BJ Abron (00:00):
The concept of going to billboards for us was to not completely cut the middle man out because we still get business from that, but to be able to go direct to consumer. So take the business from a B2B to a B2C.
Bob Simon (00:18):
But you know, B.J., the human story is I know you give a lot back to the community. I know your passion project we've talked a lot about over the years is giving back to Compton, giving those kids, the group that you did, access to education, access to opportunity.
BJ Abron (00:31):
Right. Yeah. Really just trying to kind of put myself back where I was when I was younger and look at what I didn't have. Avenues, resources, guidance, and things like that.
Bob Simon (00:59):
Welcome to this episode of Bourbon of Proof, where we share a lot of spirits over those who have been successful at both law and life. And we're very, very, very well proud to have our co-host, obviously. Mr. Mauro Fiore.
Mauro Fiore (01:10):
Oh, wow. You introduced me first this time. Very rare, Bob. Thank you.
Bob Simon (01:14):
Well, I had to remember it because we haven't had a pour yet.
Mauro Fiore (01:16):
Yes.
Bob Simon (01:17):
But we have our esteemed guest on today Mr. BJ Abron, coming to us from?
BJ Abron (01:21):
Straight out of Compton.
Bob Simon (01:22):
Straight out of Compton. You're in a t-shirt. And I guessed you were going to wear that, so I wore my straight out of Pittsburgh Raise It t-shirt from Steel City.
BJ Abron (01:28):
I love it.
Bob Simon (01:28):
Instagram told me I needed it. In fact, I did. Mauro, what are you wearing?
Mauro Fiore (01:32):
I'm wearing my Dodger jersey, you know? Born and raised in L.A., so you know, Dodger fan.
Bob Simon (01:37):
And it actually says Fiore on the back.
Mauro Fiore (01:38):
Yep. This was custom-made.
Bob Simon (01:39):
Nice.
Mauro Fiore (01:40):
I made it at Dodger Stadium when they used to make them for you there and put your name on them. I don't know if they still do it.
Bob Simon (01:45):
Do you know that Mauro sponsors the AAA affiliate of the Dodgers?
BJ Abron (01:49):
I saw the Quakes. Yeah.
Mauro Fiore (01:49):
I wish it was AAA. Single A.
Bob Simon (01:51):
Oh, single A.
Mauro Fiore (01:51):
Single A. Yeah, the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.
BJ Abron (01:54):
Yeah.
Mauro Fiore (01:55):
So I get to go out there and fool around and like... It's minor league baseball. Anything I want to do. I had them do potato sack races and just nonsense. They do anything. It's minor leagues and then I get to throw out the first pitch.
BJ Abron (02:08):
Yeah.
Mauro Fiore (02:08):
It's fun.
BJ Abron (02:09):
I saw that. It's nice. I remember when they built that stadium out there actually.
Bob Simon (02:12):
Was that Jethawk?
BJ Abron (02:12):
I was younger. It was probably [inaudible 00:02:15] teenagers.
Bob Simon (02:15):
Did they play Jethawk?
Mauro Fiore (02:15):
No. What did you say? The stadium?
Bob Simon (02:16):
Yeah.
Mauro Fiore (02:17):
No, it's called The Epicenter.
Bob Simon (02:18):
Oh nice.
Mauro Fiore (02:19):
Because it's the Quakes.
Bob Simon (02:20):
That's pretty cool. All right, well we're going to jump right into before we hear about the life story of BJ Abron, and we're going to start with a California Whiskey.
(02:29):
We selected for you today, very proud to have, of course, our sponsor, the Booze Outlet. Nico, thank you. You should get all your booze from there. Pretty seamless. Now that...
Mauro Fiore (02:37):
Boozeoutlet.com.
Bob Simon (02:39):
Boozeoutlet.com. Yeah. Make sure you spell booze and not one of Mauro's favorite words with a B and two O's. But this is a Black Truffle limited edition from Sonoma, aged three year rye, which I've never had before.
BJ Abron (02:51):
All right.
Bob Simon (02:52):
Because you're a very, very authentic man.
BJ Abron (02:54):
Let's do it.
Mauro Fiore (02:54):
I love it, man.
BJ Abron (02:55):
Let's try it.
Mauro Fiore (02:56):
I'm still traumatized over the pickle whiskey from last time.
Bob Simon (02:59):
We were just talking. You know who brought that pickle whiskey? It was fucking Nico from The Booze Outlet.
Mauro Fiore (03:02):
Oh my god. I hope this is... Nico, this better redeem yourself from the pickle whiskey.
BJ Abron (03:07):
Pickle whiskey?
Bob Simon (03:08):
Come on over here. This has to be good, I means it's truffles.
Mauro Fiore (03:12):
Is there anything bad with truffles?
Bob Simon (03:13):
I'm going to do a little extra pour from me because I'm excited for today.
BJ Abron (03:18):
Smells good.
Bob Simon (03:19):
All right, well cheers.
Mauro Fiore (03:20):
Cheers.
BJ Abron (03:21):
Cheers. Thanks for having me on, fellas.
Mauro Fiore (03:23):
Thank you for coming.
(03:29):
Oh, that's good.
BJ Abron (03:29):
It's good.
Bob Simon (03:29):
That's really good.
BJ Abron (03:30):
Smooth.
Mauro Fiore (03:31):
You know what, sometimes truffles are a little bit overpowering, but it's not really in this. It's very subtle.
Bob Simon (03:36):
Oh, that's very good. Oh, now I taste the truffles. You can taste it at the end.
BJ Abron (03:40):
Once it sits in a little bit.
Bob Simon (03:41):
Oh, nice. Wow. Straight out of California just like BJ Abron. So B.J., tell us, you came from humble beginnings in Compton, right? So I mean...
BJ Abron (03:51):
Yes.
Bob Simon (03:51):
Now you're on the billboards of L.A. Well, I could ask if people are watching, we can drop in actually the billboard we saw, it's actually a really good one. And I think B.J.'s probably the only real trial lawyer that's on billboards that gets 8, 7, 8 figure verdicts all the time. But did you do it just because you're single looking to mingle? Is that the...?
BJ Abron (04:09):
Wow, can I plead the fifth to that question?
Bob Simon (04:11):
Yes you can.
BJ Abron (04:13):
I am single though.
Mauro Fiore (04:14):
He's raising his profile.
BJ Abron (04:16):
No, I mean my business strategy, you guys know my business strategy. Similar to you guys is we get cases from other attorneys. We specialized in a certain skill set trying cases. And so most of my cases, 85% of my cases as of now, comes from other attorneys who are able to get cases, however they get them. And then when it gets to a certain point, whether it's just litigation or they work it through litigation, work it up, and then it has to go to trial, then I'll get a phone call for that.
