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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Tudor Dixon Podcast: Creative Vets, WWII Hero Irving Locker, and Country Music’s Future
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- [00:00]
Johnny Bulford
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
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- [01:14]
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- [01:44]
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- [01:59]
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- [02:35]
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- [03:07]
Heidi Bulford
Was free, where would it be?
- [03:16]
Tudor Dixon
What you're listening to right now is a song that we talked about. Just a few podcast has to go if Freedom was free. And you guys probably remember the World War II hero that we spoke to about this song, Irving Locker. He is the inspiration behind this. He told his story to a singer, songwriter couple. Their names are Johnny and Heidi Bulford. They took his story and they worked with him to create this song. They went out there and they released the song. It's a huge hit and we have them here to talk about it. You might ever, you might remember they kind of peaked in on that podcast with Irving, Jonny and Heidi. Thank you so much for joining me today.
- [03:56]
Johnny Bulford
Hi.
- [03:57]
Heidi Bulford
So glad to be here.
- [03:58]
Johnny Bulford
Absolutely.
- [03:59]
Tudor Dixon
Well, I'm so glad you are here, but I'm so glad that you have been able to do this kind of work. Such a unique position to be in. We hear about a lot of nonprofits, a lot of nonprofits that work with veterans and you have this amazing ability to work with veterans in music. And I think that's so unique because we hear so often that we work with kids with music. Anybody, anybody who is coming back tragedy. Oftentimes music can help people with their mental ability to return to something with their, their spirits. And I think sometimes our veterans get lost and we just expect them to be tough. But you've been able to bring music to creative ets. So tell us a little bit about creative Vets and your music program.
- [04:46]
Heidi Bulford
Well, that's all. I wish we could take credit for it, but that's Richard Casper, Marine, combat veteran, Purple Heart. All those I'll get. Make sure I get a lot of his accolades in there. But he's just all around impressive. Awesome guy who found relief from his pts with, with the arts. Right. I think Heidi, he started with, he started with sculpting, painting, like other forms. Right before the music part.
- [05:15]
Johnny Bulford
Yeah. He went to the Chicago Art Institute and that's where he kind of realized that tapping into something that he wasn't normally used to, he. He described himself as being the least artistic person ever and then found himself creating art and finding healing for the first time through that.
- [05:33]
Heidi Bulford
Yeah. So he. He ended up teaming up with another professional Nashville songwriter and they wrote his song. And he found such healing in it that he decided that was something his brothers and sisters in arms also might benefit from. And he started knocking down doors in Nashville, asking writers to write with veterans, and we were luckily some of those writers.
- [05:59]
Tudor Dixon
Oh, that's amazing. So we always think about. These country style songs are filled with. It's almost like you go through this pain and then they're filled with this amazing hope. And that's sort of been the history of country songs. Except for. I know there are also the country songs where it's like, you know, lost my dog, got drunk by the truck, and then my wife left me. So we know there's. There's a whole spectrum.
- [06:24]
Heidi Bulford
Yeah, we had to write a lot of those. Yeah, it's nice to have a version of. Not that those songs aren't important. You know, they're.
- [06:32]
Johnny Bulford
There's a place for them.
- [06:33]
Heidi Bulford
There's a place for them. But, yeah, these songs, hey, that happens too.
- [06:36]
Tudor Dixon
Yeah, these.
- [06:38]
Heidi Bulford
These are, you know, it's really nice to see in real time you helping someone because that's what. That's what music was for us growing up. Like, I listened to certain songs to help through the tough times. And country music as a genre is good for that because it has the stories and the relatability, and the lyric is so important compared to other genres. And so it allows itself to help you through life stuff because that's what the songs are usually about. But we all found songwriting at some point. The professional songwriters, that is as a form of therapy ourselves to write about what we were going through and why no one made that connection beforehand, I don't know. But Richard really stumbled into some. Some really effective therapy, for sure.
- [07:27]
Tudor Dixon
You know, art is like. It's one of those things where it can really take you away and it can. It slows you down. I look at it as. It's a time where you kind of get away from all the stress. It slows you down, it allows you to think, it allows you to recharge in a way that I think a lot of people don't really realize. We used to joke that we should have coloring books, that office. I used to work at a foundry. And it's, you know, that's a high stress job, and you're constantly trying to get. Get orders out. You have problems, you've got hot metal, you've got, you know, it's just a high stress job. We used to joke you should have coloring books out. And then people at break could just sit and kind of escape from that because just that act of creating something that there's no pressure is really cathartic.
