Shownotes
This podcast episode features an engaging discussion with Byron Chisholm, the esteemed creator of Bad Byron's Butt Rub, a product that has significantly impacted the barbecue industry. We delve into Byron's journey from a passionate cook to a revered figure in the barbecue community, exploring the genesis of his renowned rub and the challenges he faced along the way. Our conversation also encompasses the evolution of barbecue culture, highlighting how the rise of media and competitive cooking has transformed the landscape of this culinary art. Byron shares invaluable insights from his extensive experience, offering advice for aspiring pitmasters and reflecting on the camaraderie within the barbecue community. Join us as we celebrate the artistry of barbecue and the stories that shape its rich tradition.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Turner Don't Burn
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- Bad Byron's Butt Rub Incorporated
- Weston Kia
- Heritage Steel
- Hammerstahl
- Oregon Dungeness Crab
- Pig Powder
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcripts
It's time for Barbecue Nation with jt so fire up your grill, light the charcoal, and get your smoker cooking now from the Turner Don't Burn it studios in Portland.
Speaker A:Here's jt.
Speaker A:This is an encore.
Speaker B:Hey, everybody.
Speaker C:Welcome to The Nation.
Speaker C:I'm J.T.
Speaker C:Along with my co pilot and co conspirator there, Ms. Leanne Whiffin, along with Dave and Chris and the rest of people who you don't see very often.
Speaker C:We'd like to thank the folks at Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Speaker C:Beef the way nature intended.
Speaker C:Well, we've got a bike.
Speaker D:How.
Speaker C:I was going to say a bicon, meaning a barbecue icon, but I couldn't.
Speaker C:I couldn't make the word up fast enough.
Speaker C:We've got an icon with us today.
Speaker C:Excuse me.
Speaker C:Byron Chisholm.
Speaker C:You all know him from Bad Byron's Butt Rub Incorporated, you might say.
Speaker C:And he's been gracious enough to take the time to spend the next hour with us, with Leanne and myself.
Speaker C:Byron, welcome, bud.
Speaker E:Yes, glad to be here.
Speaker E:Thank you.
Speaker E:I've been looking forward to it.
Speaker C:So, to.
Speaker C:To start off the top of the show, do you have any real funky stories about Leanne?
Speaker F:Ah,.
Speaker E:Funky stories, but I know we go way back.
Speaker E:I. I got to know her dad a long time ago.
Speaker E:My first major barbecue competition was in Tryon, North Carolina.
Speaker E:I wore this shirt.
Speaker F:There it is.
Speaker C:There it is.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:In honor of Louis, Leanne and her dad, Mr. Jintaf.
Speaker E:That was a great contest.
Speaker E: rst major contest ever did in: Speaker E:And I went back probably 15, 16 times through the years before, if you know, the contest, finally this panel.
Speaker E:But it was, it was just a wonderful contest.
Speaker E:That's where I met Leanne.
Speaker E:And then, of course, they would travel together in the early days and all cook together.
Speaker E:And that's, that's how I met Leanne, a long time ago.
Speaker E:So we've been friends again while.
Speaker C:Long time.
Speaker C:Yeah, a long time.
Speaker C:So, Leanne, now, turnabouts, fair play.
Speaker C:Do you have any.
Speaker C:Before we get into the questioning and the cross examination here, as we do on the show, do you have any stories about Byron?
Speaker F:I remember him being at Blue Ridge, and I think I said earlier that I thought he won first place in all four categories.
Speaker F:My mistake.
Speaker F:It was only first place in three categories.
Speaker F:But I remember being dumbfounded because it always was a very large contest.
Speaker F:And, and I remember him competing, like, by himself.
Speaker F:And I couldn't understand how he could do it all by himself, even though I did a lot by myself.
Speaker F:I Mean, I had little helpers, you know, that ran around, but.
Speaker F:Yeah, and I remember him always having his dog with him and bringing honey and.
Speaker F:Yeah, and I just remember being awestruck because everyone said, oh, he's a professional chef.
Speaker F:He's a chef.
Speaker F:And I was like, oh, my God, he's not just a pit master.
Speaker F:He's a chef, too.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah.
Speaker E:I hung up my white coats.
Speaker C:Yeah, there you go.
Speaker C:What were you cooking on in those days, Byron?
Speaker E:Well, man, you know, different.
Speaker E:Different years, different grills.
Speaker E:You know, you just keep moving along and, and, and look, you know, you're going for something, and if you don't think you find it, you keep getting the grills until you find it, you know?
Speaker E:So I. I learned not to ever sell my grills because if I ever want it to begin with, I might want it back.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker E:I just learned a warehousing, but she talked to me.
Speaker E:It was talking about how I cook myself.
Speaker E:Well, there's a good reason for us, because when I started marketing Butt Rob, I was traveling freely.
Speaker E:I had no friends that could travel freely.
Speaker E:I mean, you know, I'm in my 30s, and it's like, I. I don't know any.
Speaker E:Anybody that can travel with me.
Speaker E:And so I had to learn how to do it by myself because I was the only one that could go to all these events.
Speaker E:I would have some help at different times, different places, and it was messing me up, because unless I had the same help, you know, consistently, it was messing me up.
Speaker E:And I'm like, man, I remember cooking 200 covers with just a couple of us in the kitchen.
