboy hats. Those were from an old gentleman that I picked years ago. This radio that’s sitting on the table in front of us was handmade. I got that out of New York City. Um, Von Dutch’s personal photo album here that I’m touching right now. I’ve always been a fan of his and I think a lot of people are worldwide. I mean, he was always the the king of cool, the king of car culture, you know.

> What did you do with the St. Clinton prisoner photos?

> I still have that book, but I keep it at the uh shop. Yeah. >> The guy that I bought it from scared the hell out of me. He’s like, everybody that’s ever owned this book, bad things have happened to them.

I’m like, I’m not going to have that in my house. But you know what I’d like to do with it? I’d like to, you know, cuz now think about it with all these different websites for people that want to understand their genealogy.

>> Like think about if we could we if all this is documented, the year that they were in prison, what they looked like when they went in, you know, and what they did. There’s three original photos of each person. If you could put them online and people could actually see their relatives, that’d be pretty cool.

> Yeah, >> that’d be really interesting to me, you know. So, if we could get that, you know, all put online, I think that’d be something I’d want to do.

> Project for a student, maybe or something. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> That whole genealogy thing is just blowing up.

> Oh, yeah. >> Wife goes back to it. I go, “What are you doing?” She, “Well, they keep putting new stuff on.” >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Yeah. It’s amaz It truly is amazing.

I’ve been on the air for 11 years. And you start to think to yourself, you know, after a while, why me? You know, why did I make it? Why do some people make it? And why do some people not? We all work as hard. We all are passionate about things like why me? And and um you know I I felt like for a while because my life was so different that um I felt like I was living someone else’s life, >> right?

> You know, it was really hard for me to understand. Yeah. I like walked through a door and I was the same but everybody else was different. My world was different, you know. And then I thought to myself, you know, God has given me the ability to find the words to explain to people why this stuff really truly matters. It’s one thing to visually show it, but without the words, I think it would be really hard to have people understand. You know, I try to do it in a simple way that, you know, that people that don’t collect antiques, they’re not collectors at all, >> look at it and go, you know what? I love that. I love that story. I love that person. I love that place. Sometimes the story is not real powerful. It’s the place we’re in that’s powerful.

> Exactly. And extracting you and Frank and Danielle, your brother, it still is an awesome show. It’s the only immersive show visually, auditorially into the heartland of America. Like we talked about before, that kind of a rural Americana.

> Yeah. I think it’s a show about all of us. Yeah. And that’s why so many people continue to watch it. It’s a show about all of us. And um and again, you know, we’re all storytellers. You know, even my little girl Charlie in the other room now, she’s eight. She the first thing she does when she gets in the car is tell me a story. You know, >> probably your fault. [laughter] >> I hope so. I really do.

> One more thing, like I said, I relate to you like we went to different high schools together. Yeah. Right.

> Yeah. and your brother. >> Yeah. >> And yet it’s hard for me to imagine you on this higher plane because I see you as being a common man with me.

> Yes. >> And yet a lot of people in America know you and recognize you, right?

> Yeah. >> So that’s one of the downsides of your quote success is along the way you lose that anonymity.

> Yeah. Absolutely. >> Radio nobody knows. [laughter] >> Yeah. You know, I think about you sometimes. said like, “Dude, when you go downtown or wherever you go, there’s this certain >> Well, Nashville’s kept me grounded, you know, to be honest with you when I moved here because a lot of the people that I’ve been fans of for years that now are friends of mine, everyone has a story.”

> Sure.

> You know, they all have a story of like why and how and >> San Francisco or Sacramento or whatever. I know that people would be, “Oh my god, the >> Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, people I remember when Frank and I were riding in the van, we we were filming for about five months, the first season, and Frank goes, “What do you think it’s going to be like if somebody asks us for our autograph?” And I started laughing.

I go, “Frank, man, nobody’s ever [laughter] going to ask us for our autograph, dude. You’re you’re you’re dreaming.” And and I remember the first time someone did. We were at a hotel in Iowa and one of the clerks asked and him and I just looked at each other and we were just like, “Is this really happening to us?” I think that we’ve never really lost that feeling. You know, I still wake up every day and I try to stay hungry, not just with my business, but with my personal life and my soul and and how I feel about like my community and everything. And that’s what really truly keeps me grounded, you know? I mean, I just had dinner with Billy Gibbons the other night and he’s a really big fan and he’s a good friend and, you know, he’s telling me about this and that that he’s watching of mine

and I told him about the first time I ever heard um his his music and we were both laughing with each other and, you know, it’s it is so much surreal, but I guess if we take down, you know, if we strip down to what who who we all truly are, >> we’re all just kind of um here to walk each other home, you know, and take care of each other. Oh my gosh, Mike. I could hog you all night, man. I feel honored that you spend this time with us.

> Oh my gosh. I feel blessed to even be able to to to speak with you about it. I truly do.

> It’s really cool. I love it. >> All right. Well, I’m sure this won’t be last time we speak. >> I hope not. Mike Wolf again. Thanks for sharing. [music] >> Thank you. >> All right. I’m Tom Wilmer reporting from Tennessee. We’ll see you here.

>> You’ve been listening to the Lel Thomas award-winning travel show, Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer, a featured podcast on NPR.org’s org’s podcast directory. You are invited to subscribe to Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer on mpr.org, iTunes, and more than 20 other podcast channels around the world. To learn more about Tom Wilmer’s journeys around America and the world, log on to thomaswilmer.com.

This is Roseanne Cash, and I’m sitting here with Tom Wilmer. Please support your local NPR station. I listen to WNYC in New York. And in fact, NPR is all I listen to. If I didn’t have NPR, I would feel like my lifeline to the world has been cut. So, yes, please support your local NPR station. [music]