Jeff Foxworthy (3:29)

I'm honored to be one of the 1%. And I know what you mean, because I do a podcast on. On serious, and every once in a while, somebody just like you said, you finish it and you're like, whoa, that was different. That was. That was cool.

Ed Milet (3:47)

It was different for me. There's so many things I want to ask you about, and I actually, what we're going to do is we have re released the first one and maybe a week or two before this. So people who have been familiar with it, but I want to just randomly ask you something. You had all this success, and I get asked this sometimes. I'm not as successful anywhere near as successful as you are, but I do get asked this, and I'm curious with you, was it always cracked up to be, I mean, like, the financial piece of it, like becoming famous, becoming well known, going from, you know, obscurity to fame, wealth, all that kind of stuff that comes with. So many people listening to my show are interested in achieving themselves. I'M curious if it's what you thought it was and whether it was worth it or not.

Jeff Foxworthy (4:27)

Truly, I don't think that I ever thought that I was going to be famous. Nothing prepares you to be famous. No. I grew up in a, in a little blue collar town where it never crossed my mind I could do something creative and make a living. I knew I was creative. I knew at a young age I was funny. I could draw really well. Two times in high school I got nominated for the Governor's Honors program in art, actually. And it was like a six week thing during the summer, but I think you had to pay like 200 bucks to go. And my dad thought art was sissy and he wouldn't shell out the money. I mean, who knows, you know, I mean, maybe, maybe I ended up being an artist instead of comedian, but, but that, that wasn't an option, you know, you went to work. So I don't know that I ever, even when I found it, I remember the first night that I did stand up and like a minute and a half in, I thought, this is what I want to do, this is what I want to do. And I met my wife that night, which was so bizarre. So I met my wife and I met my career on the same night, same place. And she was really the only person. When we started dating, she, she just kept saying to me, you have all this creative stuff inside of you. If you don't do something creative, you're going to explode. You're, you're not made to sit in a cubicle. And she was the only person saying that. So I quit my job at IBM. My mother's first question was, are you on the dope? Whatever the dope, whatever the dope was. And I, but you know, Ed, because I was, I was thinking, could I do this? Could I do this? And it was almost divine. So one day I'm sitting in the break room at work, sitting by myself, and there was a table in there with like three guys in their 60s. And one guy was talking about, he goes, I always wanted to own a hardware store. I wish I'd owned a hardware store. I would have loved having a hardware store. And one of the other guys was like, yeah, I wish I had done. And I thought, and of course I'm early 20s, but I thought, oh my word, I don't want to be sitting in this break room when I'm 60 going, I wish I'd tried to be a comedian. So I don't know that I thought it would work. But I Thought, hey, worst case, I could come back with my hat in my hands and say it didn't work. But I don't want to be sitting here when I'm 60 going, I wish I had tried it. And, and actually the day I went in to tell them I was quitting, they had. They were telling me that they had. They were sending me to management school. And I'm like, you may want to hold those, those plans because I'm quitting. I'm, I'm going to go try this.

Ed Milet (7:33)

How long between that? And by the way, everybody listening to this, those words should ring in your ears because I feel kind of similarly like I'm so blessed that certain things worked out. But what I didn't want to have happen was be an old man, you know, laying in my rock and chair wondering.

Jeff Foxworthy (7:47)

Yes. And that's the way I, I never, I figured I'd get away with it for a couple of years, but I'd have a, to a cool story to tell my grandkids. Hey, I was a, I was a comic for a few years and two years has turned into 42, you know, so.

Ed Milet (8:05)

God is so good and you're so good. How long did it take? Like that's, that's, the stories are always pretty after the fact. Yeah, I made this decision, you know, my wife encouraged me and then, and then pap. It's Jeff Foxworthy. But there's, I imagine there's all these nights where there's, you're riddled with self doubt, you're broke, you're. How long was it between that night, first time on stage and you're like, oh, I'm on the other side of this now. And, and what was that time like for you? Were you navigating doubt in your mind? What was it, what was it all like?

Jeff Foxworthy (8:36)

I quit IBM in 84. At the time, I think I was making 32,000 a year, which was good money. Wore suit and tie to work. My first full year of comedy. And I know this because I found, remember the little weekly pocket pocket calendars? And I would write in every date and every show. My first full year of Comedy, I did 406 shows. I made $8,300 for the year. My gosh. So I was making a quarter of what I made. And I never remember thinking, I can't do this, I need to go back. Because I was loving it. I was writing like a banshee. I was on the road, but we didn't have kids, so she would go with me, she'd Go with me. She'd look at my calendar. She'd go, you go to Toledo by yourself. I'll go with you to Honolulu and San Francisco. Yeah, no, I need you in Toledo, you know, and, I mean, it was a slow climb, but. But my whole goal, my goal was to be good enough to be on Johnny Carson. And everybody in the business said, it took you 10 years to be that good. And I'm like, I don't think Johnny's going to stay 10 more years, so I'm going to do it in half that. And I remember a Malcolm Gladwell thing where he said, you do something for 10,000 hours, you become an expert at it. After that first year, I had eight years in a row. I did 500 shows a year. And I said, if it takes you 10 years to be good enough to be on Carson, I'm. I'm going to do it in five. And it took me five years and two months. I've got a picture over there. So that night, you know, when you did Carson, but. And it wasn't like now, you didn't have 8,000 channels on TV, but if Carson liked you, he was like a king maker for a comic. And they said, before you go out, at the end of your six minutes, if he claps, he didn't really care for you. If he gives you the big okay sign, he liked you, and if he loved you, he'll call you to the couch. Will you get to the end of your six minutes? You're scared to look because it's like, Caesar, you know, do I. Do I die? And he was calling me to the couch. And I mean instantly. Like, the next week, Vegas is like, do you want a headline in Vegas? Because Johnny called you to the couch. It was. He was a career maker. Wow. And I remember going home that night and lying in bed staring at the ceiling, thinking, I don't have a plan now. That was it. That was all I ever wanted to do, was make Johnny laugh. And there's. I got a picture sitting in the chair talking to Johnny, and he's got his mouth wide open, laughing, and I'm like, that was it. That's all I wanted to do.

