The Story of the Man Behind Movie Classics "Braveheart", "We Were Soldiers", "Secretariat", and Others — Screenwriter/Director Randall Wallace

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April 26th at Pullman Yards in Atlanta. Get ready for culture, community, and good conversation. Hello, iHeart listener.

We have a confession to make. Both iHeart and this commercial you're listening to right now would probably sound a heck of a lot better on the new Roku Pro Series TV. It's got side-firing speakers that fill your room with sound, Dolby Atmos audio that puts you right in the middle of the entertainment, and the ability to pair seamlessly with your home theater sound systems that already have surround sound and booming bass. If all that sounds too good to be true, it'll sound even better on the new Roku Pro Series. Your hearing isn't better.

Your TV is. We've all done it. You see a headline but don't have time to read the whole story, or there's so much news you're not sure what is worth your time. I'm Colby Ekowitz, co-host of Post Reports, the weekday afternoon podcast from The Washington Post. Post Reports brings you what's relevant and revealing. Breaking stories, politics, wellness, culture. Each episode goes beyond a headline for the context you need.

Find Post Reports now, wherever you're listening. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. Randall Wallace has written and or directed movies we all know and love Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, Secretariat, Man in the Iron Mask, Pearl Harbor, Heaven is for Real and more. He's the author of seven novels, and he also wrote the lyrics for Mansions of the Lord, written for We Were Soldiers and performed as the recessional for President Ronald Reagan's national funeral. He also has a one man show, The Braveheart of Creativity, which you can find at WallaceEntertainment.com.

Here's Randall Wallace with his own story. Music has always been the voice of God to me, not the voice of intellectual understanding. But it feels to me that music is the language of God, that it speaks directly to your soul.

It comes from your soul. Real music does not intellectual intervals and notes and music theory, but the joy in it. And I just wanted to play music when I was a boy, I got my first guitar when I was 12 and started playing songs like Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis and those heroes of Memphis, and went to college and wrote a song and started playing it for people and in coffee shops and people liked it. And I made a record and had a local hit.

And about that time, Kris Kristofferson came to Duke and Kris Kristofferson epitomized, did then and still does, to me, a kind of artist like I related to. Whenever I've been faced with a difficult decision, I do all the things I guess everyone else does of trying to weigh the pros and cons. But that never really seems to be how the decision happens. I seem to have a sense from the get go of what I'm going to end up doing and looking for ways to understand what I'm going to do. A friend of mine who's a psychotherapist said, I don't think we really think with our brains.

I think we use our brains to rationalize our emotions. And there's a lot of truth in that for me. Well, I wanted so badly to pursue a career in music and I would look for people who epitomized the kind of person I wanted to be. Kris Kristofferson was an airborne ranger. He was a Golden Gloves boxer. He was a Rhodes Scholar and he wrote songs unlike anybody else that were just brilliant songs that I love. So I thought, well, what did he do? And here this Rhodes Scholar, he didn't go to New York or L.A., he went to Nashville.

And I thought, well, maybe I should consider Nashville, even though I didn't really see myself as a country writer. So he came to do a concert at my school. And I guess I could thank my father for this. And I just never been afraid to talk to a stranger. And I waited for a respectful moment.

I was backstage before his concert and I saw him talking with a few people and just kind of casual, laughing, talking. And I walked up and said, excuse me. And he turned around, looked me right in the eye and said, hey, man, how are you doing? And we shook hands. And I said, I really don't want to bother you, but I just want to ask you a question. He said, sure. And I said, I am a singer songwriter and I love to write songs. And I had a little local hit here on the record that I made. And and I'm not sure what to do.

My parents really want me to go to law school or med school. And I'm having a struggle. And I just love your thoughts. And he went, you've got to go to Nashville, man. You've got to go. You've got to go. I love to tell this story because here's a life strategy. A stranger who doesn't know you at all and has never heard your music and is drunk tells you to do something. And you go, absolutely, man.

