Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Kathie Lee Gifford & Thomas Blackshear ｜ 7⧸19⧸24
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Summary
Glenn Beck covers the entire Democratic National Convention, from start to finish, and all the ways you can look at it, including the way the New York Times looked at the convention and Donald Trump's speech. What did we really learn? What's happening with the convention? And where is Joe Biden? All of that and more on today's podcast.
Transcript
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Well, hello, it's Friday, the Glenn Beck podcast today, we cover the convention start to finish
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backwards, forwards, and all the ways you can look at it, including the way the New York Times
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looked at the convention and Donald Trump's speech. What did we really learn? What's happening
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with the convention? And where is Joe Biden? All of that and more on today's podcast.
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So last night, the president came out to speak Donald Trump at the convention, and we haven't
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had a chance to talk. Thank you, Stu and Pat, for filling in for me the last couple of days.
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I had to have some surgery on kidney stones, which, oh man, that's a fun ride. So thanks for
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filling in. But I've been watching the convention this week, and it is the best convention I have
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seen. And I think it was better than the Reagan conventions, and those were pretty good.
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Um, this, this had everything you needed in the Republican convention. Uh, it had all of the
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right people speaking, I thought, all the way through the week. If people spent the time and
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watched it, actually listened to it, they saw a very different party, uh, than what they have ever
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seen before. At least I did. And last night, a very, very different Donald Trump. I've never seen him
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like this. Uh, I've never heard him speak this way. I've never seen him, uh, take the stage the way
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he did. He was humbled. Uh, and I think, you know, he pushed back on the crowd or the crowd pushed back
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on him halfway through the speech. He said, you know, I was not supposed to be here tonight. I'm not
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supposed to be here. And they started chanting, uh, yes, you were. Yes, you were. And, uh, he said,
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no, I wasn't. An assassin wanted me gone. And, uh, I wasn't supposed to address you today,
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but God saved my life. And it was not a moment of, uh, boasting. It was a moment I thought of clarity.
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Now there's something else that happened that I haven't heard a lot of people talk about. In fact,
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I haven't heard anybody talk about this yet. And I think it's very, very telling. Donald Trump has,
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uh, kind of shifted gears into this, into this zone of, I know what I know. I know what I feel.
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And, uh, I know who the other side is and they're dismissed. Um, he's not fighting them like he was
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before. Now that doesn't mean that he's not fighting. The one thing about Donald Trump is he's a fighter,
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but it's almost as if he feels that the outcome is already there. Um, and he doesn't need to,
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he doesn't need to push the envelope anymore. He just needs to say the truth. And, um, so he came
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out quiet, humbled. He did, uh, about 30 minutes of just riveting, uh, material that he wrote himself.
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He tore up the speech, wrote this speech himself, uh, which is also not Donald Trump. He usually will
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ad lib. Um, he doesn't usually write, um, his own material, but he wrote the first,
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uh, 20 minutes and probably the last 20 minutes as well. Um, the rest of it was kind of a stump
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speech, but, um, he, uh, he came out humbled and told the story of the assassination.
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He said at one point, uh, Joe Biden's name. And at one point when he said it, he said,
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I'm only going to say this once. And he talked about telling the story of the assassination and
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said, it's too painful. So I won't tell this story again. You'll hear it the first and last time from
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me tonight. When he brought up Joe Biden, do you remember the context Stu on, on when he first
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brought up Joe Biden and then apologized and said, I'm, I'm not going to say his name anymore.
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Yeah. He was talking about the 10 worst presidents of all time and how all of them added up together
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wouldn't get to Joe Biden. And that's when he said his name. Right. Right. And he said, I, you know,
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I didn't want, I didn't want it to be unclear who that president was that was worse than the 10 worst
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combined. Um, he said, but I'm not going to mention his name anymore. Um, and to me that may be lowering
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the temperature a little bit. I think that's one way to read it, but I think more importantly,
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I think he strategically is now looking at the fact that Joe Biden's not going to be the nominee.
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I just don't believe he's going to be the nominee. And, uh, it's only a matter of time. And Donald Trump,
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why waste his hour of television, or in his case, 90 minutes of television, making a case against a
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guy who's not going to be running. And that's why he kept saying, they, they made these things.
