0:00

Thank you for joining us for episode two

0:03

of Rush Limbaugh The Man Behind

0:05

the Golden E I B Microphone. I'm

0:08

James Golden, also known as

0:10

boast Nerdly today special

0:12

for me the two people that sat

0:14

with me for twenty years, the

0:17

Inner Family. If you will, Dawn

0:20

Patchynsky Brian Johnson join

0:23

me today reminiscing about

0:25

our beloved Rush.

0:28

Whether you listened every day you are at

0:30

the E I B Network and the Russia Limbaugh

0:33

program heard on over six hundred

0:35

great radio stations where every now and then

0:37

nation's leading radio talk show, the most eagerly

0:39

intersepedient programmer. Are the stories

0:42

you've never heard from the people behind the scenes

0:44

who knew him best and loved him most.

0:47

Rushman Ball having more fundly human being

0:49

it could be allowed to hear Rush Limbaugh, The

0:51

Man behind the Golden e IP Microphone,

0:54

hosted by James Golden. My

0:57

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2:06

Okay, the door is opened and a giant cake

2:08

is being brought in here. But I accidentally saw

2:11

when I went back there to get a cookie. I

2:13

saw the cake and I didn't say a word about it, and

2:15

I saw you snuck they anniversary

2:18

balloon in here. That

2:20

is a that is a gorgeous cake. I have

2:22

to say that I see

2:24

it's this twenty eight I saw that when I saw a cake

2:26

back there in the kitchen. It's a gorgeous, gorgeous

2:29

care and

2:32

well I don't mean the anniversary. I'm talking about

2:34

this gook in the news. That's what I'm talking about,

2:38

which I will get. You know, this is so easily avoided.

2:40

Not the cake, the gunk. I

2:44

knew you'd do a cake, even though I've told you twenty

2:46

eight years not to do it. They do it every year anyway,

2:49

telephone number. So for the last twenty

2:52

years, the three of us, there three of us,

2:55

we became well

2:58

we we call each other family because that's

3:00

what we are. And we were all there before

3:02

any before Dawn and I showed up on the

3:04

scene. There was Brian. That's that's

3:07

yeah, Brian Johnson. Now, Brian,

3:09

you, between all of us, you

3:11

probably have the most radio experience

3:13

of anybody here. And there's

3:16

a reason for that. Well. Yes, I

3:18

was born in a radio station, right, Yes,

3:20

Yes, My mother and my father they met

3:23

working in radio. My dad was the engineer,

3:25

my mom was the receptionist at a radio station

3:28

in Iowa. And they

3:30

got married and my mom

3:32

got pregnant and they moved to Florida in

3:35

that order pretty much. Yeah,

3:40

and so the rest is history.

3:42

Yeah. So, so how did you

3:44

how did you get the call to

3:46

to deal to come and work with Rush.

3:49

That's a good question. My father has

3:51

his own engineering consulting firm in radio

3:53

and um he owns a bunch

3:55

of radio stations down here in South Florida.

3:58

And I was working with him at the time.

4:00

And Clear Channel was the name of the company

4:03

at the time. They were looking for an engineer

4:05

that could engineer facility

4:07

that was kind of secret and

4:09

they wanted somebody different to come over

4:11

there and take care of it that wasn't really associated

4:14

with anybody that could be really discreet.

4:17

So UM, I guess they thought of me because

4:19

they knew I worked with my father, and everybody

4:21

knows my father in the engineering business. So

4:24

they called and my dad told me,

4:26

you know, and I said, sure, I'll go over

4:29

and I'll meet them and check it out

4:31

and that sort of thing. And I was young. It was twenty five

4:33

or something like that, so I

4:35

basically went over there and

4:38

UM met them and I said, okay,

4:40

I'll do it. You know, it was just an hourly type

4:42

of deal and this is back in n and

4:46

UM so I did it and

4:48

met Rush and then UM

4:51

I never saw him again for a year and a half. Wait

4:55

a minute, So they hired you to work

4:58

with Rush. You met him and you

5:00

what, you set up his studio or something. What you do

5:02

know, they actually had the studios

5:04

built for him in Palm Beach. You remember the whole

5:06

thing where they wouldn't let him do it in his house,

5:08

and that's right. So the

5:11

premier built him studios in

5:13

the financial district of Palm Beach

5:15

and they needed an engineer, and that's that's

5:17

when they called me. And basically Russia

5:19

was sitting there doing it all by himself. They

5:22

had all the equipment, the zephyrs

5:24

all stacked up there, and he had switches. If

5:26

one didn't work, he could throw a switch and would throw

5:28

it to the second group of zephyrs and all that sort

5:30

of stuff and he could get on the air that way. And that's

5:32

what he did all by himself until

5:35

we all came on the scene in two thousand

5:37

one. So for a year and a half you didn't see

5:39

Rush. And then what happened. Then they

5:42

called and said Rush got this new piece

5:44

of equipment that he wanted me to install

5:46

that allowed him to record his CDs. You

5:49

know how he liked to record all his music. Yeah,

5:52

so he was doing that sort of stuff and

5:55

they wanted me to come and install this piece of equipment.

5:58

So I said, sure, I'll come

6:00

over and do it. So I went over and did it, and I didn't

6:02

hear from him again for a year and a half. You know, I figured

6:04

out he just doesn't like me, you know. So

6:09

and then um the year of uh

6:12

September eleven and two thousand one. Near

6:14

the beginning of the year, Rush himself started

6:16

reaching out to me. Was having problems with

6:18

his hearing and asked me if,

6:21

um we could get some different headsets

6:23

and things like that for him to try, like the

6:25

ones that I just had, remember that hung

6:27

down and stuff like that. We tried all

6:29

different ones over that period

6:31

that year. Um, and people

6:34

were complaining about his voice changing and stuff

6:36

like that. Well, I think it was because of him losing

6:38

his hearing, um, you know, gradually,

6:40

so his voice kind of changed a little bit during

6:42

that time. Anyway, September eleven

6:45

happened and Premiere Radio

6:47

called me and said, listen, we don't know what's going on

6:49

in the world. Could you be there every day at this point?

