The Clay Edwards Show

Clay opened with a detailed shout-out to Capitol Police after they helped change a flat for his girlfriend on the Jackson side of the stack. She was headed north on 55 in front of the Herrin-Gear Autoplex, just before the High Street exit, when she hit a pothole and blew a tire on her Honda Accord. The car had low-profile 19-inch wheels, which made the situation worse.
Clay called ahead so officers could stage with blue lights while he was en route, mainly to reduce the chance of her getting rear-ended. Officers Crockett and Teague were first on scene. They tried to change the tire, but the spare was missing—Clay said the previous boyfriend had kept it. His own spare from the truck wouldn’t fit because of the Honda’s deep-well lug nuts, and the officers’ tools didn’t match either.
Major Sim Shanks happened to drive by, stopped, and called Master Sergeant Denton, who arrived in a heavy-duty Ram (Clay called it a prime mover) equipped with a battery-powered impact wrench and a floor jack. Denton got the spare on quickly. Clay then took the damaged tire back to Rankin County and got it replaced at Gleason’s in Pearl, where he said the crew treated him well even though he was only buying one tire.
Clay was clear that changing flats is not part of the job, but the officers went well beyond what he asked for. He posted about it and directly addressed the expected “bootlicker” comments, saying that if it were someone’s mother, girlfriend, wife, or daughter stuck on the side of the road in Jackson, most people would be glad the officers stopped and helped. He framed it as a straightforward good experience worth talking about, especially since negative interactions tend to get all the attention.

The bourbon pick of the week is Wild Turkey Rare Breed, a barrel-proof step up from the standard Turkey 101. Creston walked through it on the show: it runs around 115–116 proof straight from the barrel, carries noticeable cinnamon notes, and is generally easy to find on shelves. Clay, who is more of a shots guy than a slow sipper, immediately compared it to a fancier Fireball. Creston pushed back that it is meant to be sipped and enjoyed, though he conceded it can still be taken as a shot.
They briefly covered the usual whiskey rituals—swirling, smelling, aerating—with Clay skeptical that most people doing it know why and not just mimicking what they have seen. Creston noted there is also a green-label rye version with a higher rye mash bill for anyone who prefers that profile. The bottle shown was not guaranteed to be the exact one in stock at O42 in Crossgates, and Clay said he was checking with Brad on current inventory in case they needed a Plan B.
It was framed as getting into “whiskey weather” heading into football season, even if the previous day had still been in the 90s.

Clay announced he is sitting out the Hinds County DA race entirely. He said an email asking him to weigh in forced the issue, and after thinking it over he decided he is too conflicted to comment fairly.
His best friend and personal attorney, Sean Yurtkuran, is involved with Gwen’s campaign as an adviser. Clay has also known Gwen’s father, Monty, for more than thirty years; the two families go back to when Clay was a kid eating at Monty’s locations, including the old South Jackson spot near Whitten Junior High. At the same time, Clay remains disappointed in Gwen’s handling of the Anthony Fox case and does not feel he can support her because of it. Out of respect for Sean, he also does not want to attack her.
The result, he said, is that he will neither endorse nor criticize anyone in the race. He acknowledged that some listeners will call it the easy way out, but he would rather be transparent about the relationships and the conflict than pretend they do not exist. He recommended that people do their own research on the candidates’ records and platforms instead of relying on what others tell them.
He also noted that he has become more cautious about jumping into local races in general. Early on he was quicker to pick sides; now he is more aware of how many listeners are personally connected to candidates and how much weight the microphone carries. Because he does not live in Hinds County, he added that he is not sure it is even appropriate for him to take a strong public position on the race. So he is opting out.