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This administration did this and did not say, uh, Donald Trump, or it did not say Joe Biden and did
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not say Kamala Harris. Now that the Kamala Harris thing, um, I think is because he just doesn't know
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if Kamala is the one running and, and why, why look back at the people who are so far behind you,
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uh, at this particular point. Um, but the, the hopeful side of me says that he didn't mention
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Kamala because he knows it's going to be Michelle Obama. And I only say hopeful because Stu will owe me,
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I think it's four grand, isn't it? Three. It's definitely three. It's a hundred percent three,
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three. And even that with inflation, I don't even know if we can really count three. I think we
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should probably lower. I don't know. Well, we'll talk about that. Five. It should be five. Yeah.
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Uh, because three just isn't what it was, you know, six months ago when we made this bad.
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I will say, thank God for Biden inflation, because by the time I paid this bet off,
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it will be worth nothing. $3,000 will be like what a loaf of bread is. We won't be able to buy a
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sandwich. No, we won't. Uh, all right. So, uh, there's a couple of, a couple of stories here
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that explain the speech. The first one is the New York times and the New York times. Trump in RNC
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speech struggles to turn page on the past. Well, it's a little difficult, you know, when the past
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involved assassination attempts, um, you know, a little difficult there. Donald, uh, J. Trump has
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been a man long undone by himself. He imperiled his presidency and political campaigns with personal
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grudges, impulsiveness, and an appetite for authoritarianism. You know, it's really strange
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how they keep seeing authoritarianism, uh, in Donald Trump when he's not done anything authoritarian.
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Uh, I mean, he might say, you know, we should go after the press and take away their license
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until he's reminded they don't have a license and, uh, and he wasn't serious in the first place.
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Lock her up until he wasn't serious in the first place. Um, I can't find the authoritarian streak in
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him myself on anything that he's actually done. Uh, and then they say also he's caused himself
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problems for his casual approach to the rule of law. Now, Stu, out of he who shall not be named
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and Donald Trump, which one has the casual approach to the rule of law? I don't know.
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Should we go over the latest court to overturn his student loan debacle?
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I know. I know. I read that this morning in the New York times after reading the casual approach
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to the rule of law. And then, you know, the next story is, oh, uh, another court said,
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you can't do that with student loans. He just keeps trying to go around the law. Yeah. Over
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and over again. The court overturned his latest attempt at student loans the same day he announced
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another attempt for, I think it was $1.5 billion of student loan relief. I mean, he is addicted
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to giving away money to these people. It's incredible. Uh, his, uh, unwillingness to accept
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electoral defeat and his actions that have resulted in $83 million in penalties, nearly three dozen
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felony convictions and additional legal trouble ahead. I mean, that's how they start. Uh, and I
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mean, you've got to be, I mean, you're just under the spell of witchcraft. Uh, if, if you buy into
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any of that, but on Thursday night with his right ear still bandaged five days after he was wounded
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by a would be assassins bullet. Okay. Can we talk about that for a second, Stu? Sure.
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The bandage. What they're trying to say here is he didn't need the bandage. Do you think he needed
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the bandage still? Um, yes. My guess is that, uh, his ear looks pretty funky right now and he doesn't
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necessarily want to walk out on stage with it looking that way. Yeah. I was actually hoping
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that he would take off the bandage because I think his ear probably looks worse. He lost the top of
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his ear and you know, that's kind of a, you know, you have to be, I mean, there's, there's conspiracies
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throwing around now. A third of Democrats believe that he set this up with the, uh, with the secret
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service. What to have his ear blown off. I mean, how delusional do you have to be? First
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of all, he's not the guy who's got the in with the secret service and you know, the spy agencies
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and everything else. It, the conspiracy doesn't, it falls apart pretty quickly, you know? Uh,
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it's not rational by any means. And, and it's, this is something Glenn, you see in polling every
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single time. If there is a conspiracy theory about your political opponent, about a third of people
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will believe it no matter what it is. That is like, now you can get higher than that. The Democrats,
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about 50% of them believed nine 11 was an inside job when George W. Bush was president. You can find
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numbers that get higher, but like the baseline number for a conspiracy theory against your political
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opponent is about a third. It just, it just is like it's people, a lot of people just taking the
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position they think hurts their opponent more than them actually believing it. I hope, but there are
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a lot of people, I mean, joy Reed is on television every single day talking about this stuff. I mean,
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they threw poor Joe Scarborough off the air. What did they think this guy was going to say? I mean,
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what do they think of Joe Scarborough if they leave joy Reed on the air?