6:52

So my father said, well, it's Rush, you gotta

6:54

go do it. So I said, all right.

6:56

So I basically dropped everything

6:58

I was doing with my dad and the engineering

7:00

and all the radio stations and just

7:03

sat in the parking lot for the next two weeks,

7:05

you know, because there was no way for me to listen because

7:08

none of the equipment in the studio was hooked up, you

7:10

know, it was all self contained

7:12

in a box right next to him on his

7:14

desk. And eventually

7:17

about a week into that, I'm all right, this is crazy,

7:19

So I went in and wired it all into the rest of the

7:21

studio so I could at least come inside and listen

7:23

and watch. And um, that's

7:25

when he came in and said that he

7:28

lost all his hearing in one ear and

7:30

he needed to talk to Premier and see

7:32

what was going to happen going forward. So

7:35

he flew off to California. And

7:37

then I got a call a few days later

7:40

from a guy who said, uh,

7:43

John Acton, And

7:46

he called and said, basically, Rush

7:49

filled us all in and everything, and

7:51

we have this lady Dawn that we'd

7:53

like you to meet with, and

7:56

uh, we want to try doing the

7:58

show on the Inner Net on Sunday.

8:01

Could you set up all this equipment and screens

8:03

and all this stuff, and we want to try stenography

8:05

and see if this will work for us. So

8:08

of course I jumped and did everything

8:11

and met Dawn. So when did you

8:13

get the call, Dawn? And what was the call? Like

8:15

it was right after nine eleven, it was

8:17

that month, and so you have to take

8:19

yourself back in time to that period,

8:22

and it was, you know, and I was

8:24

I'm a core reporter, a stenographer

8:27

and had been for many years in how many years?

8:29

But in the court system since uh,

8:32

because I asked that because when when I first

8:34

met you, you were like really young and

8:36

you came in like this, really, James,

8:40

we were all really have a picture

8:43

of all of us. We were all young. We

8:45

were all just babies. So you so you got

8:47

a call from John Exton too. So I got

8:49

a call from John Xon and I just thought

8:51

it was a job for the day. It was a real

8:54

time job. And so they said

8:56

it was to come over for this

8:58

person named Rush Limbaugh, who I had never

9:00

heard of. I'm in the court system,

9:02

you know, I'm always doing stuff. I didn't know who

9:05

the senator was in Iowa, and I really didn't

9:07

care, you know, but was,

9:10

well, yes I did that who I

9:14

knew a lot about the law, but not a lot about

9:17

nothing about Russia actually, and

9:19

so um I came over that day, and

9:21

of course the day kick

9:24

Carson was there, like it was full

9:26

of of people. I

9:28

didn't know which one of those people happened

9:30

to be Rush or not, you know who

9:35

the person was that I was there working for. And

9:37

I also didn't know that he had lost his hearing.

9:39

This was a big secret, a huge secret.

9:41

I had to sign a confidentiality agreement before

9:43

I came in, you know, because it hadn't

9:46

been disclosed yet, you know,

9:48

at that point he hadn't disclosed

9:50

it. So and then I came

9:52

in and uh, they proceeded

9:54

to tell me that they tried out all these stenographers

9:57

from California and from all these other places

10:00

and they all didn't work. And this is about Baba,

10:02

I'm thinking, what am I getting myself into here

10:04

today? You know? What

10:07

did I agree to come to? And

10:09

so, uh it was we were in

10:11

our old studio, which is kind of like I

10:13

always tell people, it's like the show Fraser

10:15

when you looked through the glass and you would see

10:17

it like that. And so Rush was

10:20

on the other side and Craig was in the other

10:22

side with Rush. That day too, and Craig said,

10:24

listen, I'm Craig Kitchen and

10:26

he said, listen, I'm just going to have a conversation

10:28

with Rush and if you could

10:31

just write it down. And I thought, this

10:33

is the craziest job that I've ever had, Like

10:37

what is you know? But okay,

10:39

sure, uh, and so he they

10:41

just started talking and it was very basic,

10:44

like hi, Rush, how are you today?

10:46

You know? And of course Rush couldn't hear, so

10:48

he's looking at him like, okay, Craig,

10:50

you know, because he was completely

10:53

deaf, he hadn't had his cochlear implant yet,

10:56

so you know, he wrote him a little note

10:58

to start talking. And so then Rush started talk talking,

11:00

and I started writing it, and then they

11:02

could they were reading it, so as

11:04

as I came up, they were reading

11:06

what was being said. And so that went on for

11:09

quite I mean for about thirty minutes where

11:11

they were trying to make up some kind of

11:13

conversation to be able

11:15

to read. So then I still thought

11:17

I was just there for the day. They came

11:20

back in and Craig said, well, you

11:22

know, we would like you to come here back here

11:24

again tomorrow, and

11:26

so I said okay, and

11:28

still not really realizing the gravity

11:32

of what was going on. Um.

11:34

And so anyway, that day when I was leaving,

11:37

before I left, you know,

11:40

and Rush couldn't couldn't um

11:42

really hear anything at that time.

11:45

So he had written me a note and

11:47

it said, I can't thank you enough.

11:50

I know I can do this now. And he had

11:52

tears in his eyes, you know. And

11:55

so you know, anyway,

11:58

that's how it all started. At that point,

12:00

did you begin to suspect that this

12:03

was a little bit more than you had Well,

12:05

I still really we

12:07

we still were not kept completely

12:09

in the loop with with what was going on.

12:11

But now, you

12:15

know, I, like I said, you

12:17

know, my daughter was like three, and so

12:19

I wasn't planning on being full time. But I

12:21

saw what this man, the passion

12:24

that he had for what he was doing

12:26

and what he was going through, and

12:28

how he had completely lost his hearing, and

12:30

it really wasn't even I didn't

12:32

really even have to think much about it. I knew

12:35

this is what I was gonna do. I was going to make

12:37

sure that, no matter what, I was going to be there

12:39

every day. I think we all did that, Yeah,

12:41

we all did. We all were thrown into the fire

12:44

and we just went with it, you know. I

12:46

mean the next thing, you know, we're jetting off to New

12:49

York on private jets and traveling

12:51

all around and I'm just like, this is crazy.