Clay jumped on a Facebook post from a woman named Amanda in the Let’s Talk Pelahatchie Facebook group. Her dog Mickey had just been hit and killed on Rehobeth Road after being outside for only five minutes. She, her grandbaby, and the dog had just gotten up from a nap; the dog was hit right in front of her mailbox. She initially posted something raw about the driver rotting in hell, then walked it back while still clearly wrecked. Clay said he gets it—if you run over someone’s dog in their front yard and people see it, the least you can do is stop. He admitted he’s been on both sides of it: he once hit a dachshund that darted out in front of him and was messed up about it for a long time, and a mailman ran over one of his family’s dogs years ago.
That story led into the announcement that Jason from Raven Six Rising Lost Pet Recovery will be on the show Monday morning for both hours. Clay spent over an hour on the phone with him the day before after getting a flyer in his mailbox. The operation uses drones equipped with heat-seeking radar to find lost pets and livestock. It’s a business, not a free service, and Clay was clear that the cost reflects the technology and time involved. He plans to start raising money for a fund that can cover searches for families who can’t afford it on their own. Jason’s page is Raven Six Rising Lost Pet Recovery on Facebook (there’s another similarly named page that is not the same operation).
Clay said the conversation already went deep on drones, animal recovery, and even the DJI drone ban, and he expects Monday’s show to cover a wide range of topics while still centering on lost pets and the work Jason does. He’s treating it as one of the more interesting guest setups the show has had in a while.

Jackson’s police chief confirmed the department will not renew its contract with Flock Safety, citing privacy concerns raised by residents. The city plans to explore other license-plate reader options that can still feed into its real-time camera center, but the Flock system specifically is out.
Clay treated the decision as one of the dumber moves the current administration has made. He argued that Jackson is the last place that should be voluntarily discarding a crime-fighting tool when it already struggles with basic law enforcement capacity. He pushed back on the privacy fears that drove the non-renewal, saying most of the opposition is fear-mongering and that the same people worried about Flock are often the ones convinced data centers are going to drain the state’s water supply.
On the specific complaint that officers have used the system to stalk people, Clay said the cameras actually create a digital trail that makes it easier to catch and fire the ones who abuse it. Without the system, he noted, bad actors can still follow someone the old-fashioned way and leave no record. He rejected the standard “don’t trade freedom for safety” framing and flipped it: Jackson is trading safety for a version of freedom it largely already has. A camera on a pole, he said, doesn’t stop anyone from leaving their house; it just records tags. During COVID, Mississippi didn’t deploy cameras to force people indoors, and he pointed to his own prior experience in local law enforcement as evidence that the tool wasn’t being used that way.
Clay tied the decision back to the larger picture of Jackson’s policing problems under the previous administration—understaffing, pro-criminal leadership, and the resulting no-go zones in parts of the city. He said a place already short on effective law enforcement can’t afford to hand away automated tools and then claim it will simply “look at other companies.” He also noted that a lot of the cameras people call Flock aren’t even Flock units; they’re just ordinary license-plate readers on poles, and the real objection appears to be surveillance in general.
He closed the rant by telling listeners that if they truly hate being tracked, they should throw their phone out the window and switch to a carbureted car from before modern telemetry. For anyone planning to commit a crime, he offered practical advice: leave the phone, ID, and modern vehicle at home so the cameras (or lack of them) matter less. The hypothetical he used was blunt—if a family member were the victim of a violent crime and the suspect got away because the city had pulled the cameras over stalking worries, most people would suddenly want the system back. In his view, Jackson just chose the opposite priority.