- [08:16]
Johnny Bulford
Absolutely.
- [08:16]
Heidi Bulford
It is, it is great. I mean, songwriting is great now when you make it your profession and you.
- [08:23]
Tudor Dixon
Yeah, then you've. You've kind of mixed those worlds. So now you guys, I don't know, you have no, no excuse. You made this to your own job.
- [08:31]
Heidi Bulford
Well, that's why, that's why Creative Vets for us is still a form of therapy for us even, because it's. We're back to the purest form, right. Of. Of. Of songwriting. We are going in with a mission and, and it's getting something out and putting it into song form. When you work for publishing companies like we have over the years, it's. And it is, it is a job that starts at a certain time, and you have to achieve this thing that used to come from inspiration in the middle of the night or something. You have to do it between the hours of 11 and two every day, and then sometimes two or three more times that day, it becomes a little more like building a house than it, Than it started. But, but yeah, it's. It's. I mean, I'm not complaining. It's the best job I've ever.
- [09:18]
Johnny Bulford
It is. Yeah. Whether. Whether you're inspired or not, you're writing a song that day.
- [09:22]
Heidi Bulford
Yeah.
- [09:23]
Tudor Dixon
So we, we talked to Irving. I want to get to his story because the reason I had Irving on the podcast was that I saw him on Fox and Friends, and I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. This man is 101 years old. He has this new song out.
- [09:39]
Heidi Bulford
How.
- [09:40]
Tudor Dixon
How on earth did this come to be? Like, was this a passion of his? But we get into that because Irving's story is so amazing, and I urge you to listen to that podcast if you hadn't haven't had a chance to. He stormed the beaches of Normandy on D Day. He was there. He went through the Battle of the Bulge. He was there when they liberated the concentration camps. He helped to speak to some of the victims in the camps. I mean, his story is so powerful, and he was openly sharing it with us. And I look at that, I look back at what I learned in history class, and I think we watched a lot of the videos in the 1940s of World War II and what was happening, but to actually have the opportunity to sit with someone who lived it, who understands it. And you could see we were talking about this before we started recording. It's so fresh for him still. I mean, at 101, you know, we're 70 plus years past this, and he was still. The minute you talk about going to the camp and seeing what was there, the emotion is so fresh and so raw for him. And he shared that story with you, which is how this song came about. But how do you get connected? How did you know? How did you know when you were talking to him? I mean, that has to sort of be still. You're up in the middle of the night, like, this is. There's something here.
- [11:09]
Heidi Bulford
I mean, the connection came through. Which he was there in the room for the interview that you saw him in initially and for the. He helps facilitate things with Irving. But David Booth, who's another amazing veteran combat veteran who has his own story and his own song with creative vets and his own VSO and his own VSOs. Yes. Like, that's the amazing thing is you meet through these vs, these veteran service organizations, you'll meet other people, and they all work together so well. And he presented Irving, you know, because Irving's 101 years old, you know, and.
- [11:44]
Tudor Dixon
We not seen that, by the way, at all.
- [11:48]
Heidi Bulford
Not. Not even close. And. Yeah, but we wanted to make sure his story, you know, Irving obviously has worked through what he's been through. Like you said, though, it's very fresh for him, but he. He is at a point in his life where it's not debilitating for him. His PTS is not debilitating. And so the point of this song, sometimes when we're writing with veterans, it's like, how do we purge them of this weight they're carrying and help them have a new lease on life kind of thing. And with Irving, it was more. More of a documenting his story in song form kind of thing, and it being a cool thing for him to have for his presentation. So when we sat down with him, he just wanted to talk about his message. And his message was, this all costs something, you know, everything. The way we get to live and the freedoms we have in this world cost his friends, you know, that ultimate price. And he feels like some young people don't walk around realizing that, you know, like. Like some others might. And so that was the message he wanted to get out, was to make sure that the intensity, like in the Lines where we say, a thousand sixteen poor innocent souls rising with the smoke. That was. That is in reference to Gardelegen, where he walked up and witnessed what he witnessed there. And having the weight of seeing red waves in at Utah beach, the fact that there was so much blood that the ocean looked red. That kind of intensity was. Those lyrics were put in there to first establish the amount of weight is being discussed and then to help people realize that that was all. So we can play Fortnite all day long now or whatever, right?
