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Tigs: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of TIG Bits. We have a fun and interesting show for you guys tonight. In a few minutes. Jennifer Parnell, who is the head of marketing and PR for the world famous Flora Bama, will be joining us. Uh, she's gonna give us a little backstage pass to all things Flora. And before I bring Lacey and Jr in.
Tigs: Don't forget to give this a like and a share, uh, share this to your socials, wherever you're watching this, be it on X, Facebook or YouTube, follow and subscribe to all of our social channels. You can find us on X, Facebook, YouTube, Tik TOK, Instagram. We're on rumble now. And, uh, and you can even go to our updated website with.
Tigs: All new show merch ready to go, as you can see, I am [00:01:00] wearing, uh, the tigs bits for America in 2024 shirt, which is also available in gray and short sleeve as well. We have coffee mugs. We have new tumblers with the new logos and all of that stuff. We even have hoodies. So support us. It's a great way to help us.
Tigs: It's a great way to support our show. And if you guys have any merch ideas, please drop us a social, please drop us a DM on social media. So with all of that out of the way, let's welcome Mr. Blossie, the one man posse to the show and Mr. Jr, the handler boys.
Blasi: What is happening? What is happening,
Tigs: man? I'm pumped, man.
Tigs: Excited to, excited to be here. Always good to see y'all's face. Blasey, are you coming to us from props again? I
Blasi: am. I am. Props tonight. Tonight, it's trivia night and it's battle of the sexes up here. So, we've got the men versus the women, boys [00:02:00] versus the girls. So, it ought to be very interesting. So, you'll hear some rumbling and Yeah.
Blasi: So this is, it's, and it's a pretty packed house right now. Yeah. Yeah. There's really not a seat in here. Yes. Really good crowd. Yep.
Tigs: I asked everybody I asked before, uh, before we went live, I said, uh, are we going to be, are they going to be playing us over the TV tonight? Cause it could get a little bit weird if we're playing.
Tigs: Apparently, apparently it gets a little bit loud whenever we play some of these clips, which were, uh, which is good feedback for us to have. We were going to work on that, but, uh, Blasey says no. , we're
JR The Handler: still happy. Be they're at prop. Everybody will be behind the glass, like, rah. Oh yeah. While the shows trying to go on,
Tigs: it could
Blasi: get outta hand, it could get really
Tigs: outta hand very quickly.
JR The Handler: That's right, that's right. I, I went to Big Beach last night and had a few beers, so, uh, I'm, I Oh yeah. Came today. But if I would've been at props last night, I'd have been all over the glass while podcast, I promise you.
Tigs: Oh, that would be great. Yes, you would've. Yes, you would've. [00:03:00] Look man, we got Mr. Paul in the house.
Tigs: He says hello to everybody. He likes
Blasi: the shirt. Hey Paul. What's up big Paul? Yes sir. That shirt's awesome, dude. Yeah, that's
Tigs: fantastic. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. Go get you one. I know Lacey has one on the way. I saw that come across my screen yesterday that he had ordered one, which is fantastic. Appreciate you ordering it from ourselves.
Tigs: Yes. But uh, yeah, I'll get some of those going too, for sure. But, but yeah. Yeah, it's cool. Look, it's an election year. We're not really, like we've said in other shows, we're not going to dive into politics. We're not taking one side or the other, but one damn thing we know, one thing we know is that Tiggs Bits is for America, 100 percent and you can get this sweet, sweet shirt available at TiggsBits.
Tigs: com. So, boys.
JR The Handler: Absolutely. Hey, I've got a, I've got a shirt that's a Charlie Daniels merch shirt from 20, I guess it was in 15. They made them cause it's Charlie Daniels. 2016. Uh, shirts just like that. [00:04:00] Boy, wouldn't that have been something? Uncle Charlie would have been the president that round. Oh, wow. Wow.
Tigs: It would have been awesome.
Tigs: It would have been awesome. Uh, well, boys, some things have been going on here. Uh, lately, I wanted to show y'all this because I picked this up. I put some videos out on social media. I wanted to talk about it here at the top of the show. This is, uh, the Cajun Spicy Two Step. I put a video out where I, uh, I went to Buffalo Wild Wings just simply because I went to Billy's Boudin, picked it up, picked up a bunch of boudin as well.
Tigs: And, uh, and I couldn't wait to try it. I wasn't cooking anything Sunday night. We just finished up soccer in Lafayette. My son, Riley, he wanted, he loves Buffalo Wild Wings, he played well, we're going to Buffalo Wild Wings, okay, so, so we go and I went, hey, you know what, I could put this on some wings, give it a little shot, and it really, it, dude, it kicked it up, it was fantastic, so [00:05:00] I was looking forward to it, yesterday, fast forward to yesterday, I said, I'm making me some smash burgers, man, so I made some smash burgers, Put a little of this step on them, dude, it kicked them up.
Tigs: Put this on the onions, I grilled the onions too. Nice. Money, bro. Money, bro. Any chance you got any video of this? I do have some. Hey, in fact, you know, why not, let's look at it. Let's uh, let's see a little, it's, I put it out on socials earlier today, but I mean it's, uh, I just love the sound of it, I'm sorry.
Tigs: Oh, yes,
JR The Handler: it's
Tigs: Wow. I mean, that looks so good, dude. I'll be honest with you folks, that's damn near better than sex. Uh,
JR The Handler: I mean, good god.
Tigs: That's good. That looks so good. And, and, uh, and we will, we will evolve from that. That won't be the [00:06:00] last, uh, the last one. I just wanted to test out a new little gadget I got yesterday with, uh, with a camera and decided to put that together.
Tigs: Yeah, dude, it was freaking good. Fantastic. I use this. It's the, uh, the Creole Zydeco. Which is more like your Creole seasoning. I put that on some burgers too last night They wanted my wife and son wanted a smash burger So I made one and decided to sample it with that and and can report also kicks ass all of that said how the kitchen that how the Cajun I'm a Cajun lady.
Tigs: What? I can't the Cajun cooking lady. There it is. How the how the Cajun lady accent. How there we go. Sorry. Yeah. How the Cajun lady accent. She has the thickest Cajun accent that I've ever heard or one of but it isn't fake. It's 100 percent real and on tiktok, like so many people just watching, watching her cook some recipes and doing stuff like that.
Tigs: She kind of started, I think, uh, [00:07:00] during the pandemic and you know, when we're at home and things like that, people loved it and she's made some good videos of cooking things, things that I've And then I reached out to her and she said yes. So, uh, so we will, uh, we will be having her on here and that'll be nice.
Tigs: That'll be
Blasi: fantastic. I cannot wait. Can I have
Tigs: some samples? All I hope. Yeah. All of them. So I'm going to bring you out some samples. I'm going to bring you out some samples. You're going, you're going to like it. You want to kick it up. You're going to kick it up. I'll kick it up. Heck yeah.
Blasi: I ain't never been scared to kick it up a notch or two.
Tigs: Oh no. None of us have. I mean, don't think that I didn't throw a little, I had a little hamburger meat leftover last night. And. I just, I needed to cook it and uh, don't think that I didn't chunk a little of that two step and some tacos either just, just to kick the tacos up a little bit as well. So uh, Oh yeah, yeah.
Tigs: And boys, I've got some other news. Uh, later this week, [00:08:00] I'm going up to North Louisiana where I'm from, uh, on Toledo Bend, Florine, Louisiana, God's country. Uh, I'm going to the Bassmaster Elite. event that is happening. That's awesome. Toledo. Yeah, it is. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's the first time that those guys have been back.
Tigs: On Toledo Bend since 2017 and so I'm gonna go up there go check it out I'm gonna capture some content while I'm up there and And kind of highlight some the roots of where I where I've come from kind of like that old Kenny Chesney song You know, that's where I come from. That's kind of my theme and my yeah Yeah, as I go back home, so going back to Toledo Bend, baby See these pros and and all that so I'll be, yeah, I've
Blasi: never been to one of those events, man.
Blasi: I bet it's unbelievable, especially to go back to where you grew up fishing and, you know, such a cool place,
Tigs: you know, it is, man, it is. And they have this weekend, uh, that the [00:09:00] opening ceremonies will be Thursday. I believe it's 7. AM. That's whenever the, uh, they're going to do a shotgun start. They'll all depart from Cypress bend in, in Manny, Louisiana.