Ed Milet (11:44)

Was it. Was it. I didn't think I'd go there with you, but I'm curious about it because I. I think people would love to know what's it feel like to be actually in the moment, walking in your dream. Were you terrified that night, walking out, or was there a. Like a piece about you? Like, I've been preparing for this all my life. And I'm ready. I'm like, right before you walked out, I'm curious if you can remember, what was that like?

Jeff Foxworthy (12:06)

Terrified. Terrified to the point that they took you out during the commercial break and the guy said, when the curtain opens about five feet out in front of you, it's going to be a gold star. Just stand on that star. Well, one of the hardest things to do in standup is to create a six minute TV set because. And they told me, they said, not 555 and not 605. Six minutes. So I'd written the six minutes I say written. I'd piece together this six minute set and I'd gone around. We were living in that. We had just moved to LA because my wife said, you're never going to know if you could do the Tonight show unless you move to la. And we had been there for a month and I was doing a set at the improv and the talent coordinator followed me out into the lobby and said, how come you haven't done the Tonight Show? And I said, because you won't open my tapes. You keep mailing them back to me. But I had this six minute thing down and had done it 25 times around town. I knew it was six minutes, but when they placed me behind the curtain, I think, I can't do this. I'm going to pass out. I'm just going to walk off and they'll have to figure out how to fill time on their show. I can't do this. And something kept me in that spot. And the band stopped and come by, the curtain open and I find the star and I go out there and I do the first three or four jokes. And then like the fourth joke not only gets a big laugh, it gets an applause break. Which never happened in the clubs when I'm working on that six minutes. So I'm smiling on the outside, but on the inside I'm going, oh no. Oh no. Okay, in two minutes I've got four jokes about my mother. The third one is the weakest. I'm going to cut that joke out. So this set I've been rehearsing and for two weeks, non stop, I'm now I'm editing in my mind. Three jokes later, another applause break. I mean, it's, I can hear Johnny laughing. It's going well, but it ain't helping me. And I'm like, okay, I can't eliminate another mom joke. But a minute after that I do a joke about my dad that has a tag to it. I'm cutting the tag to that. So I'm editing ahead of myself as I'm going through this. And I knew my last joke was 30 seconds. So I told the camera guy, the guy behind the camera, I said, when I get to five minutes, hold up five fingers. And when I get to five and a half, hold up a fist. And if I'm not on at 5, I got 30 seconds to correct that. And at 5, he, he gave me that. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to have to cut one other little thing. I cut something else. And when he hit the fist, I was going into my last joke and it just worked out, but I was mentally exhausted. Ex. But just that editing process, and I look over and Johnny's waving me over to the couch and I'm like, what in the world are we going to talk about? We haven't rehearsed this, we haven't done anything. And, and he was so good at what he did. He just, he just kind of lobbed him up for you. And he's like, well, this accent, you know, how did, how does that go over in the business? Because he knew I had jokes about that and so good.

Ed Milet (15:25)

It's fascinating because I think anyone listening to this, like, there's really some validity to it. Like, you can prepare and prepare, but at some point you just got to get in the room and, and there's some things in life I'm just convinced you just don't prepare for. You just need to be in that moment and you've got to rely on your resiliency, your ability to pivot, innovate. And in that moment, your preparation does help you because you've done it. But nothing. Nothing's ever. I think so many people don't go for their dream because they, their threshold of how prepared they think they need to be is so high. They never really pursue anything because they. They're waiting for 100% preparedness, which is impossible.

Jeff Foxworthy (16:03)

Well, to your point, you're never going to be, whether it's to be a parent, whether it's. You know, I told my kids growing up, I said, every full life needs to have a few hold your nose and jump moments where you don't know what's going to happen, but you hold your nose and you jump. And thank God I held my nose and jumped and went in there and quit IBM. Thank God I didn't walk off from, from behind that curtain, you know? Yeah, you're never going to be a hundred percent prepared. And, and even if you were it doesn't unfold the way you've envisioned it anyway. So I think you have to be flexible. But yeah, don't wait for it to be perfect. It's never going to be perfect.