12:53

I was just in Okeechovie, Florida

12:56

two months ago. You know, we're

12:58

doing this program in a

13:01

very different way that it's been done

13:03

in the past. And while

13:05

those of you watching of Ditto Cam only see me.

13:08

I couldn't do this without

13:11

the people that have broomed all

13:13

of their priorities and made me their top

13:15

priority. If if so many

13:18

wonderful people had not made

13:20

this program and meet the top prior, we couldn't be pulling

13:22

this off the way it is. During

13:27

the course of this podcast series, you'll be hearing

13:29

from Russia's friends, family members,

13:31

and influential leaders from the political

13:33

and media worlds. On today's podcast,

13:36

you'll be hearing from a man whose voice

13:38

the Russia Umball audience knows

13:40

and the doors He's America's

13:43

undocumented anchor, man whose

13:45

dose a voice was heard for almost two

13:47

decades when Rush was away, best

13:49

selling author, original thinker. Most

13:52

important to me, a true friend who's

13:54

one of the smartest and kindest gentleman

13:57

on planet Earth. Mark Stein,

14:01

or maybe I'll say walk stared. Quite brilliant,

14:03

isn't he? The Life of Rush

14:05

Limbaugh, Chapter two, narrated

14:08

by Mark Stein. Rush

14:11

Hudson Limbough the Third Lands

14:13

his first job when he was just thirteen

14:16

shining shoes at a Cape Gerardo barbershop.

14:19

And I'll Betty was a pretty good shoe shine boy.

14:21

But what he really wanted to be was that

14:24

guy on the radio. For Rush,

14:26

being a disc jockey represented more

14:28

fun than a junior human

14:30

beings should be allowed to have. My wildest

14:32

dreams when I was a young kid

14:35

pretending to be a DJ on the

14:37

radio. When I was eight years old,

14:39

he fell in love with a toy

14:42

radio transmitter that allowed

14:44

him to broadcast inside the house

14:46

two members of his family. Any

14:48

kid who's wanted to be on the radio will know the

14:51

thrill of making your own cassette

14:53

tapes of you doing voiceovers

14:55

over Frankie Avalon and the Maguire

14:57

Sisters or whoever's sing

15:00

goals it was back then. But as

15:02

one of those gazillions, it would be boss jocks.

15:04

I certainly envy rushed that transmitted

15:06

gizmo. Some kids have to make do

15:09

with bringing an old baby monitor down

15:11

from the attic was the most amazing thing.

15:14

It's plastic. It was about

15:16

three ft long and two feet high,

15:19

and it transmitted over

15:21

a m within the confines

15:23

of a I don't know, a small house.

15:26

The quality was horrible, but it

15:29

worked. At sixteen Rush, with

15:31

a little help from his dad, advanced

15:33

from the toy transmitter to the real thing.

15:36

He got an internship at KGMO

15:39

fIF fifty a m. And then

15:42

the intern realized his

15:44

childhood dream and got on the

15:46

s spinning classes under

15:48

the name Rusty Sharp. That's

15:51

a fabulous radio Monika,

15:53

but only half true. In this case,

15:56

Brush was always sharp and

15:58

never rust keep Ja

16:01

was very Steve. It's my hometown. How are you, sir? Good

16:03

greetings from the city of Roses. Thank you, Thank

16:06

you sir very much. I was six years

16:08

behind you in school, but I used to listen to you on

16:10

KGMO.

16:13

I was the one that called every day and say, man play

16:15

in and got a davida will you. Once

16:17

he was on the radio, he never looked back, working

16:20

mornings and afternoons at KGMO.

16:22

And then it happened, Rusty

16:24

Sharp got fired and kicked

16:27

off the air. The first too many firings

16:29

for USh over the years, all of which setbacks

16:31

he overcame and learned from

16:33

on his way up to the one gig, the

16:36

third of a century engagement that

16:39

ultimately only God could terminate

16:41

him from. He wasn't your typical

16:43

nineteen sixties teen ag didn't need

16:46

and never sought the approval of the high

16:48

school in crowd. He preferred

16:50

to socialize with older, more mature

16:52

friends. Although he won the admiration

16:54

of his school's upper classman with

16:57

his quick wit and sharp mind, the

17:00

fearlessness in debate. He wasn't

17:02

afraid to stand out to be contravian.

17:04

He refused, for example, ever

17:07

to wear blue jeans. Come

17:09

on, let's face it, it's looks like a barbarous

17:11

sob. It's it's it's a it's a prius,

17:14

it's it's a liberal status symbol. Jeans are liberal

17:16

status symbols. At least they were. I know everybody

17:18

wears them. Now it's another battle we've lost. Absolutely.

17:21

They used to be a status symbol or carmelized

17:24

our startorial splendor. That we run around

17:26

looking like a bunch of hippies, and I'm

17:28

not gonna do it. He had yet to finish

17:30

high school, but already there was

17:32

a Rush Limbo style and a Rush

17:35

Limbo brand. After graduating

17:37

from Cape Gerado Central in nineteen

17:39

s nine, Rush was expected

17:41

by his father to go to college, so

17:44

he enrolled at nearby Southeast

17:46

Missouri State University.

17:49

But after only two semesters,

17:52

Rush dropped out for good.

17:54

Radio was calling, and

17:57

Rush chose to pursue his dream,

18:00

confident that it amount

18:03

to become reality unforgettable.

18:09

That's the impression that you, the Russia Limbaugh

18:11

audience made with your support

18:14

for Russia's last charitable effort

18:16

while Rush was still with us, through

18:19

the Stand Up for Betsy Ross campaign.

18:21

Your generosity resulted in a five

18:24

million dollar donation to the

18:26

Tunnel to Towers Foundation. Rush

18:29

said it best. We chose Tunnel to

18:31

Towers to be the beneficiary

18:34

of the campaign because we love the work they do

18:37

and the story about how

18:40

they started. When a family

18:42

experiences significant loss the mother

18:44

or father passes while serving our

18:46

country, Tunnel to Towers steps in

18:49

freeze that family of a major

18:52

worry during their time of crisis.

