Here we are together again. My friend, I got a treat for you. Oh my word, do I have a treat for you. My special guest is someone you'll know, even if you don't know that you know her. She's an actress. She first appeared in an episode of The Brady Bunch and went on to have roles on Mash Threes, Company, Booze, Some Boddies, and Frasier. She's been in films like Sleepless in Seattle, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Jingle All the Way, The Story of Us, and one of my favorites, It's Complicated. She produced My Big Fat Greek Wedding and its sequel. She's also a beautiful, beautiful singer and a songwriter and a beautiful human being. Any idea who I'm talking about? Here's one more hint. Sometimes she's known as Mrs Tom Hanks. Actually, between you and I, I think he should be known as Mr Rita Wilson. I'm not kidding. This incredibly talented, kind, inspiring hot ticket. She has released some brand new music and her single Throw Me a Party. It'll wreck you. It really will. I'm not kidding. It is so beautiful, it is so powerful, you will fall in love with the song and it's kind of become my anthem. Rita Wilson joins me today, and oh my word, do we have a lot to catch up on. You're gonna discover her to be so humble, so danged real. She is as down to earth as can be, and her advice is spot on. Our podcast sponsor is the Home Depot. You hear me talking about the Home Depot a lot because I go there a lot. Years ago, my business partner heard me talking one night about my experience at the Home Depot, and so we decided to partner with them because I love them so much. I have an old house. My house was built in nineteen o seven, so I'm constantly having to update it, so I'm constantly going to the Home Depot for everything. When the plumbing needed to be updated, I went to the Home Depot. When the wiring had to be redone, the contractor and I went together to the Home Depot when I needed updated fixtures. Again, we went to the Home Depot for everything from paint to stain to door knobs. Whatever you need, you will find it for your home projects or your garden projects at the Home Depot. The Home deepot, more saving, more doing, Rita Wilson, I am so glad that you are here with us. This is fantastic. Rita Wilson has done so many things in life, producing acting, you're gorgeous and singing, and then you're you know, married to somebody who's done a few things. I gotta know, did you guys meet back in the day when he was in that TV show that you were on. He did a show called Bosom Buddies and we met on that And how old were you I can't remember, like early to mid twenties. And then about a couple of years later I was cast in a movie opposite him and called Volunteers, which no one ever talks about in the canon of Hank's films. But um, uh, then we met and then it wasn't a know after that that they that we really started dating. Um, and that now we've been married thirty one years. I heard him say one time I was watching an interview, and uh, he said, my wife is the best thing that ever happened to me. That's so nice. Well, I think, uh, look, I look at being married thirty one years and I think that's kind of fantastic. But then I also look at my parents who were married almost sixty years before my dad passed away, and I think we're just halfway there, do you know what I mean? It's kind of extraordinary when you think about it, um, that you can spend the life with someone, But I can't imagine spending my life with anyone other than my husband. I mean, it's just you know, you become it overtakes something, and it doesn't. It's not just a marriage or husband anymore. It's a life and a history and your family. It's everything. So you know, it's very precious. Well, I applaud you. I I kind of went the opposite into the spectrum. This one didn't work. No, that one didn't work. Well, it's better than it's better to get out of something that's not working than to stay in something that is not good for you. You know, it is so thirty one years with the love of your life. And tell me the silliest, funniest thing that nobody would ever believe in a million years that you have done, or that you two have done together, that people would just like their job. Like when people find out I have pet emos, they're like, what you have? What? Um? Let me think I think camping. I don't think people would realize that we like to camp. It's got to be hard, though, because when you go to a campground, is everybody like, oh my god, Rita Wilson and Tom Anks or in the next tent over. No, because, um, people are tend to be very respectful because they figure if you're there, you're there for the same reasons they're there, and they just want to enjoy the surroundings and be beautiful. You have to be beautiful, enjoy that. Um. And you know, it's kind of amazing how cool people are. So UM. I think that's probably the thing that people don't really know about us, that is that is something I never would have guessed, right, It's kind of funny. I loved camping. A couple of years ago, Hobby said, listen, I've got a twenty eight year old motor home and storage. I'm going to fix it up and next year we're gonna go on road trip. Oh how fun. And so we took nineteen kids. I drove my thirteen passenger van, he drove uh twenty nine year old motor home and we went to Yellowstone, Oh my goodness. And we were the clampets camping along the way. That is so much fun. It was so much fun in so wait, did you have all of your camp gear? Um, sort of in a trailer behind the well. The motor home has storage underneath. So we had three tents, one for the girls, one for the boys, and one for my godson who was at the time an adult and needed his own private space. And so we fell in love with it, and so Paul and I bought a more modern motor home. It's only like eighteen years old because the downs fall of that was the air the air condition quit working and you really need a c and when you're in Yellowstone. So yeah, yeah, um. But now every summer we take at least one or two road trip, so with the kids and the grandkids. You know what, that's what everybody remembers. Remember as a kid, my dad he was a bartender. My mom was a housewife, but she cooked and made our clothes. But once a year we would go to and don't ask me why, Las Vegas for our summer vacation. So you imagine, probably we went because it was less expensive in the summer. That's probably what happened. Because nobody in the right mind wants to go to Vegas in the summer and they had those all you can eat buffets right oh, for cents cents, And so my my dad would We had a black Plymouth belvedere that we called the Batmobile. It was a convertible and he would make beds, so one like in the well where the convertible top would be stored if the top was down, then one on the back seat, and then he would fill up the footwells with blankets and make them sort of level so we could all three have a place to sleep. And he would get us up at like three or four in the morning. We loved it. And we would take off at night why to get through the desert before it got And I remember those trips like, you know, they were magical. You know, you're with your family, You're playing music AM radio at the time, which was playing everything you could possibly want to listen to, like, you know, the Supremes, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Dave Mason, Frank Sinatra. It was all over the map. And I think that's in some ways to how I developed my taste in music. And uh, you know, we would be driving through the desert and the sun coming up was so beautiful. And you know, even though my dad didn't make a lot of money, and we still we didn't know. We just thought this was a great vacation. Then we got to Vegas. We stayed in the home taught with a pool, a mote, tell with a pool, a motel. So our family only went We went camping every summer my whole life. That was our summer vacation. We would go with the same My parents had two couples, three couples that they were best friends with, and they all played guitar, they were musicians, and we would go camping and we would uh, they would put the kids to bed, you know, eight nine, ten o'clock, and then the parents would sit around the campfire singing. Oh and honest to goodness, those are my favorite memories of my whole life. And does it not surprise you that just magical become a person who basically listens and plays this amazing music. I mean, I think music is more powerful in our lives than we acknowledge or give credit to. You know, even if it's just something that's playing in the background when you're you know, washing the dishes or something, it's like, um, powerful and evocative. We're going to take a break with Rita Wilson right now. Uh, stretch our legs, talk about our sponsor, and then get right back into it because I am so loving getting to know this incredibly talented sweet lady. Now back to our conversation with my new bestie. Oh my gosh, am