The Bahama Bob Interview is featured on The Paul Leslie Hour.
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We’ve got an interview with Bahama Bob that’s been just waiting to come out. It originally broadcast on the radio in 2007, but the interview itself was recorded in a very nice hotel in Atlanta, Georgia.
Bahama Bob you may be asking? Some of you already know. When your host Paul first became aware of Bob, his first thought was: “He seems like a real baller.” Good word to look up in the dictionary: “baller.”
This man, Bahama Bob splits his time between living in the United States and the Bahamas. He is a boater, operator of a Bahamian resort, oh and he’s a Jimmy Buffett fan, too. So he’s got that going for him. Which is nice.
This is a man who has taken life by the teeth, and has worked hard, but maximized fun. Bahama Bob is going to share with you some of his philosophies in life…which includes kissing frogs (in the metaphorical sense.) He is a man who truly has the island spirit.
Before we begin the interview, I’d like to invite you to please help us out by subscribing to Paul Leslie’s YouTube channel. We’re trying to get to 3,800 subscribers by mid-October. We just had a big, big boost. We thank you for that. Subscribing is easy and free.
With that little announcement out of the way, let’s get the Bahama Bob interview out there into the world! Oh yeah, and hi Dave!
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In this episode, we chat with Bahama Bob, who shares his incredible life experiences and the lessons he has learned along the way. From his time spent in the Bahamas to his philosophy of “kissing frogs” and embracing new opportunities, Bahama Bob’s infectious spirit and love for life are truly inspiring. Tune in to hear about his adventures, favorite destinations, and the importance of living in harmony with others.
Transcript
Introducing Special Guest: Bahama Bob
[2:33] Today we’re talking with the one and only Bahama Bob. So first of all, thank you for a hell of a night last night, and thanks for making the time to be our special guest.
You’re very welcome.
So for starters, I was wondering, where are you from originally?
Born and raised in the greater Milwaukee, Wisconsin area.
The Origin of Bahama Bob
[3:00] And how did you come to have the moniker of Bahama Bob?
Well, it goes back about 12 or 15 years that I was involved in a resort in the Bahamas.
And one of the, it was set up as a timeshare and one of the owners asked me to take his daughter out on the town because it was her birthday in Nassau, Bahamas.
And that particular night, we ended up with 14 of us partying in the city and, And we didn’t get back in back to the resort till the early hours of the early of the late morning.
And one of the people were standing there and said, “oh, here comes Bahama Bob and his entourage.”
And one of them, who is now one of my best friends, his name is Chris, is into computers and whatever.
And within about four or five days after I returned back to Milwaukee, he sent me a logo, which he said, “let’s call you Bahama Bob and we’ll start something.”
And that’s how it all started.
The rest is history, I guess.
Love for Scuba Diving and Discovering the Bahamas
[4:02] Well, what brought you to the Bahamas initially?
[4:06] At the time, I really enjoyed scuba diving. And at the time with my girlfriend, we went down to the Bahamas scuba diving and we happened to be walking along the sidewalk, and we noticed that people were selling, out of a little trailer, they were selling timeshares.
So we ended up buying a week of timeshare.
And that’s how we had got actually how we got introduced to the Bahamas on a more regular basis than just going once.
Well, what was it about the Bahamas? Granted, I have never been to the Caribbean.
What was it about the Bahamas that, uh, allured you?
Well, I think if you listen to anything that Jimmy Buffett has been talking about, singing about and his whole life, other than being in the Keys and whatever is the Caribbean is just an experience of a lifetime because there’s 700 islands in the Bahamas. Some of them have pink sand beaches, others have white sand beaches.
The color of the ocean is so incredibly aqua in color that it’s just mesmerizing and it’s the people in the Bahamas are so kind and so nice and it’s It’s just a fun place to be.
The Credo of Kissing Frogs for Success
[5:20] When it comes to your life, one thing that you told me when we first started communicating with each other is “sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs” and i was wondering how you came to obtain that credo?
[5:37] I read a book one time and it the book had to do with setting up your life monetarily and trying to be a success in your life and it said about kissing frogs and I picked up on that and then as I’ve been, nurturing in my life, I’ve noticed that you do have to go after a lot of opportunities in order to have one opportunity turn into something very successful.
So I myself am in the process of writing a book called Kiss the Frogs It’s the name of my boat in Milwaukee’s called “Kiss the Frogs” and kissing a frog again is an opportunity. The more frogs you kiss, the more opportunities you go after, the more chance there is to creating a success in your life. And that’s what I’ve done. I’ve kissed a gazillion frogs and, I have the best, I think I’ve got next to Jimmy Buffett and others, I’ve got one of the best lives in the world.
So when it comes to the other side, like of course you have to have the business side to make it in the world. [6:43] What about the fun side?
Tell me about, like, your ideal day.