- [13:42]
Tudor Dixon
I mean, so young, too. So young, too. He was 18, just. Just a kid. I mean, and that was, to me, so powerful to hear him say, you know, I was in charge because I was the one that had a big family. So he was telling us, because he had a big family, even though he was the youngest, he had always been. They'd always had to take care of each other. So his mom was always like, hey, take care of your brothers and sisters. So he was used to that feeling of like, we're a team. And to me, I mean, that was encouraging to me, having four kids of my own, because I always kind of feel that way. They've taught each other a lot. I mean, as parents, we teach our kids a lot, but your kids actually teach each other a lot, too. And the way they interact is very powerful for how they will be when they're older. And I've seen it as my girls have grown up, but that was what I took from his story. You were a kid, but what you learned at your house, at home was so powerful that he went into the most stressful situation you can possibly go into at life and kept a level head and a positive attitude. That was the most amazing thing was to say. I was always trying to joke. I was always trying to say, look at the bright side. Look at this. I mean, when he. So if you didn't watch the podcast, I also encourage you. You can watch it on Rumble or YouTube because he shows us a lot of the equipment they used. He still has a lot of what he was in the field with at his home. So he had the. The helmet. When he took the helmet off, and he said, the inside of the helmet comes out. This is what you do everything. This is how you wash your face. This is how you brush your teeth. This is how. This is how you wash your clothes, and you think you are out in a field, there are no showers. You don't have. There's. There's not TV or Fortnite or toilets. I mean, he talked about Building toilets, because there was. That was such a luxury for the guys to have a board up above where they could sit and just go to the bathroom on a board. When I hear that, I think these stories and what you're doing is so powerful because that song creates conversation, and the conversation is so important for young people today because even my generation, we didn't get drafted. You know, my. I remember my parents talking about the Vietnam draft, and I can remember a girlfriend of mine saying that her dad never spoke about anything that had happened in war, but she knew he had nightmares, and she could hear him yelling in the middle of the night. And I think these were things that my generation, the millennial generation, my kids, generations will not understand because we were never just ripped away from our homes and forced to go out and join this war. No, those are powerful things to remind them of or to tell. I mean, to have them learn through song. So I would say that the songs are not just to heal the people that went through it, but it's a teaching method.
- [16:45]
Heidi Bulford
It's perspective. Right? That's what Heidi and I get out of all these rights. We walk out. It is. So it's annoying at the same time because we catch ourselves complaining about stuff, but we have fresh veteran stories in our minds all the time to go, why am I complaining about this? You know, Larry was stuck in the jungle for four days because, you know, we know that we have all these stories to pull from all the time. But perspective is a big thing. And I think that's what Irving was talking about with maybe young people, is he's having an issue getting into some schools, because these schools think that the topic is a little heavy for these kids. But I look back at that. The formative parts of my life that made me who I am were all very intense things like that. And sometimes at young ages, for instance, I have a soft spot in my heart and do a lot of work for children with disabilities. And I don't know what the current politically correct term is for it, but kids that have mental deficiencies and stuff. So there's a place in Orlando called the Russell Home, and I used to visit it at a young age and was exposed to every. Every version of that that exists, like the spectrum of. Of people with those disabilities. And because of that, I've. You know, it's. It's just made me. It's given me a better perspective on life.
- [18:17]
Tudor Dixon
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on the Tudor Dixon Podcast.