I enjoying getting to know Rita Wilson. So when did you know? When did you realize how old were you that God had gifted you Rita? It was such a beautiful voice. Uh well, first of all, thank you. That's a huge compliment. And um, I would say that I knew that I wanted to sing when I was a kid, and I loved songs that had stories in them that sort of took me away where some people love books, which I also enjoyed. I was really attracted to the stories and songs. And some of those songs were things like Owe to Billy Joe by Bobby Gentry or She's Leaving Home by the Beatles, with another song that it was like, you know, Wednesday morning at five o'clock, as the day begins and you realize that this girl is leaving home and she hasn't told her parents. The parents wake up and they find out that their daughter is gone and she's gone to meet a man in the motor trade. Does that not sound terrifying to you? Right there? It's like what every parents worse during every parents worse nightmare, Like that's a complete stranger, and he's got cars or access to cars. Like, no, this is not good. But I, you know, found myself thinking about the girl in the story, the parents in the story, the guy in the motor trade, and you know, to me that anything that can get you thinking like that or put you in someone's shoes, to me was sort of the beginning of my love of stories in songs. And then it really wasn't until I met um Kardia Guardi, the amazing songwriter and producer that I um started writing songs because she was the one who suggested that I write songs. And I said, I didn't know how to do that. I didn't play an instrument and I didn't um read music. And she said, it doesn't matter, do you have something you want to say. And when she said that, it was like the clouds, you know, got to burst open, and the ray of sun started shigning down and I was thought, oh, my goodness, because I had done an album of cover songs called A M S. M. And I always thought, well, it would be so great to be a songwriter, and if it wasn't for Karada Gordy, who actually was the person who said, I will write your first songs with you, which she did, and that opened it up to writing with other people, and um, Christian Bush will be on tour with this summer. He was also a person who said to me when I had opened for sugar Land with that first album, he said, Hey, if you ever decide you want to start writing music, you know, let me know. And this was before I had even met Kara, but I put that in the back of my mind, thinking it was like an impossibility. But I clocked that he said that. So after I had written a couple of songs with Kara and a great songwriter Jason Reeves, I called Christian and I said, do you remember that thing you said about writing and he said, yeah, when do you want to do it? He didn't even hesitate, and uh. He ended up writing the next few songs with me, and then I started going down to Nashville and writing with a ton of people in Nashville, and then of course in l A. So I don't know. I don't know how to answer that question. I think the blessing was Kara, and that kind of comes full circle to because, um, we've spoken about this before, but you know, I had breast cancer a couple of years ago, and when I didn't know I had breast cancer, I was initially misdiagnosed and told that I didn't have breast cancer. And Kara, who was a BRACA gene carrier and her mother died of ovarian cancer, had had a prophylactic masstectomy and reconstruction. She's spoken about this, so I'm not really anything private, and she said, you really should go see my doctor in New York, m Dr Elie Support and talked to her and get a second opinion at the same time. So went back up. You you say you were misdiagnosed. Had you discovered a lump and they said it wasn't cancerous. There was something in a breast m RI I that lit up and it was an underlying condition that I had called leo morphic oobular carcinoma in the C two, which doesn't necessarily mean it's cancer, but it means that when you have that tissue that's abnormal, it is usually associated with breast cancer. And they had done lumpectomies and they didn't find any cancer in the pathology. Then I had a girlfriend who was a two time breast cancer survivor, and she said, you really should get your pathology looked at and have a second opinion on that. And all during this time, Delilah, I felt like my gut was telling me something was off. I didn't feel that like, oh yea bee, I don't have cancer. There was just too many unknowns. So I thought, Okay, it doesn't hurt to get a second opinion on the pathology. Doesn't hurt to have some more eyes look at this and give me their opinion, people who know what they know right. And in the meantime, Kara and I have been having dinner in New Work and she said, go see doctor really support who I went to see and Dr Ports said, yes, you should get a second opinion on your pathology. I don't understand why you keep having lumpectomies. And she mentioned the same doctor, doctor Ira Bla Wise he's a saint. And it was the same doctor that my friend Mary had said so I think all of these things were like angels sort of walking me into a very specific direction. And then when I got the pathology back, I found out that, in fact, did have breast cancer. So Dr Port did my surgery, and I was in New York doing a play with Larry David at the time called Fish in the Dark, and uh, it was extraordinary. I did the play, I opened the play, I took a month off, had my surgery, had my bilab romans dict and me, and then went back to the play about a month later. Yeah, hold on, I'm just gonna have my whole body rebuilt here. I'll be right back and now literally, And looking back on it, I think there was a part of it that was like I just wanted to get back to normal. But I was so tired. You know, you don't realize what it what that is to your what that does to your body, you know, in terms of exhaustion. But everybody had said that typical three to four weeks is what people take off. But then I realized that's probably people who maybe sit at a desk or don't have you know, the demands of running up and down stairs during a production and costume changes and experiencing the energy of an audience and also having to put out so much energy. But in some ways the play was what kept me going, and I felt so thankful to have it and have it to go back to. I just I was very tired. And one thing I want to say is that it really wasn't until about four or five months later that it kind of hit me what just happened to me, you know, And I had a little moment of anxiety. And if anybody who has gone through this or any kind of health crisis, I think they can recognize that sometimes when you come so close to, you know, thinking about mortality. And I um started doing mindfulness meditation and I worked with a cognitive behavioral therapist to help control the thoughts that were just negative and not true. But we're there, and I want people to know that there is always help and ways to get around these things that come up, and that they might not necessarily come up as you're going through them. They might come and sneak up on you when you're relaxed because you've kind of passed over the hurdle. Well, thank you for being bold enough to say that, because I think a lot of people think that if you ask for help or you need help, but that that's a sign of weakness. And I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no. If I didn't have my grief counselor right now, I wouldn't be functionactly right, exactly right. And I think that's so true. And you know, listen, I also had such amazing girlfriends and you know family that came in and helped, and um, you have to be so appreciative and thankful for all of that. You know, who made you laugh? Who made you laugh so bad at hurt? Oh my gosh, um, Tom, he made me laugh? Is he is funny? Off like when you guys are just kicking it at the campground as he is ding. Your hobby is funny. Oh my god, that's one of the things that we we do. And you're so funny. Your timing is impeccable. Well it's really fun to be goofy, you know what I mean. But I did have a couple of girlfriends. And my girlfriend's Caroline, Olivia and Patty. Oh lord, they made me laugh, they just and did you get mad and say stop at her? It stops stop? Yes, yes you did. And my girlfriend Jane too. Two of them were the New York Crew and two of them came in from l A. I mean literally, it was fantastic. And you know, that's one of the other things that was so um kind of amazing, is even when you're going through stuff like that, you still can laugh. You can still find joy in life and still enjoy things, do you know what I mean? So our family has a sick, demented, twisted sense of humor and yeah, yeah, and and we can find the humor and just about a new situation. And when Zach chose to leave us, um the mortuary here in town said, Delilah, if you want to just come and spend some time, you and your family with your son, just let us know and we'll open up the doors and you can spend as much time as you want. So I said, that would be really nice. Let me call a few of his friends and see if they want to get together. And so we went down and you know, I thought we would spend half an hour an hour there, Zack's friends and family showed up and we were there in the in the home for eight or ten hours, telling stories and we were laughing so hard. We and I mean obviously we were crying. But all those stories that you're the kids never let their parents know what they're up to. Now it can all be revealed. And his friends were telling these hysterical stories and I'm like, he did what? Yeah, And they just told I mean, story after story like that, and we were all laughing, and it was so healing for all of us, you know, just so much love. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I'm sorry you was suffering. Need to so tell me about about throw me a Party? Did you write that while you were going through breast cancer or did you write that thinking of someone? I wrote it afterwards. I had the title because what happened was when I was diagnosed but didn't know what the outcome was going to be, and you're having your surgery and you really don't know what they're going to find when they go in there, and all of that. I um, I wanted to be very practical, and I had conversations with Tom about stuff that I wanted and wanted, how I wanted to have things happen if I should go before him, and I told him that I wanted him to be very sad for a while, but that I wanted to make sure that he threw me a party and that it would be with all my friends and we would tell all our stories and drink wine. And I wanted I wanted like a a campfire of you know, music and songs and people getting up and just sharing. So I had this title and I wrote the song with Christian Bush and Liz Rose, two incredible songwriters. Liz wrote Um, she was co writer on Girl Crush, She wanted Grammy with Taylor's Swift for White Horse. She wrote a bunch of the songs with Taylor Swift in Taylor's early years you Belong to Me. And of course Christian founded the band and as a member of the band sugar Land. So those two people were maybe the perfect songwriters for that song. And it just was something that I felt said exactly what we were trying to say musically as well as lyrically. And then I realized, Delilah, that people have thought about this stuff, even if you haven't gone through anything. I think if you have elderly parents, maybe they've told it to you. And then that gets you thinking about your own stuff. And when we posted the video and the slamy, slamy but beautiful video, but oh my gosh, thank you. But we realized that people we're not afraid of talking about the things that they wanted when they when they go, and how they want their families to remember them and celebrate them and be with them. You know. So I thought I was really exposing this deep dark secret, but it turns out that, you know, sometimes the more specific you are, the more universal it is, and people have thought about it. I don't think you're exposing a deep, dark secret, but I certainly think the song gives people opportunities to have real, honest conversations that are hard. Mm hmm. They're hard. Nobody wants to do that, Nobody wants to acknowledge it, nobody wants to think about it. But you know, I think we've all had circumstances or experience when people leave without any express wishes, and how it can be confusing for the ones that are left about what is the best thing to do and so, and then they start fussing and fighting and disagreeing. And yeah, yeah, the more the more you can let people know what your heart is. Okay, there's one line in the song in the first part. I have to ask you, what lines would you cross Oh, I always wished i'd crossed a few more lines, like I gotta know what, like if if you had to do it all over again. I love this question so much. No one has ever asked me that question. Thank you so much for asking that it would be this. I feel that we all have within us the ability to say no to things and say yes to the things that we really want to do. And whatever it is age or society or upbringing or gender or whatever those things are that keep you from doing the things that you love to do and want to do. By speaking your truth are the things that I feel are the crossing the lines, you know, Like I grew up in a generation where women had to be polite and women had to be people pleasers and things like that, and now I just don't care anymore. So I wish that all young women, and I think most young women nowadays are probably able to sort of speak their mind more clearly than my generation did. But I would say that I would just do the things that you love to do. Take the chances you're only young ones, try to do it. Pursue the things that are your passion that you want to do, because every day is a gift we're here. Every single day that you are here to share your gifts or sharing other people's gifts is a day that we have to live to the full. So I think when you're young, you're worried about so many things. What am I going to do for a living? When am I going to meet this person? What am I going to have children? What am I going to you know? And I think all of those things fall into place if you're doing the things that you love to do and you're not afraid to do them. So you wouldn't have become an act like the high wire act in a circus. You wouldn't have have danced on a tabletop in Mexico after one too many tequilas. I totally would have been earlier, that's for sure. Uh. And I would have if because I did, I danced on the table top, Rita I did. Thank God there was no social media back then. Well it's never too late to Lila. You can get up on a table again and have it all documented. Well, if it were see here's the thing. If it were documented then I was only four. I looked tot totally. I looked if it were documented now and I was not wearing what I was not wearing the it would not look so hot. Why didn't we know that we were like rocking a good body? And when we were young, I always kind of thought, oh, I could be dinner, I could be more tone, that could be wherever. I've totally let go of that now because I'm just like, I'm so happy to be here and I'm so happy from my body's gotten me through so much. You know, I'd let go of it because I think now, when I look back on pictures, you know, ten fifteen years ago, I go, dang it, I look good. And I didn't even know I look good. Now, I'm like, wow, when I'm eighty and I look back on the pictures, now, I'm gonna think I look so good. So I'm gonna believe that now rather than wait. Nora Ephron wrote an amazing essay about this in her book, Um, I feel bad about my neck, and I think she said something about, like, if you're under thirty five, you should wear a bikini every day of your life. Thank you, thank you. It's so true, you know. But yeah, I just but if I weren't, if if if I didn't end up doing something in the arts, I think I really would have liked to have been like an FBI agent or something. I love like sort of getting to the bottom of things and figuring it out and how did that happen and why and catching a bad guy is always a good thing. And you could have been a really sexy spy. Sexy spy would have been good. Yeah, yeah, you could have been as sexy as hell spy where you have your hair in a bun. Yeah. Yeah, in a suit, a really severe suit. Yeah, I can see that so much fun. What would you have done? Um? Well, I I definitely wanted to run away and join the circus, Seriously, I did. We had a circus that came to our little town. I grew up in a tiny little town and we had a circus that came to town every year, and my dad knew about it before anybody else because my dad worked for the power company. They had to put the power are right for the field. There was a field next the grade school that they would they would come to and it was this freaking amazing gypsy family where the grandmother like walked around with this huge McCaw on her shoulders that talked, and she was no bigger than a minute. She may be weighed ninety pounds and she still did the high wire act. And I, my brother and I would go down because as soon as Dad told us they were coming and say can we help set up the tents? And they always gave us free tickets in exchange for helping them. And I would plot it all out. I would figure out how I was going to stuff my bed with pillows, and just like in the song that you mentioned earlier, the Beatles song, my folks would wake up and discover I was gone. But it wasn't because of some man with the motor you know, in the motor business, the motor trade. Like I'm going off at the circus. I was going to run away with the circus. I wanted to be one with the animals, one with the elephants. Yes, but look what you've created in your life. Though you're surrounded by animals, you're surrounded