(04:46):
Of course, that comes with paying out referral fees. And so sometimes we're paying out massive amounts and the concept of going to billboards for us was to not completely cut the middleman out cause we still get business from that, but to be able to go direct to consumer. So take the business format from a B2B to a B2C. And our business of course, most of us as trial attorneys, we don't do that. We don't go straight B2C.
Bob Simon (05:13):
Well, it's a completely different business model.
BJ Abron (05:15):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (05:16):
I mean you get a lot of, I mean, you probably get a lot of phone calls. You do some B2C borrow and it's a lot. You get people complaining. The most common one we get is like, FBI microchipped me, please help me. You'd be surprised.
BJ Abron (05:28):
Oh, it's a lot of screening.
Mauro Fiore (05:29):
Yeah, I get crazy. I don't know why I always get the nuts, but yeah, they send these... It's a bad sign when someone says, "I have this case," and they send an email through your law firm website and the email's like five pages long. So I always know this is not going to be good. And then so I start reading it and then it's like, "Yeah, no, I tell him, sorry, we can't help you."
Bob Simon (05:48):
And then you refer them to me because you're a jerk.
(05:52):
So B.J., why don't you share with us, because a lot of people assume that if you're a successful trial lawyer, which you are, that you must've had seed money, things must've just been given to you, but they don't realize the work that you put in.
BJ Abron (06:05):
Oh, yeah. A lot of work. I had to build the skill set. In fact, my first job was with renowned trial lawyer, Mike Schoenbuck on the defense side. Worked for insurance defense and we did a lot of premises liability cases.
Bob Simon (06:21):
So does Mauro.
Mauro Fiore (06:22):
I had case with BJ there. I had a guy that got beat up at a bar in Redondo Beach or something.
BJ Abron (06:29):
It was one of my first cases actually.
Mauro Fiore (06:29):
Yeah, it was like a bar beating case that was like, I had a case with BJ and Mike.
BJ Abron (06:33):
Baja Sharkeez.
Mauro Fiore (06:34):
Baja Sharkeez's. Yeah.
Bob Simon (06:35):
Really? Baja Sharkeez's, that burned down.
Mauro Fiore (06:36):
I want to say that my guy ended up in the trash bin. He ended up in the trash bin.
Bob Simon (06:41):
Are you the client Mauro?
Mauro Fiore (06:42):
No, the bouncers. The bouncers threw him in the trash bin. But he had been acting a fool inside and they had the video. They had the video from inside. So there's a reason why they put him in the trash bin. I think we saw...
Bob Simon (06:55):
That place used to get robbed.
Mauro Fiore (06:55):
We resolved that case amicably.
BJ Abron (06:57):
Yeah, that one. That one...
Bob Simon (06:58):
What's it like being on the other side of Mauro, by the way?
BJ Abron (07:01):
It was fun actually.
Bob Simon (07:02):
Really?
BJ Abron (07:03):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (07:03):
Cause I've seen a few bar complaints of people being on the other side Mauro.
BJ Abron (07:07):
It was a lot of fun. Yourself and Gil took a couple of depositions in that case. I had some stuff that I just didn't release to them though, that their client social media stuff at that time that their client was posting, I think no one was aware of. So I was waiting to slam him with it, but... It was...
Mauro Fiore (07:23):
Yeah, that social media gets you every time, man. My clients, I mean, I have had one client that got an epidural and the same day he got an epidural, he was in a weightlifting competition.
BJ Abron (07:34):
Oh goodness.
Mauro Fiore (07:35):
And he put it on his Instagram. So that case, it'll tell you how far that case went. But yeah, it's like I don't understand these people, man. If you're making an injury claim, it's pretty obvious maybe don't put out to the world that you're doing like strongman competitions, you know?
BJ Abron (07:51):
They can't help it. They can't resist.
Bob Simon (07:53):
We've all had those cases though, where our clients are over social media and you know it's coming into trial and you got to deal with it. But BJ the human story, cause I know you give a lot back to the community. I know your passion project. We've talked a lot about over the years is giving back to Compton, giving those kids the group that you did, access to education, right? Access to opportunity.
BJ Abron (08:14):
Right.
Bob Simon (08:15):
So can you share with our viewers and listeners of what you're doing now, now that you're at a place at the top, when you start at the bottom, how are you helping folks?
BJ Abron (08:23):
Yeah, really just trying to put myself back where I was when I was younger and look at what I didn't have. Avenues, resources, guidance and things like that. So I often go and speak at schools. I implemented a law school, a law program I should say, at a school in Watts. That Principal Raw, a good friend of mine, opened up...
Bob Simon (08:46):
A shout-out to Raw, by the way, which we'll drop it in, but had a couple nights at our house. He's a good dude.
BJ Abron (08:51):
Yeah, great quality human being. He really is. And we grew up on the same street.
Bob Simon (08:55):
Oh, I didn't know that.
BJ Abron (08:56):
Yeah, we grew up on the same street.
Bob Simon (08:57):
Do you know this story? They're doing a crypto.
BJ Abron (09:01):
Yeah. K12 Crypto.
Bob Simon (09:02):
K12 Crypto. Can you plug it because it's pretty odd.
BJ Abron (09:05):
Yeah, yeah.
Bob Simon (09:05):
So whenever people explain what is cryptocurrency, and this doesn't make sense to me, this is a perfect use case of how it actually does societal good.
BJ Abron (09:12):
Yeah, it definitely does. In fact, we're merging it cause we started a subsidiary called the Knowlej App, especially with a lot that's going on in cryptocurrency. But K12 Crypto is a Web3 platform, basically EdTech platform that allows children to earn to learn in the course of going through school. So we partnered with a lot of entities, a number of companies who come in and incentivize kids basically to go to school and learn.
(09:39):
And since the pandemic, there's been a significant fallback in attendance for kids across the nation. It's not something that has been talked about, but it's a chronic issue in terms of absenteeism. So we're targeting that right now. And then as we roll out and continue to grow, we're going to really start implementing the things that we want to do with Web3.
(10:00):
So we launched a Knowlej app this year, earlier in the first quarter of this year, and we're going to be doing probably 2 million in revenue about the end of the year on that.
Bob Simon (10:10):
Dude, that's crazy.
BJ Abron (10:11):
Yeah. So we're scaling up fast.
Bob Simon (10:12):
And it's an example of you're using the ability for them to stay in school, literally stay off the streets, do well, to earn the opportunity to use those credits, that crypto, they're accepting it at other schools, universities.