Speaker E:I'm like, golly, I need four boxes.
Speaker E:I figured this out.
Speaker E:The one thing I always needed was a runner, though.
Speaker E:And a runner, they always got a million questions for you, so it was a destruction.
Speaker E:But, you know, you just deal with what you got.
Speaker E:And I was just glad to be doing it.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker C:Did you ever find it where you were at the end of the day?
Speaker C:You went, oh, my God, why did I take this on all by myself?
Speaker E:No, I. I didn't have.
Speaker E:I got into a rhythm by myself.
Speaker E:I actually kind of think that I had an advantage because once I started clicking and I started moving and I started doing and doing a segue and segment, it's like, you know, I look next door, and then before people having a meeting about what they're going to do next, well, I've already made three moves by then.
Speaker E:So I would get some momentum going.
Speaker E:And by the time, getting an attorney in time, I'm fluid, I'm rolling, I'm clicking, and I'm on it.
Speaker E:So in a lot of ways, it's a big advantage.
Speaker E:Ideally, though, I think the best teams, in my opinion, is a husband and wife, if not a husband, wife, at least two people that work together all the time, because, you know, you just, you just need a little bit more help, especially around a box.
Speaker E:And if you have taken a volunteer to do that every time.
Speaker E:Just a lot of distractions.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:What was the toughest part that you thought of or what did you think was the toughest part when you were competing?
Speaker C:Was it just getting there and setting up, or was it, you know, doing the boxes?
Speaker C:Was it monitoring the, the fire, so to speak, all night, or what?
Speaker E:Toughest part for me was mechanical because there's so many moving parts to your truck, to your.
Speaker E:I had a fifth wheel for most of these years.
Speaker E:There's so many mechanical things and the grills and there's so.
Speaker E:And every time something didn't work, man, that throw me into a tailspin because I'm not very handy.
Speaker E:And I'm counting on all these things working, you know, they're all working.
Speaker E:I'm okay.
Speaker E:I can, I can.
Speaker E:You know, as anybody knows who competes it, I mean, you spend all week getting ready.
Speaker E:You know, you meet selection, prepping all your sauces, injections, all your things you do and, and getting the rig ready and service and all that.
Speaker E:So I'm, I'm organized.
Speaker E:I can do all that, and I can get to the event.
Speaker E:I'm, I'm kind of a amateur trucker, so I can get there, I can get set up, and I'm poised, but when something starts breaking, I get my ass kicked.
Speaker E:Fortunately, a lot of the barbecues are handy, and neighbors come around, and I kind of help you out, you know, when you, when you can.
Speaker E:So.
Speaker C:No, that's, that's true.
Speaker C:I, I have a certain set of skills, but none of, they're not consistent.
Speaker C:Some of it's in cooking, some of it's mechanical.
Speaker C:Very little in mechanical, although I, I, I ride a, a mean riding mower, I'll tell you that.
Speaker C:I'm good at making lines.
Speaker C:I got the forest Forrest Gump thing down, man.
Speaker C:It's a boom.
Speaker E:Love it.
Speaker C:Do you compete anymore?
Speaker C:Are you too busy with your, with your company?
Speaker E: You know,: Speaker E:I had several.
Speaker E:I had basically evolved to competing for the international.
Speaker E:That's what was driving me.
Speaker E: In fact,: Speaker E:Of course.
Speaker E:And then I had a couple of years of them shut down.
Speaker E:You know, we all did.
Speaker E:And I got used to not competing.
Speaker E:And for the first time since I started, I had a clean break and I got comfortable not competing.
Speaker E:So I had 21 years that I competed.
Speaker E:The business is 20.
Speaker E:We're in a 26 year now.
Speaker E:So, yeah, that's pretty good tenure.
Speaker E:I think I just did some real calculations.
Speaker E:Most people, they might compete 10 years.
Speaker E:You know, that's.
Speaker E:That's kind of some people more, some people less.
Speaker E:But 21 years, that's good tenure.
Speaker E:It ran its course.
Speaker E:It had run its course a while back.
Speaker E:My thing was, I was.
Speaker E:I was about to want to start doing other things, other competing.
Speaker E: e first KCBS in Europe was in: Speaker E:I'm like, Whoa, man.
Speaker E:KCBS going to Amsterdam, going to Europe.
Speaker E:I'm like, I'm there.
Speaker E:I'm like, I don't know who I need to talk to about what and how we're going to do this, but I'm going.
Speaker E:And it was beautiful.
Speaker E:I had such a great time.
Speaker E:Such hospitality.
Speaker E:They're so excited over there to get started doing that.
Speaker E:And they were.
Speaker E:They were glad to have an American representative.
Speaker E:I was the only one.
Speaker E:And then as they started popping them up, I. I went to as many as I could, and I wound up having a complete set, you know, grill everything.
Speaker E:I'd fly into Europe.
Speaker E:I've got everything I need, except pressure.
Speaker E:It was in a friend of mine's garage.
Speaker E:You know, tent, tables, chairs, whatever it was, it was kind of roughing it, but I was seeing cactus in there, going to.
Speaker E:And that was beautiful.
Speaker E:That's what kind of gave me an extended eight years on top of other domestic, you know, traveling with Barcade.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker F:Did you find that when you were competing outside of the country, that it was much different because of the meats you could get your hands on?