**On this episode of The Clay Edwards Show**, Clay and Creston Birch break down the weekend’s college football slate (State at LSU, Ole Miss hosting Missouri) before Clay delivers a lengthy, unapologetic shout-out to Capitol Police for going above and beyond after his girlfriend blew a tire on the Jackson side of the stack. He names names, praises the response, and contrasts it with the usual “bootlicker” noise.
From there the show shifts into Clay’s ongoing guitar obsession—he’s got a hard-to-find early-90s Ibanez bass landing and plans to get proper Floyd Rose setup help from Shane Turnage—then pivots hard into the permanent disbarment of Chokwe Antar Lumumba. Clay frames it as the least of Lumumba’s problems and runs through the leadership failures, COVID-era mismanagement, and the broader dismantling of Jackson under the previous administration.
They also cover Clay’s decision to sit out the Hinds County DA race entirely (conflicts involving a close friend on one campaign and longstanding issues with the other side), a hit-and-run dog story that leads into Monday’s planned guest from Raven Six Rising Lost Pet Recovery, and a blunt defense of Flock cameras against the privacy pushback that led Jackson to drop the contract. Clay argues the city can’t afford to surrender crime-fighting tools when it already has too few of them.
The episode closes with dual FAFO awards (Lumumba’s disbarment plus an ADA arrested on a domestic violence charge) and a tease of a major upcoming announcement from the governor involving Capitol Police and the Department of Public Safety.
Straightforward, local, and light on patience for bad leadership or selective outrage.

**Podcast Description – The Clay Edwards Show**
Clay opens the show talking about the old Jim Rome days (Smack Off, JT the Brick, spanking the monkey) before pivoting to a guitar he just bought from the lead player in Cemetery Gates, the longest-running Pantera tribute band out of Texas. He floats the idea of bringing them to Central Mississippi for a Clay Edwards Show throwdown—Friday or Saturday night, heavy on the industrial stage show, and preferably after college football season so nobody has to choose between Dimebag and kickoff.
The main topic is James Hetfield’s on-stage comments at Metallica’s Vegas residency telling the crowd they’re “not here like some other entertainers to influence you with their bullshit.” Clay and a caller break down whether that was aimed at anyone in particular (Kid Rock came up), why politically themed music is fine but stage lectures aren’t, and why a lot of people are just tired of both sides injecting agendas into concerts, award shows, and everything else. Texts and live chat pile on about reading the room, grifters on both sides, and the difference between art imitating life and living the lifestyle.
Also covered: JPD not renewing their Flock camera contract, the Cindy Hyde-Smith/Scott Colom Senate race and how both sides are campaigning (or not), religion and politics getting mixed for votes, and a quick note that Mississippi leads the nation in delinquent car loans.
**Haunted trail info The 13th Acre of Terrorville at Almost A Ranch in Florence (649 Thomasville Road) runs every Saturday in October. $15 per person, starts at 7 PM (Halloween night goes until midnight). It’s an outdoor haunted trail, gory, and recommended for older teens and adults. Tickets are being given away on the show. Text the Ellis Autoplex line or email clay@wyab.com for the flyer. Weather permitting.

**The Clay Edwards Show – Episode 1314**
Clay and Creston (the Legion of Doom) kick things off with some wrestling nostalgia before diving into Jackson’s water fight. Mayor John Horn says the city deserves control of its water system again. Clay’s take: they already tried the “black-owned and operated” approach under Lumumba and managed it into the ground. The rest of the state and country are still footing the bill while the same crowd wants the money back in the general fund for vanity projects and friendly nonprofits. Elections have consequences.
From there they get into culture rot—how rap went from storytelling to requiring street-cred receipts for drug dealing and violence, and why Clay thinks the government propped it up while starving rock music. They also cover Led Zeppelin finally licensing “Stairway to Heaven” for Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movie after she personally pitched Plant and Page, plus the broader argument that classic rock is getting squeezed out of the mainstream.
Later they hit AI’s real-world impact after Kroger announced 3,000 corporate layoffs as it leans into the technology, and why Clay says people should stop running from it and start learning how to use it instead. They close with the question of the day—favorite Halloween movies—and Ben Crump’s latest claim that a fatal roller coaster accident was an act of racism.
Unfiltered takes on Jackson, culture, wrestling, music, and whatever else gets under the skin.