Tigs: And, uh, and then the weigh in is at three o'clock in the afternoon, and it's a lot of fun. It's one of the only pro sports where you get to be close to an angler. You get to be close to the person that's in the event. You can talk to them, you can get their autographs, do all of that stuff, and then see some monster bass on a legendary lake, which is, you know, even better.
Tigs: Same schedule on Friday and then on Saturday and Sunday, they have like a festival out there where they're going to have live music. Uh, they have, you know, events for kids and all kinds of stuff, food, all of these places, uh, around Sabine Parish are going to be out there, the food trucks and things like that.
Tigs: So look, if you're listening to this, if, if you're, anybody's around, you're a fan of. Fishing. You're a fan of the outdoors, or you just want to go to a cool event that [00:10:00] it's going to be as good as it gets. I've been there several times. I've been to several events and nobody does it better. Then they do on Toledo Benz.
Tigs: So anyhow, that's going to be coming up later this week. And then it looks like our guest has joined us. Miss Jennifer Parnell. So let me bring her in. Let's see. Hey, Jennifer.
JR The Handler: Hi. Hey, how's this? Hey, what's up? Hey, there you are. Uh Jennifer, I don't know if you know Chad Blasey. I'm sure y'all have met somewhere before he was fraternity brothers with Brandon and I and yeah, lives in um Santa Rosa area now and yeah, I don't know where he's on your screen but the the the ringleader is uh Tiggs Brantley who's over there with the Tiggs bit screen.
JR The Handler: Uh just wanted you to know who everybody was and I'm JR. If you forgot already. Yeah.
Blasi: Good to see you
JR The Handler: again, Jennifer. Yeah, you do. My buddy Jennifer and she has been with, I was thinking about that earlier. How long have you been with the four bama now,
Jenifer Parnell: Jen? [00:11:00] So it's been 10 and a half years. So it went by pretty quick, but all good things to say, but yeah, 10 and a half years.
Jenifer Parnell: Wow.
JR The Handler: And a lot of stuff. Yeah. I was going to say 10 year there, that's an eternity, but, uh, but it's, it's still rocking and as bright as always. Um, so yeah, just thought we'd have you on, you give a little chit chat about what I was going on around there. A little background on you, what you do for the Bama, all that fun stuff.
JR The Handler: I was looking through. Um, the events calendar for the next, you know, just to see what all events we had, my gosh, in March and April alone, we've got a ton of stuff. So, um Yeah, we sell
Jenifer Parnell: fun at the Florida Bama, so we got a lot of fun coming up.
JR The Handler: Right? Yeah. Well, we all love it. We've all been there and partied.
JR The Handler: We actually threatened on here that we're going to have a live crawfish, uh, cook off at the Bama at some point. Not this year, probably, for certain reasons. But, um, as soon as crawfish places go back down I'll help you do that. Oh, man.
Blasi: That would be fantastic. Fantastic. Jennifer, I'll tell you, we've met like once or twice, but it's been at the floor Bama, [00:12:00] like almost in passing there with, you know, with craziness going on, but, uh, you know, floor Bama to me is one of the coolest bars in America.
Blasi: I mean, just by far, it's like, if you take every honky tonk and every cool bar and pool hall that you've ever been to, and you somehow glued them all together. And then you stuck that on the beach. That's the floor Bama, you know, it's just like such a cool place, man. 18 to 80. You know, everybody's having a big time.
Blasi: So anyway, thanks for coming on. It was so cool. When Jr said this, I was like, heck yeah, I'd love to talk about the floor, man, anytime
Jenifer Parnell: I could talk about it all day long. I mean, I'm there just every day and I still love it. It's like an adult tree house. He said, like, everything's kind of done together and like one room over here and just peace on over the years, but it's just fine.
Jenifer Parnell: It's make memories. It's just like I tell people and
Tigs: then it's so you never getting tired of it. You're still not tired of it. You love it. That's great. That's awesome. I mean, that's how you're supposed to be. If you have a passion about anything, you're gonna get up. You want to be there. You've got to be a part of it.
Tigs: And I mean, [00:13:00] that's awesome. It
Jenifer Parnell: becomes your whole life for sure. But that's a good thing for me at the floor. And I'm like, if that's not life every day where I go to the beach and have live music and fun events and good people to work with and work for
Blasi: So be it. Yeah. That's awesome. You're
JR The Handler: blessed. Yep.
JR The Handler: And you're from, and you're from, uh, Baldwin County anyway, South Alabama. So this is probably like a dream. You're like, I get to stay near the house. I get to do the things I wanted to do anyway.
Jenifer Parnell: Yeah, I grew up in Gulf shores, so I'm right back at home. I moved away for a little bit and then came back, but I always want to get other people to move here.
Jenifer Parnell: Like I'm glad you and Charisse moved here. I keep, I've got like a really good track list at this point. I feel like we've had like. 10 groups of friends moved down here. So I just keep like chucking away at it, hoping they'll all move. Yes.
JR The Handler: That's awesome. Exactly. It's going to fill up. We might as well fill it up with people we like, right?
Jenifer Parnell: Yeah, for sure. If you don't visit, then they can go back home.
Tigs: Yeah, right.
JR The Handler: Well, last time I saw, uh, last time, well, I guess it was the last time Tiggs and I, we all hung out in person. We were there for Taylor [00:14:00] Hicks event a couple of months ago when Taylor played in town.
Jenifer Parnell: Yeah, he always brings a crowd.
Jenifer Parnell: People love it. I think they have some nostalgia around him for sure. And so they always want to see him when he comes back and plays.
JR The Handler: And he just gets better and better every time. Like a lot of our musicians at the floor Bama, you know, over time, you know, we watch them grow up there or, or start some point their career there.
JR The Handler: And as it goes on, they just all get better and better. And man, Taylor was always good, but that last time we, Brantley and I were. Fan boy and out patrolling it up. It was so good. It was so good.
Jenifer Parnell: I feel like that's you every time. Jr. Every time I see you at Florida, you're like, Oh my God, they're so good.
Jenifer Parnell: Whoever it is.
JR The Handler: I know they are though. I mean, great, great, great. Talent and great entertainers. It always has. I mean, I'm like, if it's good, it's
Blasi: good. Right. You know,
Tigs: if it's good, it's good. Yeah. I've never heard anything bad at the floor. Bam. I, and the multiple times that I've been there, it's good music.
Tigs: How do you, how do you manage such a diverse lineup with like, what is it? Five different stages that are in [00:15:00] there. And then sometimes it's a rock band, sometimes it's country or whatever. How do you. Manage that kind of diversity.
Jenifer Parnell: Yeah, there's actually six stages across all the properties. Six, if you think of the main floor Bama, there's four there.
Jenifer Parnell: And then across the street we have the two restaurants or over a grill and the yacht club. So there's one at each of those. So yeah, it's six total and there's live music every single day. So it's certainly a lot. Thankfully we have a whole entertainment team that does that. Um, so they get to, you know, look at everything and figure out what different types of music go at the best times.
Jenifer Parnell: And. Uh, I think they do a phenomenal job. It's amazing how much music comes through there. And I try not to get spoiled on it when you're trying to, you know, do your day to day job. I'm like, let me go sit in and listen to this one or this one. So yeah, it's pretty impressive what they get done across the span of a year.
Blasi: It's actually insane to watch. Like you go there any given day and how many different bands are playing during the day. I'd love to know the number of bands that play there in a month or in a year. I. I can't, I can't even fathom. It's probably like well in the thousands.
Jenifer Parnell: I'm sure. Yeah. I mean, this isn't a [00:16:00] completely accurate number, but it's like over 1500 bands and like 3, 500 musicians.
Jenifer Parnell: Um, and it's crazy. Like Jr, I know you've been doing this before. You can like, you try to make sure everybody's not going on break at the same time. And so you can tell like people go on break. It pushes people to another room. So, I mean, the music's the complete heartbeat of the floor Bama. So it's a really big deal to get it right.
Jenifer Parnell: And to have great people come through there, but we're so fortunate. I mean, like, I don't ever hear anybody
JR The Handler: bad. No, never. And like you say, the, the, the, the algorithm to make it work for everybody, because we have such a different, um, a guest that come from all ages. So you gotta have this type and this type of different times of the year.
