Larry The Cable Guy Calls To Help Lighten Our Hearts

Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver here on Sirius XM 131, the Family Talk Channel. I am Peter Rosenberg.

This is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver. How you doing? What are you going through? What's going on with you? How's your headspace? How's your heart space? It's not that we're not interested in your loved one.

We're just interested in you. 877-655-6755. About 20 years ago or close to it, Jeff Foxworthy invited my wife, Gracie, to come over and sing at Duke Children's Hospital over in North Carolina. He has worked with them for years and with all the kids that are going on through tough times over there. And he thought Gracie would be a great person to come and sing and speak. And so we went over there and it was a great time. And we're down there in the dressing room and Jeff comes in and he said, now look, I want to give you a heads up on something. I've started this new thing called the Blue Collar Comedy Tour.

And I got a friend of mine that's doing it with me and he's here tonight, Larry the Cable Guy. And he's got this joke that he does in his set about a man with no legs selling boots. He said, Larry wanted to make sure you're okay with this Gracie because Gracie is a double amputee herself. And she was like, oh heavens yes.

We had a good laugh about it in the dressing room there. Gracie was okay. I was okay. Jeff was okay. Larry was okay. Gracie goes out and does her set and just crushes it.

I mean, she is just, she's an amazing singer. And then Larry comes out and does his bit afterwards and launches into that joke about his sister, Molly. She sees that guy at the flea market with no legs selling boots. And you could just hear the gasp in the audience because Gracie had just been out there with her visible prosthetic legs. And I just thought that was one of the funniest things. And I've laughed about it for 17 years. And now here, Larry the Cable Guy is on my show.

So how's that for an intro, Larry? Oh boy, I tell you what, I will never forget that night. Oh, she was so, hey, you know what? It was, she was so awesome to me. I wouldn't want to do it, but she said I could do it.

So I'd done it. Yeah, the crowd. I'll never forget that night. Holy well, that's what Kathie Lee Gifford went on and did some things she wasn't supposed to do it and had this real dramatic ending about somebody dying in her arms. The lights dimmed and you hear people crying and men are grown men.

Dr. Hanker keeps out crying and you still hear people sob and then all of a sudden the lights pop on and the music. And you hear, hear now for the comedy I'm getting punched for the and Larry and that cable guy. And it was like, boy, how do you follow that? I remember that night, Kathie Lee also asked, she looked at me, she said, well, I guess you're not a leg man. She was trying to be cute backstage. And she said, you're not a leg man.

And I said, sure I am. She pops those suckers off every night and says, knock yourself out, big boy, I'm going to bed. And she didn't quite know how to respond. But, but you know, we learned to make with a lot of the heartache in our life and, and you know, Gracie's had a pretty rough journey. And now she's dealing with coronavirus and everything else on top of her 80 surgeries. But you know what?

She still got a great sense of humor. And Jeff and I've talked about this many times about his philosophy of comedy, which I know that you share, which is you're not there to cure cancer. You're just there to help people forget about it for a while and lift their hearts. And right now we need that in this country, don't we? Well, you are exactly right. And Hey, that's why we got senses of humor.

God created us. He's the one to give us the senses of humor. I mean, that's what it's for. It's to get you through stuff. Humor.

They say that's true. Humor is the best medicine and it, and, and, and laugh and really get you through a lot of things, you know, and some people deal with certain things, different ways. And, and a lot of times you'll see a situation and somebody will laugh about it and they'll think, man, how can somebody laugh at that situation? And then when you hear the whole story, then you understand, you know, so thank God that he gave us that little, like Jeff says that little relief valve called humor to take the pressure of the day off of the body. I mean, it's just the humor is a good thing.

Well, and I'm so glad that you've got this new special coming out, remain seated, which I think is just the title alone is just hilarious. Tell us about this. And it's been a while since you've done one.

Hasn't it? Yeah. You know what? Well, I did one just solo.

Yeah. My last one was, uh, I think, uh, I did one about 10 years ago and eight years ago. And then I did one with bill and Jeff. Then I did Jeff and I just did one called we've been thinking, you know, and I've done other projects. So I've had 20 minutes here, 15 minutes there, a half an hour here, 40 minutes there, but I haven't just done a full solo. I think my last one was morning constitution.

That was it. You know, I, I only do about 25 to 30 dates a year and kind of comfortable with, you know, raising my kids. I don't want to miss them growing up, but comedy dynamics asked me if I wanted to do another album. Well, I got the material. I mean, I've, I've been on the road doing stuff. So if I didn't have the material, I wouldn't have done it, but I had the material and, and it's funny. And so I decided to go ahead and do it. I called it remain seated because as long as I can remember, I would come out on stage and of course the crowd, they applaud and they stop applauding and they're sitting there waiting for me to say something.