by people. You've created your family of different origins and different you know, countries, and you've created that in a way. I have and I even have a zebra. Do you have a zebra? I have a zebra? Oh my goodness, what kind is it? Is it a gretty or a common grays and um. She was born in Kentucky. Her mom died giving birth on a farm that raises them commercially. And I had posted because I have a lot of equine rescues, I had posted on an equine rescue board. Does anyone know anything about zebras? My daughter keeps asking, And like two years later, this woman contacted me and said, my friend just had a baby zebra at her farm and the mom died. They don't want to bottle feed it. Are you interested in rescuing it? Wow? So we have Zena the zebra and um. I had this fantasy that you know, Zena would be tame and would be able to write her No. Zebras are a wild animal. They were meant to be in the wild. So she's got a lot of land to rome and she's got her boyfriend Thor, who was a little donkey and um, and she's you know, happy, but she's not a friendly creature. That's really funny. Yeah, that would I would have run away with the circus. If I had any talent like you do, I would be a singer or a performer because I write songs. I have songs in my head playing all the time. But unlike you, the Lord did not give me the ability to sing or dance. Let me tell you something though, I do think that this is interesting. I think that I've met so many people when I signed c d s backstage and um, you know, on a meet and greet or something, and so many people say to me something that they always wanted to do. Oh, I've always wanted to blank whatever it was, sing, play music, play the guitar, right, dance, act, and they look at me and mention it in a way that it's like that's an impossibility for them to do now. And I always say to them, well, why don't you do it now? And they said, well, what do you mean. I'm like, well, you can take an acting class at your community college. You can sing with your church choir, or just have your girlfriends or guy friends come over and sing do sing alongs once a month. Or I took a watercolor class for five years every week, once a week for five years between September and June. And I took a watercolor class. I knew nothing about it, and at the end of five years, I could pay paintings. I'm not an expert, but I learned this. If you do something consistently enough, you don't get worse at it. And I think that there is so much creative talent out there, and people have abilities and gifts, but either they've been told somewhere along the way you can't be an artist. Nobody makes money being a musician or an actor, or being in a carnival or writing that. Nobody makes money doing that. You've got to find something else that makes you money, and it's it's shut down, you know. And I think that that does people a disservice because even if you go through that process of exploring what it's like being an artist, you are learning something about yourself and you don't know where that's going to lead you. But if you shut it off, it's like shutting off a fountain and that water backs up somewhere. I have met so many lawyers or doctors or professional people that are incredible musicians or artists, and you know, they were never validated for that. I remember there was a guy in my watercolor class, an amazing man, Brandon's Daddard. He passed away now, but he ran ABC Studios at the height of a b at the network. ABC was, you know, having all the hit shows and he was, you know, a badass businessman, and yet he was an artist. He had the soul of an artist, And to me, that's probably why he was able to have such a success at the time that he was running the network, because he knew what what it was like on some ways, in some ways to be an artist. So I would say, don't limit yourself even now. Don't limit yourself. Do the things that you love to do. If you if you wanted to write songs, Delilah, you can write songs. You don't know what's in there. You know what it's like. What Carrisa to me, do you have something you want to say? I just I love you. I love you, I love you, and I'm I'm so thankful to be talking to you. I really am, really what a treat. I just everything about you. I love I love that you. Uh you know. I have so much talent and yet you're so damn humble. There's another thing. If I look like you and saying like you, I would have killed myself because I wouldn't have stopped being on the tabletops, you know. But look at this is what I love about what you do, through your experiences, through your contact with so many people over the course of your life, through the tragedies that you've had to endure and the joys and celebrations, you are able to give boy to people. And by giving voice to people who tell their stories on your show and combining it with music, you are creating a place for people to come and learn. You're a teacher, you are giving that gift. You are showing us how to do things. When my mom had Alzheimer's and she was in bed and she wasn't speaking anymore and really just barely eating um. As I mentioned before, I'm Greek Orthodox, So my priest just happened to stop by one day. You know, We're sitting around with my mom and for some reason that day everybody stopped by. My kids were there and tom My, my family members. You know, we were just there and I said to Father John, I said, I don't understand this, Father John, I don't understand this disease. I don't understand why God doesn't take her. What is she doing here? What is the purpose? She's not living a life anymore, She's a you know, unable to do anything that she would love to do. She would hate this without missing a beat. He said, Well, she's still here teaching you. And he was, oh my gosh, yeah, because he was. She's teaching us how to be a family. She's teaching us how to care, she's teaching us what love is. She was showing us what she built in terms of her family, and we were all there around her. So um, I I I didn't question it anymore. I was like, Okay, I get it. And I looked at things in a very different way after that. But that's what you're doing. You're teaching people. I would like to teach people how to be nice, how to be kind. I just I look around and I see so much division, so much divisiveness, so much finger pointing and hatred and vitrilic anger and people spewing vulgar unkindness. And I'm like, what, people, what are we doing? What are we doing? We need to be loving one another, We need to be accepting one another, We need to be celebrating one another. It's the only way. It's the only way. And I think there's a lot of fear around so many different issues, and that fear is clouding who we are as in humanity. You know, don't forget that we are people, We are human beings, and we have to look out for each other and take care of each other and be good to each other. It's time. I feel like there's going to be a shift some somewhere. It just can't, it can't go on like this. Well, you keep singing, you keep performing, you keep writing great songs, and I'll keep playing them, and together, hopefully we can touch some hearts and change the world for good. God willing. That's what God willing. Reda, thank you so much, Shank you, Delilah, thank you so much. Really tell that amazing husband of yours that that I just think the world of him. And I don't even remember what interview I saw him say that in, but I fell in love with him all the more the day that I heard him say that you are the best thing that ever happened to him. Oh man, I will tell him that. Thank you. All right, God bless you, God bless you. We'll talk soon, Okay, sweetie, bye bye. Did I tell you you were going to love her? How's that for inspiring? I so love, love love this opportunity to get to know people in a deeper, more intimate, more profound ways, spending time chatting, finding out those things things that make us unique, but most importantly, those things that make us human. Rita shared so much of her story with us, all of her professional accomplishments, her long marriage to the man that brings her laughter, how she's found reason and resilience and power in the face of adversity, and if you listen carefully, she gave us a few pearls of wisdom. My favorite when she tells us to do the things you always wanted to do right now. What is it that you have always wanted to do? Will you take Rita Wilson's advice and try it right now? Will you take an acting class of watercolor class where you plan a few strawberry plants, maybe some carrot seeds. Will you run away and join the circus like I wanted to as a kid. No matter your age or your ability, never stopped chasing your dreams. Because right now, as Rita said, is if you do something can insistently enough, you won't get worse at it. It's true, you are going to get better. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Thank you for subscribing to Love Someone Join me next time. Do