18:54

Tunnel to Towers pays off

18:57

mortgages in full for these

18:59

families and provides

19:01

them with the comfort of a home when

19:04

their world has literally been turned upside

19:06

down. The foundation does the same

19:08

for first responders and also build

19:10

smart homes for our most

19:13

catastrophically injured veterans and

19:15

first responders. More heroes

19:17

need your help do good

19:20

by donating eleven dollars a month

19:22

to Tunnel to Towers at

19:25

T two T dot

19:27

org. That's the letter T, the

19:30

number two the letter T dot

19:33

org. Shortly

19:38

after the number three came in. So

19:41

how did that happen? I call Rush and

19:44

um because I asked him. I was listening

19:46

and because I was at the time, I was in Maryland

19:49

and I was still doing things for the show. I was still

19:51

doing a lot of stuff for the show,

19:53

but I had moved to Maryland. I noticed

19:56

though that something was up with Russia's

19:58

voice and something was going on. I

20:00

called him, like, Rush, what's

20:02

what is everything? Are you okay? Is

20:04

everything good? And

20:07

he told me at the time, he said, you know, I he

20:09

said, if I told you what

20:11

was going on, you might

20:14

not believe it, or you he said

20:16

something else. I'm trying to remember what it was because it kind

20:18

of scared me. He said, if I told

20:20

you what it was, if I told you how bad

20:22

things really were, it was something to that effect.

20:25

You wouldn't believe it. I'm like, what could possibly

20:27

be this bad? And then I

20:29

got a call from John Acton shortly afterwards,

20:33

and he told me that Rush was losing

20:35

his hearing. And I told him to book

20:38

a flight for me, please, for the next day.

20:40

And and and I remember getting this.

20:42

I hadn't been to Palm Beach before. And I've

20:44

always read about Palm Beach, heard about Palm

20:47

Beach. When when Rush moved to Palm

20:49

Beach, I was in the New York studios and I asked

20:51

him about the weather every day in the winter, I'd

20:53

be like, oh man, it's eighty degrees down there, and

20:55

it sucks here and and all the rest

20:58

of that. I'd go through um

21:00

every day. I would walk through Penn Station. They'd be

21:02

announcing the train that was running from New

21:04

York to Miami, and I'd always hear Palm

21:07

Beach as like three or four stops

21:09

before Miami. Said, Oh man, I wonder what it's like in

21:11

Palm Beach. Wouldn't it be nice to work

21:13

in Palm Beach? But I never thought I wouldn't ever

21:15

be in Palm Beach. I was in New York. I'm a New

21:17

Yorker, so we remember,

21:19

right do. We took us a while, and

21:22

we had to work on you to turn you into a Floridian,

21:24

you know. And

21:27

so what happened was I

21:29

got there that night and when

21:32

I walked in, Rush was in the parking

21:34

lot. Kit was in the parking lot,

21:37

and and John Acton and

21:39

so I walked over and I gave Russia hug

21:42

and we but I didn't the gravity

21:44

of it was really weird because I didn't, you

21:46

know, I didn't you know, he had kept it really

21:48

well that he was completely death.

21:52

So that was really a little bit weird and that, yeah,

21:56

yeah, that really knew he was losing his hearing. So

21:59

the next day I come into this little studio

22:02

and there you are there, and

22:04

then Dawn is there, and like, Dawn is this

22:06

hottie Potati? Right, yeah,

22:09

you were on no offense, I mean, but

22:14

I was. Yeah,

22:17

Well that was thirty years ago. Brian

22:22

was Superman, and

22:25

that's what we're saying. We used to call him Superman.

22:27

Yes, you're still Superman. You

22:30

have gray hair. Now Superman didn't have gray

22:32

hair, right, And

22:35

wait a minute, and Brian, it was in the days

22:37

when you used to be single.

22:40

Yeah, that's right, so what it

22:42

used to come to work and sometimes used to sleep under

22:44

the cons sometimes yea,

22:50

yeah. But I had no idea then that twenty

22:52

years later we'd all be

22:55

be here now. Yeah. Back

22:57

in the beginning, he couldn't hear

22:59

at all. So I don't

23:01

know if you guys remember this, but we would hold

23:03

up cards for the breaks, for there was ten

23:06

seconds after third, so

23:08

we were trying to make it fun for him because he

23:10

was totally deaf and just trying everything,

23:13

and he had so much passion for this, so we

23:15

would hold up the card so I would pretend like I was

23:17

in a boxing ring and I was the girl going back and

23:19

forth with the thirty seconds, you know, when

23:22

he would start laughing. Anything we

23:24

could. We had to think like we were deaf

23:26

and how could you do the show? And I mean

23:28

I put led lights, that

23:31

yellow light, the red light, and

23:34

I was trying different vibrating devices

23:36

to put on the chair. We

23:39

had those. You

23:41

were trying different vibrators to

23:43

hook onto his chair so he could feel the

23:46

audio in his chair well, and then I was

23:48

doing that. I'm sorry, this

23:50

sounds freaky. I'm just

23:52

sorry. He could only

23:54

feel stuff or see stuff, so you

23:56

had two options, you know, so I

23:58

had to rove. Remember the duo meters,

24:01

we had those in front of them, so those

24:03

big led v. Yeah,

24:06

we had a O L instant messaging. That's really

24:09

what really helped us a lot back

24:11

then. That's how we communicated with him, was

24:13

a L instant message. And we used to because

24:15

when he completely couldn't hear. Uh,

24:18

if a caller was screaming, we would turn

24:20

the screen red, so he even if

24:22

he was looking the other direction, if we looked back,

24:24

he would know the color. I don't

24:26

remember all the colors, but if it was blue, it might have

24:28

been crying, because you have to remember this is after

24:30

nine eleven, and a lot of the callers were

24:32

crying, and we had so many people from Rockaway

24:35

and all these towns around New York

24:37

City that we were fielding all these calls, and so

24:39

we were all crying. But but we would if

24:42

it was a seminar collar, it would be yellow. You

24:44

know. We had all these colors that would just flash

24:46

up on the screen for him. And then he got

24:48

the implant and then life kind of got back to

24:50

normal, except you know, he

24:53

could he always said, we could

24:55

hear like FM radio. He could hear like a

24:57

M radio. And that was kind of how he you

25:00

know. So that's why Dawn still

25:02

needed to be there because the problem you would have are

25:04

the phone call phone calls where

25:07

the audio isn't so clear all the time.