BJ Abron (10:26):
Oh, yeah.
Bob Simon (10:26):
That's awesome.
BJ Abron (10:27):
Yeah. Yeah, all across the nation. We have school in the Bronx, New York, down south as well as of course all up and down Los Angeles County and California.
Bob Simon (10:38):
Well cheers to that because we're going to take her second pour. We'll cheers. Well, Mar already drank his, because he loves truffles.
Mauro Fiore (10:45):
I'm a truffle pig.
Bob Simon (10:47):
I think they have truffle dogs. They have truffle pigs too?
Mauro Fiore (10:49):
I think it's pigs too.
Bob Simon (10:51):
BJ can you hand me this next bottle?
BJ Abron (10:52):
Let's do it.
Bob Simon (10:53):
Because we're going to, so this one is the Chicken Cock, which is a good whiskey out of Kentucky, but this is the Island Rooster.
BJ Abron (11:05):
All right.
Bob Simon (11:06):
This is a ride, the Chicken Cock Island Rooster. And...
BJ Abron (11:09):
Where'd the name come from? Do we know? Chicken Cock.
Bob Simon (11:12):
I don't think you need to know.
Mauro Fiore (11:13):
I remember there was a cartoon where there was a chicken cock. Yeah, the big rooster was the chicken cock. Remember that one? Might've been with like...
BJ Abron (11:21):
Foghorn.
Mauro Fiore (11:22):
Yeah, Foghorn Leghorn was a chicken cock. Yes.
Bob Simon (11:27):
Can you say chicken cock five times fast?
Mauro Fiore (11:29):
Chicken...
Bob Simon (11:31):
Didn't even make a how... So anyways, I selected the Chicken Cock, again Nico sourced this for us cause this is a hard bottle to find. For [inaudible 00:11:39]...
Mauro Fiore (11:38):
That one might make it out of here in my bag.
Bob Simon (11:42):
You're such a thief. But anyways, Chicken Cock the Island Rooster because BJ is the perfect example of somebody that gives everything back when he earns. So BJ had a couple big verdicts, very big, that got paid and the first thing he did go take his entire family to the islands. Was it The Bahamas?
BJ Abron (12:00):
Turks and Caicos.
Bob Simon (12:00):
Turks and Caicos. Took them all out. And then that's whenever this time last year, we're filming in June in LA. By the way, shout out to Charles Liu, Bike Shed. Shout out to Tom Hardy letting us use his private bar. We promise not to sample too much.
BJ Abron (12:15):
It's amazing in here.
Mauro Fiore (12:16):
Tom Hardy's new movie just came out then.
Bob Simon (12:17):
What was it?
Mauro Fiore (12:18):
The Bike Riders. It's a motorcycle movie.
Bob Simon (12:20):
That explains why all the bikes are gone in the Bike Shed, there's only like five left.
Mauro Fiore (12:23):
There's a big motorcycle movie just came out last weekend.
Bob Simon (12:26):
So this time last year, July of last year, maybe June. BJ was with his family taking them all out because that's what you do, you give back and Mar and I are like, "Hey, we're in Ibiza. You want to come over?" And BJ showed up in Ibiza.
BJ Abron (12:41):
That was a good time.
Mauro Fiore (12:41):
No, it wasn't... No, Bob told me...
Bob Simon (12:44):
One island to another one. I never told you.
Mauro Fiore (12:46):
Bob told me. He said... Me and Bob were in Ibiza and we were hanging out and he said, "I have a special guest coming tomorrow." I was like, "Can't have a special guest coming to fucking Ibiza." It's not like...
BJ Abron (12:57):
Who's dropping in Ibiza?
Mauro Fiore (12:58):
Not like a special guest coming to your house for dinner. It's like, "What do you mean a special guest?" He goes, "I don't mind." "Do I know him?" And he is like, "Yeah you know him." So me and Bob played like 20 questions for two days. He fucking wouldn't tell me who it was.
BJ Abron (13:09):
So you found out when I walked into the hotel.
Mauro Fiore (13:11):
So then finally he said that he's here. And then I was in the pool and I looked and I said, "Fucking B.J." You know? So that's when I found out was Bob wouldn't reveal your identity. Bob always has a special guest on vacation.
Bob Simon (13:22):
It's true. But we, first of all cheers to this.
BJ Abron (13:25):
Cheers.
Bob Simon (13:26):
Cheers.
BJ Abron (13:26):
Almost a year since then.
Bob Simon (13:28):
It's almost a year. You can come back this year if you want.
Mauro Fiore (13:31):
I just remember that the first day we went to Foreman Terra to have lunch.
Bob Simon (13:35):
Oh, this is fantastic.
BJ Abron (13:36):
Oh, that was good.
Mauro Fiore (13:36):
And it was the hottest, most humid day in the history of Ibiza. I was dying it was so hot and humid.
Bob Simon (13:44):
We were literally holding ice in our hands and our necks.
BJ Abron (13:46):
Yeah, that was a good time.
Mauro Fiore (13:47):
[inaudible 00:13:49].
Bob Simon (13:47):
It was a good time.
BJ Abron (13:49):
Boat ride.
Bob Simon (13:50):
Boat ride. We were watching the episode. We have a good video of BJ being like 007 coming down under the water with that... This is really good. Yeah.
Mauro Fiore (13:57):
This is sweet. Little sweet.
Bob Simon (14:00):
They so they age this one in Caribbean rum balls.
Mauro Fiore (14:03):
Oh, that's why it tastes like this.
Bob Simon (14:03):
Rum barrels. Yeah. So it's pretty good.
Mauro Fiore (14:06):
This would be really good just on the rocks. It'd be great sipper.
Bob Simon (14:09):
Oh yeah. This is a good sipper.
(14:11):
So BJ now, can you share everybody, just your kind of education. You went out of law school, you went to worked for a defense firm. Mar and I are pure bloods, we've never been on the defense. When you go in church and you do a sign of the cross and do the holy water dip, you probably sting a little bit. Mauro and I do not. I
BJ Abron (14:30):
I crossed over.
Bob Simon (14:31):
Yeah. And then when did you cross over?
BJ Abron (14:33):
I crossed over in 2017 actually.
Bob Simon (14:35):
Wow. Seems like it was earlier than that for some reason in my mind.
BJ Abron (14:40):
No. Well, I went to law school late, so if you trying to say I look old.
Bob Simon (14:44):
I didn't say that.
Mauro Fiore (14:45):
I know BJ was...
Bob Simon (14:46):
All of us here are now in our forties. Well, except for Mauro who just turned 50.
Mauro Fiore (14:49):
Fuck off.