Speaker E:Well, at first, yes.
Speaker E:And then they figured out real quick how to find suppliers for what they wanted.
Speaker E:So they started getting Australian briskets.
Speaker E:They started getting prime briskets.
Speaker E:They didn't cut pork the way we do with the pork butt and everything.
Speaker E:Even the ribs were from real small hogs.
Speaker E:There were a lot of challenges at first, but they quickly.
Speaker E:When there's demand, there's a supply.
Speaker E:You know, they all got together and there was enough of them.
Speaker E:Where I know this one market in.
Speaker E:In Amsterdam.
Speaker E:I'd go there, they'd have it all.
Speaker E:I'd go through, look at all these Australian briskets.
Speaker E:They had all these pork butts from, from Heritage Breed hogs.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:So no, it took a while, but.
Speaker E:A little while, but, but, but you know, with the Internet and everything else, they, they knew what products people were winning with.
Speaker E:They, you'd go there and you'd look around the cook sites and you'd see the same products you see in the States, you know, and, and a lot of them, I don't know, YouTube, whatever, and a lot of it just taking classes.
Speaker E:And then a handful of them have been to the US and major events and stuff like that.
Speaker E:So they weren't as far behind as might think.
Speaker E:And then they caught on real fast.
Speaker E:It got real competitive and still is.
Speaker E:But anyway, I just love the hospitality.
Speaker E:I, I was, I was always treated so well over there and people were excited to see me.
Speaker E:You know, I go to a local contest.
Speaker E:It's like, hey, hey, how you doing?
Speaker E:How you doing?
Speaker E:Oh, there.
Speaker E:It's like, hey, I brought you something.
Speaker E:Brought you something.
Speaker E:I brought some beer for my country.
Speaker E:You know, I got these gifts all the time.
Speaker F:It's like.
Speaker E:It is beautiful.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I love Europe.
Speaker C:I like to travel anyway.
Speaker C:I used to do it for a living.
Speaker C:I don't do that anymore, but I love to travel.
Speaker C:It's always fun to go places you haven't been, meet the people.
Speaker E:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:And yeah, the thing about the barbecue thing is you're not, you're not on the tourist trail.
Speaker E:You're, you're, you're amongst the locals in, in a community somewhere.
Speaker E:You know, you look around, there's no tour buses.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:Your experience and you know, of course, a lot of people, you know, hey, look, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna show you here.
Speaker E:I want to take you there.
Speaker E:I want to take you there.
Speaker E:And everywhere you go, you look.
Speaker E:And you're the only one that's not from there.
Speaker E:And that's when you know you're in the right place.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker C:Oh, well, I woke up a few times like that, being the only one there and in the right place, I guess.
Speaker C:But yeah, yeah, that's another story and another show, I'll tell you that.
Speaker C:We're gonna take a break.
Speaker C:We're gonna be back with Byron Chisholm.
Speaker C:Sorry, just a minute.
Speaker C:Don't go away.
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Speaker A:This is an encore.
Speaker C:Welcome back to the Nation.
Speaker C:I'm JT along with Ms. Leanne whipping, hall of Famer there.
Speaker C:And we've got Byron Chisholm with us today, if you are.
Speaker F:He's newly inducted to the hall of Fame.
Speaker C:I was.
Speaker C:That was.
Speaker F:Well, actually, the big ceremony is coming up, right?
Speaker C:That was in my script.
Speaker C:But yeah, it's good.
Speaker C:No, that's good.
Speaker C:Shows you're paying attention.
Speaker C:I like that.
Speaker C:It's all good.
Speaker C:Byron, what, let's get the obvious out of the way here.
Speaker C:What prompted you to go into the rub business?
Speaker E:It was just a natural expression of cooking because was I was serious about cooking as a hobby by the time I graduated from college, you know, I was real serious about it and I was really trying to find, you know, so what kind of career path I've got.
Speaker E:A lot of people were, you know, getting a bunch of suits and moving to Atlanta and Houston, place like that.
Speaker E:And like, man, that's just not me.
Speaker E:I don't, I don't know where I'm supposed to be.
Speaker E:And anyway, I finally, I said, well, you like cooking, you know, you're finally good at something that you could potentially make a living at, so why don't you give it a try, you know.
Speaker E:And that's when I started cooking for a living.
Speaker E:And most people don't graduate college and, you know, become a line cook as their dream job, especially in a seasonal floor panhandle.
Speaker E:But I did and worked out pretty good.
Speaker E:I mean, I enjoy cooking for restaurants.
Speaker E:I got, you know, accepted and challenged and I got better and better and better at it and I liked it and I went to culinary school.
Speaker E:But all along.
Speaker E:And now all this is in our documentary the Butler Story.
Speaker E:And I'll tell you more about that later.
Speaker E:But we told the whole story about how I got into this.
Speaker E:But I had a neighbor that taught me how to Barbecue.
Speaker E: This is: Speaker E:They, you know, barbecue.
Speaker E:And that was a small niche group of people that knew how to do that really back then.
Speaker E:So he taught me How.
Speaker E:And I really fell in love with it.
Speaker E:I brought that grill to culinary school in New York, Hyde Park, New York.