Here we are together again. My friend, I got a treat for you. Oh my word, do I have a treat for you. My special guest is someone you'll know, even if you don't know that you know her. She's an actress. She first appeared in an episode of The Brady Bunch and went on to have roles on Mash Threes, Company, Booze, Some Boddies, and Frasier. She's been in films like Sleepless in Seattle, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Jingle All the Way, The Story of Us, and one of my favorites, It's Complicated. She produced My Big Fat Greek Wedding and its sequel. She's also a beautiful, beautiful singer and a songwriter and a beautiful human being. Any idea who I'm talking about? Here's one more hint. Sometimes she's known as Mrs Tom Hanks. Actually, between you and I, I think he should be known as Mr Rita Wilson. I'm not kidding. This incredibly talented, kind, inspiring hot ticket. She has released some brand new music and her single Throw Me a Party. It'll wreck you. It really will. I'm not kidding. It is so beautiful, it is so powerful, you will fall in love with the song and it's kind of become my anthem. Rita Wilson joins me today, and oh my word, do we have a lot to catch up on. You're gonna discover her to be so humble, so danged real. She is as down to earth as can be, and her advice is spot on. Our podcast sponsor is the Home Depot. You hear me talking about the Home Depot a lot because I go there a lot. Years ago, my business partner heard me talking one night about my experience at the Home Depot, and so we decided to partner with them because I love them so much. I have an old house. My house was built in nineteen o seven, so I'm constantly having to update it, so I'm constantly going to the Home Depot for everything. When the plumbing needed to be updated, I went to the Home Depot. When the wiring had to be redone, the contractor and I went together to the Home Depot when I needed updated fixtures. Again, we went to the Home Depot for everything from paint to stain to door knobs. Whatever you need, you will find it for your home projects or your garden projects at the Home Depot. The Home deepot, more saving, more doing, Rita Wilson, I am so glad that you are here with us. This is fantastic. Rita Wilson has done so many things in life, producing acting, you're gorgeous and singing, and then you're you know, married to somebody who's done a few things. I gotta know, did you guys meet back in the day when he was in that TV show that you were on. He did a show called Bosom Buddies and we met on that And how old were you I can't remember, like early to mid twenties. And then about a couple of years later I was cast in a movie opposite him and called Volunteers, which no one ever talks about in the canon of Hank's films. But um, uh, then we met and then it wasn't a know after that that they that we really started dating. Um, and that now we've been married thirty one years. I heard him say one time I was watching an interview, and uh, he said, my wife is the best thing that ever happened to me. That's so nice. Well, I think, uh, look, I look at being married thirty one years and I think that's kind of fantastic. But then I also look at my parents who were married almost sixty years before my dad passed away, and I think we're just halfway there, do you know what I mean? It's kind of extraordinary when you think about it, um, that you can spend the life with someone, But I can't imagine spending my life with anyone other than my husband. I mean, it's just you know, you become it overtakes something, and it doesn't. It's not just a marriage or husband anymore. It's a life and a history and your family. It's everything. So you know, it's very precious. Well, I applaud you. I I kind of went the opposite into the spectrum. This one didn't work. No, that one didn't work. Well, it's better than it's better to get out of something that's not working than to stay in something that is not good for you. You know, it is so thirty one years with the love of your life. And tell me the silliest, funniest thing that nobody would ever believe in a million years that you have done, or that you two have done together, that people would just like their job. Like when people find out I have pet emos, they're like, what you have? What? Um? Let me think I think camping. I don't think people would realize that we like to camp. It's got to be hard, though, because when you go to a campground, is everybody like, oh my god, Rita Wilson and Tom Anks or in the next tent over. No, because, um, people are tend to be very respectful because they figure if you're there, you're there for the same reasons they're there, and they just want to enjoy the surroundings and be beautiful. You have to be beautiful, enjoy that. Um. And you know, it's kind of amazing how cool people are. So UM. I think that's probably the thing that people don't really know about us, that is that is something I never would have guessed, right, It's kind of funny. I loved camping. A couple of years ago, Hobby said, listen, I've got a twenty eight year old motor home and storage. I'm going to fix it up and next year we're gonna go on road trip. Oh how fun. And so we took nineteen kids. I drove my thirteen passenger van, he drove uh twenty nine year old motor home and we went to Yellowstone, Oh my goodness. And we were the clampets camping along the way. That is so much fun. It was so much fun in so wait, did you have all of your camp gear? Um, sort of in a trailer behind the well. The motor home has storage underneath. So we had three tents, one for the girls, one for the boys, and one for my godson who was at the time an adult and needed his own private space. And so we fell in love with it, and so Paul and I bought a more modern motor home. It's only like eighteen years old because the downs fall of that was the air the air condition quit working and you really need a c and when you're in Yellowstone. So yeah, yeah, um. But now every summer we take at least one or two road trip, so with the kids and the grandkids. You know what, that's what everybody remembers. Remember as a kid, my dad he was a bartender. My mom was a housewife, but she cooked and made our clothes. But once a year we would go to and don't ask me why, Las Vegas for our summer vacation. So you imagine, probably we went because it was less expensive in the summer. That's probably what happened. Because nobody in the right mind wants to go to Vegas in the summer and they had those all you can eat buffets right oh, for cents cents, And so my my dad would We had a black Plymouth belvedere that we called the Batmobile. It was a convertible and he would make beds, so one like in the well where the convertible top would be stored if the top was down, then one on the back seat, and then he would fill up the footwells with blankets and make them sort of level so we could all three have a place to sleep. And he would get us up at like three or four in the morning. We loved it. And we would take off at night why to get through the desert before it got And I remember those trips like, you know, they were magical. You know, you're with your family, You're playing music AM radio at the time, which was playing everything you could possibly want to listen to, like, you know, the Supremes, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Dave Mason, Frank Sinatra. It was all over the map. And I think that's in some ways to how I developed my taste in music. And uh, you know, we would be driving through the desert and the sun coming up was so beautiful. And you know, even though my dad didn't make a lot of money, and we still we didn't know. We just thought this was a great vacation. Then we got to Vegas. We stayed in the home taught with a pool, a mote, tell with a pool, a motel. So our family only went We went camping every summer my whole life. That was our summer vacation. We would go with the same My parents had two couples, three couples that they were best friends with, and they all played guitar, they were musicians, and we would go camping and we would uh, they would put the kids to bed, you know, eight nine, ten o'clock, and then the parents would sit around the campfire singing. Oh and honest to goodness, those are my favorite memories of my whole life. And does it not surprise you that just magical become a person who basically listens and plays this amazing music. I mean, I think music is more powerful in our lives than we acknowledge or give credit to. You know, even if it's just something that's playing in the background when you're you know, washing the dishes or something, it's like, um, powerful and evocative. We're going to take a break with Rita Wilson right now. Uh, stretch our legs, talk about our sponsor, and then get right back into it because I am so loving getting to know this incredibly talented sweet lady. Now back to our conversation with my new bestie. Oh my gosh, am