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Ed Milet (18:14)

That's such great advice. I was this time around like I because you did. You did affect me when we talked the first time. I want to know more about him. You know I learned a lot about it when we talked. But so I'm like what does you know, what goes into making of somebody? Obviously you and I are both believers. So so much of in our life is we just give glory to God and we're blessed and but there are seeds that are planted in our life. He provides the harvest, but there's seeds that must be planted if certain things are going to happen in life or some things that are going to happen. And so I went and I was like what's this guy's background? A little bit. And so this blew my mind. And if I'm wrong it'll be a bizarre question, but I don't think I am. Is it true that you knew Truett Kathy as a young boy and if if y' all don't know who I'm talking about. This is the founder of Chick Fil a. Did you know him actually? Was there, like kind of a mentoring relationship? Imagine this. This man becomes Jeff's very wealthy guy, unbelievably successful. You're like, is there anything in his background. Did he have a mentor? Did he have something maybe comes from good parents? But is that accurate? Did I hear that correctly in my research that the founder of Chick fil a was sort of a friend or mentor?

Jeff Foxworthy (19:25)

My dad left early in life. My dad ended up being married six times and had a thousand affairs in between. My mom went to church five times a week. And so I don't care what a parent says. When a parent leaves, especially in a situation like that, you feel like you weren't sticking around for. That's what I felt as a kid. Well, I guess. And to make it worse, Ed, I was away at church camp. I came home from church camp and half the furniture was gone. My dad had left and moved in with his girlfriend. And nobody had prepped me for it or anything. So in my mind I thought, okay, I'm guess I wasn't worth sticking around for. And I went to live with my grandparents for. While my mom kind of sold the house and did. So I live with my grandparents in a little town called Hapeville H A P E right by the airport in Atlanta. And that's. And until I was in high school, Hateful, that was the only Chick Fil a on the planet Earth was in Hapeville, Georgia. And True, it was a. Was a good guy because Hateville was kind of the wrong side of the tracks. You. You either worked it for Delta or the Ford plant, which was there.

Ed Milet (20:46)

And.

Jeff Foxworthy (20:47)

But True had always had a free Chick Fil a thing in his pocket. And when he'd see as a little kid, he. He'd had you one, which was like a Willy Wonka golden ticket, you know. But he would talk to you and he would tell you things. And I remember one time he said to me, he said, jeff, he said, you do you know who. How to tell when somebody needs encouragement? And I was like, no, sir, Mr. Kathy. He said, if they're breathing, he said, everybody needs encouragement and it doesn't cost you anything to give it to. I was a little kid that stuck to this day. I walk into a place and I think, who needs encouragement in here? Is it the busboy? Is it the girl working behind the counter? Is it the cook? You know? And he was right. It doesn't cost you anything to give it to him. And. But. But what it made me do was seek out those. I call them kind of shadow people. Who's. Who's the person that everybody's looking through or past? And True, it was just a wise guy. And coming from that, nothing prepared Truett Cathy to be a billionaire. You know, nothing prepared Jeff Foxworthy to be a millionaire. And so I just never took the money. Was never the goal. I wanted to be good at what I did. And I kind of viewed it even on my podcast, which is called A Comic Mind. I start every comedian with the same question. I said, are you born funny? And is it a gift or is it a skill set you can acquire? And I 100% believe that it was a gift I was given by God. You could call me and say, hey, Jeff, I need 30 jokes tonight about home security. And I don't know why it. I'd pull out a notepad and I would start writing your jokes. I don't know why I can do that. So it's a gift. I can't even be cocky about it because I don't know why I can do it. Just like some people are great, taking care of old people, and some people are great with kids, and some people are musicians. But I think we're all given gifts, and you need to honor the gift.

Ed Milet (23:16)

Wow.

Jeff Foxworthy (23:17)

Wow. Use it. Use it wisely. Use it for good. And if you get successful at it and you get a platform, you need to leverage that for the person that gave you the gift. Right. And so it was that combo of things. I. My dad leaving. Man, I wanted a dad. I was like the only kid of divorced parents that I knew, and I really wanted a dad. And I. I remember being young, and I decided, hey, I want. And it was the story of the prodigal son, the dad. And that story, it's called the Prodigal Son, but it's really about the dad. That dad. You couldn't do anything bad enough to make that dad love you any less. And you couldn't perform good enough to make that dad love you anymore. He just loved you with all he had, and he was available and in. And even when the son wasn't there. I love the part where it said, when the prodigal son decides to come home, it said, and when he was still a long way away, the father saw him. Well, you don't see somebody a long way away unless you're actively looking for. And Jesus told that parable because he was describing the father. And I just kind of decided, okay, if that's what kind of father God is, I'm going to Let God be my dad. I'm going to just let God be my dad. Because that's what I need. I need somebody that's here every day. I love. I need somebody that's going to love me when I screw up. And I. Even if I do well, they're not going to love me anymore. They just love me with all that they are. And when I go speak in a spiritual setting, that's what usually I talk about as the prodigal son.

Ed Milet (24:59)

Yeah, you're doing it to me again. Here we go. Part of your faith, the work that you do, the seeds that you plant, is you do minister. You know, we talked a little bit this last time, but I want to unpack this a little bit.

Jeff Foxworthy (25:12)

You do.

Ed Milet (25:13)

You play a father role to some extent, and you do minister to people, particularly in the homeless community, or at least specifically in the homeless community. And I want to talk about that a little bit. We're right before we talked, our mutual friend Tim Tebow. We talked for a few minutes, the three of us, before we went live. And Tim always talks about the fact that he was an MVP in football. And he said, now I'm an MVP in a much more important way. And to your point of what you just said, seeking out the vulnerable person. Tim says, I want to help our most vulnerable people.

Jeff Foxworthy (25:43)

Yeah.