BJ Abron (14:50):
I just made my 40s.
Mauro Fiore (14:51):
I was 40 recently and now I'm 50.
BJ Abron (14:55):
That was a great party too.
Mauro Fiore (14:56):
Yeah, it was a good party.
Bob Simon (14:57):
So it was your 40th. It was a great party.
BJ Abron (14:57):
Yeah, it was a good time. It was a good time.
Mauro Fiore (14:59):
But you were in the music business, right?
BJ Abron (15:01):
So I managed artists at that point in time. I did a lot. When I graduated, I graduated from Cal State Long Beach undergrad, marketing and sociology major.
Bob Simon (15:12):
That's actually a pretty good major for being a lawyer.
BJ Abron (15:14):
Yeah, it is. It is, especially now, I mean today's age. Understanding how to market things for the brand and as well as connecting with people, especially as a trial lawyer. Sociology. So...
Bob Simon (15:26):
That's good.
BJ Abron (15:26):
It is important. I wasn't doing it at that point because of that. But when I came out of undergrad, I worked for Sketchers Corporation.
Bob Simon (15:34):
Oh, that's right.
BJ Abron (15:35):
Yeah. So I started to merge into the fashion and I started to design shoes. And at that point I got some, I took a random interview, completely bullshitted the interview, with the city of LA to be a communications technician, which is basically like an IT guy. I ran a bunch of cables, helped build the Tom Bradley International Terminal.
Mauro Fiore (15:55):
Wow.
BJ Abron (15:56):
I did a whole lot of stuff there and I worked, so I left fashion, I was doing marketing and branding at the same time and managing artists. So I was doing a whole lot. And then I went over to work for the city of LA. Worked there for some years, got bored, wasn't enough. And then I started to try to figure out what my next path was. It was either going back to school to get your engineering degree, stay in that same field, going to get my MBA or going to law school. And I had a mentor at that time, Ricky Ivie.
Bob Simon (16:28):
Oh, yeah. Ivie McNeill and Wyatt.
BJ Abron (16:31):
Yes, yes, yes. He set me down. He was like, "Look, you can go get an MBA, it'll be great. But everybody's getting an MBA these days. It's like the new B.A."
Bob Simon (16:41):
So this is what 2012, 2013?
BJ Abron (16:44):
No, because I went to law school 2011 I started. So this is 2009.
Bob Simon (16:49):
So this is right whenever the "recession" happened.
BJ Abron (16:52):
Yeah. Right after the recession.
Bob Simon (16:53):
Wow.
BJ Abron (16:53):
Yeah. So this is post recession.
Bob Simon (16:54):
That's when they actually had an influx, a huge influx of law school applicants during that time.
BJ Abron (16:59):
Yeah, it was.
Bob Simon (16:59):
Huge.
BJ Abron (17:00):
Well, maybe that's the reason why I couldn't get in anywhere else but Southwestern.
Bob Simon (17:03):
What are you talking about? My twin brother went to Southwestern. My twin brother...
BJ Abron (17:08):
I love Southwestern.
Bob Simon (17:08):
Fry and Panish.
BJ Abron (17:09):
I love it.
Bob Simon (17:09):
[inaudible 00:17:09].
BJ Abron (17:09):
I love it.
Bob Simon (17:10):
Dan Kramer. Sienna [inaudible 00:17:12]. There's a ton of trial lawyers came from Southwestern.
BJ Abron (17:13):
Oh yeah, a thousand percent. In fact, I wouldn't have become a trial lawyer if I didn't go there.
Bob Simon (17:17):
Wow.
BJ Abron (17:18):
So I made the decision to go to law school. And like I said, I was planning on being an entertainment lawyer to be honest.
Bob Simon (17:27):
Which is all just contracts and bullshit and babysitting, by the way. Any sports agent for entertainment, you're babysitting. You're doing contracts.
BJ Abron (17:34):
That's exactly what it is.
Bob Simon (17:35):
It's terrible.
BJ Abron (17:36):
It's terrible. I was good at it though. I'm good at reading through agreements. That was just something I just had a knack for. But I tried out for our trial team, the trial lawyer, what was it? Trial Advocate Honors Program at Southwestern. And I made the team and I started learning how to connect and speak publicly. And I found out I had a passion for it, that I love trying cases. But before then, I had never wanted to be a trial lawyer. I never thought about it. But at that point I realized, hey, I wanted to try cases. And so that's when I started to actually learn about personal injury cases cause before all you heard about was ambulance chasers or all this negativity around it. But I learned quickly, if you want to try cases, civil cases, this is actually where the trial lawyers reside.
Bob Simon (18:24):
That's it.
Mauro Fiore (18:25):
For the record, I've never chased an ambulance.
Bob Simon (18:27):
Well, we can tell.
Mauro Fiore (18:28):
I might've maybe walked fast behind one, but chasing never.
Bob Simon (18:35):
So by the way, I mean why number 54?
Mauro Fiore (18:37):
This was my jersey number in high school, I played football.
Bob Simon (18:40):
So that was actually when I played football, I was also 54.
Mauro Fiore (18:42):
This was my number.
Bob Simon (18:43):
I never told you this. So used to...
BJ Abron (18:45):
Really? That's like a lineman number.
Bob Simon (18:45):
Yes. And I was a lineman. I was a left guard. And I also worked...
Mauro Fiore (18:49):
I was a defensive end.
Bob Simon (18:49):
So yeah, right.
BJ Abron (18:50):
Okay, okay.
Mauro Fiore (18:51):
I played in small school, man.
Bob Simon (18:53):
All right. Yeah. Yeah, Jim Edmonds went to your school. Me and a lot of athletes went... Don't make shit up. They actually won the state championship when he was there.
Mauro Fiore (19:00):
Let me show you guys [inaudible 00:19:00].
BJ Abron (19:02):
You guys won [inaudible 00:19:02]. You got to come around the edge quick to be a DN.
Bob Simon (19:04):
Division 8. Mauro's very quick.
Mauro Fiore (19:06):
Very fast. Very fast.
Bob Simon (19:07):
You ever watch him as an athlete? He's very quick.
Mauro Fiore (19:08):
Division 8.
BJ Abron (19:09):
What's your forties on?
Mauro Fiore (19:09):
Oh, I don't know. They didn't have...
Bob Simon (19:11):
It's 40 ounce time. You can do a steel reserve in under five seconds.
Mauro Fiore (19:14):
You know, a steel reserve is for you guys. When I was into drinking malt liquor.
Bob Simon (19:19):
Who are you guys?
Mauro Fiore (19:19):
I'm older. We used to drink King Cobra. Not no [inaudible 00:19:24].