Speaker E:And, you know, we had seasonal work done in Florida, where I was.
Speaker E:Where I was cooking and, you know, real nice restaurants, and I was getting real good training there.
Speaker E:But I had a lot of downtime, and in that downtown, I spent a lot of time on that grill.
Speaker E:So naturally, every component to barbecue and came, came out of me.
Speaker E:You know, this is where I do baked beans.
Speaker E:This is my sauce.
Speaker E:You know, I learned about rub because I grew up in Texas and I had some Texas cookbooks, and otherwise, nobody else knew about rub.
Speaker E:Not at that time.
Speaker E:In.
Speaker E:In the south, we wasn't part of the barbecue deal that all came out of Central Texas.
Speaker E:So nonetheless, I read about it, made sense.
Speaker E:So I came up with my own little salt and pepper blend.
Speaker E:Didn't think that much of it, but I love the fact that I was using this rub on bus.
Speaker E:And then I just.
Speaker E:I was sitting there, you know, I'm like, well, I guess this is a butt rub.
Speaker E:And I just laughing to myself, you know.
Speaker E:Anyway, long story short, when I came out with my own way of doing products, I wanted to give them away as gifts and to give them away as gifts.
Speaker E:I then decided to personalize the jars, and that's where the pig got created.
Speaker E:And one thing, that's another.
Speaker E:But it just looked like it ought to be something that'll be on a grocery store shelf somewhere.
Speaker E:And so then I said, well, why not?
Speaker E:Why not?
Speaker E:You know why?
Speaker E:When I just test the waters and see how people like this stuff, and that's how I got into it, do.
Speaker C:You think that people that are getting into the rub business now, now, like your rub, Leanne's Rub, you know, came from her dad and stuff.
Speaker C:I mean, they are.
Speaker C:They are.
Speaker C:And pardon the pun, they are well seasoned.
Speaker C:They're veteran rubs out there.
Speaker C:They're.
Speaker C:They've got a marketplace for them.
Speaker C:Do you think there's too many rubs getting tossed on the market?
Speaker C:Now?
Speaker C:I.
Speaker E:If.
Speaker C:Let me give you an example.
Speaker C:You look at.
Speaker C:Of course, we do a lot of social media with the shows.
Speaker C:I see new rubs coming out every day.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And there's.
Speaker C:They're probably just dandy.
Speaker C:You know what I mean?
Speaker C:But.
Speaker C:But so many of them, it's like, well, this is Bob's and this is Jill's, and this is Ted's, and, you.
Speaker E:Know, this is Dad's is kind of spicy.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:But I mean, it's.
Speaker C:It's a very competitive at the retail level, it's a very competitive business, especially on store shelves.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker E:Yeah, well, you know, the way the free market works is, you know, if something's ever crowded and people start dropping off, I mean, it's supply and demand and, you know, there's.
Speaker E:It's kind of like the craft beer business.
Speaker E:You know, if you had, if you had a good craft beer 15 years ago, man, you had them lined up.
Speaker E:You know, you, you had the only one and, you know, maybe 300 mile radius now.
Speaker E:I mean, every little, little old town has got a craft brewery.
Speaker E:And so it's just the best ones will survive.
Speaker E:It's people that are most committed to getting them off the ground will separate themselves from everybody else.
Speaker E:Because a lot of times people, revolution is like, well, I mean, this is great.
Speaker E:So I'm gonna make it and put on the market.
Speaker E:And then it's like they got a garage full of it, and it's like, whoa.
Speaker E:I mean, you know, they realize there's a lot of work involved here.
Speaker E:I mean, I was, I was.
Speaker E:We were going from store to store to store, you know, until we start getting some momentum.
Speaker E:So the big advantage that I had, I guess I got.
Speaker E:I got an early start.
Speaker E:I mean, a rub was not a common thing in the South.
Speaker E:We had to explain to people how to.
Speaker E:What it was.
Speaker E:And then, oh, do you want to buy some?
Speaker E:You know, but we got it off the ground.
Speaker E:It.
Speaker E:It's worked out, you know, and then the thing that's really kept us in business is our brand loyalty, because we got in early, because a lot of people tried it and liked it.
Speaker E:They've been using it for a long time.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker E:It's like they're, they're not just going to abandon you just because there's a new flashy object over there.
Speaker E:You know, this is part of their memories.
Speaker E:Growing up, I, I had someone that was graduating college who said, every barbecue, I remember from my uncles and my dad, they had butt rough.
Speaker E:You know, it's a part of their life, you know, and so that's, that's the thing that I, that I'm grateful for that, that I, you know, I don't know.
Speaker E:I mean, there's so much competition out there, and they're pulling away from the pie, but we're, we're holding on and even growing.
Speaker E:But I think it's just because we got an early start, we got a foothold, and we got some good brand.
Speaker C:Lol.
Speaker E:Good little customers.
Speaker E:They've stayed with us.
Speaker E:And so we just do our thing.
Speaker E:And I guess a lot of people will give it a try, and you'll probably see a lot of them, you know, start fading out.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I think.
Speaker C:I think there's probably people we've had on this show that we talked about their stuff three or four years ago, and then we haven't heard from them.
Speaker C:You know, not a lot of them, but a handful of them that stuck their toe in the water, so to speak.