JR The Handler: And we gotta know who's going to. Who's more likely to be there, you know, like, um, like you're saying, like in the main room, you're going to have the sit down, listen more, enjoy, you know, the quietly talking over, not the, it's not going to be the kids dancing. That's probably going to be in the tent. And, you know, it's just in the certain time of the day, I was there.
JR The Handler: Gosh, was it today? No. Monday, uh, Mike Diamond was playing and it was a packed main bar [00:17:00] on a Monday afternoon. Um, and it reminded me of the old school. Everybody was sitting down. Everybody was just having a beer, listening to Mike. It was that kind of music, you know, and then, uh, you go somewhere else and it's, it's, you know, it's, it's just different, but, uh, it's, they do, they do a really good job and the, the bands that come through, um, are some of the best in the country.
JR The Handler: And I travel all over and listen to music and there's not any town that we couldn't hold our own with as far as local talent, for sure. What
Jenifer Parnell: blows my mind when I think you get used to having so much great talent and just also like the volume of live music, like the amount of bands that we have, and I'll go to other cities and I'm like.
Jenifer Parnell: Where's all the live music? I don't, I don't have
JR The Handler: it today. I don't understand. Y'all just sit here. We can, we can have a TV on with the game on, but we still need something else to do. I
Tigs: mean, if
Blasi: I go out anywhere, like, okay, so I live over in Freeport, Florida, near Santa Rosa beach. I'm I'm always looking at the music schedule.
Blasi: And I'm going to base where I'm going to go eat, where I'm going to go hang out based on the music, you know what I mean? Like if there's not [00:18:00] music there, I'm not going there that day, you know? So yeah, it's, it's everything. That's what's so cool about the floor. You know, if you go over there any day of the week.
Blasi: I mean, there's always music there always, I, you know, I was thinking, but
Tigs: go
Blasi: ahead. No, no,
Jenifer Parnell: the reputation of being like a hundred percent country. And it's so not the case there when y'all start, there's something for everybody. I mean, you've got blues band, rock bands, reggae bands. There's really a little bit for everybody.
JR The Handler: It's pretty impressive. Americana laid back old school, new school. I mean, it's, it's
Tigs: all kinds of good stuff. And then you can eat. There too. I mean, yeah, you can have it all
Jenifer Parnell: your sins, but you can drink while you're at church.
JR The Handler: You can be at Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, you go swimming in the ice, you go swimming in the hot, you throw fish, whatever.
JR The Handler: I mean, yeah, we got a
Tigs: little bit of stuff. Well, tell us a little bit about the mullet toss. I know that we have people that are listening that may not be [00:19:00] from the south. They may not know exactly what that is because our show seems to reach from coast to coast. We have people everywhere. Tell us a little bit about the mullet toss.
Tigs: How did that come about? What is it? And
Jenifer Parnell: we're celebrating, 40th year for a mullet toss. So wow. 2024 is a huge year for Floribama. It was the 40th anniversary of the Polar Bear Dip. It's the 40th anniversary of the Molotov. 40th anniversary of the Frank Brown Songwriters Festival. And then it's the 60th year Floribama has been open.
Jenifer Parnell: So overall as a bar, it's our 60th anniversary, which is huge. I don't think, I mean, it's probably pretty rare for any bar on the beach to be around for 60 years and have so much history. Um, but yeah, the Molotov is our biggest event of the year. So He was 1 of the original owners, or he bought the floor from the temporary family in the 70s.
Jenifer Parnell: And then in 19, like, 84, he had Pat McClellan on board with him and it was the 2 of them for many, many years. And traditionally, back in the day, you know, after summer, there wasn't a whole lot of [00:20:00] business down here. So they were like, okay, kind of need to make some money. Let's think of creative ways to do things.
Jenifer Parnell: And they were really. I mean, they really are marketing little geniuses. They did a lot of amazing stuff. That's just pretty impressive along the way, but they thought, okay, what can we do in the shoulder season? So that's how Molotov and then Frank Brown song festival were born really because Molotov being in April.
Jenifer Parnell: And then Frank Brown is in November. So, um, songwriters and music that we've talked about is a huge deal to Floribama. Well, Gilchrist, the story goes that he was out West with Jimmy Lewis and other singer songwriter and out West where they were, they were throwing cow chips. I'll let you look up what that is.
Jenifer Parnell: They said, well, what can we do down here to drum up some business and do something different? So they thought, Hmm, what's indigenous to the area here. So they came up with mullet. Cause it's a fish, a lot of it. Yeah. And so they, um, the 1st year, they took some friends out to the beach behind the floor Bama and a cooler a beer and they grabbed some mullet they caught and I started throwing fish to see who could [00:21:00] throw it the farthest.
Jenifer Parnell: And now it's the biggest weekend of the year. So it is a legit fish throwing competition on the beach behind floor Bama, but it's really a big old beach party. People are kind of like a big tailgate out on the beach floor Bama, where you watch these people throw
Tigs: fish. What the hell was happening in 1984 though, you know, I mean, it was the middle of the 80s.
Tigs: No, no, Michelle was there
JR The Handler: to see it. Party time, buddy. They were smiling ear to ear, having a good old time. Had a fire going on the beach. No, nobody giving them no static. Oh, man. You know, they were having a good time and you know, that's it. And it's cool because it, like I said, it is a real competition though.
JR The Handler: There are different categories for, for young people, older people. Uh, I don't know all the classifications, but I know there's celebrities that come through. I mean, there's all types of stuff. Um, and historically you'll all see the pictures of Kenny, the snake stabler from Bama, uh, and the Oakland Raiders and the saints, uh.
JR The Handler: Throw it, throw it some. And then I always think, man, if I could have been there that day and hung out with snake when [00:22:00] he was throwing mullet back in the day, Oh, don't you know?
Jenifer Parnell: He's a big reason. It turned out to be such a big deal. Like he went on national TV talking about the mullet toss and he deserved a lot of credit for making it what it is.
Jenifer Parnell: Pat McClellan always tells the story. He thinks this story is so great. He said that the snake was in the airport somewhere and this lady came up to him and was like, Oh my God, I know you, I know you. And he's like, Oh yeah, I'm a football player. And she's like, you're that guy I saw throw the mullet at Floribama.
JR The Handler: That's awesome. Hey, true story probably is he lived on Ono Island right across the river from the Floribama and probably just wanted more people there so he had people to party with in the off season. He was like, I'll draw him up some business. So I have some people to drink, tell stories to when I'm home.
JR The Handler: I'm sure
Jenifer Parnell: that's a big
JR The Handler: part of it.
Tigs: Paul says that he didn't know that the, I had no idea about the mullet toss. There you go. There you go. So
Jenifer Parnell: people don't know this. Like while it is a big [00:23:00] party and it's a huge three day weekend for floor Bama. So. To toss a fish is, um, like 20, 25, you get a t shirt and then we donate 100 percent of that money back to local charities.
Jenifer Parnell: So, um, so cool. Yeah, we have, you know, over 30, 000 going right back in the community just for throwing a fish.
JR The Handler: Who would have ever thunk it? Right. And the Bama does that for all of the, all kinds of stuff. I mean, it's almost a biweekly thing that they're doing a fundraiser for some organization and they do so much good for different.
JR The Handler: So many different groups, um, all over. I was looking through, I know coming up soon, Jen, we've got the, um, the beach, uh, walk, run. Oh yeah. Are you going to run it? I've got to work that weekend. I'm on the road. Oh, do you? Darn
Blasi: it. Shocker of the year. Shocker of
JR The Handler: the year. Well, shucks. I'll be in Birmingham. I'll actually be in Birmingham.
JR The Handler: I won't be too far from home. I'll be home on Sunday to make sure everybody made it out. Okay. Okay. That's for the American [00:24:00] warriors. You know, that's, that, that does a good thing. Then the, uh, Easter hunt, Easter bunny, uh, egg dropping, uh, our bunny dropping egg hunt on Easter. Of course. Um, that's how we do stuff for the kids.
JR The Handler: You got to do, I know Sharisa's helped do the best part.
Jenifer Parnell: The bunny skydives out of the plane. And then we have over 10, 000 Easter eggs hidden in the sand for the kids. You want to talk about, it looks like from an aerial view, like a mini mullet toss of a bunch of little children running around. Wow.
JR The Handler: Is it what we put out?
JR The Handler: 10, 000 over
Jenifer Parnell: 10, 000. Yeah. And then, um, we do the Easter church service too. So we have the big tent on the beach and there's like 4, 000 people that come to that sunrise church service.
