Jose Mangin: Becoming The Metal Ambassador

0:01 Hello and welcome to the Career Journey Podcast, No Wrong Choices. I'm Larry Samuels, and I'll be joined in just a moment by Two Char Staxina and Larry Jack. This episode features the inspiring Sirius XM radio personality, Jose Manget. Before we bring him in, please be sure to follow and subscribe to our show wherever you're listening right now. Let's get started. Now joining No Wrong Choices is the Metal Ambassador for Sirius XM, Jose Manget. More formally, Jose is the director of music programming and main host for the Octane and Liquid Metal Channels, who has literally been at Sirius XM since the beginning.

0:43 Jose, thank you so much for joining us. Hell yeah, man. This is so cool. I love being able to come on and do stuff like this to talk about metal and all the cool stuff that I'm blessed to do. And it's great to see you, Larry Samuels. I've known Larry Shea and my boy Touchar for a very long time. Forever. So it's cool to see you guys together, and thanks for inviting me. Great to see you, man. Okay, for those who don't know out there, and there's probably very few of you who don't, this man is an original OG over series. Like before Stern, there was Jose. Before Ceres was actually a satellite in space, there was Jose. Synonymous.

1:23 And I was talking to the guys before he came on. I think you can make a legit argument that outside of Stern, Jose Mangan is the second most important person at a totally legit argument. We were talking about that too. You know, I love that too, Shah. I love you. And I, you know, I can I can feel a little bit of that, but I will tell you from my pay, nowhere near any of that shit. We were talking about that too. Because when you're at some place for 25 years, what are they gonna do? Do you know what I mean? And and and for so long, I've said probably wrongly on my part, but I would say, oh man, I would pay Sirius XM to let me work there.

2:11 They were like, oh yeah, all right. So for 25 years, Jose, you probably bad idea. How much will you pay for? No, they they love you though. So we're we're fellow employees. I still work for Sirius XM, so we've known each other for over 20 years, man. It's really amazing. Uh, you see my my 20-year pod right behind me here. I got uh they got a 25 there. I don't have room. I gotta put it somewhere. But I I have that's how important he is. 25 means nothing. He's got actual real stuff going on by the way. But it's great to see you, man. I we used to see each other in the hallways and just like shoot the shit till forever, and yeah, oh, I gotta get back to work kind of thing.

2:54 But great talking to you. It's so good to see you, man. It's been far too long. I love it, man. Well, thank you. I love, you know, I'm the thing I miss the most about being in New York City because I was there for 15 years working out of our headquarters, is just seeing everybody, seeing all the coworkers, seeing the celebrities pissing in the bathroom next to Hugh Jackman, you know, like stuff like that, like running into Katy Perry or fucking uh Lady Gaga or whoever it is coming off the elevator. I'm like, oh hey, I just came downstairs from smoking weed, and I'm coming upstairs, you know, trying to mask my breath, and there's you know, Robert Plant. Like, hey, Mr. I was literally just thinking Robert Plant. Yeah, yeah.

3:34 I mean, dude, oh I mean, everybody, Justin Bieber, why everybody, and then my office used to be right next to the president's office nearby, so they'd be walking to see him, and all I was part of the tour stop, and people would be like, Oh, look at look at the cool animals. Don't feed them, you know. Don't feed them at all. I I used to I used to feed everyone that walked by. Uh I had this ice cold Jaegermeister tap in my office for years. So people would come by, yes, I remember that too. And I would just offer Jaeger to everybody and anybody, and it was probably inappropriate at times. Um, because there'd be big investor groups or or or uh engineers from from Japan or whatever, and I'll be never and I would be like, hey guys, welcome.

4:18 I'm the rock dude. Would you like some Jaegermeister? And they were just like Wild, wild west. So but that's why they wanted to go to Sirius. That's exactly why they wanted to be the second most important person at Sirius. No, it was fun. I missed being there. I missed being there for those moments and and stuff. I love living in Southern California. It's gorgeous, it's beautiful, and I will I will never leave. But I do miss being uh on 49th and 6th at the McGraw Hill building, the 36th floor, every day, no matter what, taking the bus from Bloomfield, New Jersey to New York City and just dealing with the elements and the everything. And it's the energy. And it made it makes you who you are.

5:00 I mean, 15 years in New York City gave me radiation to come anywhere else and to kill it and to be faster and more aggressive and better than anybody, you know, because New York that's what it does. It teaches you how to be ruthless, man. And and you got you blizzard head down, walking against the wind, trying to haul ass to get the bus. You miss it, you missed the uh a recital, your wife's pissed off at you, and it wasn't your fault. There was a a tunnel block, and then they closed the tunnel. Sorry, babe. I couldn't you're an asshole. So, yeah, man, but it makes you tough. You know, it makes you tough. So I like I miss I miss being out there for that.

5:42 Absolutely. And that was just us saying hello, Jose. Yeah, we miss you, bro. It was always a smile all the time. Yeah, man. So, Jose, for for those people out there who are listening who may not know you, you know, I introduced you as the metal ambassador. We like to start our conversations, giving our guests the opportunity to tell us, you know, who they are and what they do in their own words. So, so maybe uh uh and a creative approach is to tell us what a metal ambassador is. I'm a high priest of heavy metal, I'm a messenger of the music. Uh I go, I'm a community service leader, and I go and I preach metal and I and I radiate metal and I talk about it and I say how cool it is and I um you know how positive it is and how welcoming it is, how global it is, how diverse it is.

6:33 And so that's what I do. And everywhere I go, guys, everywhere I go, I talk about metal because I do I'm I feel very blessed in life, and I have this energy core that's very bright, and it's and you can feel it. So when I'm in Ubers or around anybody, people will always say, Who are you? What do you what do you what do you do? And I say what I so everywhere, everywhere, guys, everywhere I go, I talk about metal, every country, everywhere I go, I talk about metal, and that's all I do. So uh I'm not the metal ambassador, I am a metal ambassador.

7:16 Uh I disagree. Well, well, I could be the leader, but there are many metal ambassadors. Anybody who who promotes metal to their family and friends, that's the metal ambassador. You know, to me, I I'm I'm more of a community leader. I want my gates to be open. I invite every everybody to come and smoke weed, drink some tequila, listen to some uh metal, watch a horror movie. Like this is my this is my family, and this is who I feel very comfortable around. So yeah, I feel like there are many metal ambassadors, and I don't want to just be, you know, the only one. I can be number one, uh, but I but I will always uh you know preach that you know the community needs to, we need to have more of me.

7:58 There needs to be more of Jose Mangans out there because that's what moves you know the the needle and what gets people really um you know um sucked into metal. And I've been doing that since the very beginning on the radio, off the radio, in person. Yeah, it's like a thing that's not a job. This is um, I'm I feel like I'm a it's like a religion, you know, and so I'm and I just feel like um a proud leader to bring everybody together, artists, bands, uh, fans, uh, industry, bring it all together, and I can be a cool bridge to everybody, and just again, offering tequila, modelos, and weed to everybody.

8:43 I love it. I I know your story because I've heard you tell it a few times, but it's fascinating, and that's the reason we wanted you on here today. Obviously, your energy is infectious, but talk to me about your childhood, the dream, where this all began. Bring me way back to kindergarten. I want to hear and I want you to tell all of our listeners where this all started from because I've heard it and it's it's brilliant. You just it's brilliant stories. Thanks, man. And I think you're referring to one time I was uh I did a company-wide meeting. Uh, our CEO had me talk to the entire company, and I got I was able to tell my story, which is very, very freaking cool of Jennifer. So, yeah, dude, I'm I'm from the Mexican border of uh Arizona and uh and Sonora, Mexico, and and I was raised there, and my cousins were older than I was a few years, and they were big metal heads, and I got into metal when I was like five years old, kindergarten.

9:38 Uh, I bought my first tape, and it was Motley Crue's shout at the devil. And um I went to Kmart to buy the tape uh the day after Christmas. My grandma gave me uh 20 bucks, and I took my dad took me to Kmart. I bought my first tape, and then I got my second tape the next weekend out of the cellar by rat. And I lived with those two albums on my car. That is still to this day, those two albums are two of my favorites of my entire life, and I just marinated on those two albums, and and that was it. Like I was stuck, I was stuck. I've never looked back, it never uh was a phase. I mean, I was into metal and Star Wars, metal and G.I.

10:19 Joe, metal and football cards, metal and horror movies, metal and weed, metal, and you know, and it was but it's always been metal, you know. I at five years old, this is six last week. Last week. I started smoking weed when I was 13, but so um, but when I so in high school, I way to disclaim it those days. No, it's fine. I'm proud. I'm a very proud cannabis supporter. There you go. So all good. And then it was in high school, I played in metal bands, but in high school I was like, I'm gonna, I gotta do something. All my friends are it's a drug town, everybody's getting in trouble. Um, what am I gonna do? And I said, I'm a smart dude, you know, I can I can do this shit.