25:09

Now, he was fine with us in the

25:11

studio environment because the walls were

25:13

ten feet thick and it was dead silent

25:16

in those rooms. It was really easy for him to

25:18

hear us with the implant. But if he

25:20

ever went out into a room where there was a group

25:22

of people and stuff like that, he could not hear.

25:25

It was just all noise to him.

25:27

Um. So we had the advantage

25:29

for the twenty years to actually have real

25:31

conversations with Rush in the studio.

25:34

Outside of it, it was just a crapshoot

25:36

for him. So if you had

25:39

to pick out one of your favorite stories,

25:42

I know you just do you want me

25:44

to give mine? Okay? Here

25:46

it this? Uh one day, you

25:48

know. I used to come into the studio probably

25:50

around o'clock most

25:53

days. Rush would get there at about

25:56

um. He would sit in his room and I always sat

25:58

at the console which was directly

26:01

in front of Rush. On the other side of the glass, and

26:03

I just kind of used that as my desk and that

26:05

way, if he ever needed anything, he would just hit

26:07

the talk bath button on his desk and

26:10

it would just come right into my room and I would

26:12

respond to him. Um, So I always

26:14

sat right there. And there was only

26:16

the four of us, us three in

26:19

Rush at the studio most of the time,

26:21

so there was nobody to answer phones

26:24

or get the doors or that was us,

26:26

you know, so most of the time I took on the

26:28

answering the phone so that you could do show prep

26:31

with you know, for Rush and so

26:33

yeah, so that was kind of our routine. Well,

26:35

one day I got in their tent, I sat down

26:37

there and I answered the phone. And we always said

26:39

studio when we answered the phone because we

26:42

didn't want to say Rush Limbaugh

26:44

Show or anything like that. We were trying to be hidden.

26:47

So I said studio and this guy

26:49

on the other end says, yes,

26:52

this is Elton John. I'm calling for Rush.

26:55

Well I immediately said to him, yeah,

26:57

sure, it is, just really and

26:59

he's like, no, really, it's Ellen John.

27:01

And I'm like, this isn't Elton John.

27:04

You're not calling you know, You're not Ellen

27:06

John. And he's like, no, really, let

27:08

me sing to you. I'm like, seriously,

27:12

all right, listen. Well

27:15

he was. He was starting to sing, yes and hold

27:18

on, let me let me go in there, and

27:20

I'll tell him it's Elton John. I

27:23

did not believe him, so

27:26

I put the guy on hold and I walked around

27:28

and I went into Russia's studio and I said,

27:30

hey, Rush, I got some guy on line

27:32

one claiming he's Elton John. And

27:35

he Rush looks at me, like the stone

27:38

cold right at me and says, well,

27:40

it probably is Elton John. Brian, and

27:43

I just my heart just thank

27:46

and I'm like and I just

27:48

walked out of the room, and uh,

27:51

I didn't know what to think at that point. So after

27:53

that call, he was on the phone with him

27:55

for like an hour, you know, and

27:58

I'm figuring out that was Elton John. So

28:01

later after that was done, he

28:04

I think he sent us all an email or called

28:06

us all on the p A system and said, no,

28:08

matter what you do, you don't tell anybody

28:12

that Ellen John just called here today. So

28:14

we're like moms, and you know, we're like okay,

28:18

d right. So we were later we were

28:20

at the wedding and

28:23

I'm sitting next I think I was sitting next to

28:25

Tom Watson, the golfer, and

28:27

a couple of other people, and they're sitting there talking

28:29

about, Oh, I hear there's somebody famous

28:31

gonna be singing and stuff at the wedding,

28:33

you know, and we're all like not saying a word, and

28:36

um, they're saying they think it's Tim McGraw

28:39

and stuff. So you know,

28:41

they were all it was the talk of the wedding,

28:44

you know. And I think it leaked out

28:46

from Yeah,

28:49

yeah, they they found out that it

28:51

was Ellen John but it wasn't us. It

28:54

was never us, never us.

28:57

Once again, my highly overrated

28:59

staff was let me down. He I mean, Network now

29:01

has an official Obama criticizer.

29:03

He is Bo Sturdy Cookie

29:05

working on the sound bite. Even now

29:07

you might be confusing Cookie with Coco. Coco

29:10

is married to Cookie. Coco runs the website.

29:12

The video is actually taken from the control

29:15

room. What you see the back

29:17

of the broadcast engineer's head

29:19

Brian Johnson, which is as close to fame

29:21

as Brian says he wants to get. That was Greg

29:24

Chapin's idea back in the cave there where

29:26

these guys put these bites together sure denise

29:28

that the Limball Letter could come up with a great graphic

29:31

after Cookie cracks the whip and tells him what to

29:33

do. So what we've done. Joe Muny

29:35

is on our staff, has recorded all

29:37

of what I said in Espanol mamal

29:39

and the broadcast engineer had a different idea.

29:42

I just sent a picture up to Coco Jr.

29:44

Who's whose actual name is Dean Craig

29:46

Kitchen from our staff kit Carson, former

29:49

irreplaceable chief of staff and

29:52

trusted right hand. Diana Schneider,

29:54

editrix of the Limball Letter, Daughter,

29:57

you irritated by this? You don't like this. I

30:00

I detected a facial expression

30:03

sitting in there and her face getting contorted

30:05

and so forth, and I knew it. I knew it. I

30:07

wanted to issue a special thanks to me. I

30:10

call them highly over rained staff. They

30:12

may be even they're incredibly valuable,

30:14

They're incredibly loyal, they are incredibly

30:16

committed, and they are exceptionally

30:19

exceptionally devoted

30:22

and none of this could happen without them.

30:27

So we're we're all sitting here, Dawn, Brian

30:30

and myself, Brian Johnson down Bynsky.