And my opening line is always okay. Remain seated. I think I've done that forever. You know, I used to come out and I'd say, all right, remain seated. Please don't rush the exit. And uh, one of my favorite things that you've ever said was somebody yelled out in the middle of one of your sets. Just some lady screamed out, yelled out or something.

And you told her said, I told you to wait in the truck. Every time I hear that bit, I just fall over laughing. And I just love that. I just, you know, when you go out there, I mean, I know you've worked at your craft.

I mean, to me and correct me if I'm wrong, but this is just my opinion. Everything you do, your, your comedy is not your gift. That's your skill. And you work at it really hard. Your gift is the fact that you really want to lift people's spirits up and you use comedy to do that.

And that, to me, that's a different approach. A lot of people want to go out there and use comedy as a weapon or some type of thing to work out their angst, but you and Jeff, particularly, and Bill, you guys go out there and really truly work to lift people's hearts up. And it's a joy to watch you do it. Well, you know, you know, like I said earlier, God gives everybody gifts and one of them is the ability to be able to laugh. He gave some other people the ability to help make people laugh.

And I think that's one of the things that Jeff and I share. We've we've always, we just love it. I mean, there is nothing better than crafting a joke and telling a joke and making people laugh. I mean, even if you're not a comedian, I mean, you know, people tell jokes to each other all the time, but that feeling you get when you're with the guys or you're with a group of people and you have a funny joke and you tell the joke and everybody laughs, it makes you feel good.

You just made everybody laugh. So it is such a, such an awesome thing. And, and we're very blessed to be able to do that. And I've always, I've always enjoyed people.

I've always been outgoing. I've always enjoyed, uh, making it up with folks. And, and so, and to me, there's nothing better in the whole world than making people laugh.

It's just, man, it's just, it's uplifting for me to be able to do it. My audience deals with tough circumstances. I mean, we're, we're caregivers. We're taking care of people who are dealing with all kinds of challenges.

And, and sometimes people are afraid to know what to say to us and to our loved ones, because they're afraid they'll offend them. And I love the fact that you and, and Jeff, and so many other comedians that I really admire. And I watched you guys. I study you guys. I love, I'm a frustrated comedian.

I'll never be what you guys are, but I sure do enjoy watching you and learning from you. And I, and I've, I've borrowed a little bit of your, um, courage to walk into tough situations and just be real. And I remember when I was, I was escorting Gracie out of Vanderbilt hospital about two years ago. She had her 80th surgery then on her arm and they were working on her arm. And I wheeled her into the elevator and she's got her arm in a sling. She's wearing two prosthetic legs that are sticking out beneath her, the hemline of her skirt.

She looks great, but she just had her 80th surgery. So I thought, you know, making her laugh is a real challenge for me. And I liked it. I liked the challenge and everybody was staring at her in the elevators.

A huge elevator. And finally I just blurted out worst hysterectomy ever. And they all, they didn't know what to do. They all started looking at the shoes, but then she kind of looked up at me. And then as I pulled her out of the elevator, I shot out over my shoulder. She put up a fight, God love her. And, and she laughed all the way to the car. And I saw that, you know, she knew, you know what, it's going to be okay.

Oh my gosh. And that's what you do for people who are dealing with tough situations. And you know, you're no stranger to these things. You've had, you and your family have had some tough things.

You've watched a gurney go off to surgery. You know what that's like. But, but it's, it's so important that we keep our hearts lighter. I've been doing a lot of interviews about this thing with the coronavirus and now that she has it, it's serious. We're dealing with it. But at the same time, our message to others is just calm down, just breathe. And it's hard to do that sometimes for people. And somehow you guys bring in a sense of normalcy.

Like you said, that pressure valve that Jeff talks about, we could just blow that out of our lungs and then, okay, now let's regroup and let's rethink. And how do you, how do you write material when you see such heartache around? That's gotta be tough for you to do that, cause to sit down and do it. But how, what is that like for you? Well, you just look what, you know, I have a buddy of mine. Well, there's a few people, you know, I do a lot of these, I made friends with a lot of these soldiers that get in these charity events, you know, some amputees and, and my, I have a friend of mine, Alex is paralyzed in a wheelchair. He's a dear friend.

And, you know, he comes to all the Nebraska football games with us. And the one thing I realized is that people with disabilities and then, and it's had things happen to them. They, more than anything, they just want to be treated as a normal person.