11:02 And then so I was like, I like chemistry. And the reason I focused on chemistry because of a horror movie by Wes Craven, 1986's, 1988's um The Serpent and the Rainbow, which was Oh my god, what a flick! What a movie! Bill Pullman? Yes, yes, Bill Pullman. Bill Pullman, I know the film. Yes, that's the one where I was like, okay, um, science, uh the zombie, real life zombie powder. This is the real chemical. And then that's when I got interested in pharmacology and toxicology. So in high school, I was like, oh, I love chemistry because of this movie, you know? And then I just excelled in chemistry. I went, I got a full ride academic scholarship to the University of Arizona for chemistry, where I started college radio as a fun hobby, but as nothing more than just a way to get the message out for metal.

11:55 And then I went to grad school in Tennessee for pharmacy at the University of Tennessee. And then there I got a job at the big FM active rock station, uh, WMFS, and I started a metal show there on Saturday nights. How are you getting these jobs? How is how does that come about? The ra the college radio one came about. I have no idea. I've never thought about doing radio, but I've always been the guy that made mixed tapes for my friends uh and gave it to them, made copies, uh bought extra blank tapes and made them copies, and I filled out the in the the tape notes so that everybody knew the liner notes. You did your own. I did that for all my friends and stuff forever.

12:36 And I would play all the music at parties in high school. I was that guy. I'm still that guy. But I never thought radio. And then I was in guitar class, Spanish guitar class when I was 18. I'd play guitar and I was taking this class at the U at the U of A. And then this dude, nerdy guy, comes up to me and I was playing Metallica at super long hair, and I was playing some cool Metallica on my acoustic guitar, and this guy comes over to me and he's like, Hey, you like metal? And I was like, What does it look like? You know, and I'm playing metal, and he was like, Hey man, you ever thought about doing radio? And I was like, What? No, you know, I'm a metal head, no. And then he kept talking to me at class, and then he told me that he was the music director of the college radio station, and that they don't have a metal show, and that they would be it'd be cool to do a metal show.

13:22 And I he kept asking me, months went by, and I did not go to the station because I was just I that's not I don't do that. And then one time I was like, all right, I'll go. And then I went, it was the basement of the student union. The the walls were covered in posters, the ceilings, the desks, stickers everywhere. I was like, looks like my room. It's like, wow, what is this place? And they were so cool to me there. The program director came up and he's like, Oh, I heard about you. You're the guy that's gonna do the metal show. And I was like, Yeah, that's me. I'm yeah, that's me, hi. Nice to meet you. I met the sports director, the news director, I met all these people that welcomed me the first day, and then that was it.

14:03 I was like, I love this. And so, and then I got so for uh graduate school in Tennessee, because of all my connections in college radio for three years, uh, there was a lot of people that I made friends with in the industry that were very cool to me. And so when I said I was gonna move to Memphis, actually I didn't choose that school because of its radio station. So crazy. I chose You of Memphis? I no University of Tennessee. Uh is the call the Health Science Center was in Memphis. The br the regular campus was in Knoxville, and that's where um what's his name? Matt Peyton Manning was at school when we won the championship there. I was at grad school uh when we You were at grad school at UT Tennessee when Peyton was when he won '98.

14:51 Didn't he win in ninety-eight? Yeah. Yeah. So I was at UT, but we were the nerd campus in Memphis on the other side of the state, you know. So we were the nerds, you know, we weren't we weren't like with the regular people. So uh the reason I chose that school was I cannot imagine Jose Mangan nerd. Oh, I'm a nerd with metal right now. I'm a nerd with tequila, I'm a nerd with horror. It's all the same shit. So um, yeah, so then in Memphis, I was able to get a job through contacts that I had fr made, and um, I kept pestering the program director in between classes. I would call him. He was also on the DJ, and um, I would call him and I'd bother him for so long, and then finally he said, All right, fine, you can come in.

15:38 And then he heard my college radio air check tape, and he was like, dude, you're not ready at all. And uh, and then and then a couple like a month later, uh, my friend Dave Clapper was the music director, he gave me a shot to do overnights, and I did it, and they liked it. And then I was able to start doing a metal show there on Saturday nights, and that won an award in Album Network in '99 for best metal director DJ in the country. And that's when it changed for me, and that's when um people in the industry started offering me jobs Roadrunner, uh, TVT records, all these places were like, hey, come work with us, come work with us. And I was like, I got three years of school left to be a doctor.

16:21 And then but then I had a conversation with my dad. My dad was uh 49 when I was born. I was his seventh kid, his uh first with a Mexican woman, and then he had six prior uh with an American lady, and he was a Korean War army veteran. He passed away 23 years ago, but um he we had a conversation, and I said, Dad, I had this opportunity to work at a record label in New York City. Uh, I know I have three years for pharmacy. My dad was always pro school, school, school, school. He supported the medal, but just because I loved it. But he was school, school, school. And then I had this conversation, and he told me, Jose, you can't regret this. You have to go, you have to work in New York City, you have to do it.

17:04 And I was like, Dad, I thought he was gonna say the opposite. And then I was like, Dad, but but what about all the years of school and the loans I took out and all this stuff? And he was like, You can't regret this decision. Then he told me that he wanted to be a lawyer, but instead, with family pressure, he joined the army, Korean War started, he gets sent to Korea, it changes his life. And he uh not for good, not for it, wasn't a good thing, and he always regretted it, and he never told me the story, and then he told me the story, we both cried, and it was a very sincere moment, and then that's when it just very cleared in my head, I was like, I'm fucking doing this.

17:45 And so I went to work for TVT Records uh in January of 2000, and in the summer, uh an old employee of ours, ex-employee Jerry Rubino, uh reached out to me and he asked me for some product from the record label that I worked at because he was uh for a satellite radio station, and this was like June of 2000. I was like, what the what is this? What and he was asking me for all like 50 albums, and I was like, dude, what is this? What is this for? And then he was like, I'll send you a brochure because it was before emails, you know, pretty much kind of. And he's Jose, I want to jump in. I want to jump in for a quick sec.

18:25 So you got you got all these awards for obviously your. One, one. Well, I mean, still, but still, I mean, you got great you got a great deal of recognition off of that. But even still at that point, um, I would have to say metal at that point, even as a as a as a musical form on radio, was very rare. So, like you must have been like one of like a very like a small hand few a handful or uh or a handful of like DJs across the country who were doing metal as a show, right? Um, there are probably like a hundred college radio stations, um, you know, maybe 50 of them have, or I don't even remember, guys. There was a lot. Look, I mean, I live right by Seton Hall University. So SHU, obviously. SOU, SO.

19:05 Huge metal station. SOU, pardon. SOU, huge metal station, right? It's it's renowned across the country for that. It's like one of the few that I can actually think of off the top of my head. It's the only one. In which that is like a favorable that in which they have made their bones doing that format. So like for you, it's a very, very unique, right? That's why I always felt very blessed to be doing anything in metal. I couldn't believe that I I can do anything in metal. Because I knew metal didn't wasn't a big thing. There was no job description for this. Like, there was no anything. I wanted to be the host of Headbanger's Ball growing up. That's all I that's all I had to look up to because there was no there was nothing else.

19:47 In Arizona, I didn't have radio radio where I was in Douglas. And by the way, you should tell people out there what Headbanger's Ball. Now, obviously, the metal community knows this. We know this too, because we're old enough to have watched my. MTV. There are going to be a lot of people who have no clue what you're talking about. Yeah, Headbanger's Ball was a show that started. D Snyder was the first to not host Headbanger's Ball, but the first iteration of it was D Snyder, and that was on MTV, started like in 84. 85 headbangers was on like once a week. Once a week, headbanger's ball started Saturday nights. Saturday nights. And then it started in 85, and they had various hosts, and then Adam Curry took it over and did it for a few years.

20:30 And then in 90, in 90, Ricky Rackman was hired. Yes. Yes. And he and that's when metal was getting big in 91 with Thrash in 90 with Metallica's Black Album. So then it was through 95 that Ricky was there. And I wasn't, I ended up hosting a version of the Headbanger's Ball. I did uh TV, I did specials for MTV, and then I did the 20th anniversary special of the Headbanger's Ball on MTV. That was very cool. And I did a few other things for them, but I also did it online, and it was very embarrassing. I did it on MTV2.com and I remember I had a bag and it had a camera and a microphone, and I had all these interviews set up with for headbangers balls.