- [18:23]
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- [19:33]
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- [20:03]
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- [20:33]
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- [21:34]
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- [22:11]
Tudor Dixon
When I was a kid, we did a lot of we had a lot of people like you're saying, even disabilities, like limb differences or, you know, wheelchair or just anything that was different. They wanted kids when I was growing up, they wanted kids to understand that different isn't bad, different is different and that in and the people that are different than you, they can sometimes do things that you would never imagine and things better than you, you know, so it was like this ability to learn that there are so many differences in the world and it feels like that's been taken out of school. It's almost been replaced by political ideology, which I think is very unfortunate because it is so important to I do think we had a more welcoming and more loving community when that was taught. We also did learn actually a about World War II. And I would say it didn't strike me that my kids haven't learned as much as we did. And I said this to Irving. I don't know if it was because my generation was closer to it. Our grandparents had gone and so we, we, it was so, so still so stunning that there were videos and there was quite a bit of we had quite a bit of curriculum on World War II. But we go every, every eighth grade class with our middle school goes to D.C. and they always go through the Holocaust Museum. And it was, it didn't strike me until I watched their faces when they saw the things that happened in World War II. And it was so striking to me that my kids would look at this and go, why are they so thin? What, what, what happened? And it was like this moment where we take an extra long time to go there because the kids paused and they go, why did this happen? How did this happen? Explain this. And it's such an interactive museum. So you brought up the veteran before we got on, who said, we look at this now and go, why did we fight? Why did we lose people? I think that it is so important for them to know that this next generation, I think, is more curious than mine or the millennial generation, than X or millennials. I think they're more curious about how peace back because of the chaos that we see. And when they learn about this, they go, oh, we can't let that happen. That's what a world war looks like.
- [24:43]
Heidi Bulford
I, I agree completely. I, I, I think history is, is something that gets overlooked now, too, as far as the importance of knowing it. I'm, I'm a big history buff, and that's why I get nervous when I look at the state of the world sometimes, because I know how little the little things it took to spark. You know, when you, when you study old wars and you see, wait, that started from this. And then you look out into the world and you're like, well, we, we could at any point head down that same wrong direction again. And I think the, if people knew Irving's story, they would be less, they would be more cautious about heading down the wrong direction again.
- [25:27]
Johnny Bulford
Well, and even they're clearly not being taught everything. Irving, it breaks my heart because this, clearly, he brings it up every time we're around him, is that people come up to him and tell him he's lying. He's exaggerating. Ah, those aren't the numbers. You're making that up. It didn't really happen. All these terrible things that they're saying to his face. I just can't imagine walking up to a 101-year-old World War II veteran who liberated Gardelegen, one of the worst concentration camps, and someone saying that he's a liar and that that didn't happen, people. And that was the whole point of the song. People need to know it did happen. We are not exaggerating. We're not lying. This is what happened.
- [26:09]
Tudor Dixon
It's stunning because that seems to be I mean, we're seeing this antisemitism really rise across the globe. And I think it's been so shocking for us how quickly it seems to have happened. But I look back and I think about the synagogue in Pittsburgh that was attacked. And at that time, it was. There were warnings. I remember people going, anti Semitism is really on the rise in this country. And people kind of swept it under the rug and said, no, it's not. But you think about Irving. The reason he was so effective in these discussions with the survivors of the concentration camps is because he's Jewish and he could speak Yiddish and he could communicate with them. And to look at him. And it's not just that they could look at him and say, you were lying. It's the lack of respect that we are seeing right now in the United States. I mean, even we talked about country music used to be about, you know, losing your wife and drinking too much and crashing your truck and all of that. But now we suddenly see these country music songs. And I have to say, country music had historically kind of been connected with conservative values. But now we see country music songs that are political in a way where they're like anti ice and there's it's not patriotic and they're anti police. That seems like a weird turn for country music.
- [27:41]
Johnny Bulford
I agree.
- [27:42]
Heidi Bulford
It is not what we're used to. Like back. I mean, we have the old controversies, like, you had Toby Keith in, and I guess now they're known as the Chicks and their issues that they had back in the day for, like, I feel like Toby, if you're the Chicks.
- [28:01]
Tudor Dixon
Because they realized that they were not okay. It was not okay to be the Dixie Chicks, which I call my kids that all the time because our last name is Dixon, so. Oh, that's cute.
- [28:12]
Heidi Bulford
Well, I thought when they came out that the chicks was going to be the issue. Like, I thought that it would be so funny.
- [28:19]
Tudor Dixon
Now. Are they gendering themselves? What the heck?
- [28:24]
Heidi Bulford
I didn't know. Yeah, I didn't think that was going to be the one to go, but stuff changes really quickly. But, you know, all that stuff to.