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I never thought of it that way. That's amazing. You're exactly right. Yeah. So here, let me just
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switch gears here. Joy Reed posted a video of herself working through a bizarre conspiracy theory
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suggesting that the secret service helped Donald Trump to create the defiant photo image from the
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shooting. She noted the Biden campaign released a lot of detailed medical information about his
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condition within minutes of the announcement that he had contracted COVID-19 again. But when it comes
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to what happened on Saturday with former president Donald Trump, this assassination attempt, we know
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almost nothing about his medical condition. How come no one has any information about this wound?
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We still don't know for sure whether Donald Trump was hit by a bullet or whether he was hit by glass
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fragments, whether he was hit by shrapnel. We don't have any of those details. Glass fragments. Where were
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the glass fragments from? Was that the teleprompter that they say was hit?
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There was an initial report. I don't remember who reported it, but there was a report that it was
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glass fragments, and it wasn't even a liberal reporter. I remember reading it and being like,
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what? Like, what are you talking about? And then about five minutes later, you could see pictures of
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it where both of the teleprompters are still fully intact. I mean, it was a crazy theory that was
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debunked immediately, but people like Joy Reed, who are impossibly stupid, continue to believe it.
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And we have a picture, unlike anything I've ever seen, a picture of the bullet in flight as it's
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about to hit his head. I mean, it's incredible. Yeah, I think it's actually just...
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Could have been a fly, a really big mosquito. We don't know. We don't know.
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Yeah, I think the picture is just after it passes his head. But yes, I mean, it is about as...
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I mean, it's one of the most incredible photos ever taken. And the photographer who took it
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has basically the most impossible photo you can take. And it's still not the iconic photo of the
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incident, which is like kind of a... I mean, you go through the... You caught a bullet in your picture
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and still like somebody else got the picture of him standing up with his fist up with the blood
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streaming down his face, which is still the iconic photo of that day. But yeah, I mean,
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this is so stupid. They believe everything. They believe that, you know, the bandage is fake,
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that he didn't actually get injured. Like, I don't know. I thought it was glass that hit him. Now
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he didn't get injured at all. It doesn't need the bandage. I mean, it's just everything they come up
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with is dumber and dumber. They're just crazy. Really, truly crazy about him. It's just like they lose
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all reason. And for Joy Reid to be on the air on MSNBC is remarkable. And not because they should
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fire her because of her points of view. I don't believe in that. Just because she's dumb as a box
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of rocks, man. Yeah. She's crazy. She is crazy. To be fair, I don't think Joy Reid has lost all
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reason. She just didn't have it at any point. So it's impossible to lose for her in particular.
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00:18:12.800
Let me introduce you or reintroduce you to a dear friend of mine, Kathy Lee Gifford.
00:18:19.500
Glenn, I was trying this morning to think how long it's been since we used to hang out quite a bit
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in New York. And then you were smart and got left out before anybody did. And I got,
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you know, it took me longer. I left about five years ago, but I was praying for us this morning
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that our time together would be fruitful and blessed and favored of the Lord, because you and I
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have always understood that about each other, that everything we did and everything that fueled
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our life was not about us. It never has been. It never has been. So I am so happy to say hello
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Oh, me too. Me too. So you've written a new series of books or a new book that I think is going to
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develop into a series. It's the first. Right. And it's about, you know, right, right. I know.
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And this is the story of Herod and Mary. So tell me why this story is important and, and what's
00:19:28.140
Well, this I've lost track as I'm sure you have to have how many books you've written. I know it's
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over 30, but I have no idea and I don't care. It doesn't matter. I just keep finding stories
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that I, that I can't keep inside me. So in 2012, I went on my first rabbinical trip to the Holy Land
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with an amazing teacher named Ray Vanderlaan. And, and I learned for the first time, you know,
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Herod is mentioned just twice in Matthew, you know, just twice. And it's just, we know he's a bad guy.
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You can tell, but there's no, it's all in black and white, no color, no technicolor,
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no Dolby sound. Right. I went on this trip and I, the stuff I learned about Herod, I went,
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and this is what happens to me all the time on these trips. I get mad. Why didn't anybody ever
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tell me this? I was, I'm sick of being in grandma's Sunday school. Stop it. These stories are epic.
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They're unbelievable. They're not all in the Bible, but if you search deeper and deeper,
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well, so anyway, I came home so on fire about Herod that I literally, uh, my son found everything
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on the internet there was about every book. Cause I thought I got to make a movie about Herod.
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This is, if Jesus is the greatest story ever told and billions of people believe that Herod is one
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of the greatest stories never told. And I thought there's something. I don't, I don't know anything
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really about him. That's the point. And once you start learning his story, you're going to freak
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that he had, he was one of, first of all, one of the most genius architects, probably of all time.