21:12 So people were like, oh shit, oh shit. Like uh with Metallica one time at Yankee Stadium, I was doing a headbanger's ball interview. So he was like, So where's the crew? Where's the where's the headbangers ball people? You're looking at I said, Yeah, it's right here. It's right here in my bag. And he was like, What, dude? And I was like, Yeah, dude, they won't even buy me coffee, dude. And you know how much, you know how much I got paid for that James Hetfield, MTV.com uh interview. You know how much I got paid? Not just for that interview, but for an interview with Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax. I did all four bands, the Yankee Stadium for Headbanger's Ball, I got paid like $70.

21:53 Oh, jeez. All right. Did they at least pay for you? Did they at least pay for your beer? Nothing. Anyway, time. I don't know where we were going, but anyways. No, I I have a question, because this is critical, because like you go from them listening to your on-air tape and being like, you're not ready, to like boom, win an award, you know, offers up the wazoo. Do you remember the first time you cracked a mic to try to do a show? Uh in in in college college radio, I I don't remember the very again, I smoke a lot of weed, guys, but I knew you were gonna say that. I don't remember the first time. No.

22:34 But were you, I mean, you're a finished product now, like you could just hear it, feel it, understand it. Like it's the same. Was there any sense of nervousness or anything? Dude, you know what? I've always talked about metal very organically, very uh naturally. Uh, I didn't have to think about it. That's what came so easy. And I remember college radio wasn't difficult. And and it was and it was fun. And my favorite part about it, we had zero listeners, but my favorite part was getting music, and so I was getting all these CDs sent to me before anybody, and I'd be like, Oh, dude, did you hear the new fear factory? What? Oh, bro, dude, it's so sick, you know, and then the swag and all the stuff.

23:17 So that's what for me I got posters, yeah. The posters, uh, and sometimes tickets to shows, and I was like, and sometimes even interviews with the artists. You know, I was like, What? I get to meet Chuck Billy from Testament and smoke weed with them. I was and I was using a Radio Shack micro cassette recorder for that interview. Wow. Yeah, man. So I man, but it was, it's just, I don't I don't remember the show, but I remember it wasn't hard and it was easy, and I enjoyed doing it, and I really loved it. And then I took it seriously, and I would fly my radio show. I would go to metal shows and I'd put flyers out on the cars outside, you know, before the show ended or before I went into the venue.

24:00 Uh sometimes I couldn't even get into venues because I wasn't old and I wasn't 21. So I would just listen to the band from the sidewalk and put uh flyers of my radio shows and onto the car windshield wipers and stuff. So, because we were on Tucson Cablevision channel 60. So it wasn't Of course you were. So it wasn't it wasn't even like um, you know, nine 92 point, whatever. No, it was listened to channel, I think it was 61 on Tucson Cablevision, and it had U of A announcements scrolling up, going up, you know, constantly. What could it be? Wow, that's like the that's like public public TV right there, right? And the ra and the audio version was our radio station, but that's the only way people, my friends, could hear my radio show was like that.

24:45 Let's say you're in New York, and somebody asks you for 50 records and they're they're they're they're out offering you a brochure for that's a great story. Thank you, uh Samuel. So I think that that gets us towards the world of satellite. So thank you, brother. I'm going back. Thanks for leading me back. Okay, so check it out. So he sent me this brochure, and I and it's like one of those old school fold ones that you know, and then and then I'm like, oh, I'll check it out on the Path Train home back to New Jersey. So I'm on the train going back and I pull it out and I'm looking at it, and I see, whoa, you know, like the research and the money behind satellite radio. And then I see the people that are coming over and from executives, and I see the you know the science behind it, and then I see the channel guide, and it said heavy metal 24-7.

25:37 And I said, What on the train? I remember specifically, I felt like I took a shit, a piece of shit came out of my butt, a turtle head came out, and I and I had to squeeze it back in because I was that excited that I read that there was a 24-7 radio station for metal. I wrote Jerry back the next day. I said, dude, I'll give you anything you want. Just tell me who the metal guy is. And he gave me the dude's name, and the dude invited me to come up to to visit him at the brand new headquarters that just moved in on right there at the McGraw Hill building. They still had paper uh for all the glass walls are still, like paper walls.

26:22 And so, well no, some of the studios were built, those glass ones were in, but uh other places was still uh being built out. So then uh I was there waiting to meet Dawn Kay. And Maria Carchetti, she was in charge of programming, she was uh I think vice president or president of programming for Sirius Satellite Radio, and I knew that because of the flyer, and I memorized the f the brochure. So when I saw her walking down and I'm in the lobby just waiting, and she comes up and I say, Hey, what's up, Maria? Nice to meet you. Uh my name's Jose Mangan, and she was like, How do you know me? What? And I said, I memorized the brochure, and she said, Whoa, who are you here to see?

27:02 And I said, I'm here to see Dawn. Why? I don't know, but I'm a metal dude, and this is perfect for me. And I started talking to her, and then she was she she asked me, Are you Latino? And I said, Yes, and Claudio Cassi, and we started talking in Spanish, she was fluent in Spanish, she asked me about Spanish rock bands. I listed off a bunch of Spanish rock bands, she said, I love you, you're perfect. And I was like, Welcome to Seriously, and then got the job. And then she said, I'm gonna talk to Don, I'm gonna talk to his boss, and we're gonna get you in. And then they uh brought me in to help build the rock department at Sirius Satellite Radio. And I said I mean that is no small feat. You just you literally I mean, take note of that, people.

27:47 Like, talk about the gumption of somebody to memorize, you know, the brochure and to put faces to nerd, dude. Not a n that was smart, dude. That was a gamer move. Not a nerd. And in and look where you are now. So were you always built like that to have that kind of gumption, or did this come to you later in life? No, I don't know, man. I've I've I'd never I I've been kind of fearless in a lot of ways, and I think that's gotten me a lot of a lot of in a lot of trouble. Two shot remembers too. I mean, I got in a lot of trouble at work with an old boss that's no longer there, but he was not cool to me. And I think um, yeah, I mean, I I I I it's I I was the class clown in, you know, and and when I was a kid.

28:31 I was we were all kids though. We were all kids at this point. And so, yeah, and I just felt like I couldn't believe what I was doing, and I was just gonna love it hard. And people would tell me, hey, you're too much of a fan, you gotta be more of a professional, more of a programmer. And I'm like, but but I think that's good that I'm such a fan. He's like, No, no, that's too that's you're too close to the music. And it's like, but that's good, you know? And and so uh yeah, man, I just I you were right, Jose. You were right. So how do you start? No, you you get in the building, you get the job. How do you start? I mean, do you write out a strategy? Is there a game plan? Like, like what do you do? It's the first thing I started to do. I brought I set up my little office upstairs, the little cubicle area.

29:14 I covered it in posters, I had a fucking big boom box. Uh, people were like, who is this guy? And there was like other departments that were I worked on the 37th floor, so uh not with programming at that time, uh, because I was a coordinator. And so I was upstairs and I would play all my metal. So basically, what my first moves were just to get all the best metal that I know into our database to build the best metal station in the world, and so that's what I started to do. I started to go and get all these things, use my own music, get music from labels, get everything, assemble all of it together. That was my first stuff. Uh, going through the music, getting with Dawn, getting all the stuff added, uh, librarying all the CDs, but that was it.

30:00 And then when they we eventually tested the satellites with music, with production, and then voices were next. And then I was part of that uh small little skeleton crew that was test uh some channels that were testing voices and uh heart attack at the time, that was the name of the metal station. We were one of the very first stations to test uh voices through the satellites, space, and back down. So, and we did that for months, and there was zero listeners except for the engineers and some of them the people that were previewing the radios in certain markets at that time. So there was no listeners, but to me, that was a great foundation to build off of just thinking that I'm just talking to myself, or I always just started talking to one person because I always felt kind of lonely in those big studios, just in there talking, and then I would just be like, and I'm super high all the time.

30:52 So I'm like, I'm just gonna fucking talk to this person right here, and so that's how I did my radio shows, and it was really cool to build it that way because I never had a big audience in the beginning, yeah, and I don't even think it came until Howard Stern, the NFL, really, when that came to our company, that was a big turning point. And then a big turning point. And then it was Howard. When Howard announced in October of 04, this is you know four years after I started, when he announced that he was coming. I remember I went to work early because my wife worked in the city and she dropped me off early because she would take drive her car, and I would always take a bus. And when I can get a ride, I'll get a ride.

31:34 So she dropped me, she's like, I'm going early, I'm I don't care. So she dropped me off super early, and I was there working, and all of a sudden, uh uh early in the morning, some uh record label president had called me and he was like, Hey Jose, congratulations. I was like, What? Um for what it's early, like what do you mean? And he was like, Oh, Howard's coming to Sirius. I'm like, what? And he stern? Yeah, and then and then I remember that day, baby. I turned on my radio and I went to 92, whatever K Rock. 92.3 K Rock, yeah. And I listen, and I started hearing the first thing I heard was, and that's why I'm going to serious. And I was like, dude, uh game changer.