Sign me up. That's where I'm going. So I can't blame him or credit him too much, but I've run into him three different times since then. And that was a long time ago, decades ago. And each time I've thanked him and told him who I was. But he was so gracious and grateful when he heard it. That's great. That's so great.

And that's been a joy to me to to in some ways get to pay him back. I was in Nashville in the early 1970s, and I had gotten a job at a theme park there called Opryland USA. And I had auditioned with a comedy country song that I'd written because I didn't have a lot of sort of straight country material. And they'd given me a job as manager of animal shows and managed the Animal Opry, which was a live show in which trained barnyard animals played musical instruments.

Had a pig named Pigarachi who played the piano and a duck named Burt Backquack that played the drum. It was a great show. I loved this show.

Eight thousand people a day would see this show. And and I was working there 80 hours a week at Opryland, but I was also writing songs and doing my best to write country songs. And I got signed at Tree Music, which was a fabulous company, the largest BMI company at that time. And you're listening to Randall Wallace tell the story of his own life. He spent so much of his life telling the stories of other people's lives. This time it's Randall on himself, starting out as a young musician, growing up in the Tennessee area, Memphis, and then spending a part of his young life in Nashville at the suggestion of a drunk songwriter who he admired named Chris Kristofferson, who knew nothing about Randall's musical proclivities or the styles or tastes of Randall Wallace as related to what kind of music he'd actually like to write. And there he finds himself in Nashville running the Animal Opry at Opryland.

And, of course, while they're landing a gig with one of the best publishing houses in Nashville. When we come back, more of Randall Wallace's story here on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories. Every day we set out to tell the stories of Americans past and present, from small towns to big cities and from all walks of life doing extraordinary things. But we truly can't do this show without you. Our shows are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to OurAmericanStories.com and make a donation to keep the stories coming.

That's OurAmericanStories.com. Let's be real. Life happens. Kids spill. Pets shed.

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We have a confession to make. Both iHeart and this commercial you're listening to right now would probably sound a heck of a lot better on the new Roku Pro Series TV. It's got side-firing speakers that fill your room with sound, Dolby Atmos audio that puts you right in the middle of the entertainment, and the ability to pair seamlessly with your home theater sound systems that already have surround sound and booming bass. If all that sounds too good to be true, it'll sound even better on the new Roku Pro Series.

Your hearing isn't better, your TV is. We've all done it. You see a headline but don't have time to read the whole story, or there's so much news you're not sure what is worth your time. I'm Kolby Ekowitz, co-host of Post Reports, the weekday afternoon podcast from The Washington Post. Post Reports brings you what's relevant and revealing. Breaking stories, politics, wellness, culture.

Each episode goes beyond a headline for the context you need. Find Post Reports now, wherever you're listening. This message comes from Greenlight. Ready to start talking to your kids about financial literacy? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app that teaches kids and teens how to earn, save, spend wisely, and invest with your guardrails in place. With Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores, automate allowance, and keep an eye on what your kids are spending with real-time notifications. Join millions of parents and kids building healthy financial habits together on Greenlight.

Get started risk-free at greenlight.com slash iHeart. And we continue with Al American Stories and the story of Randall Wallace as told by Randall himself. He's written and directed many of the movies we know and love. Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, Secretariat.

Pearl Harbor, A Man in the Iron Misk. Heaven is for Real is the author of seven novels. And also a terrific musician and songwriter. He wrote the lyrics to Mansions of the Lord, one of my favorites.

Let's pick up where we last left off. I was working there 80 hours a week at Opryland, but I was also writing songs and doing my best to write country songs. And I got signed at Tree Music, which was a fabulous company, the largest BMI company at that time. And there were great songwriters there like Bobby Braddock and John Hyatt and others.

And they wrote absolutely brilliant songs. I wrote songs that I felt were really good and they apparently thought my songs were good, but they didn't fit kind of in the country category. And a sort of country music legend named Wesley Rose sat down with me one day and listened to my songs. He said, these are really good songs, but do you like country music? And I said, well, I respect country music and I love it, but it's not quite my thing. And he said, don't sell your soul for a few pennies.