BJ Abron (19:23):
Oh, goodness.
Mauro Fiore (19:24):
So drink King Cobra or Schlitz Malt Liquor Bull. Every, it works 50% of the time it works every time. Billy Dee Williams used to say that.
Bob Simon (19:32):
And he probably boops it by the way.
Mauro Fiore (19:35):
Remember the Billy Dee Williams commercials?
BJ Abron (19:37):
Mauro has so many random... He has the most random facts I have ever met.
Mauro Fiore (19:37):
Billy Dee Williams would say it works every time. He say it works every time. I don't know exactly what it worked on.
Bob Simon (19:44):
We watched Empire Strikes Back with my daughters recently. Billy Dee Williams was the coolest motherfucker ever, ever.
BJ Abron (19:50):
So good.
Bob Simon (19:51):
He even runs well.
Mauro Fiore (19:53):
He was Lando Calrissian.
Bob Simon (19:54):
Lando Calrissian man. And then Donald B. Glover played him and he's fucking, he's one of my favorite people ever right now.
BJ Abron (19:58):
I love it.
Bob Simon (19:59):
That talented. So tell us about, first of all, you're wearing... This hat that you gave me or you're going to give me.
BJ Abron (20:06):
Yes. It's yours.
Bob Simon (20:06):
Thank you very much. But you also made one for me with all of my Pittsburgh teams where I wore the Pittsburgh shirt. But this is one of your friends or is this your brand?
BJ Abron (20:15):
Yeah, this is one of my good friends. He's also from Compton. Compton is probably one of the richest cities in terms of creatives and production, in terms of fashion and many other areas as well. But Dante is a good friend of mine. Dante Johnson. His company name is Fate. You'll see these hats, a lot of celebrities wear...
Bob Simon (20:34):
That's your hat too. Yeah?
BJ Abron (20:35):
Yeah, yeah. This is another one of his hats as well.
Bob Simon (20:38):
So what's the free with the halo?
BJ Abron (20:39):
The free, this was born in 2020 with the George Floyd stuff.
Bob Simon (20:44):
Oh, cool.
BJ Abron (20:44):
All the stuff that was going on. And that's where he developed this concept. And it was born since then. It was kind of like a Juneteenth Tribute kind of a hat.
Bob Simon (20:53):
Cool.
BJ Abron (20:54):
But his fashion is, and he makes way more than just hats, but you see a lot of Chris Brown, a bunch of A-list celebrities wear his stuff. So it's really good.
Bob Simon (21:04):
That's cool.
BJ Abron (21:04):
Good product.
Bob Simon (21:05):
And does it all have mine's a regular brim. This is a short brim on.
BJ Abron (21:08):
Yeah, these are something that he's doing now.
Bob Simon (21:09):
Can you see this in the video now?
BJ Abron (21:11):
It's like a short brim. Yeah its really nice.
Bob Simon (21:12):
Cause I got a little head, so I don't know.
BJ Abron (21:14):
Extremely fashionable.
Bob Simon (21:15):
Yeah, I mean you look like a paperboy though.
Mauro Fiore (21:17):
Never noticed the short brim. I didn't notice that til now.
BJ Abron (21:20):
I remember that game.
Bob Simon (21:21):
You didn't notice that?
BJ Abron (21:22):
On box Sunday.
Bob Simon (21:22):
Every time I drive through our streets, I always think it's a game of Paperboy. Because kids are running out. Dogs are screaming at you. There's garbage trucks. I'm like, it's a game of Paperboy.
BJ Abron (21:29):
That was a good game
Bob Simon (21:30):
It was a good game.
BJ Abron (21:30):
I loved that game.
Bob Simon (21:31):
You could go stuff in the mailbox or break their windows.
Mauro Fiore (21:35):
So I grew up in Southern California and back in the eighties when I was in high school and stuff, Compton was like an area, you just avoid it. It's very dangerous in the eighties.
BJ Abron (21:45):
Yeah.
Mauro Fiore (21:46):
It's not a place... Now, I've gone back decades later now to go to the courthouse and stuff. I see it kind of changed demographically too has changed a lot. I think Compton area is more Latino now.
BJ Abron (22:00):
Yeah, that's true.
Mauro Fiore (22:00):
Than it was back when I was a kid. And you'd never want to go out there. That was the heyday of the Crips and Bloods things. Late eighties. You just avoided the whole area. But now I think it's very Latino.
BJ Abron (22:11):
Yeah, I mean it still, for me, having been from Compton growing up and born and raised, it's still relatively the same. It's a very homey environment, but it's also dangerous at the same time. Right?
Bob Simon (22:27):
Well you can say that about a lot of places.
BJ Abron (22:30):
You can say that about a lot of places. A lot of places in the world.
Bob Simon (22:32):
So when I first came into California in 2002, and I was a lawyer in 2005, and when of the first case I ever tried was actually in Compton.
BJ Abron (22:39):
Same.
Bob Simon (22:39):
Really?
BJ Abron (22:40):
Jess Curry.
Bob Simon (22:41):
Oh no, I had Judge Holm. She was an older judge, but I just remember those are the towers. Right? So the first time I was tried the case, I didn't know there was an attorney line. So I was...
BJ Abron (22:52):
Oh yeah, that's right.
Bob Simon (22:53):
Dude, there's a line in Compton that wraps around the building. So I'm just sitting there like sweating. Am I going to make trial call on time?
BJ Abron (22:58):
There's a lot of traffic court there as well, yeah.
Bob Simon (23:00):
And they get you the elevator pass up. But I was just standing in line with everybody just talking, hanging out. Got a really, really good verdict. It was a dog bite in Compton and really big verdict for what I had. And afterwards, one of the other attorneys told me, during the middle of the trial, "You know there's an attorney line?" I'm like, "What?"
BJ Abron (23:17):
Thank you.
Bob Simon (23:18):
But I always stood on, every day though also part of superstition. But I like being around people, so I just wanted to stand on the [inaudible 00:23:24].
BJ Abron (23:24):
Yeah. And you don't know what jurors are watching. That you don't want them to see skipping line, if that's the case.
Bob Simon (23:29):
You know how often jurors see that and talk? So I tried a case a couple of weeks ago and one of the, during jury selection, she ended up being a juror. One of our key jurors. They asked this defense lawyer who hates corporations. They always ask that shit. We always ask it too to preempt it. This one girl raised her hand, she's like, "I'm not going to say it's like a corporation thing." She's like, "I just got to tell you my observations." She's like, "We're all the jurors, we're out in the hall. We're just waiting to be called and stuff." And she's like, "This side of the table..." She points all of us. She goes, "You guys seem very close. She guys are hugging each other. You're like in sync." She's like, "I look at you guys and it's very corporate and cold." I was like, and you could feel like the whole jury. Oh God, all the jurors are kind of shaking their head cause it was weird what was going on over there. And I was like, "Yeah, you nailed it."