Ed Milet (25:43)

And. And you. I'm serious when I say this. When Tim says this, just a few people have been on the show flash in my mind, and you're one of them about when he talks like that. And so I'm wondering if you just share with us, like, the genesis of that whole thing of you most people just wouldn't picture. I don't think the funny guy on stage has the depth. And I don't mean that as a. I don't mean that as a backhanded compliment. There's a depth to you because of the depth of your faith. That attractive and intriguing to me. So could you just unpack that a little bit? Why. Why you do that work and what the work is specifically?

Jeff Foxworthy (26:20)

I had a heart for the underdog. My oldest daughter has it, and she certainly didn't grow up an underdog. Hateville was kind of, like I said, the wrong side of the tracks. Like the things you remember as a kid, we always were. We were good at baseball. We went to play one of the rich schools on the north side of town. And I remember when we got off the bus, they were making fun of us because our uniforms were really pretty old and crappy. They were like the old Wool. But they were making fun of us. And I remember stepping off that bus thinking, you don't know anything about me other than what kind of shirt I got on. And you've already judged me. And we went up there and beat the snot out of them and then got back on the bus. Well, then you become rich and famous, and people judge you again because now you got a nicer shirt on. And I'm like, no, it's the same little boy inside the shirt. I root for the underdog. You know, I used to joke I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I had a KFC spork. You know, one of those classic sports spork. My aunt was an oncology nurse, nursing professor at Emory. My brother played football at Duke on a scholarship. And my wife and I were, like, the head of fundraising for the Duke children's hospital for 18 years. And they're kind of like St. Jude. They don't turn a kid away based on ability to pay. So they have to. Man, they. They have to raise so much money. But when we would go up there, they. Like, the first time we went up there, they had their little promo staff, and they said, okay, we're going to go see this kid and this kid and this. And I said, no, no, we're not. We're not walking. If I walk past somebody's room, that's going to make them think they weren't worth stopping for. So we'll go visit them, but we're going to visit every kid. And it ended up. I mean, it took forever. It took five or six hours to go say hi to every kid. And my wife was so good with the parents, and it was just an unspoken thing. I would go to the child, she would go to the parents, and I would tell my kids. I used to take them up there when they were little. And I said, they're in here because one morning they woke up with a sore throat. They didn't do anything better or worse than you. It's by the grace of God you're not in here, or I'm not in here. So I don't know. I've just always rooted for. For the. Because maybe I felt like a little bit of an underdog growing up, I don't know. But it was kind of the same thing with the homeless thing. And I don't recall if we went into that whole discussion, but, you know, once. Once you know somebody's name and once you know somebody's story and everybody's got a name, and everybody's got a story. You can't. It's hard to look past them, you know, And. And what I found for my homeless guys was I think a lot of people just tend to think either they're lazy or they're. They're in addiction. And that's what I used to think. The way I dealt with homeless people was if I'm at a red light and I see one, I reach in my pocket and pull out 10 bucks and, you know, give it to them and, like, go away. But did I tell you. And stop me if I did, about the first guy ever met at the shelter?

Ed Milet (29:45)

Yeah, but I want to talk about it. That's Jason, isn't it?

Jeff Foxworthy (29:47)

Jason? Yeah.

Ed Milet (29:48)

Yeah. I want them. I want them to hear this.

Jeff Foxworthy (29:50)

So. So the first kid I made at the shelter, he's like 21 years old, healthy, and I sit down and have lunch with them, and I ask everybody their story. I said, what's your story, Jason? And he said, well, it was me, my brother, my mom, and my dad. And When I was 11, my mom killed herself. And a couple of years after that, my brother killed himself. And it was me and my dad in my second year of college, my dad killed himself. And he said, I just. I got where I could not hurt anymore, and I started smoking crack. And I'm sitting across the table thinking, hell, dude, I want to start smoking crack, too. Who can. Who can lose everybody in their immediate family to suicide and all the thoughts that go with that? And so Jason wanted a bad guy. Jason wanted Jason that had a hurt that he couldn't deal with. And when I started doing small group Bible studies with these guys, you start realizing almost every one of them, something bad had happened to them as a kid, and they couldn't deal with the hurt. So they started drinking or they started doing drugs. And when you do that, you're not employable. And, you know, then you take from your family and to the point they can't deal with it anymore. And that's. That's how you end up on the street. And. And so I learned through that thing. It's like, okay, if we can ever identify the hurt, then maybe you got a shot. And, I mean, I don't know how many times we. I'd have a prepared lesson, and we'd be doing it, and some guy would just start crying, and I'd like, pete, what's wrong? And, you know, Pete would then tell a story about how his uncle would abuse him in the garage or something. And I said, okay, That's Pete. This is so great. You've had this locked in the basement and now you've finally gone down, open that door, drug it up the stairs, pulled it out in the front yard and let it sit in the sunlight and call it what it is. It's not a secret anymore. And we love you just the same. And God loves you just the same. And so if you could ever put salve on that hurt and just say, this is not your fault. This your. Your love, man. You and, and part of my image. Because there's something, I don't know if other people think like, I'm such a picture guy, but man, there's so many times I would do it as a kid and I still do it as a 67 year old is I'll go, I'll say to God, dad, can I crawl up in your lap and you just rub my head for a minute, please? Cause I'm having a bad day today and that's the way I view it. Man, is that loving father just like, yeah, buddy, crawl up in my lap.