I enjoying getting to know Rita Wilson. So when did you know? When did you realize how old were you that God had gifted you Rita? It was such a beautiful voice. Uh well, first of all, thank you. That's a huge compliment. And um, I would say that I knew that I wanted to sing when I was a kid, and I loved songs that had stories in them that sort of took me away where some people love books, which I also enjoyed. I was really attracted to the stories and songs. And some of those songs were things like Owe to Billy Joe by Bobby Gentry or She's Leaving Home by the Beatles, with another song that it was like, you know, Wednesday morning at five o'clock, as the day begins and you realize that this girl is leaving home and she hasn't told her parents. The parents wake up and they find out that their daughter is gone and she's gone to meet a man in the motor trade. Does that not sound terrifying to you? Right there? It's like what every parents worse during every parents worse nightmare, Like that's a complete stranger, and he's got cars or access to cars. Like, no, this is not good. But I, you know, found myself thinking about the girl in the story, the parents in the story, the guy in the motor trade, and you know, to me that anything that can get you thinking like that or put you in someone's shoes, to me was sort of the beginning of my love of stories in songs. And then it really wasn't until I met um Kardia Guardi, the amazing songwriter and producer that I um started writing songs because she was the one who suggested that I write songs. And I said, I didn't know how to do that. I didn't play an instrument and I didn't um read music. And she said, it doesn't matter, do you have something you want to say. And when she said that, it was like the clouds, you know, got to burst open, and the ray of sun started shigning down and I was thought, oh, my goodness, because I had done an album of cover songs called A M S. M. And I always thought, well, it would be so great to be a songwriter, and if it wasn't for Karada Gordy, who actually was the person who said, I will write your first songs with you, which she did, and that opened it up to writing with other people, and um, Christian Bush will be on tour with this summer. He was also a person who said to me when I had opened for sugar Land with that first album, he said, Hey, if you ever decide you want to start writing music, you know, let me know. And this was before I had even met Kara, but I put that in the back of my mind, thinking it was like an impossibility. But I clocked that he said that. So after I had written a couple of songs with Kara and a great songwriter Jason Reeves, I called Christian and I said, do you remember that thing you said about writing and he said, yeah, when do you want to do it? He didn't even hesitate, and uh. He ended up writing the next few songs with me, and then I started going down to Nashville and writing with a ton of people in Nashville, and then of course in l A. So I don't know. I don't know how to answer that question. I think the blessing was Kara, and that kind of comes full circle to because, um, we've spoken about this before, but you know, I had breast cancer a couple of years ago, and when I didn't know I had breast cancer, I was initially misdiagnosed and told that I didn't have breast cancer. And Kara, who was a BRACA gene carrier and her mother died of ovarian cancer, had had a prophylactic masstectomy and reconstruction. She's spoken about this, so I'm not really anything private, and she said, you really should go see my doctor in New York, m Dr Elie Support and talked to her and get a second opinion at the same time. So went back up. You you say you were misdiagnosed. Had you discovered a lump and they said it wasn't cancerous. There was something in a breast m RI I that lit up and it was an underlying condition that I had called leo morphic oobular carcinoma in the C two, which doesn't necessarily mean it's cancer, but it means that when you have that tissue that's abnormal, it is usually associated with breast cancer. And they had done lumpectomies and they didn't find any cancer in the pathology. Then I had a girlfriend who was a two time breast cancer survivor, and she said, you really should get your pathology looked at and have a second opinion on that. And all during this time, Delilah, I felt like my gut was telling me something was off. I didn't feel that like, oh yea bee, I don't have cancer. There was just too many unknowns. So I thought, Okay, it doesn't hurt to get a second opinion on the pathology. Doesn't hurt to have some more eyes look at this and give me their opinion, people who know what they know right. And in the meantime, Kara and I have been having dinner in New Work and she said, go see doctor really support who I went to see and Dr Ports said, yes, you should get a second opinion on your pathology. I don't understand why you keep having lumpectomies. And she mentioned the same doctor, doctor Ira Bla Wise he's a saint. And it was the same doctor that my friend Mary had said so I think all of these things were like angels sort of walking me into a very specific direction. And then when I got the pathology back, I found out that, in fact, did have breast cancer. So Dr Port did my surgery, and I was in New York doing a play with Larry David at the time called Fish in the Dark, and uh, it was extraordinary. I did the play, I opened the play, I took a month off, had my surgery, had my bilab romans dict and me, and then went back to the play about a month later. Yeah, hold on, I'm just gonna have my whole body rebuilt here. I'll be right back and now literally, And looking back on it, I think there was a part of it that was like I just wanted to get back to normal. But I was so tired. You know, you don't realize what it what that is to your what that does to your body, you know, in terms of exhaustion. But everybody had said that typical three to four weeks is what people take off. But then I realized that's probably people who maybe sit at a desk or don't have you know, the demands of running up and down stairs during a production and costume changes and experiencing the energy of an audience and also having to put out so much energy. But in some ways the play was what kept me going, and I felt so thankful to have it and have it to go back to. I just I was very tired. And one thing I want to say is that it really wasn't until about four or five months later that it kind of hit me what just happened to me, you know, And I had a little moment of anxiety. And if anybody who has gone through this or any kind of health crisis, I think they can recognize that sometimes when you come so close to, you know, thinking about mortality. And I um started doing mindfulness meditation and I worked with a cognitive behavioral therapist to help control the thoughts that were just negative and not true. But we're there, and I want people to know that there is always help and ways to get around these things that come up, and that they might not necessarily come up as you're going through them. They might come and sneak up on you when you're relaxed because you've kind of passed over the hurdle. Well, thank you for being bold enough to say that, because I think a lot of people think that if you ask for help or you need help, but that that's a sign of weakness. And I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no. If I didn't have my grief counselor right now, I wouldn't be functionactly right, exactly right. And I think that's so true. And you know, listen, I also had such amazing girlfriends and you know family that came in and helped, and um, you have to be so appreciative and thankful for all of that. You know, who made you laugh? Who made you laugh so bad at hurt? Oh my gosh, um, Tom, he made me laugh? Is he is funny? Off like when you guys are just kicking it at the campground as he is ding. Your hobby is funny. Oh my god, that's one of the things that we we do. And you're so funny. Your timing is impeccable. Well it's really fun to be goofy, you know what I mean. But I did have a couple of girlfriends. And my girlfriend's Caroline, Olivia and Patty. Oh lord, they made me laugh, they just and did you get mad and say stop at her? It stops stop? Yes, yes you did. And my girlfriend Jane too. Two of them were the New York Crew and two of them came in from l A. I mean literally, it was fantastic. And you know, that's one of the other things that was so um kind of amazing, is even when you're going through stuff like that, you still can laugh. You can still find joy in life and still enjoy things, do you know what I mean? So our family has a sick, demented, twisted sense of humor and yeah, yeah, and and we can find the humor and just about a new situation. And when Zach chose to leave us, um the mortuary here in town said, Delilah, if you want to just come and spend some time, you and your family with your son, just let us know and we'll open up the doors and you can spend as much time as you want. So I said, that would be really nice. Let me call a few of his friends and see if they want to get together. And so we went down and you know, I thought we would spend half an hour an hour there, Zack's friends and family showed up and we were there in the in the home for eight or ten hours, telling stories and we were laughing so hard. We and I mean obviously we were crying. But all those stories that you're the kids never let their parents know what they're up to. Now it can all be revealed. And his friends were telling these hysterical stories and I'm like, he did what? Yeah, And they just told I mean, story after story like that, and we were all laughing, and it was so healing for all of us, you know, just so much love. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I'm sorry you was suffering. Need to so tell me about about throw me a Party? Did you write that while you were going through breast cancer or did you write that thinking of someone? I wrote it afterwards. I had the title because what happened was when I was diagnosed but didn't know what the outcome was going to be, and you're having your surgery and you really don't know what they're going to find when they go in there, and all of that. I um, I wanted to be very practical, and I had conversations with Tom about stuff that I wanted and wanted, how I wanted to have things happen if I should go before him, and I told him that I wanted him to be very sad for a while, but that I wanted to make sure that he threw me a party and that it would be with all my friends and we would tell all our stories and drink wine. And I wanted I wanted like a a campfire of you know, music and songs and people getting up and just sharing. So I had this title and I wrote the song with Christian Bush and Liz Rose, two incredible songwriters. Liz wrote Um, she was co writer on Girl Crush, She wanted Grammy with Taylor's Swift for White Horse. She wrote a bunch of the songs with Taylor Swift in Taylor's early years you Belong to Me. And of course Christian founded the band and as a member of the band sugar Land. So those two people were maybe the perfect songwriters for that song. And it just was something that I felt said exactly what we were trying to say musically as well as lyrically. And then I realized, Delilah, that people have thought about this stuff, even if you haven't gone through anything. I think if you have elderly parents, maybe they've told it to you. And then that gets you thinking about your own stuff. And when we posted the video and the slamy, slamy but beautiful video, but oh my gosh, thank you. But we realized that people we're not afraid of talking about the things that they wanted when they when they go, and how they want their families to remember them and celebrate them and be with them. You know. So I thought I was really exposing this deep dark secret, but it turns out that, you know, sometimes the more specific you are, the more universal it is, and people have thought about it. I don't think you're exposing a deep, dark secret, but I certainly think the song gives people opportunities to have real, honest conversations that are hard. Mm hmm. They're hard. Nobody wants to do that, Nobody wants to acknowledge it, nobody wants to think about it. But you know, I think we've all had circumstances or experience when people leave without any express wishes, and how it can be confusing for the ones that are left about what is the best thing to do and so, and then they start fussing and fighting and disagreeing. And yeah, yeah, the more the more you can let people know what your heart is. Okay, there's one line in the song in the first part. I have to ask you, what lines would you cross Oh, I always wished i'd crossed a few more lines, like I gotta know what, like if if you had to do it all over again. I love this question so much. No one has ever asked me that question. Thank you so much for asking that it would be this. I feel that we all have within us the ability to say no to things and say yes to the things that we really want to do. And whatever it is age or society or upbringing or gender or whatever those things are that keep you from doing the things that you love to do and want to do. By speaking your truth are the things that I feel are the crossing the lines, you know, Like I grew up in a generation where women had to be polite and women had to be people pleasers and things like that, and now I just don't care anymore. So I wish that all young women, and I think most young women nowadays are probably able to sort of speak their mind more clearly than my generation did. But I would say that I would just do the things that you love to do. Take the chances you're only young ones, try to do it. Pursue the things that are your passion that you want to do, because every day is a gift we're here. Every single day that you are here to share your gifts or sharing other people's gifts is a day that we have to live to the full. So I think when you're young, you're worried about so many things. What am I going to do for a living? When am I going to meet this person? What am I going to have children? What am I going to you know? And I think all of those things fall into place if you're doing the things that you love to do and you're not afraid to do them. So you wouldn't have become an act like the high wire act in a circus. You wouldn't have have danced on a tabletop in Mexico after one too many tequilas. I totally would have been earlier, that's for sure. Uh. And I would have if because I did, I danced on the table top, Rita I did. Thank God there was no social media back then. Well it's never too late to Lila. You can get up on a table again and have it all documented. Well, if it were see here's the thing. If it were documented then I was only four. I looked tot totally. I looked if it were documented now and I was not wearing what I was not wearing the it would not look so hot. Why didn't we know that we were like rocking a good body? And when we were young, I always kind of thought, oh, I could be dinner, I could be more tone, that could be wherever. I've totally let go of that now because I'm just like, I'm so happy to be here and I'm so happy from my body's gotten me through so much. You know, I'd let go of it because I think now, when I look back on pictures, you know, ten fifteen years ago, I go, dang it, I look good. And I didn't even know I look good. Now, I'm like, wow, when I'm eighty and I look back on the pictures, now, I'm gonna think I look so good. So I'm gonna believe that now rather than wait. Nora Ephron wrote an amazing essay about this in her book, Um, I feel bad about my neck, and I think she said something about, like, if you're under thirty five, you should wear a bikini every day of your life. Thank you, thank you. It's so true, you know. But yeah, I just but if I weren't, if if if I didn't end up doing something in the arts, I think I really would have liked to have been like an FBI agent or something. I love like sort of getting to the bottom of things and figuring it out and how did that happen and why and catching a bad guy is always a good thing. And you could have been a really sexy spy. Sexy spy would have been good. Yeah, yeah, you could have been as sexy as hell spy where you have your hair in a bun. Yeah. Yeah, in a suit, a really severe suit. Yeah, I can see that so much fun. What would you have done? Um? Well, I I definitely wanted to run away and join the circus, Seriously, I did. We had a circus that came to our little town. I grew up in a tiny little town and we had a circus that came to town every year, and my dad knew about it before anybody else because my dad worked for the power company. They had to put the power are right for the field. There was a field next the grade school that they would they would come to and it was this freaking amazing gypsy family where the grandmother like walked around with this huge McCaw on her shoulders that talked, and she was no bigger than a minute. She may be weighed ninety pounds and she still did the high wire act. And I, my brother and I would go down because as soon as Dad told us they were coming and say can we help set up the tents? And they always gave us free tickets in exchange for helping them. And I would plot it all out. I would figure out how I was going to stuff my bed with pillows, and just like in the song that you mentioned earlier, the Beatles song, my folks would wake up and discover I was gone. But it wasn't because of some man with the motor you know, in the motor business, the motor trade. Like I'm going off at the circus. I was going to run away with the circus. I wanted to be one with the animals, one with the elephants. Yes, but look what you've created in your life. Though you're surrounded by animals, you're