BJ Abron (24:15):
Perfect. Say more. Please say more.
Bob Simon (24:18):
Yeah, yeah. And I was like, but can you still be fair to them? She's like, "Oh, I can be fair." I'm like, "Good, that's all I had to ask you. You're good with that? Okay, we're good."
BJ Abron (24:23):
Did she remain on the jury?
Bob Simon (24:25):
She ended up being an alternate and she one of the four alternates. And you always, with our judge, you flip a coin or no, you pull a number on the hat.
BJ Abron (24:31):
Hat, yeah.
Bob Simon (24:32):
And she was four, alternate four. She was the first one in.
BJ Abron (24:35):
Oh, wow.
Bob Simon (24:35):
Juror got sick, she's in. I was like, "Oh, here we go."
BJ Abron (24:38):
Wow. Oh, that worked out.
Bob Simon (24:40):
Worked out very well.
BJ Abron (24:41):
How was she on the verdict?
Bob Simon (24:43):
Yeah, you got to go with the people. She was a hundred percent on.
BJ Abron (24:45):
Exactly. There you go.
Bob Simon (24:47):
But you read people man.
BJ Abron (24:48):
Yeah, that's what we do. It's a big part of what we do. That's one of the things that actually attracted me to this because I think naturally I'm very intuitive in terms of reading people, good quality people evaluating who's who, right? That's just something that you kind of grow up and you learn. Especially growing up where I grew up, you have to learn that quick and fast. Otherwise, you could find yourself in some very compromised positions.
Bob Simon (25:14):
Oh, now I remember 54, I wore the same number of basketball when I, they used to chant 54, eat some more. I was a bigger kid in high school. Now bringing back memories, man.
BJ Abron (25:27):
What?
Bob Simon (25:27):
Oh, yeah. 54... I'd be in the free throw line. "54, eat some more."
Mauro Fiore (25:31):
You were like a big dude.
Bob Simon (25:33):
I was a big dude in high school. Yeah, but I would ice free throws.
BJ Abron (25:36):
So you had a jump shot though?
Bob Simon (25:37):
I would never...
BJ Abron (25:37):
You played basketball.
Bob Simon (25:38):
I will not leave the floor. My jump shot, if you watch me play, cause I was this tall when I was like...
BJ Abron (25:43):
Your toes at best.
Bob Simon (25:45):
Fifth grade, I was this big. So I was...
Mauro Fiore (25:47):
He has a set shot.
Bob Simon (25:47):
Set shot.
BJ Abron (25:48):
Right.
Bob Simon (25:49):
He's played. He's played. It's pretty marvelous.
Mauro Fiore (25:50):
He's like, Bob Cousy.
BJ Abron (25:52):
Really?
Mauro Fiore (25:52):
Set shot.
Bob Simon (25:53):
It could be a pass, could be a shot. You don't know what's going to come.
BJ Abron (25:55):
I like it.
Bob Simon (25:56):
You got to be chicory at my age and level. Mar, can you give us our last pour here as we...?
Mauro Fiore (26:00):
Oh, absolutely.
(26:00):
So this is a Basil Hayden Dark Rye. Bob is a big rye drinker as you know. So I know this is a Bob pick. And Basil Hayden is a Jim Beam product.
Bob Simon (26:14):
A Jim Beam product.
Mauro Fiore (26:17):
Jim Beam is one of the oldest, continuously made bourbons in the United States. And this is their high-end stuff the Basil Hayden.
Bob Simon (26:23):
So Jim Beam actually, they purchased a lot of barrels that were kind of abandoned and they repurposed them. And that's how they get a lot of their line is the whiskey lines that don't do very well, they'll just buy their barrels and they'll rename them [inaudible 00:26:39].
Mauro Fiore (26:38):
Or they'll let them age for more years. And they [inaudible 00:26:43]...
Bob Simon (26:42):
That's one of the ones.
Mauro Fiore (26:43):
Orphan barrels they call them.
Bob Simon (26:44):
I think. Yeah, that's true. But look at the color of this by the way. Look at this.
BJ Abron (26:49):
Very dark.
Bob Simon (26:50):
He didn't even cheers us. This pig.
BJ Abron (26:52):
Yeah. He's just ready. He's going at it.
Mauro Fiore (26:53):
Cheers my friends. Cheers my dears.
BJ Abron (26:57):
Goodness.
Bob Simon (26:57):
Here we go.
Mauro Fiore (26:59):
So B.J., so then you go and work. I know you...
Bob Simon (27:02):
Taste how good that is.
Mauro Fiore (27:02):
It's really good.
BJ Abron (27:03):
This is...
Mauro Fiore (27:03):
These three have been outstanding.
BJ Abron (27:04):
Glad we went... That was a good order actually.
Bob Simon (27:07):
Yeah. Because I picked that one last because it's more of like a dessert whiskey, even though it's probably 50%.
Mauro Fiore (27:12):
Yeah, it's really good. So then you went and you worked at Mike Alder's office. I remember when you were there. You learned some trial lawyer stuff there, I'm sure.
BJ Abron (27:19):
Right. Yeah.
Mauro Fiore (27:21):
And then what year did you go out on your own?
BJ Abron (27:22):
I went out on my own. It was horrific timing. Who knew? But it was 2019 at the tail end. So I didn't know, especially putting yourself as a trial lawyer. We need trials to be going forward. And then the pandemic was around the corner.
Bob Simon (27:36):
Cause a lot of people don't know, trial lawyers who usually take a percentage of the fee to try cases. So it's not like you're getting a retainer.
BJ Abron (27:41):
Right, exactly.
Bob Simon (27:42):
You got to win. You got to earn.
BJ Abron (27:43):
Yeah. But before you could do any of that, there has to be a trial date. That's it.So you have to get there. And so when the pandemic happened, all trials went off calendar. So I had to figure out a way to survive. And obviously I was a founding 50 in JHQ. That was a blessing that I was involved timely. Bob gave me some cases to work on, but I was able...
Bob Simon (28:08):
Not against Mauro though cause you guys are on the same side now.
Mauro Fiore (28:11):
Yeah. We're the same side yeah.
BJ Abron (28:12):
Yeah. Very true. Even though I don't know.
Mauro Fiore (28:13):
That first... Yeah.
Bob Simon (28:14):
One of our friends we're on a joint text with one of our friends that he's suing one of his other friends. So it's like a whole thing right now. It happened yesterday.