Ed Milet (32:48)

This is such a good conversation. I told you guys, they give you a normal one. You know, it's interesting. You help people heal through the Bible study stuff you do, the ministry stuff you do. You heal them when they laugh. And as I've been a speaker, the last but my group, my dad was an alcoholic and a drug addict. I got sober, though, so I had two dads. I had the dad before that and then had this amazing father for many years after that. I was blessed.

Jeff Foxworthy (33:17)

Yeah, you got to see him that way. Yeah.

Ed Milet (33:19)

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Jeff Foxworthy (33:33)

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Ed Milet (33:35)

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Jeff Foxworthy (33:51)

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Ed Milet (33:54)

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Jeff Foxworthy (34:04)

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Ed Milet (34:06)

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Jeff Foxworthy (34:14)

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Ed Milet (34:17)

Would share with everybody today just because it just occurred to me saying it. So I just need to make sure I say it is. You know, my dad then helped thousands of other people get sober over his lifetime. And, and the reason that that is is you're most qualified in your life to help those that you used to be. And so a lot of times the adversary will try to get you to believe your sin, your mistake, your setback, your divorce, your bankruptcy, your sin, your averageness. The fact that you've always been average is disqualifying to do anything great in your life. And the fact is, I think God's going, no, no, no, no, we're going to use that. And that's my dad's alcoholism and drug addiction was really the catalyst of the great works that my dad did in his life. And so you're used to be.

Jeff Foxworthy (34:59)

It's, it's what made people listen to him is he knew what he was talking about, right?

Ed Milet (35:06)

Correct.

Jeff Foxworthy (35:08)

I always did that with my comedy. I was lucky. I found a template very early on that worked and that was that if I thought something or my wife said something or my family did something, I'm going to trust other people are thinking and saying and doing the same thing no matter where they lived. And even with the redneck jokes that came from people because I had this thick accent. I remember the first time I was up working in New York, I had a New York comic pull me out in the lobby and he said, you'll do. Look, I don't want to hurt your feelings and nothing, right? But you got to take some voice lessons and loose, you got to lose a stupid accent you got. And I'm like, well, where I come from, you have the stupid accent, you know, so, so I, I was adamant about keeping my accent. And I, I, I was blue collar, I wore jeans and boots, I drove a pickup truck. And they were always good natured, but they were kidding me about Foxworthy, you know, the, but an old redneck from Georgia, you know, and one night I was playing in a club right outside Detroit and it was in November, which was deer season. And I said something after the show. We were sitting around, I said, man, I wish I was sitting in a tree tomorrow morning, it's opening weekend and deer season. And they were, they were kidding me and they're like, fox, where are you? Just old redneck from Georgia. Well, the club we were playing in was attached to a bowling alley that had valet parking. And, and I said, if you don't think you have rednecks in Michigan, go look out the window people are valet parking at the bowling alley. And I went back to the hotel and I wasn't thinking it was going to be a hook or a book. I was just like, look, I know what I am. But apparently a lot of people don't know if they're in the and ways to tell. And so it wasn't laughing at somebody, it was laughing with. You know, I could go through those jokes and I'm like, that's my sister, that's my brother, that's my Uncle Bob, you know, that's my Aunt Judy. I mean, I wasn't doing research. They were popping out pretty quick.

Ed Milet (37:22)

Yeah, I just heard one. You did. We won't do the joke here, but I was laughing. It was the wedding reception you went to at Hooters, which is just hilarious, by the way. The reason I want to bring it up was that it's such a good joke, but you're a great storyteller. So I want to do one just kind of tactical thing today. I wonder a lot of times you have somebody on. I've noticed this with particularly entertainers. I had a lot of comedians on because I use the show as a weapon to meet people I'm fans of often. And sometimes people that are great at something can't explain how they do it, they're just great at it. So I'm curious whether which way that goes with you. You are one of the great all time storytellers. Telling a story, writing a story and telling it. I'm wondering tactically, like, let's just get granular for a second, what makes a great storyteller? Do you know why you're great at it or why somebody's great at it when you see it as opposed to somebody who's not?

Jeff Foxworthy (38:20)

Yeah, yeah. I think a lot of people have the thoughts that comedians have, but they go in one ear and they think it and it goes out the other. And there's something about a comic that learns to grab it and go, what is that? That's, you know, and if you look like my background looks pretty cool here, but my desk here in front of you. I write all the time.

Ed Milet (38:47)

Look at that. It's holding up note cards and papers.

Jeff Foxworthy (38:50)

Paper. And I've always worked at it. I always had a work ethic. And, and I remember when Leno was. When I started, was the king of the road comic and he was very generous with his time with young comics. And I remember I was still doing amateur nights and working at IBM and I was in Leno, invited a Bunch of people. He's working in town to go to the Waffle House. And he was kind of holding court. He said, your goal should be to write one new minute a week. Well, and I'm thinking in my mind, I can write 20 or 30 minutes a week. But he was right. And that's being on stage every night to say something that every time you say it, everybody in the room is going to laugh. And so on those years where I was doing 500 shows a year, I could grind out a new hour every year. Well, then you do an album or you do a special and it's gone. And you're right back to the starting block. And no matter how successful you become at it, you don't get to bypass that part. You're right back at the starting block on stage with a note card going, hey, is this funny? Is this funny?

Ed Milet (40:08)

Yep.

