JCW ARCHIVE: Working Hardly

Summary

The John Clay Wolfe Show – JCW ARCHIVE: Working Hardly (Jan 16, 2026)

Episode Overview

This throwback episode of The John Clay Wolfe Show features an entertaining interview focused on Uncle Roy, a longtime family friend and valued member of the team at GiveMeTheVIN.com. The hosts reminisce about Uncle Roy's decades-long employment, hilarious stories from his work delivering and picking up cars (often under unusual circumstances), and his deep influence within the Wolfe family and company. The tone is informal and humorous, packed with anecdotes about cars, work ethic, mishaps, and the camaraderie that defines the show.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Introducing Uncle Roy and His Role (00:45 – 02:02)

• DJ Pre K gives a shoutout to Uncle Roy, now retired but known for his wisdom and humor.
• Uncle Roy managed the drive team for GiveMeTheVIN.com, coordinating drivers and logistics for car pickups and deliveries.
• The week’s bad weather had operations at a standstill. Uncle Roy notes:

  "Nothing happened. Nothing happened. Nothing at all." – Uncle Roy (02:43)

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2. Legendary Pickup Stories and Encounters (02:49 – 04:41)

• The hosts prompt Roy to recall memorable car deliveries, focusing on the occasional flirtatious or awkward encounters with clients.
• Notable stories include:
  • The Dallas Hummer H1/H2 pickup where a woman tried to woo Roy ("Hey, you look thirsty. Hey, you look hungry.").
  • The Corpus Christi delivery, which stands out for Roy:

    "I think the one in Corpus is the best… My nerves just wouldn't take it." – Uncle Roy (03:29, 03:35)

  • Roy describes being alone, far from home, surrounded by strangers, and feeling outnumbered:

    "She had a lot of workers out there, and they all just staring at me, so I ain't know what was going on." – Uncle Roy (04:14)

• The crew jokes that Roy is frequently in demand for more than his driving skills.

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3. Early Days, Family Ties & Work Adventures (04:41 – 07:44)

• The story of how Roy joined the Wolfe family business in 1968:

  "A cousin working for your granddaddy… came to Mississippi and got drunk, and he had to be to work for the next day, so he conned me driving him back over here… then Roy started working for my granddad." – Roy & Interviewer/Host (05:32–06:39)

• Roy has worked for three Wolfe generations: John’s grandfather, father, and now the current team.
• Young John Clay Wolfe’s childhood involved working for Roy from an early age, running equipment and occasionally getting into mischief.

  "He paid me… $8 an hour. I remember him telling me, don't tell anybody what you're making." – Interviewer/Host (07:16)

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4. Lessons in Work and Mischief (07:44 – 10:11)

• Anecdotes highlight John’s attempts to sneak in naps, cruise around job sites, and youthful curiosity—often getting caught by Roy.
  • Example: 12-year-old John going "recon" for girls during lunch:

    "I missed my truck about 11 o'clock one day… here he come driving home… he said, 'Well, I was going down there to see what’s in the girls down there so we can go through there for lunch. I said it recon.'" – Uncle Roy (08:24)

• Uncle Roy was both supervisor and unofficial mentor, teaching equipment skills through hands-on trial and guidance.
• Roy’s philosophy:

  "That's something you can't teach. You had to let him find out on his own… then you fine tune him." – Uncle Roy (09:21, 09:26)

• John tells about overzealous digging:

  "The first hole I dug in the back of the shop was pretty big… about 40ft deep. He got mad." – Interviewer/Host (09:32)

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5. Uncle Roy’s Ongoing Wisdom & Reputation (10:11 – 10:28)

• Uncle Roy manages his team with the experience and savvy gained from years of "catching" employees—(including John)—"screwing off" on the job.

  "He knows what they’re doing before they do it... 'Oh, I know. Trust me, I know.'" – Interviewer/Host & Uncle Roy (10:11, 10:28)

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Notable Quotes by Segment

• (02:43) Uncle Roy: “Nothing happened. Nothing happened. Nothing at all.”
• (03:29/03:35) Uncle Roy: “I think the one in Corpus is the best. I think it was the best... My nerves just wouldn't take it.”
• (04:14) Uncle Roy: “I ain't got nobody for nothing. And she had a lot of workers out there, and they all just staring at me, so I ain't know what was going on.”
• (07:16) Interviewer/Host: “He paid me… $8 an hour. I remember him telling me, don’t tell anybody what you’re making.”
• (08:24) Uncle Roy: “Well, I was going down there to see what’s in the girls down there so we can go through there for lunch. I said it recon.”
• (09:21) Uncle Roy: “That's something you can't teach. You had to let him find out on his own.”
• (10:28) Uncle Roy: “Oh, I know. Trust me, I know.”