Tigs: Wow. Wow. That's crazy.
JR The Handler: Does it get any cooler than that?
Tigs: I mean, there has to be video of this.
Jenifer Parnell: So we do Santa drop to you. And that's when Santa parachutes in, you want to talk about little kids [00:25:00] screaming. Oh my God. And
JR The Handler: he's got the elves flying down with him. I've seen that several times. There are videos. I was going to tell everybody when you're, if you're watching this on YouTube, go look at some of those videos from the floor of Bama when you, when you get done and, um, there's some good stuff on there for sure.
Tigs: Yeah, I'm going to go look at this. I didn't know that. Definitely
Jenifer Parnell: done a good job over the years of doing some outside of the box events, um, you're talking about like the beach run is a 5k. Into, cause it's on the beach, probably on the floor of Amis. So it's a 5k towards Alabama, but it's a half marathon towards Florida.
Jenifer Parnell: Um, but like we, I don't know if you saw Jr. We do, we added our, um, boozy beats, our drunken spelling bee.
JR The Handler: Wow. No, I did not see that
Blasi: beautiful.
Jenifer Parnell: We did during like Alabama Auburn Spring Break or College Spring Break Center around that time, um, and it's so funny. You're like, yeah, I thought I could spell a rare mount, but I guess not.
Tigs: Wow. Some people lose their pride on that day too, you [00:26:00] know. That's how you spell it. I know that's how you spell it. I know,
JR The Handler: I know what I'm spelling.
Tigs: Is Casey Taylor, uh, some of y'all's friends? Yes, he is. Yes, he is. He's a legend. T town
JR The Handler: in the house coming up, he
Tigs: says, eggs and beer are the cornerstone of any nutritious.
Tigs: I
JR The Handler: agree. Oh, I love Casey. Okay. And then, uh, and then I was looking and I saw this when it come across the wire a couple weeks ago. Um, Yeah. Our good friend who got his start right there on the beach at the Floribama playing for a handful of people who is now playing all over the world for tons of country music fans.
JR The Handler: Uh, Riley Green is bringing the Duckman Jam to the Floribama for a weekend, um, April 12th and 13th. Got some great guests that are all friends of the Floribama. Um, it's gonna be a real good weekend. Unfortunately, I, I won't be there. I've got a Show somewhere, but, um, yeah, everybody check that out and get tickets now.
JR The Handler: Cause it will sell out. Um, but April 12th and 13 Riley's playing on [00:27:00] the beach. Got Tracy Lawrence there with him. Um, oh man, it's going to be
Blasi: really
Tigs: great.
JR The Handler: Jake Worthington is one of my picks over the last couple years. He's from Texas, but he is so good. His records are so honky tonk. Yeah. He's country country.
JR The Handler: I like country country. Yeah. He's like not a threat. He's like a Mark Chestnut, like reincarnated, but, but different. But like that vibe. Um, but then Ella Langley and Drake White. Drake's been kicking butt for a long time and Ella's hot as a firecracker right now. And they're both from Alabama. She's from Montgomery and Drake's from, um, North Alabama.
JR The Handler: So, um, keeping it in house. But, and then Tracy Lawrence parties there. He gets a comedy down the street and parties there a couple times a year. So it's coming home to him. Him and Big Earl get drunk together, I'm sure.
Jenifer Parnell: Oh, he hires Big Earl to come play his lifestyle. Uh, birthday party at his house in Nashville every year.
Jenifer Parnell: Oh,
JR The Handler: yeah. Yeah. Jack goes, Jack told me about that. Like he said, man, we might got too drunk at Tracy's. Just be honest with you. You know, I was like, I'm
Tigs: sure you did.
Jenifer Parnell: He said it's his favorite gig [00:28:00] because he gets up there and sings like two songs and everybody's getting drunk. And so they're all like, let me sing one.
Jenifer Parnell: Let me sing one. Cause you got all these people there. He's like,
JR The Handler: it's perfect. Let them do the work, do the hard work. Um, and then mullet toss is, what's the date on, oh, it's the 26th and 28th will be the actual mullet toss this year of April. But before that, we've got the mullet man triathlon on April 20th, 420, good date for do stuff.
JR The Handler: You have to go work out. Yeah. Yeah. And then that Wednesday is the, and I don't know, this would be fun for y'all to get in on Blasey. We might need to think about this, if not for this year, for next year, TIGSBIT sponsored team, but the mullet swing golf classics right down the road from us. Oh yeah. It's a super cool, um, golf tournament.
JR The Handler: It's got all kinds of cool stuff at every turn. Um, but what courses
Blasi: that played on,
Jenifer Parnell: you know, we've done a few different courses in the past, but currently our home for the past few years has been peninsula and it's a great course. Um, we use the entire seven holes and they are fantastic partner of ours.
Jenifer Parnell: So everybody says [00:29:00] they play in all year. So I would say I got to go do
Blasi: that. We got to do that.
JR The Handler: We got to do that. Yeah, we got to get, we got to get that team put together for that. But, um, yeah, and I went down there, I've kind of been in and out because Sharice has worked at Lasky. Yeah. And it's a, it's a mile from my house, but a beautiful course, beautiful piece of property out there.
JR The Handler: Um, that, that'll be fun. I'm, I'm sure. Not many spots left. So y'all can check all of this out at floribama. com for anybody listening also. Um, but that just gets us through April with all that stuff. That's what I'm sitting here.
Blasi: Mind blown. I was like, every event
Tigs: you've mentioned is April.
Jenifer Parnell: You know, I was counting the events, um, in January.
Jenifer Parnell: I was like looking back at 2023 and. does normally on average, you know, 20 major events a year, but then, you know, you've got to count all these other ones we do, whether it be a charity fundraiser in the tent or somebody's, um, gathering for whatever it, we did 182 events last year. Wow.
JR The Handler: Wow. That's insane.
JR The Handler: That is like, that's like doing 180. [00:30:00] Tour dates. That's like 180 shows. I mean, that's crazy. I do, I do half of that at band and it whoops my ass every year. So I feel for y'all, but it takes, Hey, but you'll admit this too, Jen, cause you seen it behind the scenes as a, as a, as just a party goer before you ever worked there.
JR The Handler: I'm sure like I did. Um, but you know, it really does take a village to make that place run. It takes everybody and y'all do a great job of making sure everybody knows that. Um, cause I loved when, um, Miss Linda and Timmy got their, uh, bonus season awards this year. Oh, I'm still, I think I'm gonna tear up thinking about it.
JR The Handler: And when I see them, I'm still just so happy y'all did that for them. They dropped and just feel backstory on that floor, ma'am. And our, at our, I don't know if I'm sure I can tell this. I don't care if I can't. Yeah, of course. On the, at our employee Christmas party this year, they dropped two 500 or 5, 000 checks to two of the most outstanding employees and ended up being two of, they couldn't have picked better people.
JR The Handler: And they really are. It's, it's Ms. Linda, who's a greeter and Timmy, who does [00:31:00] everything he could possibly do. You could want him to do around there. Wow. That's so cool, man. Game changer, you know, for some people. And they had no idea. Heck yeah. Not expecting it. Yeah. Um, but that's amazing. But it takes those people with the bartenders, with the cooks, with the entertainers, with the maintenance crew, the bar
Jenifer Parnell: guys, the
JR The Handler: cleaners, everything.
JR The Handler: Yeah, the air conditioning guys, for sure. They're very important. The sound guys, you know, the entertainment directors, the, I mean, it takes so many people, the accountants, I mean, Patti. It's a lot of
Tigs: moving parts, man. It really is. Jennifer,
Jenifer Parnell: how many Working together, like, we can really mess some stuff up, right?
Jenifer Parnell: So we all gotta work together. Yeah, there to make it
Blasi: all close. That's crazy. That's so many. How many people work there? Do you know that number or close to it? So
Jenifer Parnell: if you're counting, um, in season, we've got over 500
Tigs: employees. Wow. That is
Blasi: absolutely unbelievable. And I bet there's not many hours during the day because you guys are open seven days a week.
Blasi: That there's not at least somebody there, whether it be closing down, cleaning, [00:32:00] getting ready to open the next morning. I bet it's just like maybe a couple of hours in between, huh? Well, I
Jenifer Parnell: can't see how many times, like if I've got, um, like we'll say a race, for example, so they're usually early in the morning.
