This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey, what's up? It's Mario Lopez. Back to schools, an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming, and kids may feel isolated. A vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit.
Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions, whether you're a parent, teacher, coach, or neighbor. Check in. Ask questions. Stay connected.
Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to report at dhs.gov/slash blue campaign. I'm Scott Hanson, host of NFL Red Zone. Lowe's knows Sundays hit different when you earn them. We've got you covered with outdoor power equipment from Cobalt and everything you need to weatherproof your deck with Trex decking.
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Up next, A story from a man many consider to be the best acoustic guitarist in the world. Interestingly, He's also a member of the Order of Australia. and a Kentucky Colonel. We're of course talking about Tommy Emmanuel. Here's Tommy's story of how he discovered music.
and himself. will be playing his music throughout the entire piece. The musician's prayer is beautiful because it says Make me a hollow reed from which the pith of self has been blown. In other words, get rid of me and all my crap. my ego, my pride, my need for acceptance or any of that.
Get rid of all that and just make me an open channel that the love that is in this universe may flow through me through the music and it may go out to other people and really help them in their lives. Looking back on my childhood. I just want to say that everything that was American was the best in the world. It was the best music, the best movies, the best cars, the best clothes, the best guitars, the best everything came from this country. I started.
playing guitar because my mother could play guitar a bit and she was trying to teach herself how to play Hawaiian music because it was very popular in the early 60s in Australia, in rural Australia where we come from. She wanted me to play rhythm. for her. and she knew I had rhythm in me. 'Cause when I was little, she would put my pram in front of the record player, I'd be screaming my lungs out.
and she'd put music on and I'd go straight to sleep. And then when I was able to walk around and run around the house, when she put the washing in the washing machine and pulled the lever at the side and the machine went kung kung, kung kung, kung kung kung kung, I came and danced with the washing machine. and sometimes I fell asleep. Leaning against the washing machine.
So she knew there was something going on in me that could only be satisfied by. rhythm and groove and stuff like that.
So she got me a guitar when I turned four and showed me how to put my fingers on the chords. And she said to me, thirty five years later. She said it was like a miracle. I got the guitar in the morning. And in the afternoon, Her and I played a couple of songs together and she said, I played the time perfectly.
I understood how the song worked. And we had fun playing together, and she just kept encouraging me. and showing me new chords and new songs. And then the rest of my family took up instruments, and we became a family band. By the time I was five and up, almost six, we were already playing.
music festivals and coming out as the Emmanuel Family Band kind of thing. And what we played was music that we heard on the radio. It was Hawaiian music, instrumental surfy kind of music. There was a band from England called The Shadows, and they were the biggest influence on everybody in those days. But as a musician, my life really changed when I heard Chet Atkins.
Here's a tune written by the Los Indios Tapucheris. The boys from Brazil that found the guitar out in the jungle didn't know what it was, they watched it for. month or so and it didn't explode so they took it home and learned to play it. Yeah. That's what they said, anyway.
I believe him. Much better. They wrote this tune, and it must have one million notes. I've never counted them. I'm afraid to.
I don't think I could play it if I counted. I knew that that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to play like that. I hadn't a clue what it was or how to do it. But that's what changed my life.
I knew exactly where I belonged. I knew that I had to be a concert player. I had not a clue how I was going to get there. Yeah. I spent all my teen years soaking up every record that I could find.
I remember when I turned 16, I bought myself Carol King's Tapestry album. I bought Don McLean's American Pie, Gordon Lightfoot's albums. people turned me on to Ray Charles and Oscar Peterson and jazz music and I discovered Wes Montgomery and people like that, right? That was good. for me.
And I spent, you know, a good 20 years in the trenches. I had to play in bands, I had to entertain people in bars and places where people didn't listen, all that, so I could eat and pay a rent. I had songs in movies. I wrote music themes for TV shows. I did comedy, I did game shows, playing with orchestra, play with a string quartet, I played with a jazz band, I was a drummer in a band, I was a record producer, I did everything that you can imagine that a person can do.
in my home country.