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Memorable Moments

• Uncle Roy's Corpus Christi story: A mix of comedy and tension as he feels trapped in a strange house by an overly forward client (03:29 – 04:36).
• Childhood job site escapades: John recounts sneaking off in the company truck at age 12—“recon” for girls—unwittingly scaring Roy (07:44 – 08:45).
• Generational ties: The heartfelt realization that Uncle Roy worked for three generations of the Wolfe family, becoming legendary in both the business and the family (06:06 – 06:48).

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Structure and Tone

• The show maintains a relaxed, candid, and good-natured tone throughout.
• Conversational style full of inside jokes, laughter, and gentle ribbing, characteristic of long-standing friendships.

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Note: This summary omits all sponsor ads, show bumpers, and promotional chatter (occurring in the opening ~0:01-0:24 and close 10:32–end). The focus is on the core content—stories, lessons, and laughter from Uncle Roy and the crew.

Transcript

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[John Clay Wolf]

The John Clay Wolf show has appeared on terrestrial radio for a really, really, really. So we dug into our pockets and on the other side of our. We found something funny. And yes, it's contagious. Gather round as the wolf pack goes on this throwback adventure.

[DJ Pre K]

What's the damn deal? It's your boy DJ Pre K with the John Clay Wolf show up in the archives. And I want to give a shout out to our man Uncle Roy. He's retired now, but he was a source for Good game for John for, well, all his damn life. From loving the ladies to making the money. Roy set the tone. Let's see what knowledge he can drop on us. Check it out.

[Interviewer/Host]

I had to go find Uncle Roy.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Yes, there he is.

[Interviewer/Host]

Good morning, Roy. A lot of people don't know who Uncle Roy is. And. And that one. He's been around a long time, but I wanted to ask him what it's like this week moving these cars around in the snow. As I know, it's tough. And Uncle Roy's had escapades over the years where he gets to customers, houses, and they'd put the delivery. The ladies will put the delivery switch on him.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Oh, really?

[Interviewer/Host]

Yes. He can be in high demand at times.

[Assistant/Co-host]

While you're here picking up the Chevy.

[Interviewer/Host]

Roy, you there? Roy, you there?

[Uncle Roy]

Nope.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah, you there?

[Assistant/Co-host]

Yeah, just talk right here like this. Right in front of that one.

[Interviewer/Host]

You there?

[Assistant/Co-host]

Right there. Perfect.

[Interviewer/Host]

Say something.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Say hello.

[Interviewer/Host]

Hello.

[Assistant/Co-host]

There it is. The little.

[Interviewer/Host]

You're acting like you hadn't been on the radio.

[Assistant/Co-host]

A little screen is. But we have a little pop screen and that's blowing him.

[Interviewer/Host]

So that. No, that. That ain't nothing. So what.

[DJ Pre K]

What's.

[Interviewer/Host]

What's been moving around? So Roy runs our drive [e-mail] and he manages the drivers and the pickups at people's homes. Did y' all just stop all week?

[Assistant/Co-host]

Did you stop all week?

[Uncle Roy]

No. Say again?

[Interviewer/Host]

Did y' all just stop all week?

[Uncle Roy]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Okay, I can see you now. Is today your first day back?

[Uncle Roy]

We came back yesterday, but it's still too bad.

[Interviewer/Host]

I gotcha. So. So, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. You're like the mail. Nothing happened.

[Uncle Roy]

Nothing happened. Nothing happened.

[John Clay Wolf]

Nothing at all.

[Uncle Roy]

Nothing at all. So, J.D.

[Interviewer/Host]

Do you remember about, I don't know, five years ago, four years ago, when he was over in Dallas and that he was picking. I remember the car, Roy. You remember the car? The Hummer H1, H2 from that. From that lady. And she brought you in and said, hey, why don't you stay for a while? Hey, you look thirsty. Hey, you look hungry.

[Uncle Roy]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Damn, it's no big deal. Oh, yeah, that time. It happens a lot.

[Uncle Roy]

I ain't had no action this week, though.

[Assistant/Co-host]

This week.

[Interviewer/Host]

You had two stops. One on the beach, seven hours away, and one here. That Hummer deal where that lady got up on you, and then the one down in Corpus.