Jeff Foxworthy (40:09)

And. But I worked at it. I always had a work. That work ethic. And I was. I was grinding. I mean, through the years, I think I did nine albums, which were hours. I did three blue collar movies. I did two HBO specials, two Showtime specials, three for Netflix, 50 Tonight shows. So I'm thinking if you, if you put that into what. How much material is that?

Ed Milet (40:37)

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I thought when you say that, I think of you and like, and Seinfeld, because the other comedians that I've become friends with, because as a speaker, I'm the same way. I'm always writing. I've got stuff next. I got mine right here as well. Like, there's just pages of them, of just an idea thought. Sometimes it's an entire message. Sometimes it's two words. I'm like you as well, but in that sense, in terms of telling stories. But you would.

Jeff Foxworthy (41:04)

I think is different about you, about Com.

Ed Milet (41:06)

And you just tell me I'm wrong. It's okay. Like, we're on. You can tell me I'm wrong. But most of my comedian friends. And by the way, you might say, nah, man, they're just humans. But I would say, you know, I've had Sebastian on, I've had Whitney on. I've had Nikki Glazer on, I've had Dane Cook on. I mean, we've had. I've had Christina P. I've had a lot of comedians on. I love them. And not in general. Not just. But I would say in general, a lot of comics privately, I think would even say this. That's why I said those names. There's a. They're moving out of some pain or darkness. Almost more than the average person I've met. You tell me if I'm wrong about that. And maybe what's different about you is you do have this light in you, which. I know what that light is. In general, the comics that you know, would you agree that they're. They move, They've got a little bit more of a pain or trauma or dark view type thing in general, or am I off on that?

Jeff Foxworthy (42:08)

No, I think you're right, you know, because I've had people say to me, well, I've always heard comedians are laughing on the outside, crying on the inside. And I've got. Well, in a lot of cases, that's true. It's. It's not true in my case, but, you know, my wife and I grew up together. She came from kind of a similar background, and I don't know why it worked, but I smoothed down her rough edges and she smoothed down my rough edges. We built each other. And I've learned as is grown in this. But. But I find myself, and I jokingly say I'm two decisions from drywall. And that's how famous I am. If I had to describe myself, I think I'm so thankful, I'm so grateful that, that I have had a life where I. Where I've done something that I really enjoyed. I still enjoy it. I hate the airport and I hate the hotel room. But that moment when the lights go down and people start clapping, I still get excited. I'm like, yeah. And I don't know if I shared this with you. I don't want to repeat myself. But. But doing an interview many years ago, a lady had said, okay, you host game shows, you. You write books, you. You do stand up. You do sketch. Which one are you? And I said, oh, well, that's interesting question. Never been asked that. I said what you described. Those are all things I do, and I love what I do. I wouldn't want to do anything else, but. But who I am is I'm a husband and a dad and a brother and a son and a person of this community and a child of God. So what I do is probably going to change a lot of times in my life, but that's not my identity. And I think a lot of people in my business, that becomes their identity, you know, because. Because what the world tells you is wealth and fame will make you happy. When I was doing my sitcom in the mid-90s, we filmed between Seinfeld and Roseanne. At the time, Roseanne was number one show on tv. Jerry was number Two. But roseanne had the biggest contract in television. She was making a million dollars an episode. So she's super, super famous and making a million dollars every five days. And she was miserable, miserable. And everybody that worked on her set was miserable. And I just would kind of take that in and go, okay, the world's lying to you, because if wealth and fame made you happy, she'd be the happiest person on this lot right here. Right. And it's weird. Like, if you pull up to a store, like, I know when I get out to go into a store that I'm going to get stopped and I'll take pictures. But people are always nice. I'm nice to them. They're nice to me. Never told anybody no, but I'm not a big deal. I mean, I'm just not. I'm just. I had a gift that I don't know why I got it. I'm so. I'm very thankful that I did. But if. How can I have an ego about it if I don't know why I can do it, right? I mean, it's like having an ego about the color of your skin. You had no control over that. That. So why would you have an ego about it? Or having an ego about where you grew up? You didn't have any control over that. Well, we don't have any control over who. Who we were born to either, Right. What kind of family we were born into.

Ed Milet (45:53)

It's so important what you just said, brother. Like, and for everyone to make it a personal thing. It's so easy when someone is famous to see their giftedness. You know, Beyonce's ability to sing or dance or LeBron's 6, 8, and 250 and runs a 44 and can windmill dunk. Foxworthy's ability to tell a story and make you laugh and connect with you. But what you need to know is you have giftedness as well.

Jeff Foxworthy (46:16)

And everybody does.

Ed Milet (46:18)

Everyone. Yeah. And I. And. And I. Yours could be your discernment, your humor, your. Your nurturing skills, your intellect, your touch, whatever it might be. And finding that skill, that gift, rather, and then finding a way to use it to serve other people.

Jeff Foxworthy (46:36)

Yeah.

Ed Milet (46:37)

You'd be talking just like this guy. I promise you. Whatever that is, is it's teaching. Is it ministering? You know, is it making pottery? Whatever it is, is it. You know, it's. It's whatever that thing is. And that's. To me, it's like a great formula for. For happiness is exactly what you're saying. It's just Easy to see yours because it's. It's probably a little bit unique and more rare than certain other ones, right? Because not everybody can do it on the level that Jeff Foxworthy can, but you all have one. I'm just curious. Thinking of it just made me think of it. I got a couple things I want to ask you before we run out of time. These grandbabies of yours. I'm looking forward to the day that I have mine. I've just got babies, but I want to have grandbabies. And. And my dad was a way better granddad than he was a dad. Like, there's just. It was just different.