Like find the thing you love to do the most. And it's interesting that that echoed something that I had been told by my pastor of the church that I grew up in. When I decided to major in religion at school, my pastor said to me, do you feel the calling to be a pastor? And I said, honestly, I don't, but I know it's the greatest calling that anyone could have.

And he said, no, you're wrong. The greatest calling anyone can have is the one God has for you. And that bit of sharing from him allowed me to leave seminary, to leave school and head off to Nashville. I wanted to be like Beethoven, like nothing but music all day long every day. What you find is Jordan Peterson talks about you find your limits that you can't do that all the time. You need people, you need conversation, you need encounters, you need disagreement, you need the grinding points where soul is created.

You need those things. And I got really dark. I went through 14 days without a patch of sunshine. So I told my best friends, I need you to help me pack up my place, but I've got to get out of here. I was really depressed and drove to California alone.

I kept writing songs, but wasn't really getting anywhere. And I started dating a woman that I ultimately would marry. And on her coffee table was a stack of pages that were bound in an interesting way.

And I said, what's this? And she said, it's a screenplay written by my father. And he had been a prisoner of war in World War II and written an incredible story. And I picked it up and began to read it.

And I loved the format instantly because it was clear and it was powerful and it was unpretentious. You could only show the reader what you could see a character do and what you could hear the character say. You didn't have to go into explaining and expounding all of your literary references. You didn't have to show your erudition. Just what does the character do?

What does he say? And from the first line of doing it, I thought, this is my medium. Because all the training that I had in writing songs enabled me to write lyrics because every syllable is valuable. And I wrote dialogue in a lyrical way. I wrote it with a kind of musical and, dare I say, poetic rhythm to it. Because it was music that led me into screenwriting, but also the music was not divorced from the experience of screenwriting or later on in directing. A movie is like a symphony.

It's a whole piece and it has its quiet parts and it builds and it repeats and it interweaves. I know that nothing that we do gets wasted. All things work together for good if you love God. And I don't mean as a reward.

I mean you love what is ultimate and significant and real. And you keep loving that and that makes everything you've done and everything you're doing have its place, have its value that you can draw from. I was in Los Angeles and was writing novels now and screenplays, writing screenplays based on my novels and novels based on my screenplays. And I would go to the gym a lot and work out. And one day I was in a gym in Studio City, California near where I lived. And a guy was next to me helping a friend who was really out of shape. But this one guy who was in really great shape was talking the friend through it. And I thought, well, that's a great guy to do that for his buddy. And the guy in good shape was telling stories about Elvis Presley.

And I sort of chimed in and said, my father saw Elvis Presley sing at a supermarket opening in Memphis. And the guy went, really? And we started talking. And we just talked about working out and I was working out a lot. And he said something about me being in good shape. And he said, do you run any?

And I go, not for a long time. I ran in college, but I haven't run any. Well, I'm in a running group. Why don't you come run with us on Saturday mornings early at six o'clock? And I went, great.

Okay, super. I had very few friends. I was in an isolated kind of mode. And he introduced him and said, I'm Mike Post. And I said, I'm Randall.

Wait, what? Mike who? Mike Post. And I go, the music Mike Post?

Because I knew he had had a hit with classical gas. And I knew some of his other, I mean, Mike Post is a musical genius. And he said, yeah, yeah, that's me. And I started, I went with his running group and was running all for a couple of years with them. And Mike said, what are you doing to get your career going? I said, all I know to do is write stories and sort of show them when I can. And he went, well, I work for Steve Cannell and I think Cannell would really like you. You're kind of his kind of guy. And well, man, Steve Cannell was then king of television.

A-Team was his biggest, but Hunter, all sorts of shows. And Mike said, give me a minute. I'm going to get back to you. So he talked with Steve about me and Steve said, I, you know, I'll hear about him if I'm supposed to hear about him. I don't want to read any of his work. So Mike came back and said, I want you to write a spec script for every episode that Cannell has. And he had six different shows on television. So he was telling me, write six different shows for which you will not be paid, but just write six episodes and you're going to demonstrate how willing you are to work. And I did that.