32:17 I'm gonna call you back. Okay, thanks for and I and I and I was listening to him for like a minute or two, and then and then it went to like a commercial or something. Then I walked outside in the hallway. This is before uh before eight o'clock in the morning, so it was not a lot of people were there, but I saw down in the corner next to the president's office in the corner, I saw the executives and they were they were shaking each other's hands, and I saw some like uh snacks going into the conference room. Some other people were delivering snacks and they were all shaking each other. And I walked over there fucking slow, and I was like, guys, is this real? And they were like, Congratulations, Jose. This is gonna change.

32:57 I was like, and at that point, my life changed. I remember when he walked down the stairs from 37 to 36. We were all there and they introduced him to everybody for the first time. And it was what I found sort of interesting is that he was almost like a little nervous, like in front of the crowd, like he almost felt like I don't know, stage fright is not the right word to apply to Howard Stern, but it was just it was such a big moment, even he was feeling it. It was just incredible. Absolutely. That you're right. There was a humbling moment to it. Yep. What I remember the most from that was him going around to a lot, a lot of the older DJs that were there, like Pat St.

33:37 John, Carol Miller was there. He knew all these people from the come up, right from there, from his days coming up, and he made sure to go and say hello to all of them. It was so it was a very surreal experience. There was also like Mel Karma's. Mel was a big as big a superstar as Howard was, right? Absolutely. Like that was a really surreal day. And I want to tell everybody one thing. When Jose's talking about the idea of building out the rock station, that is a lit literally done for all the stations when you started there. You were ripping in CDs into the database. So you had total control about, and I I do kind of want to get into the idea, like, what in your mind deemed a band to get good enough to be good enough to get into the database over at series?

34:19 Because you know, now there's millions and millions of songs that are there. But when you're building it out, you are literally the person who is who controls the destiny of bands and whether or not they're going to become they're good, going to become famous or not. Yeah, that's a lot of pressure. I try not to think of it like that. You know, I try to first think of it like, hey, is this awesome music? And then some of that other stuff kind of comes into play. But later, you know, it's like when bands become successful and break and become big and they thank us for, you know, initially starting everything. Like I love that. And we do we get that all the time. But um, man, you know, I it's what I love. It's what I it's what I love. It's I don't know, it's it's um, you know, nowadays I look for diverse stuff, you know, but uh back in the day, it was again, I did college radio, I did commercial radio metal for two years, college radio for three years.

35:08 So I had a uh and then Headbanger's Ball, I studied it and I recorded every Saturday night. I had a box of video tapes that I've been studying metal forever. So that's where it started. I just everything that I had played and loved uh before on my radio shows, all the cut stuff that I love from Headbanger's Ball that made me go out to buy a tape two hours from where I live, you know, that kind of stuff from then back in the day. That's the first stuff that all became part of the station, the backbone of our metal station. And then the new stuff just comes in, and then I have to just be a filter, you know. I want to support the veterans that I love. You're the gatekeeper there.

35:48 I mean, you are literally a gatekeeper. And yes, and you know, I want to play the best. And there's a lot of bands that we don't play, and not because of for whatever reason. I mean, it's just because I maybe I deleted the email, you know, like I don't know. But there's so much music nowadays. Everywhere I go, hey, can you check this out? My cousin's in a band, my friend's in a band, my boyfriend's in a band, like everybody's in a band. And and it's really hard to support everybody, but we do our best. We play a lot of independent bands with no backing, no support at all. And then we also play stuff that's you know super supported. And again, I love playing the veterans and supporting those guys that I've worshipped and called heroes for my whole life, and now we're friends, so I always want to support those dudes, even in times of bad music.

36:35 Um, I have to, you know, if a band that I love and that's legendary, legacy act, uh, what am I gonna do? Skip that album because I don't think it's strong enough. Like, are you kidding me? You know, people love this these bands, and so there are there's there's times where I'm like, I just don't feel strongly about it, but I love this person, so I'll of course I'll play their stuff. So it's a lot of that, man. It's you know, I've been doing this now for 30 years. Uh so I think I I think I when when I question myself, I don't, you know, I'm like, ah, I miss things sometimes and then I feel bad, but then I play it a few months later and it's better late than never. And and then our audience doesn't know if it's four months old or four minutes old.

37:19 They don't know, you know, they're depending on me to give them the music. So even if something came out in July of last year and I'm just getting to it now, you know, from a deep German band or whatever, I think it's okay. You know, so yeah, it's hard. I it's like I I rely on people I trust, I rely on my gut and my heart, and especially nowadays, I really love diversity, you know, um music uh from different cultures with different languages. Like I really want, and I know liquid metal is the most diverse rock station in the entire world. Uh no one can come close to what we play as far as uh diversity in culture, uh language, uh sound.

38:00 It's amazing from Japanese metal to New Zealand stuff to Mexican metal to music from um France or whatever, uh German bands that are singing in German. Like it's so cool to play that stuff. So I like it when it's a challenge too. And again, I'm always gonna challenge listeners. When back in the day, when uh girls, women started singing in metal bands, people hated that. You know, our early subscribers were like, stop playing. I don't want to hear no women singing in my music. This is stupid, you know? And it's nowadays it's so saturated, but in a good way. And it's such a beautiful thing that we have so many powerful female voices in our music.

38:42 But before it wasn't accepted and it wasn't cool. It wasn't. And people could say, Oh, it always has been. No, it wasn't. There was a time where it wasn't, and the same thing now for metal in different languages. I feel I'm playing a lot more music from Mexico. Uh, I'm I'm speaking in Spanish more on the radio. People hate it, and I love it. And uh, I'm gonna keep Sepultura. You introduce it with Sepultura, yeah. That's that's that's classic. But they sing in English, you know, like right now I'm playing a band that I'm also managing, and I love them. That's why I'm managing them. I've never managed a band before in my life, but now I'm doing it now because I love them so much. They're called Ladrones, and they're a band that has Mexican regional music, metal, and hip-hop, all in the same song.

39:26 Nice, and and it's so unique and it's so awesome and and and beautiful, culturally rich music, and it's new and it's very different, and people are like, ew, what is this? You know, and especially now, guys, you know, the it's not especially with Latinos, you know, it's not a it's not um, it's not you know what I'm talking about. So there are a lot of our subscribers that are like fucking mad when I speak in Spanish and then I play a Spanish song. They're like, oh, but you know all the Latinos are fucking, yeah. Absolutely. So all right. So so the that that goes to a good question about the idea of building an audience and building a following, right?

40:11 So obviously, when it first starts out, nobody's listening. You're literally broadcasting to the office. That's really what you're doing, right? So how does how does Jose, how does how does how does at that point heart attack, and then what we've we've always gone to to Octane, etc. etc. Turbo. Um how do we how do you gauge what an audience because it's not like traditional radio, obviously, right? It's not it's not traditional radio. How do you gauge and how do you build that audience? How do you build a following? Um, I think uh for me, it's just being part of the community consistently, and not hanging out backstage, but being one with the fans. That's how you build a community, not from backstage, not from your dressing room, from the mosh pit, from the bars, from the floor, from the sweaty, stinky floor, right next to fans that are headbanging their sweaty hair in your face.

41:06 That is how you build community. There are so many hosts, co-workers of mine that are so uppity and fancy, they have to nah, dude. People always say, What are you doing here, Jose? You should be over there. I'm hosting the biggest metal festivals in the country, and I don't watch that shit from over there. I come hang out with the fans. That's how you build community. You smoke weed, you drink with them, you hug them, you kiss them, you stop and you say thank you for listening to SiriusXM. That's how you build community. Thank you for coming to this festival. Thank you for listening to Optane. Give me a hug. You know? That's the second most important person is serious talking right there. I mean, if only he had some passion, right?

41:47 Like Jose, that's all you're missing is passion. But that's how you build it. That's totally no way to do it another way. That's how. And that's how I've done this forever. Because I'm a fan first. Always fan first. Talk, talk about the challenges, because everybody faces challenges in their career, right? So, what bumps along the way have you encountered where I don't think there's anything that's insurmountable just from your attitude and your your your fearlessness? You talked about your fearlessness, but talk about the challenges that you face. Is it usually corporate? You talked about some pushback from the fans speaking Spanish, things like that. What other kind of challenges are you facing in your career?

42:27 Time. I'm so busy and I host and do so much. And I think for me, over my 30 years of metal radio service, is time is I'm doing so much that I'm not home. You know, I'm doing this and I miss that. So I think that now I'm I'm home and and it's a it's a much different story this many years into my career. But I think time, uh, that was a that was uh I think that's really yeah, man. It's hard to do everything and to say yes to things and then to be like and just worry about it later, you know, like landing on an air uh from an airplane trip and then doing two interviews and doing this and then the next getting a haircut the next day in the morning, going somewhere else, hosting something else that night, the next day hosting something all day, then flying early in the morning, coming back, being right on the radio when I land, you know, it's like non-stop.