[Uncle Roy]

I think the one in Corpus is the best. I think it was the best.

[Interviewer/Host]

You can tell your own story. Do you remember the details?

[Uncle Roy]

I remember, but the nerve. My nerves just wouldn't take it. Just wouldn't take it. Yeah, when I got to the airport, she sent. Taxi, picked me up. It gets to her house, you know, she's full. Been paying the tab, and so I'm waiting on her to pay the tab. So she called me in, and I walked in and nothing but a robot. I said, oh, my God, give me a credit card and all this. Get a lady a tip. I goes back in and sit down there. She's sitting down. We finna eat breakfast. No, we ain't finna eat breakfast. We finna get out.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Uncle Roy]

My nerd. My nerd left me.

[John Clay Wolf]

So you fled the interview?

[Uncle Roy]

Yes. Yes.

[Interviewer/Host]

But that's not like you for your new nerves to leave you.

[Uncle Roy]

Hey, but, man, I was in no manly, right? I ain't got nobody to call nobody for backup. I ain't got nobody for nothing. And she had a lot of workers out there, and they all just staring at me, so I ain't know what was going on.

[Assistant/Co-host]

But they all did.

[Uncle Roy]

They all.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Yeah, they all knew. Well, here comes another one, right?

[John Clay Wolf]

Here comes another one.

[Uncle Roy]

Wow. So I wore my way out of there.

[Interviewer/Host]

I mean, when I was a kid. You did not. I mean, you had nerves to steal.

[Uncle Roy]

Oh, they were good.

[Interviewer/Host]

Then it was good because I used to go to work at my dad's construction company and I'd ride with Rory. Hell, we'd get out of the driveway of the shop and we'd switch seats, and I'd drive him. When I was about, I don't know, 11.

[Uncle Roy]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

And. And. But we. We'd stop by a. He had this gal that. We would stop by her apartment and I would sit in the. In the living room of the Apartment. And he'd take her to the. To the woodshed in the bedroom.

[Uncle Roy]

It was good days then, man. That's a good day.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Oh, you're smart. You were. You weren't on your footing, your ground, like, any good, you know?

[Uncle Roy]

Oh, yeah.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Any good assault?

[Uncle Roy]

I was on my ground.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Yeah, you were on your ground, but down there in Corpus?

[Uncle Roy]

Nah, nah, nah. That was a long way from my home, man. And I was lost. Oh, my God.

[Interviewer/Host]

How did you get up here? To Texas, I mean. Yeah.

[Uncle Roy]

Well, one of my cousins. Working for your granddaddy?

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Uncle Roy]

He came to Mississippi and got drunk, and he had to be to work for the next day, so he conned me driving him back over here, and he'll put me on the bus.

[Interviewer/Host]

How far is the drive?

[Uncle Roy]

Seven hours.

[Interviewer/Host]

So he drove you from Mississippi to Dallas, Fort Worth?

[Uncle Roy]

I drove him from Mississippi to Dallas, Fort Worth.

[Interviewer/Host]

Because he was too drunk to get home.

[Uncle Roy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

And then what happened?

[Uncle Roy]

But he's gonna put me on the bus and send me back. So he said, I'll put you on the bus when I get out and work sooner. So when you get out of work, he come on. So I got you a job, and now that's history.

[Interviewer/Host]

What year was that?

[Uncle Roy]

68.

[Interviewer/Host]

And you're still here working for. But, I mean, I wasn't the guy in 60. I wasn't born yet.

[Uncle Roy]

No, you wouldn't.

[Interviewer/Host]

So that was my grandfather and.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Your grandfather?

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Not your dad?

[Interviewer/Host]

No. That's the part you miss. Yeah, he skipped it. So. So one of my granddad's employees, a backhoe operator, went to his. Roy's hometown, where he lived, got drunk so sick he couldn't make it home. Roy drove him back to his job. Seven hours up the street, up the highway. And then Roy started working for my granddad that day. 68.

[John Clay Wolf]

Wow.

[Interviewer/Host]

So he's been around a while.

[John Clay Wolf]

So wait a minute. You've been around since before John was born?

[Uncle Roy]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

Wow.

[John Clay Wolf]

I mean, I knew you guys went back.

[Uncle Roy]

Way back. I go way back.

[Assistant/Co-host]

That's some great stories, too.

[John Clay Wolf]

That's why you call him Uncle Roy.