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He, the, what he built in, in, um, Israel, uh, the architecture, the, the Caesarea maritime,
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it took two cents, no, two millennia for them to figure out how the man built a marina
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on the Mediterranean sea so that Caesar's ships could come to, and he called it Caesarea maritime.
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Why was it, why was it naming it after Caesar? Cause he needed Caesar. He had no army. He called
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himself the King of the Jews. He wasn't even a Jew. He was an Edomite, Edomite from basically
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modern day Jordan. He, he wasn't a Jew at all. So the Jews hated him. You know how they are about
00:21:45.700
their ancestry and the Romans didn't trust him cause he was, but he was, he got out of
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situations. He was like the consummate politician. Uh, he was, he was paranoid like crazy. So he was
00:21:59.600
always looking behind his back to see if, you know, of Julius Caesar was going to turn his back
00:22:03.940
on him or, uh, who, what's her name? Uh, Cleopatra tried to seduce him. He might be the only man
00:22:11.920
that ever said no to Cleopatra, but it's only cause he didn't want Mark Anthony to murder him.
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He, and he was turning his back about his whole family cause he was the richest man on the planet.
00:22:21.880
And he had all this power. It's a modern day story. Basically Glenn ripped from the headlines.
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Really? It's going on all over the world. It never changes. He murdered anybody and anybody that got in
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his way, including his children, the only woman he ever loved his wife, Mary Omni. And, and until
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our book opens basically at the end of, of his life, when we go back and we tell it from the time that
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he was first, uh, uh, uh, in, in born basically. And then we juxtapose it against the story of the
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beginning of Mary's life, this young virginal, uh, teenage girl from, from Nazareth who has been
00:23:04.560
visited by an angel, the purest of any kind of visitations could be. And he tells her what's
00:23:11.460
going to happen because God has blessed her. And she says, let it be unto me, as you have said,
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I mean, knowing that she could be stoned for this. She'd never been with a man. She knew it,
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but she knew nobody else would believe it. So it's an incredible story of Herod's debauchery and his
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evil is evil all contrasted up against Mary. So people ask me all the time, and I'm sure they do
00:23:36.760
you too, Glenn, Kathy, do you think there's more evil in the world now than there used to be? And I
00:23:41.920
always answer the same thing, which is no evil has been evil was in the garden of Eden. Even when
00:23:48.480
the Lord God was walking in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve, the serpent was there. So we
00:23:54.120
shouldn't be surprised by that. The only thing that's different now is that we have a lot of cable news
00:23:58.320
channels and we have cell phones. I said, but what we have to learn to do is realize that the Lord
00:24:06.920
God, creator God, Jehovah Elohim, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, the healer, all the names of Jehovah
00:24:14.840
are still here too. And that's who we have to look to. And that's what Mary did. And Mary had a journey
00:24:23.720
to take that would be excruciating, excruciating. And she said, yes, Lord. So basically, we open up
00:24:32.260
the book as a thriller. And I have to give great thanks to my co-writer, Brian Litson, PhD, because
00:24:40.060
I don't know how to write these kinds of books. I've written 30 some other kinds and they come to
00:24:45.880
me. But it was my son, Cody, who said, Mom, we got to take this passion you have for this ancient,
00:24:52.860
evil characters. The next one we're going to write is about Nero. And the next one probably about
00:24:57.960
Jezebel and Ahab. It's always been there. But I want people to have hope, Glenn, that even though
00:25:05.240
this evil is happening, we cling to the living hope. And the living hope shows up in the course of
00:25:13.200
telling the Herod story in the form of a young teenage girl who is carrying the savior of humankind
00:25:20.700
in her womb. And if that doesn't give you hope, what can happen? It really is interesting to me,
00:25:28.080
Kathy Lee, that, you know, in our darkest times, it is a choice. And this sounds really weird,
00:25:38.840
but one of the things that has really given me such hope in really dark times is, you know,
00:25:45.220
this might be the time, and I know everybody has said this for 2,000 years, but this might be the time
00:25:50.480
that Christ comes back. And when you really think about that, it's—I think some people would go,
00:25:56.300
whoa, wait, hold on, just say, I don't want to—but I think that's exhilarating to think that we could
00:26:03.920
be witnesses to those days that people have waited for forever. And when you have real faith that
00:26:12.980
Christ isn't surprised by any of this, God knew this from the beginning.