43:23 So that keeps me and no typical day either. No, it's not. I mean, it's that's all the time. And uh there's a few down times of the year, but it's really busy. I was in the beginning. I last year was 2025, I've traveled most in my life, uh, was last year, and it's probably gonna get even a little crazier this year, too, which is good. Um, but I would say, and other obstacles, man, yeah, like an asshole boss, you know. I mean, we all have that. And it was the guy that was mean to me, and he and then he would love me, and then he was mean to me, and then he would like talk shit and be mean and aggressive, and it was weird. I was just doing stuff for the company, and brought and and every time I get on stage, everywhere I go, whether it's Yankee Stadium Metallica Show or Ozzy Osborne, Madison Square Garden birthday show, I talk about Sirius XM.

44:14 I that's what I'd lead with. Hey, I know you do. So, what's up? I'm Jose Mangan from Sirius XM. Fuck yeah, yeah. So it's like, but my boss would be like, you have to ask permission to host those events. And I'm like, hey, dude, I took vacation to do that, you know. Like, I don't, what do you mean? And he was like, I need you need to ask me permission. And I was like, dude, you're gonna stop me from making money for my family, dude? And he was like, You can't do that without my, you know, I'm like, oh my god. So that was scary for a few years, guys. And it was on and off, on and off, scary. And then they got rid of him for lots of reasons, sexual harassment.

44:54 I don't know what happened, but uh he got let go. And he and then so my boss now is the guy that was the pro music director of my college radio station the year before I got there. He's from Tucson, Arizona. Rob Cross, I love him. He went on to be program director of KFMA in Tucson, then K Rock in LA, and then K Rock, New York, and then Sirius Satellite Radio. Wow, we've got to get him on. What a great journey there. Dude, he's a badass. He is such a badass. I had my meeting today with him. I love him so much. He believes in me and in Vinny and in Sean, two of my coworkers at Sirius Xane.

45:37 We're the metal hard rock crew. He loves us. We make the company look really good. And yeah, why would he not love us? So he loves, loves, loves, loves. Jennifer um our wits, our CEO. I had tequila. She's got you. Oh, dude. I how many people can say they've had good tequila with Jennifer Witz, man? How many people I can. And I got Rob, my boss, in that circle, too. I was like, Rob, no, no, you come here, bro. This is this is one for the books here. And that was after the Metallica concert we did at McGransat in New York in August when we launched Maxima Metallica.

46:17 So yeah, no, yeah, but I think that was scary, guys. And I'm so glad that that that those days, those kind of even my my wife would be like, be careful, you're gonna get fired. I'm like, for doing what? You know, for making this these channels bigger, you know, why? And for spreading the word of serious. That's all. As we talk about making the channels bigger, like I'm curious about breakthrough moments. Yeah, as as you're building, as you're scaling, as you're in the Mosh pits, as you're hanging out with fans, like there must have been moments along the way where you're like, oh yeah, I've got something here. And then it was more than I've got something here.

46:58 It's like, holy shit, this is a big deal. Like, it can you share some of those moments where you suddenly realized, wow, this is a big, big thing. Well, I'll I'll share the first one and then I'll share something else. Um, the first one where it became surreal, uh, Metallica, James Hetfield, Rolling Stone magazine. It was 2008. I have the cover right over here framed. Uh, and I have these the article. It's a quick one-page QA with James Hetfield, and they ask him a generic question. What are you listening to these days, James? And he says, Oh, there are two stations on Sirius that I listen to all the time, liquid metal and underground garage.

47:42 Um, and then he's like, There's a DJ named Jose. He's a freaking firecracker full of energy. Oh my god. I love him. And then he talked about handsome Dick Manitoba on uh Underground Garage, and that was his answer to this question. Wow. And so amazing. And and then I freaked out, uh, and then I saw him like later on that year or the next year, I saw him at uh OzFest in Dallas, and uh I came over to him, and it was my first time officially meeting him, but he, you know, and I was like, hey James, dude, thank you. And he gave me a big hug, and he loves me.

48:24 And to this day, James Hetfield is uh one of my favorite people to be in the presence of, besides our dear um Ozzy Osborne. Uh James Hetfield is um he shows me so much love. I saw him in Nashville last year at Big Metallica show. Uh they're about to go on, he's smoking a cigar. I saw him sitting in the golf cart. I was with my friends in Ice Nine Kills, very close friends of mine. They were opening, and I just saw him, and I'm like, I can't, you know, he had security guards around him, but you know, it's like James, like I can say hi, you know. And I was scared to say hi to him. And I was like, hey, hey, James, hey James, hi.

49:04 And then and then and he was smoking a cigar and he started to get up, and I was like, no, no, no, no, please don't get up, you know. And he was like, dude, you're metal royalty. Are you kidding me? And he got up and he gave me the biggest hug, and he was just holding me, and he was just like patting me and rubbing me. He's like, How you doing, man? I'm like, Oh, James. And just when he holds me, I'm like, oh my god. Wow. Oh, and then um his photographer got a cool picture. My friends got a cool picture of us hugging and just talking, and he is so sweet. Um, but when he when I first met him, and I and again I just thanked him for the what doing that, and he was just so sweet.

49:44 But he's been sweet to me uh every time ever since. Uh, not one time has he not been sweet. I love his son, Castor. His son plays in a band called Bastardane, who we play on liquid metal, of course. And I'm trying to get Castor to marry my daughter. So I'm trying to marry. You want to get in the family? The ultimate dream. Are you kidding me? You need to you think I've worked this hard for not that to happen? So, or I or my have two daughters, 19 and 22. They're both beautiful. And I I gave them to Castor Hetfield or Ty Truheel, Robert Thrill's son from Metallica, the bass player. So I either way you're getting in.

50:25 That way I don't have to ask for passes or anything. You know, I can always get snake passes for life. Uh but now I joked in the interview with uh Rob and James uh in front of all my bosses uh at Sirius XM in Long Island this past August. I said something, well, now you married into my company Sirius XM, so now I officially don't have to ask for passes anymore or any of that stuff. And they were like, no, you're in, Jose. You're like, all right, all right. So, and then the next thing that really kind of blew me away um is over the years of just seeing the reaction from fans um to me being there, uh, and to me walking by them, and uh me being there, you know, anywhere uh around that type that that many fans.

51:17 Uh like I it's getting crazier and crazier and crazier. The level of engagement, the level of people stopping me, of people hugging me and saying thank you, and me seeing them and knowing them, recognizing them, knowing their kids from years and years ago. Now they have kids, you know, it's like crazy. But that seeing that continue to grow um every year, that to me is like, whoa. And I come home after like a whole four-day weekend of every of all this, and I just tell my wife, like, wow, babe, it's getting crazier. She's like, Oh yeah, whatever. You know, she doesn't they're used to it by this.

52:00 I'm very grounded here. Nobody gets a shit. Well, that's her job, I believe. Yeah, it is, yeah. I'll come home and I'll be like, hey, I just did something with Carrie Underwood, guys. It was so awesome. And they were like, Yeah, cool, Dad. That's bad when the kids now get used to give me hanging around, hanging around famous people. It needs nothing. I'm like, guys, Carrie Underwood? Come on, guys. And then I did something with uh what's her name? Uh Demi Lovato. And I was like, all right, now guys, now I'm not cool. And they were like, no, dad, no, okay, no. And I'm like, shit. So I get you need like doja cat or whatever. I know, then I'd be cool. Yeah, but no. Sabrina Carpenter. I'll never I'm not, I'm still working to be cool in front of my daughters, man. It's hard.

52:40 All right, so I got a question about I got a question. Uh now I had the opportunity to listen to your Ozzy show, the day of Ozzy's passing. It was an unbelievably heavy day. One of your I I I listen to you often. Obviously, I I've known you for a long time, so I listen to you often. And it was just a real it was a great show for fans, just to kind of emotionally, you know, let let folks it was a great emotional moment, I guess, for serious. I get is the way to say. Do you know how many people listened to you that day? No idea. The amount of the amount of people that called in, and I'm just talking about fans. Metal and rock royalty that called in to speak to you that day was unbelievable.

53:23 Unbelievable. Oh, too short. That was um a very difficult broadcast. Uh, I've had very three extremely difficult broadcasts in my life. Uh, Ozzy, dying, Dimebag, Daryl, and Vinny Paul from Pantera. Um Dine Bag getting killed. That was extremely tragic in 2004. And then I was live doing the same thing I did for Ozzy. 2016. No, 2018 is when Vinny passed away in June, and uh that was extremely sad because I was very close with Vinny, and then the Aussie broadcast. Out of my whole entire life, guys, of doing radio, that broadcast was the most remarkable because it was the most amount of feedback that I got ever in my entire life for doing anything on the radio.