Mauro Fiore (28:23):
Yeah. I was like, dude, well maybe you can just lean on him and get him to pay.
Bob Simon (28:27):
That's his solution is lean on him to pay. Not like, oh man, I'm sorry. It's just like...
BJ Abron (28:31):
Oh man. Have you tried a case with Mauro?
Bob Simon (28:33):
I have not, but I've watched him in trial. Mauro's actually a fabulous child lawyer. He's tried more cases than me actually. More than all of us combined probably.
Mauro Fiore (28:40):
I enjoyed trying cases. It's fun. And I'm as always myself. I tried a case with Connell Doyle who we're all friends with.
BJ Abron (28:48):
Love Connell.
Mauro Fiore (28:49):
Connell's a real straight guy, but he knows how I am. So I'm surprised why he was so shocked by the way I was in trial cause I didn't change how I am.
Bob Simon (28:58):
Mauro's the type guy to make movies about because he's like sleeping at council table. They hit him with the newspaper and wakes up. Oh, crosses [inaudible 00:29:04].
BJ Abron (29:03):
Goes across. Yeah.
Mauro Fiore (29:04):
So he was like, man, he was like, I was making, talking to the jurors during the trial and stuff. I mean, get away with whatever I can. But Connell was just so pissed.
Bob Simon (29:14):
What is this? You can't do that.
BJ Abron (29:14):
Goodness.
Mauro Fiore (29:14):
You know that I mean?
Bob Simon (29:19):
I hope those verdicts were paid.
Mauro Fiore (29:20):
I'm a habitual line stepper.
BJ Abron (29:21):
Yeah. If they weren't, they're going to have some problems now.
Mauro Fiore (29:23):
Habitual line stepper. So yeah, Connell wasn't thrilled with that. But I mean, you just know that. I'm going to just freestyle a little.
Bob Simon (29:31):
So Connell, was Connell on the trip to Ibiza with you or he was with us right before that.
BJ Abron (29:37):
Yeah. No, Connell wasn't there when I was there. Yeah. I love Connell.
Bob Simon (29:41):
Connell's one of the best trial lawyers. He also, he has one leg. So we were carrying him in and out of the boat to go to the...
Mauro Fiore (29:48):
Yeah, threw him on my back.
Bob Simon (29:49):
He threw him on his back...
Mauro Fiore (29:50):
[inaudible 00:29:51].
Bob Simon (29:50):
Like C-3PO getting carried by the Wookie. That reminded me that exact thing.
Mauro Fiore (29:59):
Pretty funny
BJ Abron (30:00):
Oh, that that's hilarious.
Bob Simon (30:00):
I mean, Mar's strong man. I was very impressed by that. Walking through sand with Connell Doyle on his back.
Mauro Fiore (30:06):
Yeah, well I probably had a couple drinks in me. Do you think?
Bob Simon (30:08):
Yeah, at least a couple of drinks.
Mauro Fiore (30:09):
But you know that first part of 2020, the pandemic when you started your own office, it was a crazy time. No one really knew what the hell was going on.
BJ Abron (30:16):
Everyone was trying to figure it out. The insurance companies were trying to figure it out. Should we pay? Should we wait? What's going to happen? On our end, of course, we were all huddling and trying to figure out different ways to help move the cases forward, generally speaking and help our clients. Our clients are sitting obviously in pain, they're suffering. Their lives have been changed. So we're all trying to figure things out at that point in time. So it was a tough time for everyone, but it allowed me to reflect and actually hone in on my practice a little bit more. So it was a good time for that. And then once we started to try cases... the rest is history. Got in there, started doing what I knew that I could do for a long time.
Bob Simon (31:00):
To your credit, you held these cases rather than settling at a discount, which they wanted to do. You said, we're going to wait this out, we're going to try these. And now you saw that you had a monumentous verdicts after that because the jurors knew what was up. You were waiting a long time so... it was good.
BJ Abron (31:17):
That's a tough thing to do.
Bob Simon (31:19):
It is tough, especially if you don't have money coming in.
BJ Abron (31:21):
Exactly. Exactly. It's a big, I mean, but that's what we do. We are risk-takers. We take risks of course, not just for ourselves, but for our clients. We bear those risks. We're funding the cases. We're dealing with our time and our staff and everything like that. So it was definitely a risky thing to do. But once you do it once, then it, well, I guess it's kind of like, "Hey, maybe..."
Bob Simon (31:44):
What's this tattoo here?
BJ Abron (31:45):
This one?
Bob Simon (31:46):
The 91 to the 105.
BJ Abron (31:48):
This is my Compton tribute actually.
Bob Simon (31:49):
I love that.
BJ Abron (31:50):
So these are the four freeways that surround Compton. So instead of just writing Compton on my arm, it's the 105, the 91, the 710, and then the 110 freeway. So Compton is in the middle of all four of those freeways.
Bob Simon (32:03):
[inaudible 00:32:03] I just have bridges of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh all the way down.
BJ Abron (32:06):
That's how you do it. Looks good.
Bob Simon (32:08):
But I need some new ones.
BJ Abron (32:08):
I'm going to get one like that soon actually.
Bob Simon (32:09):
Yeah, there you go.
BJ Abron (32:10):
I got to get my niece my newest... This is like my family arm. So it's like my mom, my dad, my sisters. I got my oldest nephew. This is his birthday. He just turned 18 in May. And then I have [inaudible 00:32:24].
Bob Simon (32:24):
You work with your sister, Ashley works with you.
BJ Abron (32:26):
Yeah. And my oldest sister as well. I just hired her not too long ago.
Bob Simon (32:29):
Oh, when did that happen? I was going to say.
BJ Abron (32:30):
Yeah, that happened a little earlier this year. Maybe in March. So we're scaling up.
Bob Simon (32:36):
That's good.
BJ Abron (32:37):
But I wanted to make sure, which is so important. Just like you've got a family business. Having family involved in a business is so important to me. You can trust them.
Bob Simon (32:45):
Can trust them.
Mauro Fiore (32:49):
Is that right?
BJ Abron (32:50):
With everything. You don't have to worry about it. Look, you said who's family?
Mauro Fiore (32:50):
My mom used to work for me. She was the fucking greatest. She was the awesome. But my fucking piece of shit, brother, hate this. Let me tell you how I really feel. I had to fire the son of bitch. He stole like $500,000 from my office.
BJ Abron (33:04):
Oh, no.
Bob Simon (33:04):
I didn't know that. Really?
Mauro Fiore (33:06):
Oh yeah, yeah. He was embezzling money for years. I finally caught him.