Speaker C:And then to get, like I said, to get retail shelf space, it's one thing to do it off a website and sell it out of that, but you still got to be able to prove it that the product is good.
Speaker C:And the only way you do that is get it in people's hands.
Speaker E:One.
Speaker E:One difference that I. I about my direction was that when I decided to do this, that was my job.
Speaker C:We're going to take another break.
Speaker C:We're going to be back with bad Byron Chisholm and his butt rub.
Speaker E:That's one round.
Speaker C:There you go, right after this.
Speaker D:Hey, everybody, it's JT and I have eaten.
Speaker D:If you've ever looked at me, you know that.
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Speaker D:If you want to learn more about Oregon Dungeness crab, just go to oregondungeness.org and find out how to cook it,.
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Speaker C:Check it out.
Speaker A:This is an encore.
Speaker C:Welcome back to Barbecue Nation.
Speaker C:I'm JT along with Mrs. Whippen and we've got Byron Chisholm with us today.
Speaker C:Again, we would like to thank the folks at Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Speaker C:Beef the way nature intended.
Speaker C:And drum roll, please.
Speaker C:There, how's that?
Speaker C:The band is off today.
Speaker C:Sorry about that, Byron.
Speaker C:We've got trim tabs, pig powder, barbecue Dry rub was develop by barbecue aficionado Jim Tab, commonly known as dad to Leanne there, and it won the coveted.
Speaker C:I'm actually, after all this time, sorry, I never met the man.
Speaker C:Leanne has told me some great stories about him and everybody we have on the show speaks so highly of him.
Speaker C:He did this for this.
Speaker C:Rub's been around for over 30 years.
Speaker C:And now for a unlimited time only, you can go to pigpowder.com and Ms. Leanne will make sure you get your pig powder.
Speaker C:Isn't that right?
Speaker F:Yes, yes, 100%.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker F:I ship it out personally.
Speaker C:She does.
Speaker F:And it is all in my home.
Speaker F:Everywhere.
Speaker F:I have coffee tables.
Speaker C:Yeah, you have storage units with the stuff in it.
Speaker C:You have everything like that.
Speaker C:So go to pigpowder.com Leanne will personally ship it to you and I guarantee you will like that.
Speaker C:And I also guarantee not to meld the two together.
Speaker C:But if you've never tried Byron's butt rub, you should try it too.
Speaker C:I've.
Speaker C:There, there.
Speaker C:I'll say this, there's two main rubs at my shelves.
Speaker C:I've got a bunch of them that, because Leanne knows we get shipped a lot of stuff to try.
Speaker C:But I've got Leanne's pig powder and I've got Byron's butt rub there.
Speaker C:Those are my go tos.
Speaker F:Sorry, Byron.
Speaker F:I'm going to tell you a story about my dad and it has to do with the butt rub and the pig powder.
Speaker F:So back when I was competing, I would combine the two in competition because, you know, yours is more salt and peppery and mine's a little sweet with heat.
Speaker F:And so I told my dad one time, I want a first in something.
Speaker F:He goes, what did you do?
Speaker F:And I said, well, I did a, you know, this percentage pig powder and this percentage butter up.
Speaker F:And he goes, oh, my gosh.
Speaker F:And I said, and don't tell anyone.
Speaker F:And then like a week later he's like, I've been telling every podcast and the funny part was he turned it into his secret recipe.
Speaker F:And anyway, it's kind of like a.
Speaker F:It was a family or a dad me joke.
Speaker F:Yeah, I did.
Speaker F:Honestly, back in the day, I use your rub and the pig powder together and I'd use different ratios depending on what meat I was using it on.
Speaker F:And yeah, that's to alter.
Speaker E:That's awesome.
Speaker E:I love that.
Speaker C:That's good.
Speaker C:I could just hear it now.
Speaker C:I hear your dad, Leanne.
Speaker C:Yeah, we, we, we invented that stuff down around Saragossa back in, you know, 75 type thing like that.
Speaker C:It would be very good.
Speaker E: e first time I went to try in: Speaker E:It was my first major contest and it was just so overwhelming.
Speaker E:All these teams, all these people.
Speaker E:Yeah, and your dad was like the founder of the whole thing.
Speaker E:It was such a beautiful setting.
Speaker E:It's a great contest and yeah, that was amazing experience and I, I just wanted to meet your dad.
Speaker E:I was so intimidated.
Speaker E:I didn't get to meet him that first trip.
Speaker E:But by the, by the second, or probably about the second time I went, he called me by my name and it was so flattering.
Speaker E:I'm like, you know who I am.
Speaker E:That was awesome.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:I remember seeing the house, that one house that had a view of.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker F:The top of Piney.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker F:He was on top of the mountain.
Speaker E:Yeah, man, that was magical.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker C:God, you guys are making me jealous.
Speaker C:I missed.
Speaker E:I don't know what the hell I was doing up there.
Speaker E:Maybe somebody forgot something.
Speaker E:I don't know.
Speaker E:I don't remember.
Speaker E:But I remember going.
Speaker F:Marilyn and Gary used to stay with us, you know, during the contest.
Speaker F:And yeah, we always had the.
Speaker F:The famous baked eggs, you know, the following morning, Sunday morning.
Speaker F:All the reasons.
Speaker E:Well, I got invited there one day and I'll just never forget that place.