- [28:32]
Tudor Dixon
Say, like, you're woke today.
- [28:33]
Heidi Bulford
Yeah. Heidi and I kind of stay as much out of it as we can. Obviously, we have our opinions and our beliefs and all those things, but we also. Our job is music and entertainment and helping people. And I feel like if we get too pointed in one direction, there might be someone we could have helped, but they wouldn't have reached out to us because of something we thought or said. But I also think that all we do is music. I don't have the time to study all this stuff like you do. This is more your lane and your job, and you are more educated. I think the way I. I put it in the past is that we're. We have. We have more influence than we have intelligence with some of this stuff as musicians. So we get this platform and all these people that we have influence over. And I'm not saying Heidi and I.
- [29:28]
Johnny Bulford
But in general, singers, actors, you know, they have these big platforms and then.
- [29:34]
Heidi Bulford
And they might not have all the information, all the facts, because they don't have time. That's not their. That's not what they're doing. So they're basically going by. Off, you know, going by something they've heard or seen anyway, so.
- [29:45]
Tudor Dixon
But I kind of love the idea that we go back to. I think that was one of the beauties of even Irving's time. And I was just so.
- [29:54]
Johnny Bulford
The.
- [29:54]
Tudor Dixon
The movie, the Holiday always comes back out at the holiday season, and it's probably like 20 years old now. But the. The theme of the movie is kind of like you're going back in time and there's an older gentleman, and they're learning about what filmmaking was like in when film was first coming out, when they first were putting movies up on the big screen. And even now, 20 years later, I watch this and I go, gosh, it's not even like that anymore. You know, this was a great movie. And it's a beloved holiday movie because it kind of takes you back to even what. What creativity and art was 20 years ago. And I see now you see a lot of these actors who have set, said, I don't want to talk about politics. I applaud that. I love being entertained. I don't care what your politics are. I love when someone creates a great movie, creates a great song, has a wonderful piece of artwork. I am not biased by who did it. I don't care. I don't want to hear. If you want. If you hate my politics and I hate your politics, I can still appreciate if you can create something amazing. I can still appreciate that Rob Reiner has made amazing movies and say we didn't agree on anything in politics and that what happened to him is one of the worst tragedies that I have seen in my adult life. I can still say that. Do you think that we can move toward a time when we start to see art come back and we take the hatred out of it?
- [31:32]
Heidi Bulford
I. I mean, I hope so. I Mean, I think. I think it still exists the way we. We remember it in some places, in some avenues. But I know exactly what you mean. Like, I don't. When I'm. We, Heidi and I watch what we call warm hug movies sometimes, and they're. They're.
- [31:49]
Johnny Bulford
They're movies like, usually from the 90s, you know, like our childhood where we're.
- [31:52]
Tudor Dixon
Like, feel like we call those chick flicks, maybe that. Do you have a problem with the word chick? Don't you?
- [31:59]
Heidi Bulford
Oh, no, I. No, they're not romantic. But I mean, like, Forrest Gump is a warm hug movie because it has the. It has the scores in that. Yeah, it has the score. The story's all great. I'm not being challenged at any point, you know.
- [32:13]
Tudor Dixon
Yeah, right. You can just fall into it.
- [32:15]
Heidi Bulford
Yeah, right. And there's music like that as well. I mean, obviously, music has been political for a long time, you know, in. In various genres and stuff. I mean, it. It. Musicians definitely, you know, the poets like to get to dabble in that, obviously. And they have since. I mean, forever, you know, But. But I don't. You know, I'm not looking to. If I'm going for a walk or something or if I'm golfing. I don't want to be challenged politically while I'm listening to music. I want a warm hug music kind of going where it just kind of is. Is a. It's medicinal in a way, where it's. It's. It's comforting and. And calming and that kind of stuff.
- [32:56]
Tudor Dixon
But it's so funny. I saw something yesterday because all these things are coming up about Rob Reiner's movies now. And I saw this clip of him saying there's a scene in the Princess Bride that he absolutely hates because you can see a glare on the camera. She's on her horse and she's riding. She's riding around the castle, and you see the glare on the camera. And he said, it drives me crazy, because suddenly you're aware that it's being filmed. You're supposed to just feel like you are there watching it. You've been taken into the movie, and yet you can see it's being filmed. And I think that, you know, I would. I would never have noticed that, but I do think there is this beauty in just taking people away. And that's what you do with your songs, is that you just. You are taken out of that. And it. Like I said, creativity just makes you kind of pull away from the stress of the world, and you get to go into an alternate world.