Jenifer Parnell: So for set up, setting all those up, getting ready, you know, I could be rolling in at 5. 00 AM and the bartenders, you might meet as you, they're leaving. You tag out and you go on because they're closing up.
Tigs: Tag. You're it
JR The Handler: crazy. Like, even like you mentioned cleaning, that's what we'll do. We'll have the band don't there's really no, there's no down day.
JR The Handler: There's no day off to do any of that stuff. So what we'll do is we'll have the music because the music draws the people in. We'll have that in the main room. We'll shut off the dome, start spraying it down, cleaning it up. And you know, and then when that's ready. Shift somebody in there, close off another section, clean.
JR The Handler: I mean, it's just a constantly rotating thing. Um, it's impressive for sure. And you got to think too, we're on an island with one way in, one way out, one, one, two lane road coming in and out. We got to have all this food, all this ice, all these supplies, all these people. There's, [00:33:00] and, and it's just insane really, but it, it works.
JR The Handler: It's still, it
Blasi: sounds like a logistical nightmare that somehow you guys have figured out,
Tigs: you know? So. Yeah,
Jenifer Parnell: you're throwing your way with each, with each of it. But yeah, for the most part, we've got it figured out pretty well. It's a, it's
Blasi: an impressive operation, even just as the. Person who comes in is the consumer and checking that place out and that room with all the bottles of liquor and how you guys pipe all that in, that is crazy.
Blasi: I've never seen anything like that. Like, and that's been there for
Jenifer Parnell: years. Day I saw somebody, they were staring at it and they had their phone and I was like, you know, hey. And I explained to 'em what it was and I said, do you wanna go in there? And they were like, yes, . So I was . I opened it up and they took a video.
Jenifer Parnell: But people are blown away when they see that.
Blasi: Yeah, it's something else. It's
Tigs: special. , um.
JR The Handler: And in the bra room, which everybody still gets a kick out of, I mean, that's so crazy how that's still
Jenifer Parnell: a thing. I clean that thing off every single year and donate those bras to a women's [00:34:00] shelter in town, but they fill up that fast.
Jenifer Parnell: Really?
JR The Handler: Thousands of them. It's not a few either. It is packed by the end of the year, too.
Tigs: It is, yeah. That's a
Jenifer Parnell: lot of money, y'all. That's very expensive. I
JR The Handler: know. I tell Charisse all the time, be looking, see if any of these look like they might work. We can put them in the wash.
Jenifer Parnell: I have a lot of bills, I haven't taken them on home yet, but I've certainly
JR The Handler: looked.
JR The Handler: JR, 8 foot, make out a 12 foot ladder in the dome please. Let's save a
Blasi: little money.
Jenifer Parnell: I was at the shrimp fest booth and she came up to me and she was a little bit older lady, but she said, Oh my God, I love the floor. I bring a flinger every year. I'm like, ma'am, what's a flinger? And she goes, Oh, I go to Walmart and I get the cheapest bar that bra they have.
Jenifer Parnell: I bedazzle it. I put my name on it and I fling it. Fling that thing every year on the line.
Blasi: I'm a dazzler. That's so great.
JR The Handler: And Floribama is one of the, I just, it's a random thought, but Floribama is one of the few [00:35:00] places that actually encourage you, please write your name on the wall, as long as it's not somewhere, you know, you shouldn't, but write your name, tell us what year you stopped, where are you from?
JR The Handler: We'd love to know about you. The next person loved to say, Hey, when they pass through, it's not me. I've written
Blasi: my name. I've written my name a few times there.
Jenifer Parnell: There's a lot of stuff in those writings on the wall. Sometimes, walking around, there's all kinds of love stories, breakup stories.
JR The Handler: There is. Hey,
Blasi: Jennifer, Jennifer, I'll tell you, my fiancé right now, she's actually behind me playing, uh, trivia here.
Blasi: I'm at Props Brewery in Freeport, and so they're doing trivia. It's the men versus the women, so battle of the sexes tonight. But we met at the Floribama, so there you go. I mean, it's just a place of fun and love and everything else, right? I met Brady
Jenifer Parnell: at the Floribama. We love that one.
Tigs: Any great stories have you heard?
Tigs: people that met at the Floribama over the years, Jennifer. I mean, it's probably hundreds and
Jenifer Parnell: hundreds of engagements there and they wanted to get engaged there because they met there. Um, I love walking around every day. I can usually tell people who've never been there before. They have a tendency to look [00:36:00] up.
Jenifer Parnell: Um, but then the people who have been there before, they're trying to tell their own stories and you get to talking to them. And a lot of those people met for the first time at Floribama.
Tigs: That's so cool. We have a wedding
JR The Handler: party there. I mean, yeah, yeah, you know,
Tigs: are there, uh, are there ghosts there? Are there not enough?
Tigs: Is there not enough downtime for ghosts to want to hang out? Yes,
Jenifer Parnell: I think so for sure. Well, um, J. R. I don't know if you were here there that night, but somebody was playing in the main room and I think it was Wayne Mills's birthday celebration. Anyways, like the lights went out. I mean, it was like crazy.
Jenifer Parnell: Brandon swears for sure that that was Wayne. And then that also happened when we were doing something for Joe and then Michael Auckland's got ghost stories about being there early in the morning. I seriously think if I was going to be a ghost, I would want to stay
Tigs: there. Exactly. Why wouldn't you want to stay there?
Tigs: Heck yeah, I would. Yeah, they're just enjoying the party
JR The Handler: and no one's really paid. No one's really looking for you. You could do all kinds of stuff and they'll just chalk it up to, ah, hell. It's [00:37:00] probably just how it is around here. It's just old or whatever. Yeah. I always said that. I always said that too.
JR The Handler: If I, if I was broke and had to live on the streets, uh, I damn sure wouldn't be in Cleveland. I'd start hiking South where we got some better weather for sure. Same with being a ghost, I'm not going to be a ghost at some old crickety old house somewhere cold. Yeah, it's boring. No. Let's go to the adult beach house or the adult tree house on the beach down there where they got fun.
JR The Handler: Heck
Tigs: yeah. The tricks you
Jenifer Parnell: can play on people? Man. You'd get a kick out of it, it'd
JR The Handler: keep you, it'd keep you forever. I'll never know. Yeah, I could, you know, and that's the thing too, it, and I've only been there a few times where I was coherent enough to think this way, but looking around thinking. Man, I bet there's some weird shit that goes on around here cause you know when it's real late cause it's quiet down there when the party finally does stop there and in the surrounding area.
JR The Handler: But it gets a little eerie there. Yeah. Yeah, with just a little bit of the crash of the slow beach waves, you know, on the Gulf and the wind, it's like, man, yeah, it's kind of eerie. It is.
Tigs: Well, you know, hey, creaking. [00:38:00]
Blasi: Hey, so if, so if you're a ghost out there and you're looking for somewhere to dwell, I mean, you've already heard Jennifer says, come on in.
Blasi: The water's fine. You're more like everybody just, just hang out and party. It's all about good times. Just don't come in being all weird, shake and change, you know, just come in.
Tigs: Yeah. With the aliens. Yeah. Maybe make, move a little bit every now and then. Yeah. Shake. Shake the brass,
Blasi: maybe undo a bra Strapp on somebody that's,
Jenifer Parnell: he did fall down when Wes Looper was playing that time.
Jenifer Parnell: That could have been a ghost.
JR The Handler: Yeah, there you go. Could have been. Yeah. The whole thing fell on West while he was playing one time. Oh wow. Yeah. Wow. The whole road. It just capacity, man. Well, maybe, yeah. Talking about the ghost. We'll also another one of our favorite topics on here. Aliens, maybe the aliens could land out there and they know, come in peace.
JR The Handler: Just come to the floor Bama first. We'll have some bushwhackers, some oysters. We'll work this thing out. Then you don't have to, you know, you don't have to devour our. So it'll be great. Wouldn't that be
Jenifer Parnell: some great free PR? They're like laying on the beach behind the Polar Bama. They walk in. Here's a
Blasi: Bushwacker.
JR The Handler: Yeah. [00:39:00] Yeah, we have like, we have Governor Ivey, um, parachute in so she can talk to him, you know. And Brandon. Brandon and Governor Ivey. Tandem. Yeah. Your hubs, Brandon and Governor Kay Ivey coming in together. And maybe a tour. Maybe three. I mean, we put big Earl on there too. And they all three come in together to be the spokesman to talk to the aliens.