surrounded by people. You've created your family of different origins and different you know, countries, and you've created that in a way. I have and I even have a zebra. Do you have a zebra? I have a zebra? Oh my goodness, what kind is it? Is it a gretty or a common grays and um. She was born in Kentucky. Her mom died giving birth on a farm that raises them commercially. And I had posted because I have a lot of equine rescues, I had posted on an equine rescue board. Does anyone know anything about zebras? My daughter keeps asking, And like two years later, this woman contacted me and said, my friend just had a baby zebra at her farm and the mom died. They don't want to bottle feed it. Are you interested in rescuing it? Wow? So we have Zena the zebra and um. I had this fantasy that you know, Zena would be tame and would be able to write her No. Zebras are a wild animal. They were meant to be in the wild. So she's got a lot of land to rome and she's got her boyfriend Thor, who was a little donkey and um, and she's you know, happy, but she's not a friendly creature. That's really funny. Yeah, that would I would have run away with the circus. If I had any talent like you do, I would be a singer or a performer because I write songs. I have songs in my head playing all the time. But unlike you, the Lord did not give me the ability to sing or dance. Let me tell you something though, I do think that this is interesting. I think that I've met so many people when I signed c d s backstage and um, you know, on a meet and greet or something, and so many people say to me something that they always wanted to do. Oh, I've always wanted to blank whatever it was, sing, play music, play the guitar, right, dance, act, and they look at me and mention it in a way that it's like that's an impossibility for them to do now. And I always say to them, well, why don't you do it now? And they said, well, what do you mean. I'm like, well, you can take an acting class at your community college. You can sing with your church choir, or just have your girlfriends or guy friends come over and sing do sing alongs once a month. Or I took a watercolor class for five years every week, once a week for five years between September and June. And I took a watercolor class. I knew nothing about it, and at the end of five years, I could pay paintings. I'm not an expert, but I learned this. If you do something consistently enough, you don't get worse at it. And I think that there is so much creative talent out there, and people have abilities and gifts, but either they've been told somewhere along the way you can't be an artist. Nobody makes money being a musician or an actor, or being in a carnival or writing that. Nobody makes money doing that. You've got to find something else that makes you money, and it's it's shut down, you know. And I think that that does people a disservice because even if you go through that process of exploring what it's like being an artist, you are learning something about yourself and you don't know where that's going to lead you. But if you shut it off, it's like shutting off a fountain and that water backs up somewhere. I have met so many lawyers or doctors or professional people that are incredible musicians or artists, and you know, they were never validated for that. I remember there was a guy in my watercolor class, an amazing man, Brandon's Daddard. He passed away now, but he ran ABC Studios at the height of a b at the network. ABC was, you know, having all the hit shows and he was, you know, a badass businessman, and yet he was an artist. He had the soul of an artist, And to me, that's probably why he was able to have such a success at the time that he was running the network, because he knew what what it was like on some ways, in some ways to be an artist. So I would say, don't limit yourself even now. Don't limit yourself. Do the things that you love to do. If you if you wanted to write songs, Delilah, you can write songs. You don't know what's in there. You know what it's like. What Carrisa to me, do you have something you want to say? I just I love you. I love you, I love you, and I'm I'm so thankful to be talking to you. I really am, really what a treat. I just everything about you. I love I love that you. Uh you know. I have so much talent and yet you're so damn humble. There's another thing. If I look like you and saying like you, I would have killed myself because I wouldn't have stopped being on the tabletops, you know. But look at this is what I love about what you do, through your experiences, through your contact with so many people over the course of your life, through the tragedies that you've had to endure and the joys and celebrations, you are able to give boy to people. And by giving voice to people who tell their stories on your show and combining it with music, you are creating a place for people to come and learn. You're a teacher, you are giving that gift. You are showing us how to do things. When my mom had Alzheimer's and she was in bed and she wasn't speaking anymore and really just barely eating um. As I mentioned before, I'm Greek Orthodox, So my priest just happened to stop by one day. You know, We're sitting around with my mom and for some reason that day everybody stopped by. My kids were there and tom My, my family members. You know, we were just there and I said to Father John, I said, I don't understand this, Father John, I don't understand this disease. I don't understand why God doesn't take her. What is she doing here? What is the purpose? She's not living a life anymore, She's a you know, unable to do anything that she would love to do. She would hate this without missing a beat. He said, Well, she's still here teaching you. And he was, oh my gosh, yeah, because he was. She's teaching us how to be a family. She's teaching us how to care, she's teaching us what love is. She was showing us what she built in terms of her family, and we were all there around her. So um, I I I didn't question it anymore. I was like, Okay, I get it. And I looked at things in a very different way after that. But that's what you're doing. You're teaching people. I would like to teach people how to be nice, how to be kind. I just I look around and I see so much division, so much divisiveness, so much finger pointing and hatred and vitrilic anger and people spewing vulgar unkindness. And I'm like, what, people, what are we doing? What are we doing? We need to be loving one another, We need to be accepting one another, We need to be celebrating one another. It's the only way. It's the only way. And I think there's a lot of fear around so many different issues, and that fear is clouding who we are as in humanity. You know, don't forget that we are people, We are human beings, and we have to look out for each other and take care of each other and be good to each other. It's time. I feel like there's going to be a shift some somewhere. It just can't, it can't go on like this. Well, you keep singing, you keep performing, you keep writing great songs, and I'll keep playing them, and together, hopefully we can touch some hearts and change the world for good. God willing. That's what God willing. Reda, thank you so much, Shank you, Delilah, thank you so much. Really tell that amazing husband of yours that that I just think the world of him. And I don't even remember what interview I saw him say that in, but I fell in love with him all the more the day that I heard him say that you are the best thing that ever happened to him. Oh man, I will tell him that. Thank you. All right, God bless you, God bless you. We'll talk soon, Okay, sweetie, bye bye. Did I tell you you were going to love her? How's that for inspiring? I so love, love love this opportunity to get to know people in a deeper, more intimate, more profound ways, spending time chatting, finding out those things things that make us unique, but most importantly, those things that make us human. Rita shared so much of her story with us, all of her professional accomplishments, her long marriage to the man that brings her laughter, how she's found reason and resilience and power in the face of adversity, and if you listen carefully, she gave us a few pearls of wisdom. My favorite when she tells us to do the things you always wanted to do right now. What is it that you have always wanted to do? Will you take Rita Wilson's advice and try it right now? Will you take an acting class of watercolor class where you plan a few strawberry plants, maybe some carrot seeds. Will you run away and join the circus like I wanted to as a kid. No matter your age or your ability, never stopped chasing your dreams. Because right now, as Rita said, is if you do something can insistently enough, you won't get worse at it. It's true, you are going to get better. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Thank you for subscribing to Love Someone Join me next time. Do