- [33:59]
Heidi Bulford
Yeah. Well, I think it's also the job of the creator to create something that is also able to be enjoyed universally. I think comedians do it really well. Heidi and I, if it was a big reveal on us for anything. We love comedy. All, you know, lots of forms of comedy, and we probably listen to comedians that you'd be like, what you listen to. But if the. If the joke is written well, I don't have to agree with the premise to enjoy the punchline. If it's funny, if it's really funny, then that's fine. Same thing with any other topic. If the song is great and the result is that I'm. I enjoyed the experience and say there is a message in there, you know, as long as it's done correctly. I think that, you know, like, for instance, Garth Brooks had some political songs back in the day that you could have taken that way, like the Change or We Shall Be Free, where he talks about hot topic items like world hunger. You know, he says when the last child cries for a crust of bread is one of the lyrics. So he's talking about these issues and. But it's a generic like, let's move towards a better place. Let's. Let's fix all these. These things in less divisive, you know, stuff in the lyric where it's like, this side or the other side. And. And I just think that if it's done correctly, anybody can enjoy it and your message gets heard as a result, I guess. But if it's just done to. To cause issue, you know, then you can easily tell that, you know, and it's. There's an agenda kind of thing.
- [35:43]
Tudor Dixon
So. Heidi, let me ask you this, because I, We. I just saw. Wait, it's the Oscars that they're putting on YouTube.
- [35:49]
Heidi Bulford
Right.
- [35:49]
Tudor Dixon
So to me, that's. And. And I read this. Gosh, it was like a headline that said, this is a watershed moment for Hollywood. And I thought you kind of did this to yourselves. But they. I mean, it is a big deal to these folks that suddenly this award show that had had great ratings, clearly the ratings are not what they used to be. And now they're moving to YouTube. But at the same time, I feel like it's. It is kind of an interesting environment because I have seen a lot of these celebrities who've said, I don't want to have my voice out there. I mean, even. Who is it? The girl that recently, she was a real, real big loudmouth about all the political stuff. And she. I'm looking at Sarah. But she can't remember either.
- [36:35]
Heidi Bulford
The Hunger Games girl.
- [36:36]
Tudor Dixon
Yes, yes, The Hunger Games girl.
- [36:38]
Heidi Bulford
Jennifer.
- [36:39]
Johnny Bulford
Oh, I didn't know that.
- [36:40]
Heidi Bulford
Lawrence.
- [36:40]
Tudor Dixon
Yes, Jennifer Lawrence. She was like, they asked her about it and she's like, you know what? It doesn't. People don't want to hear from celebrity. Celebrities on that. And that I, I applaud her for that because she had been so loud. And I think that was probably a hard thing to say, but it is true because I like to watch the films that she makes. But it makes me uncomfortable knowing that she probably hates me, you know, And I don't want to think about her as a person. I want to think about her character. Do you think that this is going to. There's going to be a shift back towards some of the great art that we saw? I mean, I look back at even, you know, some of the movies that we grew up with, like E.T. i look at that and I'm like, that's the kind of movie I want to see again.
- [37:21]
Johnny Bulford
Yeah, yeah, that was a good one.
- [37:26]
Heidi Bulford
I mean, no, I think.
- [37:28]
Tudor Dixon
Is that a hug movie?
- [37:30]
Heidi Bulford
Yeah, yeah. By a little alien person.
- [37:33]
Johnny Bulford
But yeah, still a warm hug, still a good hug, still nostalgic.
- [37:37]
Heidi Bulford
Yeah, but no, I mean, Heidi's. I think she was asking you, honey.
- [37:42]
Johnny Bulford
I mean, yeah, I hope so. And I agree the same way, like I. It'll. Johnny and I will go, you know, open our phone and there's name. Our favorite actor said this that we don't agree with politically or they did something, they celebrated something that, you know, we wouldn't agree with, that kind of thing. It's hard to not go, ah, such a. You know, it is hard to separate the two. And like you just said, I think Jennifer Lawrence makes amazing movies. She's funny, she's super talented. You want to be your friend. Like, doesn't she seem like someone that you'd want to, like, hang out with? And so it's hard to separate the two. But yeah, I hope we can get back to that.