00:26:20.540
Right. It just—it takes all of the pressure off of—I mean, you still have to do what you're
00:26:26.140
supposed to do, but you don't carry the burden of all this evil. Yes, it takes the fear away.
00:26:32.840
You know, studying rabbinically, which means studying the source material of the Bible,
00:26:39.980
the ancient languages that are still around and they haven't changed, which is the Hebrew
00:26:44.360
and the Greek. You know that in the Hebrew Bible, there is no word for coincidence. None. Because
00:26:50.600
they believe, and I believe, and I think you do too, there is no such thing as coincidence. God is
00:26:55.880
either sovereign God in all things, or He's not God at all. So when you say good luck to somebody,
00:27:01.580
it's a waste of your breath. There's no such thing as luck. There's no such thing as random or
00:27:07.020
coincidence. No. He is sovereign God, and He always has been. He's the only thing that never
00:27:12.400
changes the world around us. My God, every time you wake up and you look at the news,
00:27:18.160
everything—we don't know who's going to be president this weekend. You know, we don't know
00:27:21.380
who's going to—we don't know anything. We just have to know Him. And it's not about religion. And you
00:27:27.400
and I've talked about this so often. It's about relationships with the living God. So I agree with
00:27:34.180
you, but people—when the first—and people don't understand this. They say, well, when the first
00:27:38.100
Christians were there when Jesus—I said, no, there weren't Christians when Jesus was alive.
00:27:41.960
Those were followers of the way. They were all Jews. All Jews. And not until Jesus was dead,
00:27:48.200
resurrected, and ascended to heaven, did the apostolic period begin. And it was Vero who
00:27:56.560
actually called them little Christians, because based on the word Christo. And he did it derisively.
00:28:04.440
My dog's trying to get off my table. No. I'm going to walk with my phone, if you don't mind,
00:28:08.580
for a second, just so I don't have a dead dog on my tongue.
00:28:11.380
Okay. Come here, VanVena. Come here, get some water. So I find that—
00:28:16.640
We're talking to Kathy Lee Gifford about her new book, Herod and Mary. It's a thriller,
00:28:22.240
but based on the true biblical story. Kathy, you know, you talk about no coincidence.
00:28:30.900
I think there was a change that happened after this attempted assassination on Donald Trump.
00:28:37.660
And it changed the country, and it changed him. Have you paid attention to the convention at all
00:28:44.460
this week and seen him? Because I know you know Donald Trump quite well.
00:28:49.300
I've known Donald since I first moved to New York in 1982, and he was already a good friend of Frank's
00:28:55.040
at that point. And his father, Fred, they all used to play golf together at all those great golf
00:29:00.780
courses in that area. And, you know, I try to avoid politics, because long ago, Billy Graham said
00:29:09.100
to me, Kathy, the only thing I really regret in my life was getting involved with politics.
00:29:14.220
God has put you on this planet to be in the entertainment world. He's given you a boldness
00:29:18.940
about your faith. He's told you—and he says, if I would—I love you, Kathy. He told me this in my
00:29:24.740
20s. God is going to use you hugely in the media, in the world of entertainment. Just keep telling
00:29:32.200
people that he loves him, that God loves them. That's it. And the three times that Frank and I
00:29:38.660
got involved in politics was because we sued the state of New York for things that were against
00:29:43.600
children, and we won every time. But that was not political in the sense of Republican, Democrat.
00:29:49.300
It was about children. Right. So I don't want to ask you about politics. I know. I know you don't.
00:29:58.560
I just wanted to let everybody know I am not a political animal, but I follow it like an animal.
00:30:04.320
And I know how I feel about things. I pray about everything. I pray for Donald because he's a
00:30:10.360
friend of mine. And when I was just giving birth to Cassidy, and that's 31 years ago, he saved me
00:30:16.400
and Cassidy from a crazed psycho who was trying to murder me and her. And he sent his helicopter
00:30:23.200
for me and Cassidy. He sent his—like, more and more every single day until they found this guy.
00:30:29.500
I had more people around me protecting me. And I just—I mean, that's the Donald that I've known
00:30:35.080
forever. Now, of course, yeah, so that's—I can't help it. I have a personal experience with this man
00:30:41.540
that very few people ever have. But I've watched with interest the spiritual changes, the journey
00:30:49.780
that he has been on all these years, because I've spoken to him at my home and—or different
00:30:54.640
places, and Mar-a-Lago, you know, about Jesus. That's all I talk about to anybody. Not if they
00:31:01.380
don't want to talk about it, but if they want to. And he was always so respectful and always
00:31:06.320
understood what I was talking about. Yes. And then he just respected it. And that's what people
00:31:12.360
don't realize about Donald. He will listen to people. He's fascinated by people. And he wants
00:31:22.560
This is the best of the Glenn Beck Podcast. It's a compilation of clips from various episodes.