30:33

What is it that you most

30:36

would want the world to know about the

30:38

Russilan Wall, that you knew Don

30:41

you're the boss, go first. Well,

30:43

that's funny that you say I'm the boss, because very

30:46

very early on, it was just the

30:48

four of us there. It was just you

30:50

know, Rush and Brian and James and

30:53

me, and so stuff would

30:55

go on or things would be happening and

30:57

everybody's kind of not paying attention,

30:59

and I'm like, well, what is going on here? This

31:01

is a big mess, you know, And so I

31:03

would start directing people, you know,

31:06

if somebody was there that day to fix it,

31:08

because it had to be done correctly,

31:10

you know. So then throughout the

31:12

years, whenever we would have people

31:15

come for any reason and they were asking

31:17

questions, Rush would just say, asked

31:19

on, She's the boss, you know, and they kind of

31:21

looked like ha ha, it's a joke, and He's like, no, asked

31:24

on. So

31:28

it was kind of funny, you

31:30

know, I I said earlier, And I

31:32

know that if people haven't

31:35

listened to the show, they have one idea

31:37

of what who Rushes, you

31:39

know, other people that listen to the show,

31:41

they might love him, and they have this

31:44

idea of of who he is too,

31:46

and we know those people too, but we

31:48

also know the person that wasn't

31:51

on the radio show, and

31:53

he is just just

31:55

one of the best men that you

31:57

could ever know. Very humble

32:00

bowl which people don't believe that when you

32:02

say that, but so humble, just

32:04

so grateful for where he was and

32:07

still wanting to pinch himself

32:09

for where he was, and still always

32:12

thinking, you know, I think my

32:14

parents would be proud of me for this, you know,

32:16

or when he would just do an award or just do

32:18

anything, or anything he would do,

32:21

like people just I don't

32:23

think they saw that side of him

32:25

enough, and he was not one to tout

32:27

it when he would give so generously

32:30

to so many organizations and so many

32:32

people, and would do so many things anonymously,

32:36

you know, and do so much that people

32:38

will never know the amount of stuff that

32:40

he's done throughout out his life. Because he

32:42

was not about look at me, you know, even

32:44

though he would say on the radio, look at me, because

32:48

and not a lot of times that was for us.

32:53

He might not think we were paying a judgit

32:55

enough, look at me. What

32:58

did I just talk about? I'm like, don't know. I

33:00

wrote every word, But she

33:04

bangs on the desk, just like San

33:09

would you want people to know about Rush? Well,

33:11

I mean she's right. I

33:13

mean he's very generous, has been for

33:15

all of us. He really is

33:18

a very down to earth person. I mean I got

33:20

to spend some time with his family last

33:22

month, you know, we all did, and

33:25

they really are a really down

33:27

to earth, nice family, and I

33:29

was really sad that we didn't see more of them

33:32

and spend more time with him. I see

33:34

where he comes from, though, and I get

33:36

it. I see, you know, they were all so

33:38

nice, and they all loved us

33:41

to death, and um, they

33:43

wanted to hear more and know more about

33:45

Rush because they really weren't around us much,

33:47

you know, the last ten years. And um,

33:49

I just it was it was nice

33:51

to see. I felt really nice to go

33:54

see his family and know, you

33:56

know that there was people that seemed to

33:59

really love him and care about him, and

34:01

because he seemed to really love and care about

34:03

us. I mean, we all

34:05

had our we you know, we all argued

34:08

there. It's not like you know, you argue

34:10

with your parents, you are.

34:12

We've all argued, you know, and

34:16

we never held anything. I mean it's like you argue

34:18

to get it out of your system, whatever it is. And then and

34:20

we always the thing about the four

34:23

of us, there's no doubt

34:27

ever for what what solitary.

34:30

Second, how much we love each other and

34:32

how much we love each other, there's just no doubt.

34:37

Another. We called it our

34:39

work family. And

34:43

so many times people would ask

34:45

me when I found out what I did, they

34:47

would ask me, wow, what is

34:49

Rush like? I mean, it was

34:51

like, how can you work for him? What is he like?

34:54

You know? And but there were

34:56

others, you know, I would run across the

34:58

occasional liberal who be

35:00

like, oh my god, that must be so amazing

35:02

and wow, you know, they were just infatuated

35:05

with the celebrity and that sort of thing.

35:08

But most people would ask me what is it

35:10

like? And I said, trust me, I don't have to work

35:12

there. I don't have to. I could go work

35:14

for my father and do that stuff.

35:17

I wouldn't work there if he wasn't a great

35:19

person. And that's generally what I tell

35:21

everybody, because it's true. You know, he

35:23

was awesome. He he cared about

35:25

us, and um, most

35:28

people don't have bosses like that. Well,

35:31

one of the things early on about

35:33

him not being what you would

35:35

typically think of as a celebrity,

35:37

and he was never a celebrity

35:40

to the three of us.

35:43

He may have been to all these people

35:45

who would come and visit us, but he never

35:47

was to us. And I just remember this

35:49

one time when Justice

35:52

Thomas came to visit, you

35:54

know, and we were all like, this was the first time

35:56

he came to visit, and we were all very excited

35:59

to say, how loaded Justice Thomas and

36:01

get our picture taken with Justice Thomas.

36:03

You know, Rush came in the room

36:05

and we did this almost with every

36:07

person that came to visit us. We

36:09

would hand Rush the camera and say,

36:12

pleasing our nature, and

36:16

you know, sure he would

36:18

do it. But I just remember Justice Thomas

36:21

cracking up that he cannot

36:23

believe Rush was not going to be in the picture

36:25

and he was the photographer, Like,

36:28

yeah, he was definitely,

36:30

And I think that's another thing that he loved. He

36:33

was so comfortable with all of

36:35

us. You know, we've all gone through

36:37

so many things in our lives together. We

36:39

shared everything together. We

36:41

all know everything about each

36:43

other. You know,

36:48

literally we were there every single day

36:51

together for twenty years. I know what

36:53

many of your Rush, are you really telling us

36:55

that you don't know what the

36:57

audio shund bites are going to be until

36:59

five five minutes. Yes,

37:01

folks, I'm telling you that we have a smooth

37:04

oiled machine. They've been doing this long enough.