- [38:24]
Heidi Bulford
Yeah, comedy is one of the places that we love. Stuff gets explained pretty well. But Heidi and I both grew up massive Michael Jackson fans.
- [38:36]
Johnny Bulford
There you go.
- [38:37]
Heidi Bulford
Still love the music. I mean, obviously the. It's not a hundred percent, but we all kind of know what we know. And there's a comedian out there and I can't remember his name to give him credit, but the gist of his joke is, you know, if you watch that documentary and you still listen to Michael Jackson's music, then you're a monster. And Then he laughs and goes, which is why I haven't watched the documentary yet, because I love those songs.
- [39:05]
Johnny Bulford
Because he loves the songs. So, yeah, it's hard to not attach what you know about them personally to what they do professionally. So.
- [39:12]
Heidi Bulford
But there's more that goes. The other thing is there's more people's work that goes into those things than there's the band players, the songwriters, the producers, you know, the production crew, that.
- [39:24]
Tudor Dixon
If you're talking the amount of people that have to go into creating anything, whether it's a song or art or a movie, whatever type of art it is, there you are putting so many people's careers at risk. And I think. And, you know, people are like, oh, gosh, what's the future of all of this? Is it all going to be AI and will there be people at all? And I think the beauty of.
- [39:49]
Johnny Bulford
The.
- [39:49]
Tudor Dixon
Pain that we go through as people is that that pain creates really amazing stories and helps other people who are going through pain. That, to me, has always been the beauty of movies like. Like Steel Magnolias and all of these really tough movies. But if you've ever gone through an illness or if ever you want, it's kind of like Misery Loves Company in some cases. You want to see that. You want to see how they came through that. And those great stories come from a place that someone felt, you know, it had to come from somewhere. So I do hope that we get back to that. I appreciate that you guys are focused on telling the stories and teaching people and at the same time, helping so many people that have gone through more than I can ever imagine. So before I let you go, just tell us about a little bit about Creative ETS and how. How that. How people can help with that.
- [40:47]
Johnny Bulford
Absolutely. Creativets.org is their website, and across social media everywhere, they're at Creative ets. They. They need funding because their wait list is crazy long right now. So many veterans need these programs. They have an art program, a songwriting program. So it started with songwriting, and through this, they've discovered, you know, they have. They have the art program, the astrophotography program. They take people to New Mexico and they have these telescopes and they take these incredible photos and they're teaching new skills, and it's all about that neuroplasticity. So they're challenging you to learn a new skill, develop a new talent. And it is. It's just been the greatest thing we've ever got to do in music. And I mean that. And I say it a lot. I've. You can watch other interviews of me saying the same thing, and I feel like a broken record, but it really is. Johnny and I have been in the music business since we were kids, and we both thought he wanted to be Garth Brooks and I wanted to be Reba McEntire. And we thought we'd be big superstars selling out stadiums. That was our childhood goal kind of thing. And we just. We feel like God gave us these talents. And I feel like I finally found how I'm supposed to be using them. It's sitting down with people like Irving or Larry Jordan and Lynn Erickson, these Vietnam veterans, These World War II veterans who did so much for us. It's not just like, oh, they did a small favor one time, like they literally were okay with dying for us. That's. That is. Doesn't get much bigger than that. And so the least that we can do is sit down with them and give them a day of our time. And we talk. They tell us us whatever it is they want to talk about, we leave it open to them. We tell them we want to write the song that you can't talk about whatever it is, you can't talk about whatever it is that keeps you up at night or that makes you struggle at home or struggle throughout your day, that thing that keeps nagging in the back of your mind that you just can't shake, that that is what we want to write. Because then you get it out and then you don't have to talk about it anymore. You talked about it, you got it out, you put it in a song. And now you can share that with your spouse or your kids or your friends who don't understand. Why does dad have night terrors and cry out in the middle of the night? Well, you know, listen to this three and a half minute song. And it gives people that perspective and that understanding and that history and fills in the gaps where people don't know what's going on. And it is. It truly has been the best, the coolest, the most rewarding thing we've ever got to do is help these veterans. And we feel a little guilty sometimes leaving, going, I hope they got. Got as much out of it as I got out of it. Like he said, it's the best perspective lesson and history lesson that you can get is sitting down with these people and hearing their stories. And then we get to help them get it out and write it. And it's exciting for them. Irving became a published songwriter at 101, and he has a single out there on Big Machine. Records. That's like Taylor Swift's record label. That's a big deal. And it's so exciting to see them heal and be excited about it. And it's also exciting to see the change that happens. Usually we meet someone and on the other side of it they seem like a different person, like they have joy or they have peace. There's this change that happens in real time from before we sit down until after the song is finished that we get to see. And it's. It's amazing.