**Podcast Description:**
Clay opens the show solo and immediately takes a caller who’s done with the Epstein files circus. The caller wants a full FAFO treatment for Trump after the underwhelming release—no readable details, no arrests, and the whole thing written off as a hoax. Clay’s response is blunt: he beat the drum for years, but these files were never coming in any form that satisfied anyone, same as the Kennedy files, MLK files, or the real UFO stuff. He refuses to call Trump a pedophile, argues the Democrats would have used anything real against him with the full force of the federal government, and says the previous administration didn’t even acknowledge the files existed until it became useful for tearing MAGA apart. He’s still happier overall than four years ago on the border and manufacturing, but he’s burned out on the politics of it and not interested in pretending one vote or one radio show changes the “same bird, different wings” reality.
From there the conversation shifts to Christine Wells Wansley (Nolan Wells’ mother) and a video of her twerking in the kitchen on her son’s birthday. Clay has zero patience for the “people mourn differently” defense. He calls the performance what it looks like—hood-rat theater from someone who reached out to Ben Crump before the body was even found and has spent the aftermath chasing the influencer and justice-for-Nolan spotlight. He stands by every earlier criticism of her and notes the predictable attempts to cancel him for saying it out loud.
Later he turns to the Mississippi Senate race. Obama cut an ad for Scott Colom. Clay uses it to hammer Cindy Hyde-Smith’s campaign for running almost entirely on “the other guy is worse” without ever clearly selling what she’s actually delivered for the state. Callers are frustrated—some cite her past role in agriculture contracts and weather-modification talk—but none are willing to vote for the Democrat. Clay’s position is consistent: he’s not on the fence about voting Republican, he just wants politicians who can articulate more than fear of the alternative. He also pushes back on the broader “we’re all illegal immigrants” framing of American history, arguing the country was built by conquest over tribal warfare, not theft of an existing nation-state, and that Americans get to decide who comes in now.
He closes by defending the idea of public executions (sparked by an image of a firing squad). The point, in his view, is deterrence—showing the actual final consequence so future criminals can’t keep the mental picture of death abstract. He argues the left’s opposition is less about morality and more about preserving the conditions that let certain problems continue.

**Podcast Description:**
Strap in for a manic Monday reality radio banger. We open with breaking news from the FAFO news desk: Homeland Security kicks in Ilhan Omar’s door in a predawn raid tied to a criminal investigation into her childhood immigration paperwork, naturalization questions, and the long-running claims she married her brother. We dig into the allegations, the Feeding Our Future COVID meal fraud connections, her pattern of deny-and-deflect, and why nobody’s above the law—especially sitting members of Congress who’ve spent years hollering about it.
From there we lighten it up with a New Orleans WWE trip report (sold-out Smoothie King Center, $400 tickets, Aaron Hernandez jersey sighting, and a Katrina near-miss flashback), a shoutout to the wrestling fans who still show up to talk about the show instead of politics, and why forcing culture war into sports has been a brand killer. We also break down Joe Rogan’s latest Spotify re-up—roughly a quarter-billion non-exclusive deal that has him closing in on a billion dollars off one show—and what that actually means for anybody trying to make real money in podcasting or local media.
Then we address the weekend’s free marketing from the usual suspects. Melvin Robinson (former Lumumba admin social media guy) and the Foot Locker whistle-blowing crew decided to post Spirit Halloween “unemployed podcaster” costumes and other creative costumes featuring yours truly. We walk through the origin story of Save Jackson, the Jackson Free Press podcast award they still haven’t gotten over, and why living rent-free in their heads while they’re out here doing our advertising is just good business. We also hit the latest Jackson homicide at the Wingstop on Bobby Rush Boulevard, the city’s return to the top of the per-capita murder rankings, and the recurring observation that in certain zip codes every disagreement is treated like a death-penalty offense.
We close with a meme that cracked the code on why certain people stay mad (short fingers, rainbow bracelets, and zero natural endorphin release), plus a full rundown of an Illinois bar’s strict dress code that triggered the usual “this is racist” meltdown. The rule of thumb remains simple: go where you’re wanted, not where you’re merely tolerated. Everywhere isn’t for everybody, and forcing yourself into spaces that don’t want you isn’t a civil right—it’s just bad manners.