37:06

They know what I like don't like. They know what I say

37:08

I want up there things I don't same people

37:10

that were here on day one, and they know exactly

37:13

what I want and don't want. I don't have to tell

37:15

them, which is the way it should be, the land should

37:17

be. So don how did you get

37:19

started? What? What's what's your story?

37:22

I'm gonna tell a story about when I first

37:24

started, and going back to when

37:26

you have young kids and a lot of people think

37:28

of celebrities and people like this

37:31

that there diva's. I

37:33

don't know what the word is when you're a man, but

37:36

but Rush was was not that. And

37:38

from the very beginning, when we had to

37:41

travel or we had to do anything, he would

37:43

ask me, well, is Jessica

37:45

in a play this week? Or is there anything

37:48

going on with the kids? Uh?

37:50

And so, And that's how we would

37:52

plan if we had to go away for a week

37:54

or if we had to do something. He would make sure that

37:56

it didn't interfere with anything.

37:59

And you don't usually your stories like that.

38:01

I'm sure I don't know if

38:03

um Premiere Radio would have liked

38:05

that he was checking with me, But

38:09

that's who he was, you know. And he

38:11

didn't want to inconvenience anyone ever

38:14

for anything, you know, that's for sure,

38:16

that's for sure. I mean sometimes he would say,

38:18

hey, are you going anywhere

38:20

near publics where you think he might be able to pick

38:22

up a turkey stop on your way in? But

38:26

but but really he was just such a genuine,

38:29

humble guy. And that's what I want people

38:31

to take away from this. Yeah,

38:34

well you talked about I mean, he every

38:37

single time that that anybody would do

38:39

anything for him. You always thank you, sir, thank

38:41

you, ma'am. It was always

38:43

the epitome of of of good manners.

38:46

And and I think sometimes

38:48

he was shocked at what was going on the other side

38:50

of the glass because we used to have some knockdown dragouts

38:53

in that room. Ye've had a few

38:57

in this room. Of course. Well we weren't trapped,

39:00

but it was you know, it was still

39:02

was still fun and yeah,

39:04

but I mean, yeah, it was our own

39:06

thing, you know. I mean Rush had his thing,

39:09

but we had our own little thing too. Well,

39:12

that was we were doing something in there. I don't

39:14

know, you might have been put on probation with a caller

39:16

like he used to have fun to doing that. But

39:18

we installed in the new studios

39:21

that shade that comes down from the new

39:23

studios, and it really was installed

39:25

in case he was, you know, gonna change

39:27

for an event that he was going to or something, just

39:29

to have a little extra privacy. But one

39:32

day we were during the show and he was getting

39:34

annoyed with all with all of us because whatever

39:37

we were doing, we were interrupting him or telling

39:39

him whatever. He's like, that's it, folks, I'm

39:41

gonna close this new shade that I have.

39:43

And so he closed the shade and so

39:45

then he waited a little while on

39:48

on the air. So I told James and Brian

39:50

come on, because he's like, all right, I'm gonna let them

39:52

out in about another few minutes. And I said, we

39:54

are not going to be here when he opens up that shade.

39:57

And they're like, oh, we can't do that. We

39:59

have to stay year. We can't be out of here.

40:01

I'm like, oh, yes we are. We're going out,

40:03

And so we were not there. So he lifted

40:05

the shade and he's telling the audience and he could barely

40:08

keep his composure. He was laughing. So and

40:11

he's like the insubordinates here.

40:13

But I mean, but that's the kind of fun that

40:15

that we had. And we had that kind of fun

40:18

every day, just like the birthday cakes. You

40:20

know, we did it

40:22

anyway exactly anyway,

40:24

Um, Dawn, let's I want to get serious with you guys

40:26

for a minute, because this is um what was

40:28

the last year like for you? Um,

40:31

Brian, I'm gonna start with you. What was the last

40:33

year? Like? Wow,

40:37

it's you're

40:39

gonna make this hard. I

40:44

don't think you can do it. When

40:48

I received this diagnosis and

40:50

I was shocked, I was stunned,

40:52

and I was in denial. I mean,

40:56

I'm rush Limbough, I'm

40:58

i Mr Big, the vast right

41:00

wing conspiracy. I mean, I'm I'm indestructible.

41:05

It's been the worst year in my life,

41:08

even in the most dire circumstances.

41:11

If you had just wait, if you just remain

41:14

open to things, the good in it,

41:17

we'll reveal itself. It's not

41:19

that I don't have a future. I do, but

41:22

we had such such

41:24

a thing going on there for so many

41:26

years and I

41:28

haven't lost anybody in my family since

41:32

was my grandfather, so

41:36

I haven't dealt with this so long

41:38

time. And um, I've

41:41

always been the kid. Well,

41:43

Rush was like a second father for

41:46

me because I probably spent more time with him than

41:48

anybody in the last twenty years, um,

41:51

face to face, So he

41:53

was like a second father. I mean, my father is my hero

41:55

and the greatest person I know, but Russia's

41:58

right there behind him, you know. I just I

42:00

Hey, I think we had like a father son relationship.

42:03

And so it's

42:05

been hard. I mean, we're all gonna

42:07

be fine, but and I think the world

42:09

is gonna miss him a lot. There's a lot of people

42:12

that from noon to three

42:14

counted on him, including us, and

42:16

he steered the world and I think in a

42:18

positive direction. And

42:21

there just isn't somebody out there doing that

42:23

now. And um,

42:25

it will always be a big part of our lives.

42:27

I mean, he really shaped our lives

42:30

as much as he did everybody else's,

42:32

and um, it was a big part of

42:34

our of us. And

42:37

um, he had tremendous

42:39

confidence in in me and

42:42

that helped give me tremendous confidence.

42:45

And I told him that before he died. He

42:48

always told me that, um,

42:50

I'm not worried about you, Brian, I know you

42:52

you can do it, you know, so that

42:55

gave me tremendous pride. Um.

