Battle Creek

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couch in the room it is now time to pick the games presented by our friends at firekeepers casino and firekeepers i casino and sportsbook app download the games or download the app bet the games we're betting better yet uh bet your own games and uh if you want to go to enjoy the in-house uh sportsbook experience firekeepers casino off i-94 in battle creek excellent place to do so you got the whole casino floor right behind you daisy's tap room and sportsbook uh the other restaurants it's just good vibes fun place hotel there too if you want to make it a night All right, Jason.

Yes.

First game, Michigan, minus 14.5 at Rutgers, 12-30 Saturday.

Better yet, bet your own games.

And if you want to go to enjoy the in-house sportsbook experience, Firekeepers Casino off I-94 in Battle Creek.

Excellent place to do so.

You got the whole casino floor right behind you.

I don't know where y'all are, but if you don't know, it is like the cereal.

Actually, technically, I think Battle Creek is like the cereal capital of the United States.

Like all of the main cereal companies, like, Battle Creek is like tiny little town in Michigan.

It's so small that in, we moved to California, my family, when I was pretty young, like elementary school was all in California.

The rest of my family was in Michigan and Battle Creek and Kalamazoo.

And I remember going back for Christmas distinctly.

My family, we stopped by a gas station.

Sorry, this is where I was getting at.

The importance of good people, right? And I believe you actually lived in Kalamazoo.

But you commuted every day to Battle Creek about 20, 25 minutes away.

Is that correct? Yep.

And because of that commute and your painters, once you left in the morning at 6.30, 7 o'clock in the morning, you weren't going back and forth to Kalamazoo all day long, were you? You're there now.

in the same neighborhood.

Oh, really? Five streets? Yeah.

I remember a big one, Garrison Avenue in Battle Creek there.

Garrison Avenue.

Well, actually, I had continued playing.

I went to play at nurseries and old folks' homes and stuff like that, played at the church, St. Phillips and Battle Creek, and also Kellogg's Community College.

I performed there.

as well as Western Michigan University and Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw, Michigan.

So let me ask, Billy, let's take you back to your childhood and your younger days.

What drew a western Michigan kid to country music?

Well, when I was raised up on the farm out in Six Mile Road in Battle Creek, it was the Harper Creek area, and Mom and Dad used to listen to the Grand Ole Opry and all that, which I found to enjoy.

But my father took me down to – where I had the opportunity to actually watch and see, at the age of 10 years old, Del Tannen perform his hit song, Runaway, at the Gilbert Hotel back in 1967.

There are Massasaugas...

Um, and there are those rattlesnakes are actually near battle Creek too.

Like I lived in between battle Creek and, um, and Kalamazoo and, uh, just off 40th street.

And, and like the chef center force was behind our house.

And this is only relevant for anyone who listens to this that's local, but, uh, we were very near goal Lake and there were Massasaguas and, uh, forest behind our house, uh, and i never saw one personally but my neighbor she's seen him before and she actually took a picture and sent me a picture of a roadkill one that she saw i do know they are there but they are very timid they're very shy and you don't see them very often and i don't know of any bites that have actually occurred in Michigan.

No.

Now, in a place like Battle Creek, we've talked about it because our Mini Trek's right out front of our sign-up building.

Yep.

Same thing with Big Air.

Again, with our series next year for Motocross, I'm looking for sponsors.

Logan's always open for sponsors for his series.

James just posted a thing on Battle Creek.

They're looking for track sponsors.

They didn't really have any Navy at all in Grand Rapids.

So the only place close to me that had a Navy reserve was like in Battle Creek.

Michigan.

And when I went down there for my first duty thing down there, it was basically a ghost town.