Jake Burchyett is a personal trainer, white water rafting guide, EMT, musician, and US Air Force veteran. Here we discuss his life growing up in rural Missouri, adventures on the rivers of West Virginia, his gradual dip into a years-long struggle with alcoholism, the experience of living with it while serving in the military, embracing sobriety, and becoming a father. | In The Keep | Support In The Keep | Theme Song by Jon of the Shred |
Transcripts
Music:
[0:00] Music
Jake:
[0:33] In a, uh, door at church. That's the first memory I think I ever have, and maybe it wasn't, you know.
Jake:
[0:40] But, uh, but kind of segues into, uh, there was a lot of church where I was from, the Bible Belt, you know.
Jake:
[0:48] Grew up going to church every Sunday, going to Grandma's house, getting fried chicken or something. Uh, so yeah, definitely surrounded by a lot of, uh, Baptist church. Got baptized young um those are probably my first memories watching veggie tales uh
Tyler:
[1:08] Yeah veggie tales bro i remember the larry boy and the jonah movie like those were epic dude come on yeah.
Jake:
[1:16] My uh yeah my son is dancing to veggie tales now shakes his butt to it yeah provocatively love
Tyler:
[1:27] Songs with mr lunt.
Jake:
[1:28] Yeah you
Tyler:
[1:30] Are my cheeseburger oh.
Jake:
[1:32] Man yeah they started dancing recently i just started taking his first steps he just and then he just went for it he hasn't he barely sits down anymore he just walks around but yeah uh but besides that where did it all start um i uh trying to think uh i mean i played a lot of guitar growing up my dad played a little bit uh from what i remember you know uh i guess that's where i first got like hooked on guitar which is something that we've spent a lot of time doing you know uh which i still play a lot today i just bought a new pedal about a um tremolo pedal i got a new amp which i showed you um Um, so yeah, uh, rock and roll still living strong in my life since a kid.
Tyler:
[2:24] Um, what was the first music that you remember that like made you a rock and roll person versus a regular person?
Jake:
[2:34] Um, Led Zeppelin. So I know that sounds pretty standard, but, uh, I, uh, I just kind of liked Led Zeppelin. I guess like I had shown like I must have said that to somebody and then my uncle got me like this DVD that had all of their live performances and I would just sit in my room and watch that like all day long and just like dream about being Jimmy Page and just like man I just love that so much. Yeah. I started getting like Led Zeppelin magazines and stuff people would give me.
Tyler:
[3:08] Moby Dick drum solo. Yeah. Yes.
Jake:
[3:11] Yes. Exactly. dude i loved that so much and you know i didn't have a phone for a long time so like that was my only source of entertainment like a lot of kids was just like throwing on whatever dvds or vcrs you had i mean i remember like the transition from vcrs to dvds um but yeah the led zeppelin one was a dvd and it was pretty kick-ass
Tyler:
[3:35] I think for me, like it was the Tony Hawk Pro Skater, I want to say two soundtrack had TNT by ACDC and Blitzkrieg Bot by the Ramones. And that was like, I knew when I heard those two songs, I was like, I want to do that. And then I went straight to school, started a band. I didn't even know any instruments or anything, but I knew a guy with a guitar and I knew another dude that knew how to play like the harmonica or some shit i was like we're starting a rock and roll band right now and yeah that was just that was it for a long time like i didn't think about anything else until i think.
Jake:
[4:17] I was like
Tyler:
[4:17] 17 before i changed course at all.
Jake:
[4:21] You to uh or uh pro wrestling
Tyler:
[4:25] Yeah i got really into pro wrestling right around the time i was like i mean i was already into pro wrestling but like decided i wanted to do it when i was probably 17 hell yeah for real yeah and i'll still pull.