Speaker E:That was really nice.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker F:You know, I was at the Jack last year and of course you always have the, you know, the really nice party before, but I didn't know how involved you were with the international teams because they come over here unequipped for the most part, and you have, it seems to me like you mentored at least, I don't know, four or five teams.
Speaker F:And they came in early and they spent time with you and you, you were helping them out and they were so appreciative.
Speaker F:And how did you get so involved?
Speaker F:I mean, I know you were doing international and you're right around the corner from the Jack, which makes it nice.
Speaker F:But how did that happen?
Speaker E:Well, all right.
Speaker E:In terms of when you fly to a contest and you show up a couple of suitcases.
Speaker E:I was telling Duffy the other day, we're talking about that and I'm like, that's the biggest challenge in barbecue because, you know, I mean, we show up in 36 foot trailers with everything, you know, and they're.
Speaker E:They got two secrets.
Speaker E:So it's really daunting to appear somewhere.
Speaker E:And you got all these world champions and all these, and.
Speaker E:And you're supposed to compete against them and everything you brought was in your suitcase.
Speaker E:So especially with the Internet and everything like that.
Speaker E:I met a lot of them in my travels in Europe and so.
Speaker E:And then through the Jack, Wayne and Bill, they.
Speaker E:When the international teams are asking them how.
Speaker E:Where they can get things, they sent them to me.
Speaker E:Fortunately, we've got like a group of people now that have joined in as ambassadors.
Speaker E:And so we.
Speaker E:We know ahead of the time who's coming in.
Speaker E:We've got an ambassador for each team and we know what grills they've requested and we do our best.
Speaker E:A lot of them want barrels.
Speaker E:Barrels is a big thing.
Speaker E:So whatever grill they want.
Speaker E:We're, you know, sometimes we want Pellet cookers.
Speaker E:Sometimes we want all sets.
Speaker E:So we start, you know, there's a lot of people that are like, hey, I'll be glad to donate what my equipment.
Speaker E:So basically we start ahead of time figuring out what it is they want and then, and they, and a lot of them will order their meat for them.
Speaker E:You know, they'll tell us what, what their specs are.
Speaker E:So I, I mean, I, I'll have a commercial Bridgewater full of competition meat.
Speaker E:I mean, it's a, it's a, it's a lot of work and stuff like that, but I'm excited to do that.
Speaker E:I want to do that.
Speaker E:I've been.
Speaker E:Oh.
Speaker E:To international events and I was counting on people to, to help me with equipment and meat and everything else.
Speaker E:So I'm glad to give it back.
Speaker E:I want them to have a good experience here.
Speaker E:They're excited to be here and I wanted, I want them to have what they need so they feel like they knew I adequate job of competing and do their best work.
Speaker C:Who's commendable, Byron, who's the person that had the biggest influence on you and your barbecuing,.
Speaker E:Huh?
Speaker E:Wow, man.
Speaker E:Oh, should amen with that one.
Speaker E:Let me think about that.
Speaker E:Who's the biggest person that influenced me?
Speaker E:Barbecue Will, I guess the guy who taught me how to barbecue.
Speaker E:Yeah, my buddy Jim, man, he, he built my equipment.
Speaker E:He taught me.
Speaker E:He had this big old trailer and he was.
Speaker E:I'll tell you a little quick story you might appreciate.
Speaker E:So I'm looking for a place to rent, and I pulled into this parking lot and looked at the place.
Speaker E:I'm not.
Speaker E:It's real nice.
Speaker E:And, and he flagged me down the parking lot.
Speaker E:I saw this big, old, huge trailer.
Speaker E:Smoke everywhere.
Speaker E:He says, hey, don't rush off.
Speaker E:I got some bucks coming off.
Speaker E:He says they're looking pretty good, that it's gonna be, it's gonna be delicious.
Speaker E:So come on back.
Speaker E:And I'm like, I grew up in Texas, man.
Speaker E:I'm like, I didn't know what a butt was on my butts of what.
Speaker E:What?
Speaker E:But I love the hospitality, you know, the gesture.
Speaker E:So we came back and we decided.
Speaker E:I decided to rent.
Speaker E:So I was next door to him, and so he taught me all about barbecue.
Speaker E:So I guess he was my biggest influence.
Speaker E:And when I told him I like to get my own cooker, you know, we, we went to a scrap yard and we got everything that you.
Speaker E:What are we looking for, Jim?
Speaker E:I don't know, but I'll know when I find it.
Speaker E:And you know, everything was 11 cents a pound, you know.
Speaker E:And so we, we put together this, this, this grill and I still got it to this day.
Speaker E:It taught me how to barbecue it.
Speaker E:It gave me the vessel to fall in love with barbecue.
Speaker E:That started off this whole barbecue path.
Speaker E:That's been such a, such an amazing gift to me.
Speaker E:So I would say yes.
Speaker E:Jim Norton, Alabama cowboy.
Speaker E:I don't know if that was his right real name or not because he then later told me that the law in Alabama was looked for him.
Speaker E:He said he didn't do anything wrong, but I don't think he did.
Speaker E:But they were looking for him and he didn't want to go to jail.
Speaker E:So he was living on the beach and teaching me to barbecue.
Speaker E:That's what he was doing.
