
279: Zack Hall—From Hollybush to Hollywood
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe
Would Your Dad See?
Mark O'Mara: "Everybody has a story. I don't know of anybody who doesn't have a version of that with something" He says he grew up right in the spot where his dad's siding used to be, so hearing that story made him fascinated about it. As long as we don't find anything, we can still hunt, you know? Says Bigfoot shows are good for ratings because people want to see and hear their own experience.
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Speaker 3
Everybody seems convinced that there's something inexplicable and they're
Speaker 1
all looking. Well, I think production companies and the network, it's about the longevity. I mean, you look at shows like the Oak Island show. As long as we don't find anything, we can still hunt, you know? As far as people, I mean, my dad had a story. I had to ask my dad. Like, he was awesome. He's one of the reasons, you know, I liked your show. He had an experience when he was younger and he talked about it all the time. And, you know, I'm like, okay, dad, well, that sounds pretty silly. He's like, I know what I saw, I know how it is, I know what people think. You know, coming from your dad, you start to feel like, okay, well, I'm not going to call him a liar. But most of these people have had somebody somewhere that felt strongly about something. So, you know, who are they to say it's not? And then, you know, depending on how they feel about that person, maybe it consumes their life too. And then they want to watch. They want to see you. They want to have their own experience. And yeah, I mean, that's how I see it. Anyway,
Speaker 3
it's like, would your dad
Speaker 1
see? He was 17. He was coming down the holler, coming off a mountain. And he had to cross the stream to get to the road. And this is back before they had like paved roads and stuff. So it's just like a path. As he crossed the stream, he said he heard the water splashing upstream behind him. It's hard for me to talk. I have these braces in. Sorry. No, it's all right. It's a fashion thing. I'm 40. I have braces. So here's the splashing coming up the stream or upstream behind him. And he said he looks back and he sees this big hairy figure staying in the creek, running down the creek towards him. He takes off down the path and it's just keeping up with him in the stream, never getting out of the stream. And he assumed that was because he got one of the leaf prints or something. When he got to the closest house coming out of that holler, the guy came out on the porch and started shooting at something behind him. And I talked to Carson. Carson was that fella. That's the most important thing to do. He told me his side of it. And so it made me like, oh man, that's weird, but.
Speaker 4
So did Carson
Speaker 1
describe it? What did he say? It looked like. He said it was just a big hairy creature. It didn't get out of the creek. It stayed in the creek. It wasn't out of there. It wasn't out of there. Definitely not out of there.
Speaker 2
How big? I don't know.
Speaker 1
I didn't see it, Mark. They just told me big. Carson, I was a kid, so hearing that story, big was anything that was bigger than me. I mean, it was something that made my dad fascinated about it. We grew up every Bigfoot show that came on. My dad was like, come in here. We're going to watch this. I'm like, I don't want to watch this. We would go camping in the woods. And he was like, all right, well, we're just going to make sure and see if we see him. And this is like, I grew up right in the spot where he had the siding. I mean, he was indifferent about it. He didn't want to talk about it. He was embarrassed about something. I could tell. And right now, he'd probably be like, why are you telling everybody that? I'm like, should have stuck around longer, dad? And you could have got me for telling. Well,
Speaker 3
everybody has a story.
Speaker 2
I don't know of anybody who doesn't have a version of that with something. It's not necessarily Bigfoot. Might be a UFO. Might be a disembodied voice. Might be an apparition. I never thought I'd live to see this number of shows dedicated to what might be. You know, I mean, on the paranormal shows now, we're this close, right? They went through the whole stage of if you're in the room and you can hear my voice, give us a sign. And then we just literally wait for 10 seconds to hear a bumper, a blip or a thing. That's amazing. But I think we're getting to the point where we're going to hear him say, if you're in the room, don't say anything, don't make a sound. And then we'll listen to 10 seconds islands ago. See,
Speaker 3
they're in the room, irrefutable. They're everywhere.
Speaker 2
Yeah, man, for me, life is simpler when you go down the hole and your buddy throws up on you. Everything's explicable. Everything's explainable. Maybe he shouldn't have thrown up, but he did. And now you have a story to talk about. Now there's some vomit in his beard. We can make fun of him for
Speaker 3
that. Maybe he eats a potato chip
Speaker 2
treated with pepper, eggs and hilarity ensues
Speaker 3
a cause and effect.
Speaker 2
Dirty jobs. There's no mystery with Dirty Jobs
Speaker 3
Act. Very simple show.
Speaker 1
Well, except for in Nashville.
Speaker 3
When
Speaker 1
I popped out of the tree, we were doing the rock sucking and we were trying to give away rock. And this was early on and I was like, okay, well, just in case I want to be over here and get this guy coming up and I was hiding in a bush and I walked out. And I just remember you like, you pulled me to the side later before you went in to talk to some other people and you were like, all right, listen, don't come out of bush like Bigfoot. Like just, you know, that's not what we do. Like no, don't be hiding and walking out of bushes. Chuck.
Speaker 2
Okay. So context, right? I just written the rock sucker song, which I had yet to perform. We come down off the roof and we've got all of this aggregate in these trucks and we're driving around Nashville trying to give it away.
Dirty Jobs field producer, Zack Hall checks in from his Kentucky holler to discuss how he snuck his way into reality TV, his encounter with Bigfoot, and the new season of Dirty Jobs (filled with spoiler alerts!)