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Ed Milet (47:54)

I'm curious. I don't know. Just seemed a little bit different. Most grandparents listen to this. If there are. Some would probably say it's just. It's just different. If there was like a lesson. I don't mean to be corny, but I'm curious what your answer would be if there was a lesson from your life you'd want those grandbabies to keep when you're gone of your life or what you'd want to impart on to them or into them. What would it. You know, what it is, what would it be?

Jeff Foxworthy (48:18)

You know, it'd probably be my daughters would tell you this, but we had a little chalkboard on the door to the garage. And for their entire childhood, the last thing they saw before we got in the car to go to school was, and I had written it in chalk the first day, be kind and try hard. It's like my oldest daughter, she. She's. She's pretty amazing. This was. My oldest daughter, was a homebody. Wouldn't. Wouldn't go spend the night with her grandmother that lived a mile away. And one. One time a guy and my church called and he said, we got a group of guys taking their oldest kid to go to Kenya to work in AIDS orphanages. Would. Would Jordan like to go? And I said, no, Jordan, Kenya. Jordan won't Spend the night with her grandmother across the street. And I said, jordan, you want to go to Kenya working AIDS orphanage? Yes, yes, yes. And we get over there and spend a week, and we're in Cabera, the biggest Sloan in the world. One square mile fenced in with a million people in it. No electricity, no running water. And Compassion had a. Had a thing in there. But we come back from the thing, and Jordan says on the way home, she said, dad, there ought to be something kids could do to help people. And she researched. She found out more kids died of malaria than anything in Africa. She found a place where she could buy malaria nets for 10 bucks a piece. And she started doing bake sales and putting change jars at school and partnering with restaurants for a. She ended up forming a little company called Bite Back. And she. My shy kid would then try in high school, would fly around the country and go speak to youth groups and say, here's what's going on, but we can make a difference. And then she'd come home, and then two or three months later, that group from Colorado would send her a check for 30 grand to buy nets with. And I. And somebody one time said to her, they said, well, that's gotta be weird. You're in high school, and the other girls are talking about what kind of purse they got or what kind of shoes, and you're out here trying to buy malaria nets. And Jordan said. She said, it's not their fault. She goes, I've just seen something they haven't seen, but because I've seen it, I have to respond. And to the point that years later, you two was playing in Atlanta, and I had a lady come get me. Jordan, love you, too. And so did I. And the lady said. Tapped me on the shoulder, and she said, could y' all come with me? I said, what's up? She said, bono wants to meet Jordan. Not Bono wants to meet Jeff. Bono wants to meet Jordan. And he had been following her online.

Ed Milet (51:12)

That's awesome.

Jeff Foxworthy (51:13)

Yeah. And so now my daughter with two masters works in a homeless mission.

Ed Milet (51:17)

You know, you gotta be so proud, brother. Those either listen on audio. You should just see his face. You see his face. That's my kid.

Jeff Foxworthy (51:28)

I'm like, man, how did I end up with a kid like this?

Ed Milet (51:31)

Well, I think it's actually pretty obvious how you ended up with a kid like this. I really do. Kids, most things with our children are caught, not taught. And they caught a lot from their daddy, for sure. Let me ask you this last, just because, you know what moved me in our last episode is what I consider to be the depth of your faith. And those are the things that I look at in men in my life that I want in my life, that I admire, men that make me want to walk in my faith better than I do. And just when I left, just the conversation with you and I, I want to be better. I'd kind of like, just leave it open to you for the last question in advance. Thank you for today. Really. I've enjoyed it.

Jeff Foxworthy (52:12)

I'm so thankful you would have me, especially to talk about stuff like this. Yeah.

Ed Milet (52:16)

Cool. Yeah, it's, yeah. Well, I'm grateful. And so if someone's listening and they're like, you know, been looking for answers in my life to been, you know, looking. There's this whisper in my heart is what I call it, where I'm just, you know, they're looking at God. They're looking at making a change in their life, and maybe they got a little bit of doubt or some fear or whatever it would be if someone's considering changing their life in that direction. I'm just wondering what your message would be to somebody who came to you. They ran up to you in a Starbucks and said, Mr. Foxworthy, I saw you on my let show and you talked a lot about faith. In that area of my life, I, I, I want to step into, I think. What would you say to them if you had a chance to visit with them?

Jeff Foxworthy (53:04)