00:31:27.460
If you want to dig deeper into this interview, check out the full podcast episode.
00:31:30.900
I have been taking art lessons for, I don't know, five, six years, and have gotten to know
00:31:39.760
some great artists. And my art teacher said to me as I was trying to say, I just wanted
00:31:46.000
to paint landscapes because it took my mind off of everything. And as she was teaching me
00:31:50.940
and I would paint, she would say, tell me a story. And I would tell her a story of something.
00:31:54.840
And she said, when I finished that landscape, she said, that should be the last landscape you
00:31:58.340
ever do. She said, you have all so many great American stories. You should paint stories.
00:32:03.100
And we started talking about how our artists no longer tell stories. You know, it's kind
00:32:07.960
of like, you know, Hilton hotel art. It's just kind of, you know, what's up on the wall and
00:32:13.800
people can't afford really good fine art. And, uh, it's hard to find things of meaning that
00:32:21.680
you want to have in your home. And so we started working with, uh, 30 of some of the best artists
00:32:30.220
alive today in America and a few of them from overseas that just love America. And we started
00:32:36.500
taking them through the museum, uh, that I have where we have a massive collection of, um, you know,
00:32:45.640
of, of, of American history. And we wanted these artists to go through and find something that
00:32:51.860
really inspired them, a story from American history that they wanted to paint and that
00:32:57.360
they wanted to bring to life. Um, and we are doing a show at my studio. It'll be the first
00:33:04.680
time we open up the studios since for a very long time. Um, and it is called the American
00:33:10.720
narratives in fine art. And it is going to be a combination of paintings and historic
00:33:18.100
artifacts. And there's not going to be any experts there to judge it and say, Oh, well,
00:33:22.880
look at the brushstrokes. It is going to be judged by you. You will vote on which painting
00:33:29.340
told the American story, the best one, which artist moved you to want to reconnect with American
00:33:38.080
history. It'll be something for your whole family to come and see. And also this art will
00:33:42.840
be for sale. Um, to give you, uh, people just don't know great artists, uh, necessarily anymore
00:33:50.460
like we used to, but one of the greatest living artists, I believe in, in today's world, if
00:33:55.680
I had an unlimited amount of cash and I could buy anybody, everything this man's ever done,
00:34:00.800
I would, um, his name is Thomas Blackshear. He is the Norman Rockwell of our day. In fact,
00:34:07.580
he's just been, um, inducted into the illustrators, American illustrators hall of fame, which Dean
00:34:14.640
Cornwell, all these great, great, you know, uh, Winslow Homer, um, are in the hall of fame.
00:34:20.620
He's a living artist and he's incredible the way he tells stories. Um, and he called this week,
00:34:30.640
he's doing a couple of things. He's doing Charlie Chaplin, uh, based on, we have his cane. Um,
00:34:36.580
he's, we have the props, the, the 10 commandment props that you will see from the movie. He's doing
00:34:42.260
this amazing painting of Charlton Heston as Moses. Um, and he called and he said, look,
00:34:48.700
I know this isn't political. He said, but, uh, I want to pray on this, but I wanted to know if I
00:34:54.560
could paint the iconic picture of Trump getting back up off the ground with his fist. And I said,
00:35:01.720
Thomas, whatever the Lord tells you to do, you are more than welcome to do. Uh, Thomas Blackshear
00:35:08.180
joins me now, uh, to talk about that painting and, and, uh, and this art show. Welcome Thomas. How are
00:35:15.400
you? Thank you so very much for having me on Glenn. Good talking with you. You bet. Good talking to
00:35:21.660
you, my friend. Um, so are you going to do the president's rise back up off the stage?
00:35:29.240
I, I plan on still maybe doing a painting like that, but my main thing was trying to make sure
00:35:35.660
I had it in time for your show. I'm still trying to figure out if I'm going to be able to get that
00:35:39.920
done or not, because I am still working on the other three. So, um, that's something I, like I said,
00:35:46.220
I will be doing. It's just a matter of trying to see if I can still get it done on time.