Speaker C:Hey Byron, there's a lot of guys in these big cement buildings with constantine wire across.
Speaker C:They never did anything wrong either if you ask him.
Speaker E:I just got to know him as a person.
Speaker E:I, I, I think he was a victim of circumstance, but I, I don't know what happened, but he was gentle as a lamb.
Speaker E:He was a good guy, a nice guy and you know, he was sure good to me.
Speaker E:He, like I said, taught me, built that grill, never charged me nothing.
Speaker E:And I, I don't know, it's that relationship that spearheaded my, my life in barbecue, you know, 26 years now in the business, 21 years competing, all the videos, the, all the travel, all the, all the friends, the beauty and barbecue as far as it just, it just keeps giving.
Speaker E:And, and he, my relationship with him is, was what kickstarted that.
Speaker E:And so I'm really grateful.
Speaker C:So my question is, did he try to teach you how to weld?
Speaker E:I've never been taught that and neither am I. I mean I'm usually really good at something or us.
Speaker E:And I probably, that's probably in the suck category.
Speaker C:The, the first barbecue I ever had.
Speaker C:This was way back in the late 70s.
Speaker C:I had a guy that lived on one of the farms.
Speaker C:He just cut a 55 gallon drum in half for me.
Speaker C:It hadn't been used for anything, but I watched him, he just cut it in half and he welded these little brackets in there.
Speaker C:And then he took this piece of stainless steel grating and he fit it and he cut it and there it was and he built a stand, a little four legged stand for me on it.
Speaker C:And that's the first one that I personally ever owned.
Speaker E:How about that?
Speaker C:Yeah, and I understand what you're talking about, somebody doing that for you.
Speaker C:Although Jim didn't know how to cook worth sauerkraut, but he could weld and he could use a torch.
Speaker C:So that's how I got my first barbecue.
Speaker C:Yeah, it works out pretty good.
Speaker C:We are going to take another break.
Speaker C:You're listening to Barbecue Nation here on the USA Radio networks and all the podcast platforms with Byron Chisholm today.
Speaker C:And of course, Ms. Leanne is with us and we'll all be back right after this.
Speaker C:Don't go away.
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Speaker D:Hey everybody, JT here I want to tell you about the Hammerstahl knives.
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Speaker A:This is an encore.
Speaker C:Welcome back to the Nation.
Speaker C:We've got Byron Chisholm with us today and really easy to reach out to us, by the way.
Speaker C:Just go to barbecue nation jt.com and then you can send us an email and we'll answer it.
Speaker C:I promise at some point we'll answer it.
Speaker C:M. Leanne awful busy right now and I'm trying to get the TV thing going for us here.
Speaker C:So we're both pretty swamped.
Speaker C:But we will return your message.
Speaker C:We've got Byron Chisholm with us.
Speaker C:If you've never tried any of Byron's butt rub, you should try.
Speaker F:Just dawned on me.
Speaker F:What I have a story about Byron.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker F:We were filming a show called the Kingsford Barbecue Championship Series.
Speaker F:And to me it was before its time, but I thought it was one of the best barbecue shows ever.
Speaker F:And what they did was they, they did a lot of things, but one of the things that you had to do is they would roll out whatever your category was, albeit an eel in a tank.
Speaker F:And it was live.
Speaker F:And so you had to kill whatever it was that you were going to cook.
Speaker F:And I remember Byron, didn't you have bullfrogs?
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:You know, that actual experience is I never really asked to cook a lot of more, a lot more cooking shows after that.
Speaker E:But that's when we went from Them filming this barbecue into some drama.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker E:And, you know, so, you know, they made us kill these bullfrogs and then crooked legs.
Speaker E:And I was so disgusted with that, I couldn't get home soon enough, and I never.
Speaker E:And I turned down.
Speaker E:I didn't get asked that much, but I just saw where this is going.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker F:I thought the concept was good.
Speaker F:I mean, parts of it, I thought that was horrific.
Speaker F:But I do remember that.
Speaker F:I don't want to bring back a bad memory, but it is something I do remember.
Speaker F:And.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker F:So, anyway, we'll drop that now.
Speaker C:Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Speaker C:You opened the door there, Leanne.
Speaker E:So what.
Speaker C:What did you have to whack me?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker F:Lobster.
Speaker F:So it wasn't that.
Speaker C:Oh, geez.
Speaker F:Yeah, but still, nevertheless, we had to.
Speaker F:We used skewers, and my sister was on the show with me, and we had to take the skewer and jab it into its neck, into it, like its spinal.
Speaker F:Anyway, it was just.
Speaker F:Just.
Speaker F:It's as bad a story as Byron.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker F:So anyway, subject dropped.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:All right, I'll let that go.
Speaker C:What do you.
Speaker E:Overall, that was a good.
Speaker E:That was a good thing because most of the categories were more standard, and I. I had some good memories from that weekend.
Speaker E:It was.
Speaker F:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker E:And I had some good success.
Speaker E:I. I was.
Speaker E:I was doing okay.
Speaker E:And I don't know how I did with the frogs, but I. I remember on the lobster, I was trying to boil them.
Speaker E:I didn't enough time to do that, so I didn't get my lobster finish.
Speaker E:That kicked me out of the contest,.