JR The Handler: How about that?
Jenifer Parnell: Laying in or Rhonda Hart next to him and like a bedazzled, um, national anthem when they
JR The Handler: only
Tigs: exactly,
Blasi: I think it's a great idea.
Tigs: Yeah,
JR The Handler: that's wonderful. Good place. Just, Hey, but you got to get like, just same with the ghost. You got to come in peace. No, no crazy stuff. Got to be nice. Have fun.
JR The Handler: It's the
Jenifer Parnell: ultimate no judgment though. And so
Tigs: pretty much anything. That's right. That's exactly right. Well, what are, what are some of y'all's future plans? Are you, do you have a plan on expanding anymore? Getting any bigger down there? The last time I was telling JR that when we went this past summer, it had only probably been.
Tigs: It's been six, five, six, seven years since I'd been since I've been there and been [00:40:00] down on that end and I was just like blown away like it used to end there like that's where it ended and in Florida and you know it wasn't kind of vacant there. That is no longer the case. So you may not have any more
Blasi: room.
Blasi: It comes all the way over here now. It's in Santa Rosa Beach now. It's
Tigs: everywhere. It's everywhere under different brand names, but it's the same place. You know,
Jenifer Parnell: I think that they just want to do more of the same, right? Yeah. Done a good job with expanding on the property that they do have. And we have the two sit down restaurants.
Jenifer Parnell: We have a marina, then you've got the main floor Bama. So maybe improving and making things a little bit more, um, efficient. But overall more of the same. I mean, if it's not broke, don't fix it. Right. Things are going pretty good. Oh, exactly. No, people love it. So we just wanna keep, even the younger generations they.
Jenifer Parnell: they can carry it on to the next 60 years. So that's the focus.
Tigs: I just want one in new Orleans. That's all I need one closer to me.
JR The Handler: I heard there really used to be some cool ones like that on, uh, right on the, on the [00:41:00] lake there in North and, uh, on. South Lake of Pontchartrain back in the day. I heard there really were back in the day and I don't remember what happened, but there used to be a lot of great restaurants and I've seen pictures.
JR The Handler: I follow one of those new Orleans is not there anymore, uh, pages. And there are some that look like, like the Bama does. Cause the Bama always has the look a lot of like. Florida bars used to having coastal bars. It was just kind of a, a big shack on the beach, a oyster shack on the beach with beer and music and appear to walk down to the water and, you know, and, um, you don't have, there's not many and I, and you know, I don't go everywhere anymore, but I get around and there's not many bars that have.
JR The Handler: Um, the, the history, like the floor Bama over that long a time to be still doing what they're doing. Not at all. There's a handful, but not many. Cause a lot of areas change, you know, the, you know, development and just change in general and, uh, families, you know, the only people fighting about the business or whatever can happen when things like that happen, but, um, God, thank goodness for Bama still around.
Jenifer Parnell: It's such a [00:42:00] cultural icon. And it's amazing that the brand is so strong. I mean, you've JR, you probably seen it when you're traveling. You got a floor Bama shirt on, you're going through an airport. You see somebody else with one on floor Bama floor Bama. I mean, you're like
JR The Handler: all the time. I'll have mine on and somebody will walk up to me out on the road, somewhere in South Dakota and point right for Bama, man.
JR The Handler: We were there two years ago. Oh, I grew up in, my dad was in the Navy in Pensacola. We used to go there and we were teenagers. I mean, there's always a floor Bama. Story or, or like you said, I met my wife there. I got married there. First time I got drunk was there. You
Blasi: know, the great thing is every time somebody says it and when it's mentioned, everybody's smiling.
Blasi: You know what I mean? You can't say the floor Bama without smiling. You know, it's like floor Bama. Everybody starts smiling. Yeah. What a fun place.
Tigs: I love it. My son had a blast getting to come and see Taylor Hicks. It was able to bring him. I brought my daughter years ago when she was about the same age, you know?
Tigs: So it's all, it's just a cool place where you can go with your kids too. And there are things there that they can do and have [00:43:00] fun. And it's just like a good, safe place. How, um, How often has it had to be rebuilt or things like that over the years with hurricanes? Or is it basically just been able to withstand most of that?
Tigs: I
Jenifer Parnell: haven't most part it's withstood it. I mean, they've certainly had to do some things after certain storms. Ivan was a huge 1, but there's still original parts to the building, um, even for that storm. So, you know, they built it up a little bit bigger after Ivan. That's why it looks bigger. Just the 1 little story brick building.
Jenifer Parnell: Um, but they also built it to withstand storms better. So that, you know, it's supposed to blow through the windows, stuff like that. Um, hurricane Sally, they had. Min, I won't say minimal, there was some damage, but it's more just, you know, piecing it back together a little bit. There's not really been any complete teardowns ever.
Jenifer Parnell: So, um, they've been pretty fortunate with that.
JR The Handler: Yeah. It's just like your tree house. Yeah. The, the limb, the limb breaks, he tears half of it up. We're not starting over. We're just going to patch that part and build on a new part, you know. And
Jenifer Parnell: that's what you want.
JR The Handler: It's perfect. Yeah. Perfect. Yes. But I was there during Sally.
JR The Handler: Yeah. It [00:44:00] was a mess. Like all areas aren't as protected as others. You know, aren't as heavy as structures. You know, the tent took a beating, a lot of the outlying things all took a beating in the parking lots and, you know, the things like that, but, um, but yeah, it still holds on. And even the, the, the Florida Bama Yacht Club, which is across the street, that's built on a, on a, uh, uh, The shack that was there originally housing some of the staffing and crew and security people back in the day.
JR The Handler: And now it's a thriving restaurant. One of my favorite restaurants anywhere down here. I mean, it's
Blasi: so good. I eat there almost every time that I'm over there. I eat there like almost every single time. And you'd never know
Jenifer Parnell: it when you walk up to this little, basically a beach shack with the tongue in cheek name, the Yacht Club, like it's not fancy, but it's
JR The Handler: so good.
JR The Handler: It is good. And it's got the perfect, the vibe, it's just open and then there's the water, I mean, and then the stage at the Yacht Club, I love the new stage we have at the Yacht Club, people pull their boats up, I mean, it's just. It's paradise to me. I mean, you know, y'all, [00:45:00] y'all come, don't all come at once, but thank you.
JR The Handler: 85 percent occupancy max. Let's just keep it there. But, uh, y'all come see us at some point for sure.
Tigs: Yeah. Jennifer, what would, what would you say would be one of the most fascinating things that you've seen that has come through there? Like with, with an, with a big, I like, let's just say a big name act.
Tigs: You know, that is just kind of popped in or you didn't know at the last minute you had to accommodate them. It just was just a killer ass show. Everybody still raves about it. One of those kind of deals. Just, I know you have some kind of those stories that behind the scenes kind of deal. Well, we definitely have
Jenifer Parnell: people pop in all the time.
Jenifer Parnell: I mean, um, having the wharf venue in orange beach, um, it's sort of like a natural fit for them to come after those shows. So we've had lots of people, but I swear one of my favorites, it was planned out a little bit more of it as Halloween, but Jr. It was John party when the whole band dressed up like Elvis and they played, um, it was around Halloween and that was so much.
JR The Handler: Yeah. I dressed up as the Colonel. I announced him on stage. I was the Colonel. I [00:46:00] was Colonel Carpenter. Yeah. I had pictures. Yes. Yes. Yes. The whole, they, we did the whole, uh, Elvis party deal. That's what he, his alternate ego, Elvis party and the whole band dressed up in Elvis suits. And John had a real Elvis suit.
JR The Handler: And yeah.
Blasi: JR, I need pictures. I need pictures of that. Send that to the group text. We got to put that on, uh, socials tomorrow. At least
Tigs: we have
Jenifer Parnell: some. And then everybody stayed out all night after in
Tigs: their Elvis suits. Oh yeah. That's awesome. That's fantastic. .
JR The Handler: Gosh. Yeah. I'll have to find that picture. I've got it somewhere though.
JR The Handler: And I'm, and I, this was, this would've been, gosh, this is probably seven or eight years ago. I was still smoking cigarettes. 'cause of course I got a pack old ugly cigs in my hand during my damn picture. I got, we'll, Photoshop that the one picture. I know. I'm like, I, well it's kind of a reminder to 'em, like, it looks so stupid.