They don't want people to look at them like, oh, I got to treat him different because he's this way or he's this way. It's just kind of like Alex. I, sometimes I don't even, I mean, other than him being in a wheelchair and paralyzed, our relationship has never really changed. We still rib each other. We still make jokes about each other with nothing has really changed. Other than the fact that it's like, Hey Alex, I'm going to run to get, you need anything, you know, you, you, obviously you, you want, you help you get them, you help them get around better. But as far as the way we talk to each other, is completely normal and the same. And, and so when you're writing jokes, I just remember that everybody likes to laugh and everybody, they just want to, they, they want to, they want to be treated just like a normal human because they are, they have disabilities they're going through, but they don't want to be treated like they're this monster over in a corner.

You know, they want to be treated like a regular person. And I, when I write a joke, I think to myself, would Alex think this is funny? If, would he think this is a wrong joke to do?

Would he think, I always keep when I write jokes and I think it might be a little, you know, I keep them in mind and I think, well, they're not going to, he's not going to think anything of that. So, you know, I just write jokes. Everybody wants to be everybody. I don't treat anybody any different, you know? I mean, everybody wants to be, wants to be a regular human. And so I try to treat everybody like a regular human, you know? You know, Gracie's the same way. She's like, don't somehow treat me. I mean, I'm, I'm who I am.

My legs or lack of don't define me. And you know, and she, she doesn't like me. You know, and she, she doesn't like that. And she wants to get out there and do it on her own terms. And so we're talking with Larry, the cable guy, we need a little bit of lightheartedness right now.

Yes. I know that there are serious things going on in this country, but you know, as a caregiver, you know what serious things look like for a long time. I'm in my fourth decade of looking at serious things and my wife has the coronavirus, but we're still going to keep pressing on and living life every day to the fullest, to the best we can.

We're not going to panic on this thing. I think the country needs to calm down and maybe even turn off cable news for a while. And one of the things I want to do on this show is bring in people that can just speak to that, who do this for a living and they go into tough situations sometimes and lighten the entire room just by walking in. And one of those people is Larry, the cable guy.

So Larry, thank you for being with us here today. You got into a little bit of a dust up recently when you pushed back on this whole imagine video and so forth. And I was applauding you for doing it because that kind of stuff just really frost my grommet, you know, and I know I'm with you and you know, it's, uh, it just shows how out of touch and clueless, not everybody, but some people in the Hollywood community are to the rest of America. And I, you know, the thing is, I, when I made that comment, uh, look, I have no, uh, I don't begrudge people. Obviously I've made good money in my life, obviously.

So is Jeff and so have these people. But the point of my talking about that song wasn't, it wasn't that I was mad at them because they're wealthy. They picked a song by John Lennon who even admit it's about the communist manifesto.

This one world utopian dream without a heaven and a hell without borders or country or money. And these people who have everything in life are singing a song about, boy, can you imagine how great this world would be? And they're singing this to people who are losing their job and don't know where they're, it was very hypocritical. And so I pointed that out, that that's very hypocritical and it is hypocritical.

Hollywood is so out of touch. A majority of them with what the rest of the country is going through. And they think that them singing this little song about how great song is going to make us all feel better. And, and it's ridiculous, you know? And so I just figured I'd point that out, but there's, I think some people misconstrued that when I saw the comments, they were all coming down. Yeah, there's the wealthy are going to really find out, but that's not what it's about. You know, there's, there's a lot of people in this country that have wealth that anonymously give tons of money to people less fortunate. And there's people that don't, and there's people that broadcast it when they do. And there's people that don't broadcast it.

And there's nothing wrong with having money, but there is something wrong with having money and singing a song about how great it would be not to have any money to people that don't have any money while you have money. Well, I could not agree more. And I was, as I watched this thing unfold, I was, you know, and you're big enough to take all that, the blowback from that, which I don't think there was a lot of blowback towards you because I think people, you echoed what a lot of people are thinking. I've long maintained that my dad's a minister and I watched him engage with people over the, over his entire career. He's been a minister now almost 60 years. And he was also chaplain in the Navy and I watched him roll up his sleeves and just dig into the, to the heartache of people's lives and help them get to safety. And I've long since maintained that the further you distance yourself from the suffering of people, the, the less effective you become at just about anything, ministry, comedy, anything else. There's something about touching the afflicted and their hurts and being willing to do it with whatever giftings and skillsets that you have to make their life better, that changes you. And I think you can't live in that isolation bubble of success and beauty and everything else. And one of the things I've always loved about you, Jeff, and so many others that are in your circles is that you punch outside of the bubble of success and grab people by the hand and say, come be a part of what we're doing. And let's, let's bring a little bit of joy back to you. And that's, that's one of the things that we try to strive for on this show is to let people know, you know what, you are not alone and we're going to, we're going to grab you as tight as we can and point you to safety and get you a place, a better place. It's not about feeling better.