So I knew that in order for me to be really inspired and challenged, I had to go where people did everything a lot better. And that was here in America. I came to America the first time in 1980 to visit Chet Atkins, my hero. And he said to me then, This is where you belong. You should be here in Nashville.
And I just kept coming back. and kept coming back. Personally. I've Uh I got into drinking like some of my family members. you know took uppers and downers and all that sort of stuff and did all that stuff that most people do.
until I crashed and burned too many times. I found a better way to live. I found salvation really. Um I was raised in the church by my mother and father. But I never believed in the church, you know.
probably because I met way too many hypocrites. I have no desire to be a religious person and follow one particular path. When people talk about God, most people go, oh, I don't want to talk about that. But you can look at it like this.
Okay, so because I'm a drunk and a drug addict, in my body and in my spirit. I go to God, a group of drunks, or good orderly direction, or the gift of desperation. There's a few ways of saying the word. But I had to learn to surrender. I had to let go of my pride and my ego.
which is what what had been ruling me all my life, you know. And so I had to find a way of believing. that there was a power greater than myself. that could restore me. to sanity.
to normal. And that's what's happened and it continues every day.
So I definitely have a big faith in a higher power. Um And and and I it that's the way I believe It's meant to be. We find out what works for us. You know, it has to be honest. and it has to be real.
So My the proof to me That my higher power is working for me, and I can trust it, is the fact that I woke up this morning. A. I didn't feel like drinking. B. I didn't need to change how I felt.
I was happy. in my own skin. I'm happy how I feel today. I don't need to alter my thinking or my, you know. And um That to me is a miracle because I was at the point where I would wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning and start drinking.
Then I'd sleep again, then I'd wake up at midday and start drinking again. And I was going to die. That's where I was at. And it's a miracle. that I survived and that I'm here in such good health today.
There's simplicity in my life now. You know, so. I'm really, really grateful. And a special thanks to Jesse Edwards and to Monty Montgomery for the work on this story. And a thanks to Tommy Emmanuel.
And go to YouTube and just Google Tommy's name. And just listen. to the way he plays the guitar. It's like nothing you've ever heard.
Somewhere Over the Rainbow was my introduction to him. At a club in Nashville. And I couldn't believe what I heard. Yeah. And I've been a fan ever since.
And my goodness, his struggles, he was very open and very frank about them with alcohol, with his pride. with ego. And then he found God, or a higher power, as he put it. And now there's a simplicity, he said, in my life. and you could hear a piece in his life Tommy Emmanuel, virtuoso guitarist.
and a heck of a storyteller. His story here. on Our American Stories. Hey, what's up? It's Marla Lopez.
Back to schools, an exciting time, but it can also be overwhelming, and kids may feel isolated, a vulnerability that human traffickers can exploit. Human trafficking doesn't always look like what you expect. Everyday moments can become opportunities for someone with bad intentions, whether you're a parent, teacher, coach, or neighbor. Check in. Ask questions.
Stay connected. Blue Campaign is a national awareness initiative that provides resources to help recognize suspected instances of human trafficking. Learn the signs and how to report at dhs.gov/slash blue campaign. In the heat of battle, your squad relies on you. Don't let them down.
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And no voice. Hello. This is Julian Edelman from Games with Names. Fantasy football can be exhausting. I mean that literally.
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I'm working on the story about the Murdochs. Their abuses of power are playing out in real time. Starring Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette and Jason Clark. It's only cheating. If you get caught.
Hulu Original Series, Murdoch, Death and the Family, premieres October 15th on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. For bundle subscribers, terms apply. It's Cybersecurity Awareness Month. LifeLock is here with tips to help protect your identity, use strong passwords, set up multi-factor authentication, report scams, and update your software. And for comprehensive identity protection, LifeLock is your best choice.
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