42:58

The one thing, you know, I always tell everybody

43:01

that I part

43:03

of me working here with Rush,

43:06

and the beginning was to

43:09

prove to myself that I could

43:11

do it, because I always lived under my father's

43:13

shadow. And um

43:17

it, when I did it,

43:21

it made my parents really proud of me. I

43:23

know it did, because you know my father,

43:27

I'm sure he loved traveling around into all

43:29

his engineering buddies asking him about me and

43:31

how's it going with Rush and all. I mean, Rush was the

43:34

king of radio. You know. Doesn't

43:36

get any bigger than that. I'm doing

43:38

the super Bowl for twenty years

43:40

every day at work, you know, basically,

43:43

that's what we're doing, you know, the greatest show on Earth.

43:45

It's um for twenty years. It's

43:48

quite the thing. And I don't think

43:50

I'll ever do anything like this again,

43:53

you know, And that's fine.

43:55

You know, this is its own thing and

43:58

that's fine. And I'll

44:00

just always appreciative of everything he

44:02

did for us, because he did a lot for us. He

44:05

was generous, he was generous, and

44:07

you're right, you talked about it. He really

44:09

didn't ask much of us, you know. He

44:11

um many times

44:14

I would get frustrated with him because he wouldn't

44:16

tell me there was a problem, you know, until

44:19

it was. It just festered

44:22

so long for months. He wouldn't tell me something

44:24

was broken in the studio because he didn't want to bother

44:26

me, you know, And I just floored

44:29

me, you know. And it wasn't just me. He did that with he

44:31

did with everybody. Yes, Yes,

44:33

So I will always cherish

44:36

every moment I had with him.

44:38

I'm sure one day it's going to hit me even

44:40

harder. I mean, we didn't

44:42

really get a full closure on

44:46

it because of this whole COVID and all

44:48

this kind of stuff, and it just it's such

44:50

a weird time right now, you know.

44:53

Yeah, the last

44:55

year. Yeah, I don't really

44:57

think you can put that last year into words.

45:00

I think it was definitely

45:03

the hardest year I've

45:05

ever gone through. And I think

45:07

we've all the three of us

45:09

have, you know, definitely

45:12

leaned on each other more this year than ever.

45:14

You know, we came in and

45:17

uh, you know, if one

45:19

of us was losing it, because it was really

45:21

hard to see Rush

45:24

suffering with the pain that he was

45:26

suffering in and still coming

45:28

in to do the show. And you

45:30

know, so he can see us right

45:32

through the glass, and he was always

45:34

very cognizant of what our reactions

45:36

were and what we thought, you know,

45:38

whether we were telling him don't go there,

45:41

stop right there, you know, or

45:44

whatever it was. So if we were

45:46

really crying, you know, that

45:48

would affect him. So we had to

45:51

really try to still remain

45:53

positive and engaged and

45:56

you know, to be fun loving

45:58

with him and you know, think of funny

46:00

things for him, because this was his

46:02

outlet that he loved. And so you

46:05

know, we would do it and then you'd noticed

46:07

one of us where the three of us would be missing

46:09

because we'd be in the other room, you

46:12

know, and trying to keep our composure

46:14

to come back in and put

46:16

a smile on for Rush, you know, and

46:19

do it. But yeah, this year

46:22

has been rough. He wanted

46:25

that show. He wanted it

46:27

was about him, and we were there to make

46:29

sure that, you

46:31

know, and he knew, he knew, he

46:34

knew some you know, someone

46:36

had asked about you know, made mention of

46:39

the bucket list. You know, people that know

46:42

that they're facing there the

46:44

last days. Often have a bucket listenings that they

46:46

want to do before they died. And Rusha's bucket

46:48

list was his audience. Russia's bucket list was

46:50

his show. He loved doing what he did.

46:53

He loved it. And the thing about it is, though,

46:56

you know, each of us has a different

46:58

had a different relationship with Rush. Yes

47:00

we did. Don your relationship, you

47:02

could tell him things and say things to Rush

47:05

and I would never ever dream of saying

47:08

right ever. And

47:11

because that's the relationship that you had with him,

47:13

Brian, he leaned on you in ways that

47:16

that for things. Yeah, I was as good

47:19

a done guy. Yeah yeah, yeah, you

47:21

would yet, Brian, take care of this. I need

47:23

just to get done. He would ask me to

47:25

do certain things and then certain

47:27

things. You know, Um, you're more his

47:29

political outlet. I was more

47:31

sports, you know. And

47:33

Don brought that whole woman aspect

47:36

into Yeah. Because if if Don wasn't

47:38

there and it was just us three guys, can you have

47:40

been very quiet around there? I

47:44

realized at that point that I

47:47

just need to hear your voice. I

47:49

listened to you because you remind

47:52

me of my dad. You

47:54

all dad to me that's

47:57

how much I look upon you, sir. Like

48:00

I said that, it was a really surprising honor that

48:03

I wasn't able to just pick up the phone

48:06

and get through, but I

48:08

just wanted to make me know that I

48:12

honestly am speechless here. I cannot

48:16

thank you anywhere

48:18

near appropriately for

48:21

that. I can especially relate

48:24

to it. Um.

48:27

I know how important it was for

48:29

me to be reminded of my dad, uh

48:33

and many people

48:36

and things over the course of my life have

48:38

and the same thing with my mother as

48:42

um as well. Thank

48:49

you for joining us. Episode two special

48:51

one for me the people that I spent the last

48:54

twenty years with my family,

48:56

Russia's radio family, Dawn

48:58

and Brian. Next tweek we

49:00

have a special treat for you. The executive

49:04

not only behind Rush, but behind

49:06

most of the big names in radio

49:09

that you know, Craig Kitchen joins

49:11

us next episode. Rush

49:14

Limbaugh, The Man behind the Golden e I

49:16

B Microphone is produced

49:18

by Chris Kelly and Phil Tower,

49:20

the Best producers in America,

49:23

Production assistant Mike

49:25

Mamone and the executive producers

49:28

Craig Kitchen and Julie Tobbot. Our program

49:30

distributed worldwide by premier networks,

49:32

found on the I Heart Radio app or

49:35

wherever you listen to your favorite

49:37

podcast. This is James

49:39

Golden. This is both Nervely,

49:42

this is James Golden. I'm honored to be your

49:44

host for this in every single episode

49:46

of Rush Limbaugh, The Man behind the

49:49

Golden E I B Microphone. Thank you

49:51

for being with us.