BJ Abron (33:09):
500,000.
Mauro Fiore (33:10):
Yeah.
BJ Abron (33:10):
You were making a lot of money then, huh?
Mauro Fiore (33:12):
Well, he was squirreling it away like 1200 bucks at a time for years.
Bob Simon (33:16):
I didn't know that.
Mauro Fiore (33:16):
So he was real sharp about it. But after six, seven years, it was like 500 grand that he had stolen a little bit at the time.
Bob Simon (33:23):
Wow.
BJ Abron (33:23):
Wow.
Mauro Fiore (33:24):
Yeah. And...
Bob Simon (33:26):
Samara took care of...
Mauro Fiore (33:27):
The worst. He's the fucking worst.
Bob Simon (33:27):
His folks, his whole family employed them all. Same as we all do.
Mauro Fiore (33:31):
Except for this guy. The worst.
Bob Simon (33:33):
I didn't know that man. I'm sorry.
Mauro Fiore (33:34):
No good deed goes unpunished.
Bob Simon (33:36):
Well, you know what too, Mauro and I are going to be in Spain for a month starting Friday. We hope to see you in Ibiza again.
BJ Abron (33:42):
Yes. I might pop out.
Bob Simon (33:43):
B.J., we... According to the Chicken Cock you're going to be there. Have a couple more drinks. He'll book his flight today.
BJ Abron (33:49):
I'll be there, I'll book it today.
Bob Simon (33:49):
So as we end the episode here today B.J., we just want to know first of, we're going to ask you to pick your bourbon of proof. But before we do that, I want to know what are you passionate about? We talk a lot about this as you're earning for a passion. What are you trying to do with your life?
BJ Abron (34:04):
Yeah, I mean, and for me, that's something that's always changing or morphing. It's a core value and that's giving back to the community. It is just like something I've always been passionate about. I spent time, I grew up just like anybody else in Compton. I was involved in the streets and all kinds of different things at certain points and times. But for me it's always been trying to give back and leave a certain impression on a community. So I mean, I appreciate you guys too. Just the fact that we're sitting here on a lawyer's podcast. I got my tattoos out. You guys got tattoos out. We're in t-shirts, not in ties, but that's important for people to understand that we're humans. We're not just machines in tuxedos and shirts and ties and suits.
Bob Simon (34:53):
You do look in a tuxedo though, I've seen it.
BJ Abron (34:54):
I do.
Bob Simon (34:54):
It looks real sharp.
BJ Abron (34:56):
I think I do okay. Even though I don't have everything up here like I used to, but I still do okay.
Mauro Fiore (35:01):
You're one of those guys that looks good both. You look good both.
BJ Abron (35:04):
Yeah, we'll see [inaudible 00:35:06].
Mauro Fiore (35:05):
I think my head's all oblong.
BJ Abron (35:07):
I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
Bob Simon (35:08):
I know some folks that did that.
Mauro Fiore (35:10):
My head's all weird shaped. If I were involved, it'd be fucking, I'd have to be wearing a wig.
BJ Abron (35:14):
You'll be all right.
Mauro Fiore (35:15):
I'd get a nice wig.
BJ Abron (35:17):
But yeah, giving back is the core. It is the value. So I appreciate the things that you guys do too. That allows other attorneys to say, "Hey, I can be human, I can be me, I can be whoever I am." And I think that's the most important thing to be authentic, especially as a trial lawyer. Because people, jurors, they understand that. They can see through that when you're being fake and being somebody else.
Bob Simon (35:38):
Oh, 100%. Cool.
Mauro Fiore (35:39):
Yeah, I mean, if you ever saw Nick Rowley in trial.
BJ Abron (35:41):
Yes.
Mauro Fiore (35:42):
Nick has real authenticity to him that the jurors really, they believe what Nick is saying because he's truly authentic. Nick has a really amazing way about him in trial. Anyone who's never seen Nick in trial, if he's in trial, go see because it's pretty amazing.
Bob Simon (35:57):
That's like method acting where he's so into it.
Mauro Fiore (35:59):
Yeah, Nick's amazing.
Bob Simon (36:00):
I got to turn it off, man.
Mauro Fiore (36:01):
Nicks amazing.
BJ Abron (36:03):
It's good though. It makes you think about a lot.
Mauro Fiore (36:05):
Yeah. Cool.
Bob Simon (36:06):
All right, so the last shoot, BJ Abron. You're going to pick your bourbon or proof. We had the Sonoma Truffle Rye. Black Truffle Rye. We had the Chicken Cock, the Caribbean Asian rum. We had the Basil Hayden Dark Rye. What's your bourbon of proof?
Mauro Fiore (36:21):
This is a tough one this week.
Bob Simon (36:23):
These are all good.
Mauro Fiore (36:24):
Really.
BJ Abron (36:24):
Yeah, they're good. I got to go with the Basil Hayden.
Bob Simon (36:26):
Really?
BJ Abron (36:26):
Yeah.
Mauro Fiore (36:26):
Me, you know what?
BJ Abron (36:26):
Like the Basil Hayden. But I also...
Mauro Fiore (36:29):
I'm thinking like you.
BJ Abron (36:30):
I like Basil Hayden, but I've never had this. I've never had this.
Bob Simon (36:33):
This is my favorite Basil Hayden product.
BJ Abron (36:35):
Never had this.
Bob Simon (36:36):
This is one that you can go to Mastro's and order with a steak.
BJ Abron (36:40):
Yeah.
Bob Simon (36:41):
Well, B.J., thank you for coming on man. We appreciate you coming on this episode of Bourbon of Proof. And again, credit to you. We get to get a shoe shot because you wore your [inaudible 00:36:49].
BJ Abron (36:48):
If I would've known you guys were going do this, I would've wore something a little bit different.
Bob Simon (36:53):
These are nice. Look at Mauro. He actually was an adult today. He didn't wear his Gucci slippers.
BJ Abron (36:57):
They look good. Those are nice.
Mauro Fiore (37:00):
It's the worst man.
Bob Simon (37:01):
They're not slippers, but they're kind of.
Mauro Fiore (37:02):
That's the worst.
BJ Abron (37:03):
You got the furry slippers?
Mauro Fiore (37:05):
Yeah.
BJ Abron (37:05):
He's got the furry. He likes furries though.
Mauro Fiore (37:06):
They're mules. They're mules.
Bob Simon (37:09):
He goes to furry conventions. It's weird.
Mauro Fiore (37:11):
Did you know I used to be a furry? That's another episode. I'll do it for another episode.
Bob Simon (37:16):
That's a really dark rye. Really dark rye episode. All right, good.