- [44:28]
Tudor Dixon
I love that. And I love that peace that you have in finding why God gave you that gift. Because I think that's something that our kids grow up and they go, okay, God gave me this. Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
- [44:45]
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- [45:54]
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- [46:25]
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- [48:33]
Tudor Dixon
I watch my girls and I'm like, okay, I'm watching the gifts that they have been given and the qualities that are unique to them that I know God has a plan for. And I just, I'm keeping curious, what is that plan and how does he want them to use that? And it's funny because you can sometimes go, oh, I've been gifted with this so it must mean this. And then God shows you a Different path. And I just love that story of that peace that comes with knowing what God wants from you.
- [49:00]
Heidi Bulford
For sure. Yeah. Yeah. And Heidi touched on it too. You can listen to creative it's music out there. They do have a deal with Big Machine Records and they've released a bunch of songs and any veterans who might, might, you know, we've found that a lot of veterans get a lot of help. Well, what was the Irving locker one that the lyric change, Heidi, that someone did in the comments.
- [49:20]
Johnny Bulford
Oh, so from Fox and Friends when they played Irving song if Freedom Was Free, which is streamable and downloadable everywhere you get music someone wrote in the comments. So the. The first verse is I stepped on that ship in New York City and by hell's gate it hit me. Sometimes evil does its best to take it and heroes have to give it all to save it. If Freedom Was Free goes into the chorus. And someone in the comments under the Fox and Friends clip had written the change of the lyrics about. But they put their story in I stepped on that ship in Mississippi and by, you know, whatever landmark that was there, it hit me and I just, you know, Total stranger heard the song and went, hey, that's my story.
- [50:06]
Heidi Bulford
Different war. Even like they were talking about a different war. And this happens so much where veterans, the stories are unique, but there is a. A thread that runs through all of them where they are able to connect and not feel so alone. And a lot of the veteran songs that we write, that's kind of the point of their story. They're like, I want people to know I went through it too. You're not by yourself in this. And so some veterans might get a lot of healing from listening to the playlist that creative its have released. In fact, Richard's trying to start like a music RX kind of thing, like a prescription music based thing where you can actually search like Fallujah 2000, put in some keywords. And so people who, who served at the same time, same place, went through, you know, some of the same stuff can actually search for a veteran who, who went through that and listened to their song about it and see their.
- [50:59]
Tudor Dixon
Story of the same experience. That's. That is very incredible. Well, what you guys are doing is amazing. It's creativeets.org right?
- [51:08]
Heidi Bulford
Yes, that's right.
- [51:09]
Tudor Dixon
Check it out. Help them give because this is absolutely critical. And it brings us back to a time of focusing on art and positivity and warm hugs. Johnny and Heidi Bulford, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
- [51:27]
Heidi Bulford
Thank you.
- [51:27]
Johnny Bulford
Thank you for having us.
- [51:29]
Tudor Dixon
Absolutely. And thank you all for listening to the Tudor Dixon Podcast. As you know you can get it anywhere. You get Your podcast, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or you can watch it on Rumble or YouTube uterdixon. But make sure you join us next time and have a blessed day.
- [51:45]
Public Ad Announcer
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member Finr Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comDisclosures did you know?
- [52:55]
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- [53:24]
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- [54:10]
Tudor Dixon
It's the most wonderful time of the.
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Tudor Dixon
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Tudor Dixon
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Tudor Dixon
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Tudor Dixon
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Tudor Dixon
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