JR The Handler: It's so stupid to do that. I'm glad I don't know more, you know. Did you have 'em rolled up in your sleeve? I just, I might as well have them in my, them in my lighter in my hand like it was the most precious, the most precious, you know, I'm like, I can't, I can't, what am I going to do? And a drink like, I'm just like, good Lord, put my stuff down and get the picture, hell, [00:47:00] you know, but.
Tigs: Aaron Ryan wishes you were Colonel Sanders and maybe
JR The Handler: next year, maybe next year we got that's another. Hey Jen, that's somebody we got to get down here is my buddy Aaron. He works for whiskey riff. Um, the, the outlet, the
Jenifer Parnell: four Bama all the time. No, we need
JR The Handler: it. I love it. But he's our, he's our boy and he loves new Orleans and he loves Mardi Gras.
JR The Handler: We need to bring Aaron down next year to do a piece on the Bama and hang with us and party with us.
Blasi: Oh, that's cool. Yeah. I follow them on socials. Yeah. Yeah. Aaron's
JR The Handler: our
Tigs: boy, uh, Paul Rogers is who turned me on to, uh, credit to Paul there. And, and thanks Aaron for, for, uh, for supporting us too and joining in.
Tigs: That's awesome. Yeah, I didn't, I didn't know, I don't know all of these names y'all do. I don't know some of these folks, so it's pretty, it's always cool to see some of these names and, and, and the show's growing, that's awesome too. You know, it's just. It's it's fun. We [00:48:00] started doing this live, Jennifer, and it's been a unexpected little surprise with a lot more engagement.
Tigs: It's just, it's more fun. I like it. Absolutely.
Jenifer Parnell: Talk to your friends and then everybody else gets to join in. That sounds like a
JR The Handler: blast.
Tigs: I think it is fun.
JR The Handler: How can it not be? And that's what I thought while we should have you on today, Jen, because I was thinking we talk about the floor bam here all the time, you know, because we love it so much.
JR The Handler: And I thought, man, let's Instead of me trying to hack job their calendar of events, let me get, let Jen come on and break it down for real. And it's just always good to catch up. We need to do this since we're coastal, our whole thing is, you know, Southern, uh, you know, cultural type things, food, music, fun, all that stuff.
JR The Handler: Um, so the floor band was kind of a hub for that for us. So we need to at least once, at least twice a year, we should have you on to, to break that stuff down. I'd love to get some of the other. Cats on to like Paul, uh, Steve to talk about the entertainment side, a little stronger, you know, things like that, but,
Jenifer Parnell: uh, content for you, just let me know.
Jenifer Parnell: I'll come on whenever. And then if you need other people, that's [00:49:00] easy to set up
JR The Handler: sweet, sweet. All right. We're going to do that. I had Dalton Bush over here last night after a late night last night. Yeah, we had a good time. He's played me some of his new music, really good stuff. I'm happy for him. But, um, and, and talking about that, you know, the, the.
JR The Handler: For me coming back, I came here 20 years ago with Wayne and met people like Taylor Hicks and Tony Brooke and, um, you know, Adam hood and all these guys. And then 20 years later, I'm still here meeting guys and girls that I'm just still like, man, they're true talent. I'm still excited to meet them and hear their, you know, and be around in that atmosphere, you know?
JR The Handler: Um, and that's because the floor Bama,
Blasi: It is the heartbeat of the, of the coast for fun. It really is. Everything else just kind of branches off of it. Yeah.
Jenifer Parnell: We sell fun. That's it. Leave a new friend, tell other people about it and come back again.
Blasi: I agree.
JR The Handler: Well, thanks for coming on, Jean. I know you got a million things to do.
JR The Handler: You got to pack for our camping trip. We're all going on this weekend.
Tigs: [00:50:00] I
Blasi: am jealous over that. That sounds awesome.
JR The Handler: I don't need to bring much for food. And I'm like, buddy, I eat a lot. I don't know, but y'all are bigger than the
Tigs: rest of y'all.
Jenifer Parnell: He brings, he'll bring, he'll surprise you. He's going to bring like stuff.
Jenifer Parnell: You didn't think, you know, you need it. And
JR The Handler: he'll be like, that's what he was. That's what he kind of told me that he said, bro, I promise you I will have way more than we need. I'm like, all right,
Jenifer Parnell: create water for all of us to drink out of like a raindrop. It'll
Blasi: be
JR The Handler: fine. That's so good back on that, uh, on a couple of podcasts for now or something.
JR The Handler: We have to report on our camping trip. And then if there's ever anything that pops up at the Bama and you want to give it a shout out on here, Jen, just let us know anybody from there. Then you want to announce, let us know. And, um, thanks again. Thank y'all so much. Thank
Blasi: you. Thank you. Tell Brandon. I said, hello.
Tigs: I ain't seen him in a minute. Yeah. Bye. Alright. Bye sis. Thank
JR The Handler: you.
Tigs: Later. Alright. Oh, she was awesome. Thanks so much. Keep your computer up if you don't mind. And uh, keep it open so [00:51:00] I can download. I always forget to tell people that in the emails that we send out, whatever we send It normally doesn't take but a second.
Tigs: So it's usually fine. Now it should. It should be fine. But uh, hey, Paul says, thanks brother. I'm glad I introduced you to Whiskey Riff. They're my people, so to speak, as you all are. Thank you, Paul. Yeah, man. Yeah, that's a, they, they, they put out so much good content on there. They do. They do. You know, I've found out about so many new songs that have come out, new albums, news, um, just everything, man.
Tigs: It
Blasi: helps you keep the finger on the pulse there. You know what I mean? All things with
Tigs: country music. Yep. I agree. It does. And Paul says that he learned a lot about the floor of Bama. It seems like a paradise, dude. It is a paradise. It really, I think that's the best description that you can have is it's an adult.
Tigs: It's, it's, it really is.
Blasi: And you know, it's cool. Like I don't like big places normally. Right. I like smaller dives. I like cool, fun bars. Like this is kind of big for me even like, but what's cool about that [00:52:00] place, it camouflaged itself because of those individual rooms, you walk from one and then all of a sudden you go through this doorway and through these things and then, and you're somewhere else.
Blasi: And it's like, and then the whole, the vibe's totally different. So if you get tired of. Like that main room or like the dome room or whatever, like, well, this is too much. Or this is too much do next thing. You know, you're in that small, like the main stage and there's somebody up there just jamming, you watch that, it breaks it up for you and it makes it.
Blasi: You know what I mean? It's like you can consume it. It's not like it's like a, like drinking out of a fire hose, I guess.
JR The Handler: And if you get, and if you get to feeling a little stuffy, you can always walk right outside. There's open so easy, so easy way in a room. There's an, Oh, no, you're just, there's outside.
JR The Handler: There's the stars, or you can walk down the beach or in a bigger room. But like you said, if you want a dive bar, you can find a little corner in there and you feel like you're in a tiny little bar, 2, 000 people inside this. property, you know?
Blasi: Yeah, it's it's awesome. I think it's the best bar in America, period.
Blasi: I think it's the best bar in America. Yeah, I agree.
Tigs: [00:53:00] Yeah, it's definitely the most unique. It's I don't know. I mean, it's like a little mini New Orleans in a clubhouse because the music never stops. That's one thing that that whenever you go to New Orleans, if you notice that you're walking around, doesn't matter where you're walking there, you're going to hear something, something making.
Tigs: Somebody snapping, somebody over on the street, but you're always going to hear music. So it's a positive
Blasi: vibe there too. I don't only keep going. I know we've already beat this to death, but like I've never, I'm sure there's been plenty of them, but dude, I've never seen a fight there and I've seen a lot.
Blasi: I've been there with a lot of people. It's like everybody. For the most part, it's in a really good mood. It's not like this weird,
Tigs: negative crap. Nothing. I think it, I think because they, they have such a keen eye on how people are and how people react and Jr would know. You know, that they get those people out before there's a problem.
Tigs: Yeah, I'm sure that some stuff slips through. I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that happens, but for the most part, they, people that go there, [00:54:00] especially the regulars, they're not going to mess with any, they know, you know, it's the riff raff. That would come out of town or some drunk college
JR The Handler: kid you that's it'd be the used to be now It's probably drunk college kids.