And Steve didn't read any of them. But Mike was not going to give up and Steve was doing a show called J.J. Starbuck about a country guy and I wrote Steve a letter and I said, I know everyone in his brother's trying to get in to see you. I just want to tell you a story about why I would be the guy to work on this show. And you're listening to screenwriter, director, author, and musician Randall Wallace share his story his journey from Nashville and the East Coast to the West and how he just knocked around for a bit and had some really great breaks and to be able to bump into a guy like Mike Post a legend in the business and then make his way into this really difficult business to crack into which is TV production with a monster talent like Stephen Cannell is just an opportunity of a lifetime and also bumping into that thing called a screenplay sitting on the desk of his future bride's place reading it seeing it and knowing that the screenplay was the medium for him and also that insight that he stumbled upon from his pastor.

The greatest calling anyone can have is the calling God has for you when we come back more of Randall Wallace's story here on our American stories. Time for a sofa upgrade introducing Anibay sofas where designer style meets budget-friendly prices. Anibay brings you the ultimate in furniture innovation with a modular design that allows you to rearrange your space effortlessly perfect for both small and large spaces Anibay is the only machine washable sofa inside and out say goodbye to stains and messes with liquid and stain resistant fabrics that make cleaning easy liquid simply slide right off designed for custom comfort our high resilience foam lets you choose between a sink and feel or a supportive memory foam blend plus our pet friendly stain resistant fabrics ensure your sofa stays beautiful for years don't compromise quality for price visit washable sofas.com to upgrade your living space today sofas start at just $699 with no risk returns and a 30-day money-back guarantee get up to 60% off plus free shipping and free returns shop now at washable sofas.com offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply hello iHeart listener. We have a confession to make both iHeart in this commercial you're listening to right now would probably sound a heck of a lot better on the new Roku pro series TV. It's got side firing speakers that fill your room with sound Dolby Atmos audio that puts you right in the middle of the entertainment and the ability to pair seamlessly with your home theater sound systems that already have surround sound and booming bass. If all that sounds too good to be true. It'll sound even better on the new Roku pro series your hearing isn't better.

Your TV is we've all done it. You see a headline that don't have time to read the whole story or there's so much news. You're not sure what is worth your time. I'm Colby Ekowitz co-host of post reports the weekday afternoon podcast from the Washington Post post reports brings you what's relevant and revealing breaking stories politics wellness culture.

Each episode goes beyond a headline for the context. You need find post reports now wherever you're listening. This message comes from Greenlight ready to start talking to your kids about financial literacy meet Greenlight the debit card and money app that teaches kids and teens how to earn save spend wisely and invest with your guardrails in place with Greenlight. You can send money to kids quickly set up chores automate allowance and keep an eye on what your kids are spending with real-time notifications. Join millions of parents and kids building healthy financial habits together on Greenlight. Get started risk-free at Greenlight.com slash I heart thumbtack presents the ins and outs of caring for your home out uncertainty self-doubt stressing about not knowing where to start in plans and guides that make it easy to get home projects done out word art.

Sorry live laugh lovers in knowing what to do when to do it and who to hire start caring for your home with confidence download thumbtack today. And we return to our American stories and to Randall Wallace telling us his own story. He's written and directed many of the movies. We know in love Braveheart. We were soldiers Secretariat heaven is for real is the author of seven novels and also a terrific musician and songwriter. He wrote the lyrics to mansions of the Lord one of my favorite songs. Let's return to Randall Wallace with the story of how he went from songwriting to working for Stephen kennel one of the great TV producers of the 1980s and 90s during the depression. My grandfather started a country store and he built a store out of woody salvaged and he didn't have enough money to to buy the stock that he needed to to sell in the store.