Ed, I don't know if you'll agree or disagree. I think the secret to life. And for those just listening, I'm holding my hands clenched in a fist, and I open them up. It's, it's letting go. And I will tell myself that if somebody cuts me off in traffic, I'll clench my fist and I'll just sit there in the car and do that. Just open it and go. Let it go. Let it go. And it's realizing that everything that the, that the world tells you will make you happy. It doesn't. It every. It doesn't satisfy. It might satisfy for a little bit, but it doesn't satisfy for long. So we get lied to here, and, and we all, we all want to be in control of our own life. And we're not good at it. We're not good at running our own life. And so, and I tell people, like, if you look around my office, I've got a laptop. I've got this little light here that helps light it up. I've got, somebody thought this laptop out and created it with a purpose. Somebody Thought this light out with a purpose. Somebody thought that chair out with a purpose. And why, how could you not believe in God when you can look around where you're sitting and everything in there was created with a purpose? But if you don't believe in God, you think you're an accident. You're the most complicated thing in the entire room, and you're an accident. There's a bigger chance of throwing the parts of a 747 down an escalator and them all coming together and working than us being an accident. So if I want an accident, I'm not in control. I'm the created. I'm not the creator. But if I'm the creative, I have a purpose. Everything in the body has a purpose like you're talking about. I get seen more. I might be the hand, but trust me, that ligament inside the hand, the hand doesn't work without the ligament. And that's what. What I think is we're created. I remember being a little kid, Ed, and, and, and I gave my life to the Lord when I was seven years old. But I grew up in a strict Southern Baptist church where everybody walked in a super straight. Don't drink, don't smile, don't cuss, don't dance, don't straight line. And it was a dichotomy to me internally because I said, I'm wired like this, and I'm. For those listening, I'm doing a weaving motion and I am like, God, I love you, but I can't do that. I can't do that. And it took a long time for him to finally whisper to me, who do you think wired you like that? Because I need that in some places. Sometimes I need that straight line. Sometimes I need that wavy line. And, and so what I found was that, like, because I've. I grew up an outdoor. I'm a bow hunter and a fisherman and all that, well, I could go do a wild game dinner for guys that would never ever go to a church. They wouldn't go to church to save their life, but they would come to hear me be funny. And I could go be funny for 30 or 40 minutes and roll that over into a story about God. And they would. And I, the, the response to it was crazy. People that, like, I ain't been to church in 40 years. I got. I got mad at God, but I've never heard it presented like that. And so I thought, okay, so I've taken. If I've taken the gift that the Creator gave me. And I always thought LAUGHTER was the release valve that kept the boiler from exploding. Right. It's there. There's a value to it. But I've. But I've used it as a way to point back to the creator, you know, And I. I think that's my purpose. You know, everybody's purpose is different, but I think that's mine, so.

Ed Milet (57:08)

Good, brother. My word for the year is surrender. That was my word for the year, and that's what you just did with your hands.

Jeff Foxworthy (57:15)

And you know what? It is you. We think we're going to lose something when we do.

Ed Milet (57:20)

Right.

Jeff Foxworthy (57:20)

I know you think, oh, my gosh, I'm giving up control. I. But the way of. The way of God is upside down to the world a lot of times, and instead of losing something, oh, my word. Is it freeing to go, hey, I don't know what's going to happen here, but you do, and you're in control of all of us. And you say for those that love you, that what you've got for us is good. So I'm just going to trust you on that. I don't have to have it all figured out, but you do, you know?

Ed Milet (57:53)

Yep. And by the way, go back to the beginning, guys.

Jeff Foxworthy (57:55)

Just.

Ed Milet (57:56)

Thank you, dad.

Jeff Foxworthy (57:57)

Thank you, Daddy.

Ed Milet (57:58)

Best, best visual, best example, best concept ever I've heard, because it's exactly, for me, the way that I see my savior.

Jeff Foxworthy (58:10)

Yeah, I love you too. He said it first. He said it first at the cross. So when I. When I think about him, I look up in the morning and go, I love you too, because he said it first.

Ed Milet (58:21)

Come on, you guys. This is so good. That was a quick hour.

Jeff Foxworthy (58:27)

Man.

Ed Milet (58:27)

Thank you. What do you want him to go look at? I know you mentioned your podcast where you want to. Let's. Let's take everybody who's so darn emotional right now and sharing this. This is gonna be one of the most shared episodes ever where you want to find you your podcast, social media.

Jeff Foxworthy (58:39)

You can find me all over the place. I mean, yeah, if you're interested in comedy, but, you know, you can find me talking about other stuff. And I. And I'm not a genius. I'm blessed, man. I'm grateful, and I'm blessed that. That I've just had such a good life and. And hopefully, you know, and. And. And I would kind of learn that through the years. Like when we'd go through the hospital up there at Duke, and you, a kid, didn't know you were coming, and you'd walk in the room and there'd be one of my CDs, or there'd be one of my books, and I would realize, oh, this. They're using this as a balm when I'm not here. There's value to this thing. That. That's laughter and that. That made me look deeper at it. So hopefully there's. There's some value to it. Right. And hopefully I've. I use it for. For better things, you know, leverage that platform.

Ed Milet (59:39)

Yeah, you are doing that. Today was just a complete blessing. I can't wait to see you on the road. We're speaking again.

Jeff Foxworthy (59:44)

Yeah. I hope we get to do this, because I was looking so forward to doing it in person with you, and then my plane sat on the Runway for three hours.

Ed Milet (59:53)

And by the way, guys, we're supposed to do this in person. I'll tell you all this last. In person, his plane sat on the Runway for three hours, 15 minutes from where we were.

Jeff Foxworthy (60:02)

Like, yes, I could almost see you, and I couldn't get to you.

Ed Milet (60:07)

Yes, he got to the town. He just didn't get. So anyway, thank you for today. It was awesome.

Jeff Foxworthy (60:11)

Oh, man, I. I look forward to the next time. Thank you.

Ed Milet (60:14)

I actually do, too. We're gonna do it again. Hey, everybody. God bless you. Share this with somebody that you love and care about. Max out. God bless you.

Jeff Foxworthy (60:25)

This is the Ed Milan Show.