54:13 I remember the day that that happened because I was working that day at CBS, and when I saw that cross the wire, it was not so much as wow, this is a huge loss. I just remember, for whatever reason, I was like, man, Jose must be devastated. And I actually called, I called you. I called you and left you a message just saying, uh, one, you know, first was like, you know, I'm always I'm working. I'm actually working at CBS. I was like, hey, Jose, you know, if you have a minute, I'd love you to call, I'd love you to be able to interview you real quick about Ozzie and his influence, etc. But really, the reason I called was to say, How are you doing? Because if anyone was gonna be devastated by this, I knew that you would.

54:54 Guys, um, you know, uh uh I was programming liquid metal and octane uh for many, many years. And then Ozzy and Sharon came to the company, and then I had a meeting with our president, and uh Scott Greenstein says, Hey, we we we're gonna do a channel, you know, what do you think about doing a channel with Ozzy? And I was like, Oh my god, are you kidding me? Yes, dude, are you what? And then so he goes, All right, well, Sharon and Ozzy, they want you to program it. And then you're gonna have to give up another channel because at the time they were just we were just supposed to do two. So I gave up Octane to do Ozzy's Boneyard. And then I started and built that and did all the interviews and all the gathering of audio with Ozzy.

55:38 Pretty much every one of our Ozzy Osborne interviews at Sirius XM. I mean, up until he had his show uh and his channel, I'm sorry. That was all me doing all that stuff, so with him uh over the years. So they trusted in me and they loved me, and I was close with them, and they asked me to program their channel and worked closely with them. I went to his house a bunch of times, the many different homes over the years, um, using my uh H2N uh Zoom recorder um with my with my uh radio spit uh grill on there, and Ozzy would just, I would just, and you know, it would just be me holding it in front of his face, trying to like keep a safe space between his mouth and the mic, and then he would spit all over my hand just because he was talking, but I loved it.

56:25 I was like, Ozzy weren't spitting anywhere spitting on my hand right now, and I it's totally cool. Every droplet I can feel, and it was just absorbed into my skin, and it made me more of a metalhead. And so, but I did that for years, and I would go to his house, use his bathrooms. Uh, one time he gave me a secret bottle of his cologne uh at his at his house. Um, I filmed some stuff with him. I asked him if I had this idea for he was doing a headline in a festival that I was hosting, and I asked him to do this fun thing where I knocked on his door, like, hey, let's go to the beach, Ozzy. And he was like, What the fuck are you doing? And slams the door in my face. And they agreed to do that.

57:07 I was like, really? Really? Okay. So um, but we've done he invited my my wife and I, Melissa, to his um, it was the 60th birthday party. Uh kidding. Yeah, and and it was like really, I mean, Sharon and yeah, dude, I've done a lot of stuff for them. Uh, been to every single Ozfest every year. I've been to at least one of the OzFest, even when there was only one. I've been to every single year of Ozfest. So yeah, I love them, they love me. I'm I'm close with them. Jack sent me a text um after many, many many days afterwards, and he had heard some of the broadcasts, some of Ozzy's people, uh, and sent me messages as well and talking about the broadcast and what we've done and stuff, and that was really cool because I just want them to be, you know, feel better and stuff.

57:55 And it was tough, man. It was it was a big and then we went, my friend and I, we had gone to the last Ozzy show in July a few weeks before. So we were there in in in England in Birmingham and with with everybody in the audience experiencing this most magical metal event ever. And there will never be anything like what happened out there on in July, on July 5th in Birmingham for the Back to the Beginning show. So, yeah, man. I love Ozzy. I have his face tattooed on my leg. Um, on the 50th anniversary of Black Sabbath's debut album, we were doing an event for one of Ozzy's solo albums at our LA studios. On the day, the 50th anniversary, it was February 13th, 2020.

58:38 And 50 years after Black Sabbath put out their debut, I asked Ozzy to sign my leg and I showed him my my my face tattoo of his face on my leg. And he loved it, and he carefully signed my leg. But I took my shoe off and I put my foot next to his balls in his right there in his T-zone area, and I just laid my foot comfortably into his T-zone. Sharon was there, uh Jack was there, they were laughing. Where else are you gonna get a story on? I mean like where else are you gonna go? I also signed it so carefully because I said I'm gonna get this tattoo tonight. And he was like, Oh, okay. And so he was like so carefully signing my leg like comfortably, man, beautifully.

59:20 I love and he did it with a smile and he gave me a hug, and I just love him, man. I would hold the doors open for him and all of our bathrooms at Sirius XM because I would produce uh most of the shows that he did with us Ozzy speaks, and then I would just um hold him down the stairs, guys. Like for me, he wasn't gonna fall around me. Um and so I just always like I was like a little guardian around him, like a little shadow around him and stuff. And uh he was just so sweet. You were so sweet. You were the guardian of the Prince of Darkness, yeah, as it were. What does that make you? Is there is there a title?

1:00:02 I'm a child of Ozzy Osborne, man. We are all children of Ozzy. That's for sure. That's for sure, man. I I could just see him spitting all over your arm as he's doing his thing. Oh my God. Folks, the the voice you hear is somebody who definitely did not need a plan B because you are doing a hundred percent of what where you're supposed to be. And you're so you call yourself fortunate. I mean, not many people get that opportunity to lie in life to find the exact place that you're supposed to be in this life. And I just it's really it's gotta be such a thrill. It's really weird, guys. And people ask me, like, why are you always happy? You're always smiling.

1:00:43 Like, I do always have good energy everywhere, everywhere. Why, why, why? Because look, look what I do. I listen to metal, I watch horror movies, and I get to act in a bunch of horror stuff too. I I smoke weed, the best weed, and I sip on the best tequila. This is my life. I'm proud of those four things. I get to do them all the time so publicly and lovingly. What? And make money. What? What? Dream, live in the dream, man. What? What? So, yeah, so it's it's it's insane. So, yeah, I I'm blessed. For I haven't used fortunate, and I think I use blessed because I do feel blessed by the metal gods, I feel blessed by Ozzy, I feel blessed by Papa Head from Metallica.

1:01:34 I feel blessed. These guys have blessed me. Um, you know, I did the very last interview with Ronnie James Dio in his life, his very last interview, the last public appearance ever. That was my interview with him. I started to cry and during the interview because I he was so sick looking, and he was his energy used to be so strong and mighty. And then it was so diminished when I saw him after he won the two the I forgot what year it was, the Revolver Golden Gods Award for Vocalist of the Year. And so I did this in last interview and I hugged him and I gave him a hug and I said, Thank you, Ronnie, for everything you've done for us.

1:02:16 And then he was hugging me and holding me and rubbing. He's like, Jose, thank you for what you are doing for metal. And it's like, this is the God telling you this, and a month before he passes. So yeah, man, I blessed, blessed to do this shit. I love my family. Yeah, dude. It's fucking, you know, if you look that interview up, they edit that part out because it was very awkward when it was happening live. Where uh it was Corey Taylor. I had asked Corey Taylor to help me interview Ronnie because Corey and I were doing an interview, mid-interview, backstage, uh, on the little red carpet thing. Dio walks by to the freight elevator, he's leaving.

1:02:58 I stopped the interview with Corey. I run after, I asked Wendy Dio, hey Wendy, can you please do a quick interview with Ronnie? Please, please, please. They were getting in the elevator to leave. And that's when she said, Let me ask him for you, since it's you. So she went back, got in the elevator. So then when I ran back, when she said yes, and I ran back, I was like, Corey, you're gonna help me interview. So then if you watch that video, it's on it's in Revolvers YouTube. There's a part where it's a jump, it's an edit, and it goes from me talking about his health to me going, Come on, everybody, give it up for Ronnie. Because I started to cry. I hugged him. He we had that moment where he told me that stuff. Then I started to like wipe my shit, and I kind of pulled away and I wiped my shit, and I was like, All right, hey, come on, man, give it up for Ronnie.

1:03:47 So it's a weird edit, and that edit part is the part where we embraced and we had a cool some sweet words, man. But I've been blessed, guys. I can't believe it. Amazing. I can't believe it, man. Can't believe it. Amazing, and I love it. I love talking about marriage. I know you do every day. We know you do. We know. Um, we can't let you go. Um, we're gonna get to advice here in a quick second, but we can't let you go because my wife begged me to ask you the question. How did you get on Family Feud? Good answer. Good question, good answer. Okay, this is great. Um, so Family Feud, wow man, okay. There's a lot of stuff. I don't know when this is airing, but we're gonna be on a new episode of Family Food Feud.

