Cracker Barrel Patriot & Roadrunner Records

I talked about this on the podcast (which you really should download if you didn’t listen live), but I want to put in writing as well.

For the past few days I’ve been traveling to different posts visiting my troops. One of those trips was to Ft. Campbell, KY. Just before arriving, I stopped for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Cracker Barrel, located at Exit 4 off I-24 outside Clarksville. Because I was working, I was in my uniform.

I was seated in a fairly secluded area for some privacy and so as not to distract anyone. I always feel self-conscious being in public in my uniform alone. You never know if Code Pink will show up and force me to get arrested for spitting on the only “women” I’d feel justified spitting on. I ordered the lunch special, which was the Chicken Pot Pie, and a Diet Coke. I love Cracker Barrel because it reminds of being back on the farm in Texas growing up. I used to spend my summers working on my grandfather’s farm. While most kids worked in the mall or a fast food joint, I was sweating my arse off bailing hay, feeding and corraling sheep and cows, harvesting wheat and maize, and other farm chores. My sister would work with the women around the house and bringing us men sodas and water in the field – the way it should be!! hehe (I’m gonna feel that, I’m sure)

Anyway, I quickly finished my meal and I guess the waitress realized I was ready to go. She came by my table and informed me that my check was taken care of. At first, I thought I had done something wrong. “What do you mean my check was taken care of?” I asked. For some reason I interpreted that comment as “please just leave; don’t worry about paying for your food.” I don’t know why I’d think that, but it was my immediate thought.

She explained that a man had paid for my meal already. I looked around and asked her where he was so I could at least thank him. She told me that he had already left and asked her not to let me know until he was gone. While I’ve had meals paid for before, this one came the perfect time. As you’ve been reading, the past few weeks have just been hell. I haven’t been feeling very confident about much lately inside though I’m a great actor in public. Since you’re my buds and this is my therapy, I’ll admit that I was recently diagnosed with depression. Don’t worry, it’s not the “woe is me” depression where life is hopeless. I just don’t find joy in much of anything lately. I finally – after five years – forced myself into a doctor’s office.

Anyway, this little token of appreciation by a complete stranger really made a difference at a time when I really needed one. It’s been a lonely journey lately and the Cracker Barrel Patriot made me feel like I wasn’t in this alone. My family is supposed to have my back, but it’s good to know that there are others out there that I don’t know have it as well.

So, if you’re reading this and you paid for my meal on Wednesday, 22 October at around noon, thank you sir! I may have only cost you a few dollars, but to me your generosity is priceless. I left the restaurant a very different person than I entered. And the Chicken Pot Pie was absolutely DELICIOUS!!

Some of my favorite bands are on the Roadrunner Records label: Slipknot, Nickelback, Megadeth, Fear Factory, Theory of a Deadman, Coal Chamber, and an old 80′s band called Annihilator. I also listen to many of the label’s other bands like Black Stone Cherry and others.

Yesterday, on the way home from this whirlwind trip across Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee, I stopped for gas in Athens, Alabama. Athens just happens to be where the studio is located of some of the radio stations I listen to, mostly WVNN (talk radio). The morning host had finished his show about an hour prior to my arrival, but I decided to see if he was in since I was in town and getting gas across the street.

While I was walking in, another gentlemen was coming in at the same time. He had a stack of CDs in his hands and I noted that I could relieve him of his burden if he’d like. We chuckled and approached the counter. I asked if Dale Jackson from WVNN was still around and the other gentleman asked for Jeff Andrews from WZYP. Jeff is the 3-7pm personality for the top 40 station. Darrin, the gentleman in the lobby with me, and I struck up a conversation about music. I noticed the music he was bringing in and we conversed about different bands and such.

He asked if I was doing anything last night because there was a concert in town. I told him I had a radio show that I do on Thursdays. He explained that Theory of a Deadman and Black Stone Cherry were in town along with a new band called Parlor Mob. It just so happens that the song I’ve been listening to a lot lately is Thoery’s song “I Hate My Life”. It’s actually a very funny song:

So sick of the hobos always begging for change
I don’t like how I gotta work and
They just sit around and get paid
I hate all of the people who can’t drive their cars.
Bitch you better get outta the way
Before I start falling apart

I hate how my wife is always up my ass
She always wants to buy brand new things
But I don’t have the cash.

I hate my job, all of my rich friends
I hate everyone to the bitter end.
Nothing turns out right There’s no end in sight
I hate my life!

For some reason, I can relate lately. Anyway, turns out that Darrin works for Roadrunner Records and invited me to be a guest at the concert last night. I asked what time it started and he said 9pm. Hellz yeah!! We exchanged contact information and he told me just to present my ID at the door and I’d be on the list along with a friend. Emily didn’t want to go so I took my neighbor.

The concert kicked ass. It was very smoky, which I wasn’t at all used to. But, I had a great time watching Parlor Mob and Black Stone Cherry. About halfway through Black Stone Cherry’s set, Darrin came in asked if I’d seen Jeff. I thought I had seen him but didn’t know where he was. He told me not to go anywhere and disappeared.

When he came back a few minutes later he asked if I wanted to go and meet Theory of a Deadman. Ummm, yes? I didn’t expect to meet anyone; I was just happy to be at the concert. I grabbed my buddy and we walked a few blocks to the band’s tour bus and were introduced to the band. Very cool guys with a POW/MIA license plate on the back of their bus. We made small talk and I think I convinced them to contact the USO about playing for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t have the picture yet, but we took pictures and they gave us each a signed copy of their latest CD, “Scars & Souvenirs“.

So, thanks also going out to Darrin and Roadrunner Records for allowing me to have a night with the guys and forget the real world for a few hours! Yes, I rocked out when they played “I Hate My Life”!! And thanks to the love of my life, Emily, for letting me go even after being gone for the previous three days.