Jake:
[4:39] Up that uh that montage video you have sometimes just for kicks
Tyler:
[4:42] Don't tell anybody my listeners will go find it start making fun of me they don't know, oh they can probably find it it's okay um but yeah man those were the days that was like backyard shit too then i like actually went and got in a ring and like when i went all over the southeast doing that stuff like that's just the the people that you meet you know it's just similar to musicians but maybe a little bit darker like you know musicians it's like you know arrogant lead singer sleeping with somebody's girlfriend like wrestlers are psychos they're crazy people you know they're just the rejects of society and they're my best friends it's like you know i i was the responsible one i was like i i had a car and a driver's license and then just like five dudes all fucking taking pills and doing crazy stuff in the back and i'm like please don't do that in my car guys i don't want to go to jail and they're like ah shut up kid be okay i'm like okay, sir, you know, like, whatever.
Jake:
[5:47] Can't even imagine.
Tyler:
[5:48] Get taken advantage of so much. Get fucking, that's just weirdness. Like, I remember this one dude who's probably dead named, uh, I don't know. I hope he's not. But his name was Damien LeVay, which is already, uh. Scary name to have he he was just a whacked out gay meth head wrestler guy and he was also like, no matter how bad these people seem to be like no matter how fucked up they were all the darkness and you know the kind of people who would probably stab someone for like looking at him the wrong way all had my back it was like dude if somebody because i was kind of smaller too you know and i still am oh obviously you're like somebody fucks with you dude we're gonna hit the ring and shank them motherfuckers we got your back forever and it was like real gang
Tyler:
[6:36] brotherhood and i loved that i felt safe even though i was definitely not so like.
Jake:
[6:42] A circus show i was just watching like steve i was talking about whenever he was in the circus just so much cocaine every day i feel like that'd be similar to like traveling with pro wrestling folks like drugs barreling down the road
Tyler:
[6:57] Lots and lots and lots of vices of all assortments everything you can think of but also there's a lot of soul in those people they've been someplace, they've seen some shit we're talking about people who are, parallel to anybody who travels for a living period life on the road is a tough life and then life on the road when you're constantly getting beat up is even worse, brain damage Yeah, a lot of brain damage. Yeah, a lot of folks whose job requires them to put.
Jake:
[7:32] Their self in
Tyler:
[7:33] Bodily harm who do not and never have and never will have health insurance don't even consider that as an option. Uh, and then especially the people who are like for real traveling, like we'd have dudes come up from Mexico and shit, you know, like all kinds of crap.
Jake:
[7:49] Like, yeah, a lot of, a lot of craziness. Nacho Libre stuff.
Tyler:
[7:53] Yeah, for sure. You know, like I would send all my money back home to an orphanage. Um, all of it. But I think that's a great part of growing up,
Tyler:
[8:04] dude. Like just, and, and so where you were, you were near St. Louis, but like kind of in the country.
Jake:
[8:11] A little bit. I think about it. Like, I feel like everyone grew up in a small place, like where I came from, but then I think about it and I'm like, probably not honestly, just cause like more people are more populated areas like, and you know, bigger cities and different places. Like where I'm from, it definitely is just like, just a, just a dot on earth. But uh like it was really small but you know i think that uh it was good like good humble beginnings you know uh then i really like i kind of like it you know i wouldn't really wish that upon benny my son but uh you know but he might it might end up like that i don't know it's cheap dude like you can get a house out there with a yard like a good starter home for you know two hundred twelve thousand and then you know you're looking at houses here we're looking at like i don't even know you can't find anything affordable for less than like a half a mil and it's insane
Tyler:
[9:13] In colorado springs right yep yeah.
Jake:
[9:16] Yeah so we're looking at our budget right now is like 400 000 and below and like between 300 and 400 and it's just crazy like i don't know i'm doing really good with money right now but at the same time like it just sucks like the only benefit would to that would be just what building equity um then you know having something of value you can sell and make money like i'm sick of paying the same amount as a mortgage would be in rent and never seeing that money again like it kind of bugs me because you're losing up to like thirty thousand dollars a year just you're never going to see it again and i i hate it so like we just want to buy a house uh you know with the va we can cut all the you just went through that didn't you yeah