And the only place that paid cash in the town was an ice factory where they would freeze huge blocks of ice and men would sling them onto wagons so that the farms without electricity could keep their milk and their meat cold. And my grandfather went to work on that crew and the first day the foreman came up to him and said listen, I want to let you know that I cuss at the men to get them to work. And if I call you a son of a **** don't pay me no mind. I don't mean nothing by it's just the way I am and my grandfather said I understand completely and I just want you to know that if you do happen to call me a son of a **** and I hit you in the face with a claw hammer. Don't pay me no mind. I don't mean nothing by it's just the way I am. Those are my people.

Those are the people that I know. I think I could write your show for you. I got a call not from Steve but from one of his producers saying okay, we're going to give you a shot and I wrote the script and the next day Steve came in and said, I want you to be on staff and the next script I wrote they made me a story editor and the next script I wrote they made me a producer. So Steve became my mentor and one of his greatest qualities other than being incredibly talented. I mean a genius but he had a quality of he loved what he did. He never lost enthusiasm for anything that he did Steve died of melanoma the day he died. He still got out of bed to map out a story a new story that he wanted to write. He loved what he did and he loved sharing it and he loved teaching it.

He was he was a powerful mentor in my life, but none of that would have ever happened without Mike Post. I was on quite a trajectory in television. I I went from a freelancer to being a producer in a really short time maybe six months or so. And I also realized that I had to have ambitions beyond just the television world and I don't mean in any sense to demean that world television is incredibly lucrative.

It's incredibly influential, but I also felt that I didn't want to be a cog in a big wheel and that I always would be if I was grinding out episodic television and and I was writing feature scripts and I was writing novels and it's still writing song some in in trying to look outside the world that I was in. I realized there was kind of a glass ceiling for me there and I remember packing up my office and and I had gone from having no money at all to having a really good income and I quit and I remember going down to pack up my office and my son Andrew was then only seven years old or something and I took him down on the Sunday to clean out my office with me and we're packing up and and I was knotted up. I was I knew I was facing like total unknown and Andrew said Daddy, how are we going to eat and and it was quite a moment and just the two of us in that office and with all my stuff packed into boxes and I sat down in the chair put him in my lap and I said son that's a really good question. And this is a really scary time and I've been working for the last four years to make Mr. Cannell wealthier man and make him better known and to make us some money and now what I'm going to try to do and I am going to do is make us more money and let us have a reputation to let us stand on our own and it's going to be scary and that's what we're going to do. And he went got it.

Okay, and in his courage his love and his trust of me was profoundly important to me. So cut to it's it's a year or so later and I can't even get an appointment. I can't get a pitch meeting because the business was treating me like well, you were Steve Cannell's protege. You were on the ascendancy. Now you're out of that company. You must have screwed up some way. We don't even want to talk to you. That was literally the way it was and there were I think people from Steve's company who had maybe poisoned the well for me a little bit and I know Steve hadn't he was too good a man and too proud a man to talk down on my abilities.

But I think you know that there's just that kind of front-runner bandwagon mentality in Hollywood. I was so tense. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep and I certainly couldn't write and I felt that I was going to put my sons through the same thing that I had gone through when my father had a breakdown and I got on my knees which was the only place I had to go and I said a prayer and the prayer was what really concerns me now that my primary responsibility is my sons and maybe they'll become better men if they don't live in a big house in California with a swimming pool and tennis courts and fancy cars in the driveway.

Maybe they'll learn more if they live in a house even one without indoor plumbing the way my sister and I lived when our father lost his way, but if that's what God wants if that's best for my sons, then please bring that on and help me bear it. But if I go down in this fight, let me go down not worshiping Hollywood, but standing up with my flag flying fighting for what I believe and I stood up and I went back to my desk and without that moment that would have never written they may take our lives. They'll never take our freedom. What will you do without freedom? Will you fight against that? No, we will run and we will live. I fight and you may die run and you'll live at least a while.