Speaker F:And that's what happened to me.
Speaker F:Yeah.
Speaker F:So it was cool because they let.
Speaker F:On the first round, you could bring your own cooker.
Speaker F:On the second round, we all had different cookers and we all had the same meats.
Speaker F:The third round.
Speaker F:Yeah, the lobster.
Speaker F:And they gave us la cocina, whatever, those Mexican hog cookers.
Speaker F:And I didn't get my lobster done.
Speaker F:And they had celebrity chefs.
Speaker F:And the French chef took my lobster out, and I was beating Fast Eddie and Ray Lampy at the time.
Speaker F:I was way ahead of him.
Speaker F:And he picks up the lobster and he throws it into the audience because they had a live audience.
Speaker F:And he goes, lobster sushi.
Speaker F:And he.
Speaker F:And that was it.
Speaker F:I was done.
Speaker E:Yeah, well, I was right there with you.
Speaker E:I was right there with you.
Speaker E:My lobster didn't get done either.
Speaker E:But anyway.
Speaker E:Yeah, well, so.
Speaker C:So, Byron, what do you think?
Speaker C:Of all the.
Speaker C:There's quite a few shows on television.
Speaker C:There's a lot of them in reruns and stuff.
Speaker C:You know, they're still rerunning the original pit masters and things.
Speaker C:But what do you, what do you think of the shows these days?
Speaker E:Yeah, I, I probably have not seen a lot of it, but I, I think that a lot of people, of course they've been introduced to barbecue through this, this media and they've been inspired.
Speaker E:And then of course, the barbecue boom.
Speaker E:I always say when I, when I was starting out in 97, you know, it was like being on the tarmac and then, you know, the airplanes just rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling.
Speaker E: point, you know, in the early: Speaker E:I, I don't, I don't think that it's, I mean, it's still rising, you know, as far as the boom goes.
Speaker E:And so the original thing that inspired a lot of people was the, the very early Food Network specials.
Speaker E:They were just organic.
Speaker E:They would show up at a contest and they would film people what they were doing in contests.
Speaker E:And we got in several of those just, just by the right place, right time.
Speaker E:And, and for whatever reason I, I seemed to do really good when they were around.
Speaker E:So I got some, some early, real good promotion from just being at the right place, right time and doing good that day, which it's hard to put in a business plan, so.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker E:But that was the beginning and those early Food Network specials were so popular that it, and you know, that's what inspired some of the others to start.
Speaker E:You know, the Barbecue All Stars Barbecue Championship series in which later the Pit Masters and then all the other shows.
Speaker E:Manfire Food is awesome.
Speaker E:You know, there's just some good, good media out there telling people what we're doing in, in the barbecue world.
Speaker E:And so that, and YouTube, Lord, all the other videos and instructional things, you know, you can get a huge educational barbecue.
Speaker E:You know, when I started, that was zero anything.
Speaker E:Yeah, no, it, I mean the books were written by people who didn't really know how to barbecue and the barbecues didn't write books that would change over time.
Speaker E:But there was, there was.
Speaker E:If you want to figure out how to be a competition grade barbecue cook in a dive in there, figure it out because you might have a few people give you a few pointers here and there, but in the end you just got to pay attention to what you're doing and make it better.
Speaker E:Use your imagination.
Speaker E:And I think a lot of natural born cooks were some of the early champions and now you don't really have to be that talented.
Speaker C:You.
Speaker E:You can just get the right information and be real organized and.
Speaker E:And replicate something that's competitive.
Speaker E:So that's a different deal.
Speaker E:I think that the original artists were the ones that were creating their own way, and that's the way it was when I started.
Speaker E:And now a lot of people are okay with doing cover songs, you know.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:If it's a good enough cover song, then.
Speaker E:And they can win with it.
Speaker E:That's okay.
Speaker C:What about the flavor profiles?
Speaker C:They've obviously changed a bit.
Speaker E:I don't know, man.
Speaker E:It's not really my.
Speaker E:My game anymore.
Speaker E:I don't.
Speaker E:I'm.
Speaker E:I'm going back to more real, historical, traditional things.
Speaker C:Byron, we're going to get out of here, but you're going to stick around for after hours.
Speaker C:That's where we torment Leanne.
Speaker C:So you'll have a lot of fun there with that.
Speaker E:Off the record of the record.
Speaker C:But real quick, real, real quick, how can.
Speaker C:If people don't have your butt rub in their local area, how can they find it?
Speaker C:Can they buy it online from you or can.
Speaker E:Absolutely.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:You know, buttrub.com we've got a stor.
Speaker E:We're an Amazon source.
Speaker E:And also on our website, you know, we have our.
Speaker E:Our stores listed, the different grocery outlets and things that carry our product.
Speaker C:Okay, very good.
Speaker C:Byron Chisholm from.
Speaker F:And congratulations on the hall of fame.
Speaker C:Yes, yes.
Speaker C:Not mentioning that, but my bad.
Speaker C:All right, we're going to get out of here.
Speaker C:Byron's going to stick around for after hours and until next week, everybody remember our motto.
Speaker C:Turn it, don't burn it, take care, be kind, and go have some done.
Speaker A:Barbecue Nation is produced by JTSD LLC Productions in association with Salem Media Group.
Speaker A:All rights reserved.