1:04:28 Uh and this so we've been on the show three times. So uh we went our the third airing is going to happen on January 28th. The second of the two shows, because they do uh first show and then there's a second show. Um the second show at at whatever time 30 it is, that is gonna be us on January 28th. Okay. Uh we look great. You have to watch the episode. We're not very proud of it. But, anyways, um we're not very proud of it. Uh we're fans, we're huge fans, we watch it all the time as a family. Um, you know, I'm high and buzz, and I'm like, dude, we're gonna herb. We're gonna we're gonna apply. And my family's like, you know, shut up, no, we're not.

1:05:11 I was like, yeah, we are. So then uh one time when I had my sister and my my daughters and my wife, uh, we were in Arizona and I was with everybody, uh, and I was like, okay, now we're gonna do a video of all of us applying for head uh for family feud. They were like, what? And I'm like, uh, my brother-in-law, hey, you're filming here's the camera. We're gonna stand right here, do we're gonna do this, do this, do this, and then you and then everybody just do this, uh, you know, and I directed everybody and we did it. And I so I made my family do that. We submit, I did all the application online, submitted it. They said, Hey, we guys, we we think you're cool. Then they did an interview with us uh on Zoom with the entire family, uh, with the five of us, and they loved us, and they said, We're gonna use you guys.

1:05:53 And then a couple of years went by. And then yeah, like maybe uh two years, and then they said, Hey, uh, because they had asked us before, we sent them available dates, and we never heard back. And then we were like, Oh, I guess, and then the next year, because once you get once you become a family they want to use, they keep you for three years in their database. So um, so then we got asked again, and then we and then we finally went uh 2023. We went, no, 2024. Uh, we went to Atlanta and we we two episodes, uh, and then those aired last Jan last February, and now they invited us to come back with and we filmed that last year, and now it's going to air on January 28th.

1:06:39 So on those first two, there's clips I have on my Instagram. They're not available on YouTube. I wish the show was. It's not available on demand. They don't do any of that stuff for Family Feud, which which sucks, yeah. But there's some clips that I that they posted that got a lot of views. Uh one of us answering, uh, my wife answering uh a really question like in a real sexy way, and got a lot of views. And then there was the one where uh the one where I say uh it's so my favorite, man. Uh, where they're like uh talking about um, so tell them what we're gonna play. And I said, $20,000. And and and then uh Steve Harvey was because I said it with my metal voice in front of everybody.

1:07:23 It was the audience there. I was you know, and then I felt comfortable. And then he was like, Oh, he jumped back and he was like, Oh, and two tickets to a heavy metal concert. And I was like, Yeah, Steve, and you're you're going, we're going together. And he was like, Oh, I don't want to be no close to no speakers. I was like, Oh, we'll be at the soundboard, we'll be all right. So that's how I started doing fast money, uh, was with that. But that clip was so cool, and I got Steve to say in the next episode, he also said the words heavy metal. So it's the first time in the history of Family Feud where Steve Harvey said the words heavy metal back to back. I would argue Richard Dawson never said it either.

1:08:04 Nope. He was too busy kissing, he was too busy kissing all the female contestants. Um, but that's right, dude. But Steve Harvey was great, dude. He loved us, he was so cool. When we came back the next year, he totally knew who we were. Everybody loved us. Uh, Ken, who directs uh the show, he also directs Shark Tank and other shows. Super cool. Big uh fan of Sirius XM and uh the bunch of the production guys were like, Jose, Jose, what's up? Like, yeah, guys, what's up, man? In fact, they played Metallica when we came out as a family. Nice, yeah, dude. There you go. It was it's such a great experience.

1:08:45 Yeah, so um tell your wife thank you for watching. Tell her good answer, good answer, and tell her to apply. It's easy. Just be super energetic, be awesome in those tryouts. No one can be as energetic as you, Jose. But guys, one more thing that we didn't talk about that's very important to me. Uh, and it's my scholarship foundation. Um that was next on the list. That was next on this. Okay, good. I wasn't sure if we were wrapping things up. Do it, yeah. All right, good. No doubt. Tell us. So um, you know, I'm a science nerd. And if it wasn't for my education, I would never you come off as a science. I well, I was, Duchar. I still feel like I am a little bit, but uh I am now with my foundation. So um I wanted to give back.

1:09:26 And during the pandemic, I started this foundation. It's a 501c3, head bank for science. And what I do is give money to students that want to be doctors and scientists and who love the hell out of heavy metal music. And it's a very niche, niche area, I know. Um, but it's I can't even believe that this is the first heavy metal loving scholarship ever. And I can't believe that that I'm the one to do it. There's a You can't believe it. Well, but there's way more uh richer people to do this, you know, people with huge teams, and and this is me by myself, you know, trying to do all this stuff.

1:10:08 And and and I do a lot of stuff. I'm not I'm not charging money at stuff, you know. I'm doing this for to hook up students, metal heads, man. I want them to focus on their grades and loving metal. And in three years, I've given out $99,000 to nine students. Get out of nine students every year. Three students get $33,000. I have a 333 Pantera tattoo on my hand, so that's what I go by. And it's um these far beyond driven students who apply that win money, and I'm hooking them up, man. And I'm trying to make metal cool, science cool, uh, being a doctor, a pharmacist cool. And I've had a lot of medical professionals um that are involved uh with me per directly, and also that just reach out and say, I can't believe you're doing this.

1:10:54 This is the coolest thing. And we've raised a bunch of money over the years. I work with bands uh to do cool experiences, uh, to go to their shows, and we fly them out. And uh, I work with Fandium a lot with these type of um fundraising events, and then we do a lot of awareness shows, and you know, I did an awareness show in November and I lost $2,500, you know. But it's like, you know, I lost money, but it was a cool gathering, and people were made aware of the scholarship foundation. They probably don't even know about it. So headbankforscience.org to find out more information, to donate. I'm gonna be opening up applications next month, and they'll be open for three months.

1:11:35 And I do this with bold.org, and they help me manage my scholarship application and the whole process because I can't do that myself. And you know, they vet the grades, the GPAs, and everything, and then I look at videos and an essay. They have to write an essay, but the essay started getting really AI over these last few years, and I hate that stuff, man. People are like, I love metal because my dad showed me Metallica when I was a kid, and that's cool. I'm like, no, you have to bleed metal. I want proof that if we cut you, your metal is liquid. You know what I'm saying? And so you get that in videos, and I want to see somebody in their room covered in metal posters, I want to see their uh their Gojira tattoos and their Pantera tattoos.

1:12:24 You know, I I want deep rooted metal heads to win this money. I want the biggest nerds that are the most metal to win. And I remember the first year I showed my wife one of the essays from one of the winning students and his application, and she read the essay, and she said, Ooh, he's a nerd. And I said, exactly, winner, right there. That's kind of the idea. Yeah, yeah. He was a biochemistry and he was all about chemistry research and all this stuff and everything. And I was just like, This dude, long hair, plays guitar in a metal band in Las Vegas, not a big one, but he still plays guitar and he was good.

1:13:07 And I was like, if this guy's band is decent, he's gonna win. And I listened, looked it up, and I was oh shit, okay, and boom, he was one of my first winners. So yeah, stuff like that. So headbankforscience.org. I love being able to talk about it. It's weird uh at festivals when I'm in front of 50,000, 60,000 people, it's you can't really talk about it like that because it's such a hard thing to talk about in front of the masses. But an intimate settings and stuff on the radio, it's easy and it's cool. But sometimes I even forget to talk about it, and then I notice that there's no donations, and then I notice that when I talk about it, then I'll see stuff in my emails.

1:13:50 Oh, donation came in. Donate. I was like, oh, oh, it's because I talked about it, you know? It's uniquely you can't do that. It's very niche, very niche. I know. It's awesome. It's awesome. I got I got my my my last question to you is because I gotta go probably soon too, yeah. Yeah, all right. So my last question to you is first, how do you see the industry at this point in your career? And then two, advice for those who want to get into it. Okay, uh, well, so advice to get in. Let me let me uh okay, how do I see the industry now? Well, how do I see it? Because you're a mover and a shaker. Yeah, man. I mean, I see it, you know, healthy. Um, I mean, I'm look- I look at it for me, it's through the radio and the lot and the and the live uh lens.

1:14:34 Because I don't really know a lot about record labels, and there's they're less and less powerful nowadays, you know. It's not really about that anymore. Um, but for me, I feel like uh the industry, and now I don't know what pop radio does. I don't know, country, I don't know. I'm looking through it from rock and metal, and I feel like it's very strong, and we're doing really well right now. I feel like our stations and our music are doing the best they've ever been, and I think uh the rock bands and the festivals and all these events, they're the biggest and the most selling than than it's been in such a long time.