JR The Handler: It's probably on pack nights late I'm sure there's some of that used to it was uh, the base guys coming off bases letting loose, right? Yeah, hell some and then the one the most brutal one I ever saw was two girls Two, three grown men arguing over one guy said something about LSU or Ole miss. The other guy was Auburn or Bama.
JR The Handler: They said two words to each other and buddy, I'm talking about, it looked like the Tasmanian devil going off and it was me and some little tiny bouncer. This been 15, 20 years ago, middle of the day in a room, nobody else in there. We watched the whole, we're trying to eat it. We're just eating a snack or something.
JR The Handler: Watch the whole thing go down. And we're like, I'm not getting in that because it was three big old grown, one big grown man versus two other grown men. The one guy was handling both of them and I was like, uh, and it was, but it took a minute to get them out. But you know, that's part of the, uh, the, the [00:55:00] growth thing, you know, more people, you know, and the, but they do, they do a good job of training, um, uh, everybody.
JR The Handler: And, and, you know, I've mentioned this on here before with the way liquor laws and insurance and things work now, I mean, we're doing almost, uh, at least. Quarterly, if not every two or three months, we're having a, um, you know, you're having training on, um, who to serve, how to look for those type things, how to interact with people to get, you know, all those things.
JR The Handler: So they do a great job, but yeah, at 20 something years, I've been partying there, I've seen a handful, maybe at most, and none really that bad. It, the only one was that one. The grown man, there was no, the ones that they were all, they were all buzzed up. But buddy, that one guy was not having whatever the hell he was an Auburn guy or a Bama guy or Georgia guy or something, but he let them two other guys up and his wife came around and she was trying to tell, I remember this like it was yesterday and it said it's forever ago, but I remember his wife trying to tell the bounce.
JR The Handler: She's like, no, I'm telling y'all, y'all can't just let him go in that parking lot. He crazy. She's trying to tell them [00:56:00] like, no, you need to do something to get this guy gone. He's not done yet. And stuff. And I remember thinking, Oh, she knows she's seen this, this guy swole up. I mean, probably, you know, probably late, mid, late thirties.
JR The Handler: You know, I was probably like 21. He's probably mid, late thirties, you know, maybe 40, all of them, but, Ooh, but not, not many for sure. Oh,
Tigs: that's good. That's good. Yeah. Um,
Blasi: before you close out, Hey, just, you were talking about Auburn and Alabama and Georgia. I heard this, it's a brutal joke. I heard at the bar a couple of nights ago, and this guy, he's a big Bama fan.
Blasi: So I'm going to tell it and I'll condense it a little bit, but I think it's great. So there's an Auburn fan. And let's, let's say there's an LSU fan. There's an Alabama fan. There's an Auburn fan. And they are all of a sudden this genie appears and says, Hey, you've got three wishes and ask them each what they want to do.
Blasi: So the first person they ask is. The LSU fans say, all right, what do you want? You know, anything to do with your team, anything to do with [00:57:00] that. And he said, I just want peace and harmony. I want everybody from their LSU fans to come here. We all just hang out, have a good time together and enjoy ourselves and just live in harmony.
Blasi: Boom wishes granted. Okay. Sounds great. Asked the, uh, they asked the Auburn fan, they said, uh, all right. So what do you want? I said, what I want is I want the same thing, but I want to really. Lock out all the noise around us. I want to build a wall all the way around a ball But all the Auburn fans inside this wall build like a hundred foot wall that nobody can get in and that we can sit there and hang out with ourselves and enjoy peace And harmony not to worry about all these Alabama fans.
Blasi: Boom done get the Alabama fan says All right So what would you like and he said did you say you put a brick wall all the way around Auburn a hundred foot? And all the fans are in there. He said, yep, that's exactly what we did. He said, okay,
Tigs: fill that thing up with
JR The Handler: water.
JR The Handler: That's terrible. That is brutal. That's what I'm saying. [00:58:00] It was brutal.
Tigs: Damn it, man. That's hardcore, isn't it? Yeah, I think I'm going to use that one and just reverse it. My buddy James Dearman told
Blasi: me that. I think he's here tonight, probably somewhere. He's a big
Tigs: Alabama guy.
JR The Handler: Roll tide, James. Roll down. Hey, I hadn't even mentioned to you guys, but you know, we had a great guest on today and as any, all you guys listening and watching out there and podcast world, we're going to have more guests as the season goes on and hadn't even mentioned to you guys yet, but I've got a friend.
JR The Handler: Um, who lives and he's a, he's out of Fairhope, Alabama, and he's a novelist. He's written several books. His name's Matthew Kyle. Got a couple of his books here. Y'all check him out. Matthew Kyle. Okay. Um, y'all can check him out and I want to have him on, um, here in the next month or so. So if you get a chance to anybody out there, check out Matthew Kyle.
JR The Handler: So you know who we're talking about. We bring him on, um, and see some of his books, but very cool cat. And I want to try to make that happen soon too. So y'all be on the lookout for that. Um, and many more. Blasey had some great suggestions last time we had a little meeting. And, uh, we're going to try to start getting some of that [00:59:00] lined up.
JR The Handler: So absolutely, absolutely.
Tigs: Personally, a lot of good stuff coming y'all's way. Uh, We're working. We're working behind the scenes, getting some more guests in, just having more stuff. And, and I'm looking forward to leaving and going to Toledo band. Yeah, that's going to be a lot. I got to lay out a prediction on that so that we have it documented because I did put a prediction out.
Tigs: Social media. I said it's gonna with the weight. What will it take to win? Uh, this, this event? And I said it would, uh, 120 in six ounces. That's what I went with. I had not looked at the weather. Okay. I just saw the temperature. I knew the moon phase. I had not looked at the wind. The wind is going to be howling Thursday, like 30, 35 miles an hour on while being That ain't good.
Tigs: So I'm going to have to back that weight down, but I still think it's going to take over a hundred pounds to win on Toledo Ben, which is a 25 pound a day. Average. That's a five pound bass, [01:00:00] five fish, five pounds. And, uh, and if you're, and
JR The Handler: if you don't fish catching five, five pound bass, one in your life for average,
Tigs: Joe, you're doing good.
Tigs: You're doing good. Yeah. They're going to catch a limit of them. A limit of five, and there's going to be several that do. I guarantee it. Yep. Uh, so it'll be interesting to see what happens, but I'm going to be there. Anybody, the way ends, I'll be at the launch on Thursday and Friday morning. They launch at seven o'clock.
Tigs: I'll be around. Getting some footage and stuff after they've gone and then, uh, and then I'll be back for the way ends both days. So if you're out there, you go out there, see me, come talk to me and, uh, it'll be, it'll be fun. I'm, I'm looking forward to it. So
JR The Handler: he'll even, he'll even take a selfie with you and put it on Instagram.
JR The Handler: I will.
Tigs: I absolutely will. We sure will. And, uh, and hopefully I'll grab an interview with an angler or two. We'll see.
Blasi: Yeah. I want to see you run those down. I think you can do it.
Tigs: I think it was a lot of good practice. I'm taking [01:01:00] the practice that we did in mobile and I'm going to go execute a little harder plan on Toledo being my hometown, my home area.
Tigs: I can't. I don't feel any more comfortable than I do there. So pro anglers, if any of you are watching this, I'm coming for you. Well, I was
JR The Handler: going to say, we ought to reach out to see if we have any friends of the family who know any of the pro anglers that will be there. And maybe we could set something up for
Tigs: after the, I guarantee you that there's some folks that do, uh, that you definitely know some Alabama boys.
Tigs: We'll talk about that off, off camera. I know I have friends with some pro anglers to none that are fishing in this tournament. They fish, uh, with the MLF and those guys, but gotcha. But yeah. But yeah, so check that. Very cool. Check. Well
JR The Handler: have fun buddy. Say out. Yeah.
Tigs: Yeah. Enjoy yourself,
Blasi: bud. For sure.
Tigs: I can't wait to hear the feedback.
Tigs: Oh yeah. We're gonna have some stuff coming as long as I can get it out. The problem is Thursday and Friday. I may not, I may dump all of this on y'all Saturday and Sunday everybody, because uh, the internet service is not topnotch up there, but , but, we'll, we'll [01:02:00] work on it, but boys. Hell of a show.
Tigs: Appreciate it. Jennifer, uh, for coming on, visiting with us, talking about the floor of Bama. And that was awesome. She was great. She's great. Yeah, she was, she was. And, uh, we'll be back and see you guys next week. See y'all.
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