I'm dying in your beds many years from now. Would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom. And you've been listening to Randall Wallace share with us a very personal story about in the end where some of the language for Braveheart came from and a lot of it had to do with his own existential struggles with his own life with risk-taking with fear and that prayer he prayed for his son was a simple one that we've all prayed. Maybe Lord your plan for them is to have less not more and for us to be true to you and not to our own calling and Randall had this fervent prayer and out comes that scene from Braveheart and that's what you were just listening to Mel Gibson's epic speech as William Wallace.

When we come back more of the remarkable life story of Randall Wallace to connection between creativity and courage love and fear and so much more here on our American stories. Let's be real life happens kids still pets shed and accidents are inevitable. That's why you need a washable sofa that can keep up. Our sofas are fully machine washable inside and out so you can say goodbye to stains and hello to worry-free living made with liquid and stain resistant fabrics. They're kid-proof pet friendly and built for everyday life. Plus changeable fabric covers let you refresh your sofa whenever you want need flexibility. Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa any time to fit your space whether it's a growing family room or a cozy apartment. Plus they're Earth friendly and trusted by over 200,000 happy customers starting at just $699. It's time to upgrade to a stress-free messproof sofa.

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It'll sure feel like it elevate your entertainment using all your favorite apps like I heart and play all your music radio and podcasts with the new Roku Pro Series your senses aren't better your TV is okay real talk. We're all kind of hooked on our phones. It's full of shiny apps designed to keep your attention captive forever, but there's real life stuff to do other than scrolling and I'm here to help. I'm Christina Quinn the host of try this a podcast from the Washington Post the show explores solutions for life's common problems and this season we're learning to tame the dopamine Beast and reclaim our attention in this noisy and distracting world. So let's tame the Beast together find try this from the Washington Post wherever you listen thumbtack presents the ins and outs of caring for your home out uncertainty self-doubt stressing about not knowing where to start in plans and guides that make it easy to get home projects done out word art. Sorry live laugh lovers in knowing what to do when to do it and who to hire start caring for your home with confidence download thumbtack today Ryan Seacrest here when you have a busy schedule.

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Just say mercy the prisoner wishes to say a word. Never written that and I had to be in that moment. God had to put me in that moment to mold me into this new direction. I say in my book living the Braveheart life. It's more powerful to believe than to know because we never fully know anything.

So science you listen to a great scientist is that the whole notion of science is we think this and this seems to explain everything for now, but there's all this stuff that we don't know. We were having a negotiation my wife and I about having children and she said look I really not eager to have them but I know you want to so if you get me pregnant, you've got to agree to take me to Europe and I went done and we got pregnant we went to Europe and we were in London. I said, you know, I would love to be able to tell we knew we're going to have a son. I'd love to be able to tell him some part of my ancestry like, you know, all of yours back hundreds and hundreds of years and I hear there are Wallace's in Scotland. Let's go up there and poke around a little and she went sure why not adventure. Let's go to Scotland.

She was four months pregnant. We went to Edinburgh. We walked into Edinburgh Castle and as we walked into the castle my I fell on a statue on one side of the castle and it's William Wallace and there's the name Wallace and I went what Wallace and the other side was Bruce Roberts Bruce and I grabbed a member of the Black Watch a guard there tough little guy on a kilt and said who is this Wallace and he said it's it's William Wallace is our greatest hero and I went greatest hero honey greatest hero and I knew about Robert the Bruce from a Robert Burns poem of Scott's which have with Wallace bled and that was how I knew that there must be Wallace's in Scotland and I said was William Wallace an ally of Robert the Bruce and fighting the English and this guard said well, no one will ever know for sure which of course are magic words to a writer what our legends say more magic words to a writer that that Robert the Bruce may have been one of those who betrayed William Wallace into the hands of the English to clear the way for himself to become the king now I knew none of that history, but it was as if I had heard that Saint Peter and Judas were the same person in that instant the tumblers all tripped into my head and I thought how does Robert the Bruce be someone who could do such a terrible thing betray the hero of his country, but he becomes the country's greatest most courageous King.