It's about being better. Well, not only that, but you know, you have a bunch of people in Hollywood that don't believe in anything. They're there. I don't know if you notice this or not, but they're always searching for happiness and they have no hope because they completely shun anything, any kind of a Christian thing they shun. So they have no hope.

So they're always searching for happy and they're trying to tell everybody else how to be happy and how to have hope when they themselves don't know how to do it. You know, and that's why when I sent that thing out, I said, people look towards government to give them hope in what we're going through. But government is not going to give you the hope. The only thing that's going to give you hope is, geez, it's going to give you a heart change. And when you get a heart change, you have hope. And until they learn that that's what's going to give them hope and a heart change, they're never going to be happy.

I think that's another big problem over there. They don't believe in anything. They have no hope. They're living for the day. And then once they're gone, that's it.

So, you know, they don't get it. Gracie, when she lost her leg, she wanted to reach out to her fellow amputees. So she started a ministry over in West Africa. We've been putting legs on amputees for a long time.

And she goes over there with us when she can. I was watching in a room in a dusty clinic in West Africa, a room full of amputees who were impoverished. There was no hope whatsoever for them on the streets of Accra where they were in Ghana. And they came to our clinic and they're sitting there waiting to be treated all day long.

We had, we tried to have some food and all for them because a lot of them didn't have food. And they're in there singing it as well with my soul. The whole room is singing that. And I thought, what did they know about God that I need to know? And it's one of those moments, Larry, it's just one of those moments where you realize, oh, you know, this, this, this is different. This is something extraordinary. Hey, it's like when Paul was in prison and knew they were going to kill him. And what did he do? He went to sleep.

He can sleep. You know, uh, yeah, man, that's, uh, this is an amazing thing. You have inspired me and millions more. I'm a fan. I freely admit it. And, uh, sometimes when you come on, I have to turn it down to Gracie.

Don't listen to that part. Well, you know, I was telling my wife the other day, it's funny, you know, as you get older and you have kids and I saw my wife, I was listening to some of my stuff the other day, some of my earlier stuff. And I said, oh man, I can't believe I did that joke. And then my wife goes, well, it's amazing what a wife and kids will do to him. Well, it is. Well, you've been very gracious to call in and, uh, thank you so very much.

And Comedy Dynamics, April 7th is when it's released pretty much everywhere it streams. Hey, did you see Jeff shaved his mustache off? Yeah. I texted him and I asked him just how bored are you? Oh, he shaved his daggum. I couldn't believe it.

He, uh, I told him that he makes him look six months younger. It's uh, but Jeff, I just, that's the only thing I said to him how bored are, but what I told him though, of course, when we got the Corona, his, he only had one sentence to me too. How, how did this happen in Montana?

You get the Corona, but so life is just, we just have a good time. I think he might be the only one in the whole state. We are certainly the only one Gracie is the only one in our County out here that has it. Well, how do you reckon she picked it up? Well, she went to a larger city to do a, uh, see a specialist and that's the only way we can figure out that she got it, but I've tested negative and I live with her. And it's, you know, when she gets mad at me, she starts kissing me.

I'll show you. Oh, no, she does. She's, she is a tough gal. I mean, anybody that knows her, Joe, she is a tough gal. Of course you've met her and she is, she is, um, no stranger difficult. She's going to get through this thing, but, but get her done and she will. And I'll tell her that. Well, we were down in the emergency room yesterday and she was, we were doing a Facebook live video and she just want to thank everybody for all their prayers and in their hearts.

And, and then she just locked, uh, lapsed into singing in Christ alone. And it was just, it was one of those kinds of moments where she just, you know, this is real for her. Her faith is real.

It's strong. And she's going to get through this. We're going to get through it together and we're going to pull together as a country and get through this. And my hope is that we'll get through this stronger.

I'm looking forward to your, your comedy special April 7th, comedy dynamics released it's everywhere streaming services are just about. And, um, Larry, you have, uh, you brought a lot of great, there's something about being in a room full of people, belly laughing that makes you feel like I can get through the next day. And that's what you do for me and millions of others. And I'm very grateful that you came on and just did it here on the show with me today.

Darn right. I appreciate it. Anytime, man, you let me know anytime I must come on. Thank you very much. Larry, the care guy, this is Peter Rosenberg. This is hope for the caregiver.

We'll be right back. Hey, this is Larry, the cable guy. You are listening to hope for the caregivers with Peter Rosenberg. And if you're not listening to it, you're a communist.