00:35:50.000
And that's what I'm still trying to figure out. So, well, I will tell you, uh, because some of
00:35:55.300
them are going to go up for auction and even if it's unfinished, you should bring it because I think,
00:36:00.060
uh, people would pay a good price for that one, Thomas. I think that is within your style. That's
00:36:06.160
going to be absolutely incredible because it is an iconic moment. Tell, so tell me the stories that
00:36:12.100
attracted you that you wanted to tell. Well, I mean, man, when you sent us that list,
00:36:20.000
you had so much to choose from, it was hard to try to figure out what to do. And, uh, you know, I,
00:36:28.500
I knew for sure. I think the first thing that struck a chord was the piece, uh, to do a piece
00:36:35.380
on the emancipation proclamation because you had a copy of that. So I'm like, yes, yeah, maybe I
00:36:41.120
should do one on that. So that's the first one I chose to work on. And, uh, I think I came up with
00:36:46.120
a real nice design for that one. So I was pretty excited about that particular piece. And then
00:36:52.140
it reminds me, Thomas, if I may, your painting reminds me of, cause I've only seen the outline
00:36:58.680
and the, and the early color study of it. Um, but it reminds me of a cover of, um, that, uh,
00:37:08.260
uh, Norman Rockwell did years ago. And I can't remember the scene, but you have the emancipation
00:37:15.620
proclamation printed. And then you have, I believe it's the Lincoln Memorial and behind in front of
00:37:22.720
that. And then a black man, uh, in the, in the flag wrapped around him, uh, with the opened, uh,
00:37:32.180
handcuffs or chains and it's just stunning, stunning. Yeah. Yeah. That, that was interesting
00:37:38.800
because believe it or not, that photograph of that man was taken at least almost 40 years ago.
00:37:49.380
And I just had it sitting in my studio. Yeah. Yeah. And I, cause I, you, you took that picture
00:37:55.980
40 years ago. Yeah. Yeah. What happened was this. I was living, when I first got married,
00:38:03.480
I was living in an apartment complex in California and there was a neighbor of mine who, and this
00:38:10.040
woman who was living there had a boyfriend who was a football player. And he, you know, he, he had a
00:38:14.960
nice physique and every time he walked by, I kept saying, man, I need to use that guy on something.
00:38:19.360
So, you know, I went up to him and asked him if he would pose for me. And he said he would.
00:38:23.360
And so, um, he came over and I was trying to figure out, well, what do I do with them? You
00:38:29.140
know? And so I said, well, let me, I don't know why I just said, let me wrap them up in the American
00:38:33.140
flag. And that's what I did. And to be honest with you, the photographs really weren't that well
00:38:39.220
done, but they were good enough to give me the impression in the image I needed. And I've just
00:38:43.760
been sitting on them for the last 40 years. Unbelievable. So, um, Thomas, besides us,
00:38:51.560
if I may call you a friend, I don't know if you call me a friend, but I, I consider you a dear
00:38:57.300
friend. Um, I don't want to ever assume. Um, but, uh, uh, I just, I just love you so much and I
00:39:06.800
love your work so much. Um, besides me calling you and asking you to do this, why are you doing
00:39:12.980
this particular art show? Cause you are, you're everywhere. I mean, just won the Grand Prix of the
00:39:18.520
West and, uh, you know, inducted in the illustrator's hall of fame. You are so busy.
00:39:25.540
What is it about this art show that is different to you?
00:39:30.480
Well, the show is very unique. No, nobody that I know of has ever done a show like this before.
00:39:38.180
I mean, I mean, for you, first of all, to be the kind of historian you are and then having all these
00:39:43.520
artifacts and memorabilia that you've gotten and, and to do a show where you display a painting and
00:39:51.140
then next to it will be the artifact. I mean, that's just unique and different. It's just a
00:39:55.420
different concept. Uh, and then, like I said, because of everything you own, my goodness. And,
00:40:01.640
and then the artists that you've chosen, I mean, it was kind of interesting because one of the artists,
00:40:05.780
uh, one of my friends, uh, Frank Ordaz, uh, he showed me some of the stuff he was working on.
00:40:11.060
And when I saw what he was doing for you, I said, Oh my goodness, I'm going to have to up my game
00:40:14.880
because it looks so good. I just said, Oh boy, here we go. You know, I got, I can't come in here
00:40:25.220
looking like, you know, some kind of slouch boy. So I've been doing what I could to just try to,
00:40:30.220
you know, do a nice piece with some of the, uh, the images that I'm doing. So.