[Interviewer/Host]

Right, Right, right, right, right, right, right, right. So. So when I started working at the company, my dad was like, well, who do I trust the most with my son? And he gave me to Roy, so I would go, you know, I don't know. When I was, like, in third grade, I'd start punching the clock on the. On the Christmas holidays in summer, and I would be on a crew, and I was on Roy's crew. He paid me Hell, he paid me $8 an hour. I remember him telling me, don't tell anybody what you're making.

[Uncle Roy]

He was making just as much as anybody else.

[Assistant/Co-host]

And probably.

[Interviewer/Host]

I mean I could do it but. But I'd also take his truck and go find a, you know, woods and go sleep during the day in the. Like on the job site. Yeah, take. Get in the truck and I just go drive it, drive it, drive it. I was driving all the time just trying to learn how to drive. But I'd go find a cool spot under a tree and sleep for a little bit under with the air conditioning on.

[John Clay Wolf]

Well, just because you're on the clock doesn't mean you got stuff to do. You know, you get tired on the clock, you need to rest on the clock.

[Uncle Roy]

One day, you know, we did a job over on Greenville Avenue. We stayed on there about month and a half, two months anyway. So you know that's where the girls hang out on Greenville Avenue.

[John Clay Wolf]

Sure.

[Uncle Roy]

So we ride down up through there in the morning, see what can we see, you know, we spotted, you know. And so I missed my truck about 11 o' clock one day. I said what is the world is my darn truck? Then I said, where's John? Nobody knows where John is. About 20 minutes here he come driving home. I jumped right in the middle of him. Well, I was going down there to see what's in the girls down there so we can go through there for lunch. I said it recon.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Yeah, he's your point man.

[Uncle Roy]

I said, golly, he wrecked that car. His old man going to go up one side of me and come down the other. Boom.

[Assistant/Co-host]

How was, how old was he at this point?

[Interviewer/Host]

How old?

[Uncle Roy]

About 12.

[John Clay Wolf]

12.

[Uncle Roy]

And from that point on I had to take the key out. Cuz I say something bad is going to happen.

[Interviewer/Host]

Yeah, I remember y' all coming to. I don't know if it's you. Someone coming to school and grabbing me. Because one of the backhoe operators was not. One of the backhoe operators was not like was missing. So they grabbed me out of school and I went to run the excavator track. Excavator. That's what I was good at.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

But Roy taught me how to run heavy equipment or he sat there and watched me figure it out. And then he'd teach me the fine tunes of running. You know the, the company. We dug ditches, put pipes underground, you know, water, sewer, all that stuff. And it was fun.

[Uncle Roy]

That's something you can't teach. You had to let him find out on his own.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Yeah. And then you fine tune him.

[Uncle Roy]

Yeah, I tune him in. Yeah. Put him out there. Where? Ain't nothing there. Just dig a hole and cover it up. Dig a hole.

[Interviewer/Host]

The first hole I dug in the back of the shop was pretty big. I remember dad getting excited about 40ft deep. He got mad.

[Assistant/Co-host]

40Ft.

[Uncle Roy]

40Ft deep. I came out, I said, what in the world are.

[Interviewer/Host]

Big old ho.

[Uncle Roy]

Big old ho.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Yeah.

[John Clay Wolf]

Well, that's the Wolf formula, right? Too much of a good thing.

[Interviewer/Host]

So this is my Uncle Roy, who's been working for. He started working for my granddad before I was born, and he's been a big part of my life. And now he runs the transportation, the pickup division of give me the vin.com. and what's funny is people lie to him and hustle him about where they are and how much time it takes to do. Do this and that.

[Assistant/Co-host]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host]

And he knows what they're doing before they do it. He'll go. You know, he'll find them when they're screwing off, because people have been screwing off on his watch for years, and he's been catching them for years. And I. Like I was saying, I was screwing off on his watch, and it still goes on today. And people think that they. That he doesn't know any better.

[Uncle Roy]

Oh, I know. Trust me, I know.

[John Clay Wolf]

Of course you do.

[DJ Pre K]

All right, y' all know what to do. Hit us up on John Claywolf dot com. You can check out old episodes on there. You know, stay up to date with what we got going on. Get cool gear. We got hats, shirts, all that hit us up on Facebook. You know, search John Clay Wolf show. We're on Instagram. John's on Twitter. You know, you can holler at all of us. Okay. You know how to spell it. Okay. We appreciate y' all listening. Keep on rocking with us.

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