How does that happen? What if there was something so noble in the life and death of William Wallace that that's what transformed Robert the Bruce and I knew in that moment. It was an incredible story that I wanted to write and I didn't feel I was yet ready to for one thing I had a baby on the way and I had to find a way to feed him so I went into television and focused on television first but in television I gained the skills and in didn't know when the time would come until that moment when I got on my knees to say the prayer of I'm not going to worship Hollywood. I'm going to stand up and fight for to write the kind of movie.

I want my son's to see and that's what William Wallace means to me and people will say oh, well, you're not a you're not a relative and I go you can't prove that and I can't prove that I am but you can't prove that I'm not. I had a meeting with Mel Gibson once when we were doing Braveheart and Mel was the biggest star in the world and I was a completely unknown screenwriter Hollywood was starting to hear about me because suddenly this script that they had never seen was getting made and but Mel and I were at dinner just the two of us in London and he was talking about a role that he was thinking to cast and and I was I was questioning the the casting choice a bit. He said something absolutely stunning to me. He said look the truth is writers write directors direct actors act from their essence as a human being he said this script is you it is right out of your soul. It is you he said I'm going to bring everything I have to directing it.

A few years ago. I did a charity screening of Braveheart in Austin, Texas and at the end of the the movie as in a theater small theater into the movie. I walked up on the stage to do a question and answer with the audience and the first person who stood up was a 19 year old woman on the front row and she stood up and said Mr. Wallace.

I don't have a question. I just want to tell you something my fiance died six months ago and before he died, he told me he wanted me to watch Braveheart. So I would understand the way he loved me. It took me a couple of minutes to compose myself enough to speak after that it confirmed for me what I always have said that it's not war stories that I write it's that until you find who in your life you would give your life for you're not really alive yet that that's when you know, I think Mark Twain said something like the man who is fully ready to die is the one who is living. He said it better than that, but that's the thought and I think kind of animal instinct for survival is powerful. But it's not particularly admirable in that. It's just inherent. It is what it is it exists and in everything from I guess from ants to angels, but the notion of of finding something that that you put above yourself is where I think you really would for me.

It's where I began to to find actual meaning I'm living for someone else but to me faith has to do with standing in awe and in accepting that there is a God and it's not me and that I try to listen to what God has to say that that's where I found the most meaning. And a terrific job on the production and editing by our own Greg Hengler and a special thanks to Randall Wallace for sharing his story with us is one man show the Brave Heart of Creativity is touring the country to find out where it's playing or find out how to bring it to your town go to Wallace entertainment.com. I love what he said about his movies particularly the war movies. It's not war stories. I write their love stories until you find who in your life you would give your life for you're not really alive.

You also talked about putting things above himself that that's when you find real meaning in your life. And of course faith is such a big part of Randall's life standing in awe that there is a God and it's not me Randall Wallace's story here on our American story time for a sofa upgrade introducing Anibay sofas where designer style meets budget-friendly prices Anibay brings you the ultimate in furniture innovation with a modular design that allows you to rearrange your space effortlessly perfect for both small and large spaces Anibay is the only machine washable sofa inside and out say goodbye to stains and messes with liquid and stain resistant fabrics that make cleaning easy liquid simply slide right off designed for custom comfort our high resilience foam lets you choose between a sink and feel or a supportive memory foam blend plus our pet friendly stain resistant fabrics ensure your sofa stays beautiful for years don't compromise quality for price visit washable sofas.com to upgrade your living space today sofas start at just $699 with no risk returns and a 30-day money-back guarantee get up to 60% off plus free shipping and free returns shop now at washable sofas.com offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply hello iHeart listener. We have a confession to make both iHeart in this commercial you're listening to right now would probably sound a heck of a lot better on the new Roku pro series TV. It's got side firing speakers that fill your room with sound Dolby Atmos audio that puts you right in the middle of the entertainment and the ability to pair seamlessly with your home theater sound systems that already have surround sound and booming bass if all that sounds too good to be true. It'll sound even better on the new Roku pro series. Your hearing isn't better your TV is we've all done it you see a headline that don't have time to read the whole story or there's so much news.

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