00:40:35.780
So we've done, uh, you've been up to the ranch a couple of summers, uh, where we've had some of
00:40:41.580
these artists come up and learn how to storytell from people like Pixar and, uh, and, and others.
00:40:48.720
And, um, uh, I, I have gotten the impression, uh, that many of the artists, uh, not necessarily you,
00:40:57.520
but many of the artists, um, have a hard time because they'll be pegged for one particular kind
00:41:04.320
of thing and they want to branch out and they want to tell these stories, but they just haven't
00:41:09.700
had the chance because some of the galleries are like, no, we don't, that won't sell. That won't sell.
00:41:16.060
And they may be right in the end. I would hate to say this. They may be right in the end, but I don't
00:41:20.900
think they are. I think people are hungry for inspiring art. And, you know, one of yours is the picture
00:41:28.420
of the angel guarding the child sleeping. Uh, what do you call that one?
00:41:38.900
Oh my gosh. That is one of the most stunning paintings I've ever seen. Um, and it's religious
00:41:47.860
without being overtly religious. Um, you, you have another one, I can't remember what it's called,
00:41:55.180
but it's a black man and he is wrapped in like a club, uh, a shroud of stars or something. It's been
00:42:03.100
a while since I've seen it. Another unbelievable painting. The image is called Night and Day. And,
00:42:11.780
uh, the painting is supposed to depict nighttime being wrapped up in daylight. And that's the idea
00:42:20.160
I got. But what was unique about the painting was it's the first time I had ever done a painting for
00:42:25.260
an art show and I didn't know what to do. So I prayed about it. And I asked the Lord, I said,
00:42:31.620
Doug, I need a painting. I don't know what to do. Could you give me an image? I just make,
00:42:36.620
I just ask you to make it an incredible design and give me nice colors and a powerful image.
00:42:44.420
And I don't remember how long it took, but it might've been a couple of weeks. But I remember
00:42:49.460
all of a sudden one day he flashes this image inside of me. I saw it inside of my, my mind
00:42:56.500
and it was perfect. And all I did from that point on was copied what he showed me. So, uh, throughout
00:43:06.220
my career, there's been at least six to seven times where God gave me an image and all I had to do was
00:43:14.300
copy it. The, the most, uh, recognized image that I've done. And I did it many years ago is a painting
00:43:20.700
called forgiven. And that pain came the same way where I prayed about it and God showed me the
00:43:27.660
pain. And so when that happens, all I have to do is copy what he shows me. And I, and that's how I
00:43:34.920
get a lot of the images because he just gives them to me. You make that sound so easy, but seeing that
00:43:41.480
he's the greatest painter ever, uh, it's, it's not as easy as you make it sound. Uh, I I'm, I'm so
00:43:50.880
thrilled to be your friend. I'm, I am, as you know, I, I, I own one of your originals and it is,
00:43:58.820
it is, I mean, I, I've got a few really good paintings and that is my favorite painting that I own. And I,
00:44:07.100
I honestly wish I could own many more of yours. Uh, and it's an honor to have you as part of this
00:44:12.840
art show. I, I'm just, you are the Norman Rockwell, uh, you know, the JC Leyendecker of our day. And I,
00:44:19.600
I just, I'm thrilled to have you. So thank you so much. That is a big burden to carry my man, but
00:44:30.140
You carry it well. Thank you so much. Um, I want you to look up Thomas Blackshear. Uh, it's, uh,
00:44:38.580
thomasblackshearii.com. You'll see some of his stuff. You just go back into his past and you'll
00:44:44.280
find these things that you've seen a million times. Um, and, uh, he's just remarkable. He'll be one of
00:44:51.400
the 30 outstanding top of their craft artists that will be joining me, um, at the studio in September
00:44:59.780
when we try the first, uh, American narrative in fine art, where we are trying to get these artists
00:45:07.480
to be able to see that they can branch out from a barn or a horse or something that kind of feels
00:45:14.780
like America and restore the storytelling to fine art. So, you know, you may not be able to afford the
00:45:22.480
original, but you could afford the print of it and hang it in your home. And it will teach your
00:45:27.380
children about history in a very uplifting and inspiring way. And we enjoy, we, uh, invite you
00:45:34.440
to join us, um, at this, uh, event at the Mercury studios in September. Uh, it will be September 20 and
00:45:44.440
21, Friday and Saturday at the Mercury studios. We have a hundred works of art and the original
00:45:52.480
documents or the original artifacts from American history to sit next to it. Uh, join us. You can