1:15:15 I think we're rising right now. Bands are having huge peaks in their career decades in. Deftones, every one of their shows sold out, they're massive, massive with no radio play. No one plays them. We do all the time, but not regular radio. And so, and they're massive. Every show sold out, you know. Sleep token, they're not everywhere, but they're um they're on a bunch of our stations and they're just selling out in seconds. So I think our industry are is is doing well. I don't know. I mean, I guess that's my lens. I don't really know a lot about streaming. I use it, um, and I use it for research, and that's pretty much what I use it for.

1:15:56 And I look at numbers and stuff, and I feel like we're, I feel, you know, I I don't really think too much about AI and stuff. I don't, you know, and I maybe that's naive of me to do, but I I just I live in a metal rock bubble. Yeah, and and that's where I kind of see, and I have a weird lens, you know, and I and I look at it through that, and it's not maybe the best. And and what's advice I would say? I mean, dude, anybody can start a YouTube channel, anybody can start uh an Instagram page, a Twitch show, a TikTok to promote metal and their favorite bands and albums and shows and do it locally, start locally, branch off to being a national.

1:16:37 It's so the entry point is so easy, way easier than it was for me. You had to be on the radio. Yeah, we had to start in college radio, then do FM radio and graduate to satellite, you know. So but nowadays it's instant gratification, and people can do a lot with your phones and how creative you can be and the time you can put in and making it really easy and not really spend any a lot of money. It's just effort, it's being consistent. But the thing that's that's missing is the authenticity, the pureness of it. I think a lot of people, and I've seen people that I've hired as well over the years, as soon as they get somewhere, they want to be like, oh, I'm gonna be sponsored, I want to do this, give me this free, give me that free.

1:17:22 And it's all about you know who they can get to promo and sponsor them. And it's like, stop, you know, like do it because you love it. Right, be about something. Yeah, don't do it because you're looking for money or clout or followers. You know, I didn't do it, I do it the hard way, the long way. I'm not showing my boobs, I'm not subscribing to see me and boxers, you know. Uh maybe I should. But you know OnlyFans Rose? No, man. Uh, but I I I want to just I I think people right away think about other things, and it's not so pure anymore. I I I I I I want it to, I want people to really do this because they love it.

1:18:05 Not just for a few years because they think it's gonna get them somewhere, and then they then they die off, and then they they stop going to shows, they stop caring about, you know, like don't do it because you love it, and it'll be so much better and more fulfilling, you know, because people try it, they do it, and they're in it, and then they just desert it because it's you know, it the law the playing the long game is hard. And so, but the the entry point is so easy nowadays, you know. Anyone can start promoting anything, and you can do it, and you'll stand out eventually by just making awesome content and being from the heart. Well, it's it's crystal clear that you love it, and it's funny, but we get to the end of these conversations sometimes, and the titles of the episode sort of become clear in a way, and love it might might actually be the right one for this.

1:18:59 Jose, at first you can hear Jose. I want to make sure I get that in an octane and liquid metal and Sirius XM. You know, Jose, this has been you know such a pleasure. I didn't know you well, but I I saw your face a million times around Sirius and Tushar and Larry. Um, you know, it's been so great to catch up, sort of been like u old home days in a way. Um thank you for being here. Yeah, yeah, guys, this is very cool. I love this, I appreciate this. Thanks for letting me talk about metal. It's always good to put metal in different places where metal is not usually talked about, you know, so it's nice to give it a nice shine. So thank you guys. All right. So before we let you go, and I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of kind of echo the sentiment that that Larry Sam just said that, you know, you and I haven't spoken in nearly 20 years since I left Sirius, right?

1:19:48 But everywhere I go and people see the resume, they say, Oh, you worked at Sirius. Like, yeah, I worked over Sirius for a while. They're like, Oh my god. I was like, Yeah, you know, I know some of the guys over there. And uh, one of the people always say, Yeah, I know Jose, I've got to know Jose Mangan. Over at over at over with the metal guy, and they're like, You know Jose? Yeah. I got to meet him a bunch, and we got pretty friendly. So I still I still use you to get a little bit claspy, but I'm also happy at the fact that you and I are friends for at least the past 20 years, right? For life. When I talked to you, it felt like we were just hanging last week. It felt like it felt like he has to be a little bit more. It's normal. It's natural. And that's and that's pretty much how the call went too. It was like, hey Jose, will you do our uh was us bullshitting about stuff? I was like, hey Jose, would you do our show?

1:20:30 Absolutely. What are you talking about? And then we got back into whatever we're talking about. No, I got you guys, man. Yeah, thank you guys so much again. And uh much love to you guys and and and hell yeah. Come on. You're the bankie, Jose. Yeah. That was awesome. Thank you. So that was Jose Mangin, the metal ambassador from Sirius XM, who is literally living proof that if you pour yourself into something that you love, just about anything is possible. Larry Shea, what are your takeaways? I love Jose. Let's just start right there, man. He was so much fun. Just seeing him in the hallways, he would just always brighten my day and just what a great guy. Um, but my takeaways are the little things. You know, we talk on this show all the time about the little things and you know, the synchronicity in life and the little things that happen.

1:21:18 You know, if you think about Jose, like, you know, if in high school, if he doesn't see the serpent and the rainbow, he never gets into chemistry. You know, if he doesn't get into chemistry, he doesn't get the full ride to University of Arizona. That's where he's playing guitar in a class and he's talking to the music director of the radio world, you know, all these little moments that lead up to him. The brochure. If his friend doesn't give him the brochure for Sirius, he never even hears about Sirius satellite radio, probably, until it's out and on everybody's dashboard in their car, you know? So it's the little things in life that I just find amazing about Jose's story. Um, you know, he's just fearless, he's passionate. I mean, you can certainly hear hear the passion, and he wakes up every day doing exactly what he wants to do, and he just loves it so much.

1:22:04 We should all be so lucky for that. We say it all the time, guys. You know, he's built for that job, and he didn't even know he wanted to do it until it was right in his face. Because it didn't exist, it didn't exist. So very cool. Yeah. Uh, you know, all I'll say for Jose, and the same, and I'll echo what you said, right? No, Jose is the best, one of the best people I've known for forever. And I'm so glad that I met him at a place like Sirius because honestly, if it was any other walk of life, I never would have met Jose. Absolutely would never have met someone like Jose Mangan. And he really was, and uh he really was born to do this job. I mean, you know, there are most of the time we've heard the old saying that, you know, you know, you find a job that you like, you'll never work a day in your life.

1:22:50 But the point is for Jose, he has found the one job that he was meant to do. And that is that's an even different class of kind of lifestyle that you have because I doubt Jose will ever consider what he does work ever. And the one thing I found so surprising was like that introspective moment between him and his father who said, you know what, you've got to take that leap and do this job. I mean, I can't think of any other parent would who parent who would be so supportive of saying, yeah, move forward in a career which doesn't have great prospects in a niche genre of music which it does not play on the radio. I mean, it's it's really, really surprising when you think about it.

1:23:31 I mean, everything had to break right for Jose, and it did. Um, luck is part of it, right? But the point is that you make your own luck and his passion for the music that he that he is within has not only helped him to build out the channels that we've talked about, but also to build an audience that that relies upon him to be that messenger for the next generation of metal music or music in general. I mean, and he is such an important part of the mosaic that is that is serious. I can't ever I I I'll say it again. He's the second most important person at Sirius behind our story. k I think my takeaway is in a way he he reinforces the the mantra or the suggestion that the the power of the positive attitude can um move mountains.

1:24:24 And you know, I didn't know Jose very well. I I we were there at the same time. I'd see him around once in a while. And the truth is I didn't really know who he was, but he was smiling, he was up, he was energetic, he was always moving. I found found myself always smiling when I looked at this guy without even really knowing exactly who he was. Um one of the most charismatic people you'll ever meet. Absolutely. Smiling, energy, up all the time, and that has propelled him to some pretty incredible places. So it's just been uh a pleasure for me to get to reconnect with him a little bit and just to see where where that guy went 20 years later, after you know, the smile that I once knew was now this major power within the world of music.

1:25:12 And it's just an incredibly uplifting story. So , Jose, thank you so much for joining us today. For everybody out there, make sure you check him out on Sirius XM Octane and Liquid Metal channels and also check out headbangforscience.org to learn more about his great scholarship. Jose, thank you so much for joining us. We also thank you for joining us. If you enjoyed our conversation, please support No Wrong Choices by following us wherever you're listening right now. You can also join our growing community by connecting with us on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook, or by visiting no wrongchoices.com for great additional content.

1:25:52 On behalf of Larry Shea, Tushar Saksina, and me, Larry Samuels, thank you again for joining us.