Ideal Day: Exploring Lake Michigan on my boat
[6:50] An ideal day for me is typically I live west of the city of Milwaukee, but I also have a condo downtown in the city. An ideal day for me is getting up, having a friend’s call that in, particular don’t work or have off for the day or whatever and calling. We get on my boat and we take it for a ride. We can go down to various cities with less than 30 minutes in Lake Michigan.
And we can go down to Racine, Wisconsin, or up to Port Washington, Wisconsin.
And they’ve got little eateries and bars and whatever along the canals.
And we stop there for lunch and dinner, meet friends. I know everybody everywhere.
So it doesn’t take me long to start a little party once we get there.
And all of a sudden, the whole day is shot.
Music Taste: 95% Jimmy Buffett, Love Island Music
[7:36] You were mentioning Jimmy Buffett earlier. So I was wondering, what kind of music do you listen to?
Well, if you listen to my stereo, whether it’s in my car, in my condo, or my home, or whatever, it’s probably 95% Jimmy Buffett.
But I do like the other singers. Celine Dion is great, and Neil Diamond in the older version of the music.
But primarily, I like the island music, just like when I go to the Bahamas all the time.
I just love the steel drums and the upbeat tone of the Bahamian music.
Favorite Buffett Song: Too Many to Choose From
[8:13] So do you have a favorite Buffett song?
Oh gosh. There’s so many songs that, uh, that I like of Jimmy’s that, um, I don’t know. Uh.
[8:29] Don’t know. Well, I certainly understand. He has a wealth of songs.
Uh, I was just wondering when out of all the people you’ve met and granted being someone that travels around a lot, spends a lot of time in the Caribbean. Has there been any person in particular that you’ve met that, above all the others, really stood out in your mind?
The Influence of a Mentor
[8:56] Well, it was probably everyone in their life has a mentor. And of course, I’m older than most people, but most young people.
And my mentor is no longer with us. But he was an older gentleman that was an attorney.
And he owned, besides that, he owned a ski area in Wisconsin.
And his name was Ed Hurdy. And we used to call him Grandpa.
But he was probably the most influential person in my life to give me a start and show me that I could do whatever I wanted to do and all I had to do is put my head in the right direction and just start pedaling and I would get to my destination and that’s probably the number one person.
The Joy of Bahama Bob and Worldwide Connections
So what do you think the best thing about being Bahama Bob is?
[9:47] Well, I never thought it would get to where it is, but the wonderful, I mean, wonderful, group of people and friends that I have all over, literally all over the world, and I.[10:00] had my annual Bahama Bob party in Milwaukee last Friday night, and I had people come from, Mexico and Canada and the Caribbean and Playmates that came in from Playboy just to be at my party and that if you want something that’s really heartwarming it’s to see all these wonderful people having a great time and and the best part of any time whether I go out with a woman or whatever or have the party is to have when they when they say goodbye to me they said they say “we had a great time, let’s do it again” and that’s that’s all I need to keep me going.
Living Life to the Fullest: Planning, Perseverance, and New Experiences
What advice could you give to someone that wants to live life to their fullest and wants to enjoy life as much as they can?
Well it has to do with planning, it money takes it takes money to do anything you want to do, but you it takes planning it takes, perseverance and just plain intestinal fortitude- guts if you want to call it and find your, set yourself a goal constantly check the goal have long-term goals, short-term goals and constantly check them to make sure you’re on the right track and don’t be afraid to do something different. Don’t be afraid to, to experience new things. I’m at I’m 60 years old and at my age I’m still experiencing new things and I do I love hanging around with young people they.
[11:29] Are they’re crazy like I am but they have so many neat ideas about changing things and making things better and I learned from them as well as they probably learned from me.
I’ve seen on your website there’s a lot of pictures of you traveling around going to different concerts I was just wondering, How did you discover the music of Jimmy Buffet?
[11:53] It was ironic, when I was in the Bahamas and I ended up the resort that I bought the week of timeshare and I ended up, I own the management company and the bar and restaurant and other things and lots of weeks of timeshare, but I was invited by the owners of Atlantis to a concert or a show, if you will, that Jimmy Buffett was putting on called Don’t Stop the Carnival.
And Don’t Stop the Carnival actually was, I think, a best-selling book.
It’s a story about a man from the metropolitan area that purchased a resort in the Caribbean and all the problems and trials and tribulations he had.
Well, Jimmy hooked up with a choreographer from California and they presented a show at Atlantis for the guests of Atlantis and I happened to be one of the people invited to the original party. [12:46] And unbeknown to me, I was sitting at the table and I’m jumping up and down saying, “this is me.”
I, you know, I got involved in this resort and I had all these problems just like Norman Paperman was having. And all of a sudden, this man sticks his hand out and says, “Hi, I’m Jimmy Buffett.”
And that’s how it started. And I loved his music from that day forward.
And even some of the people that were playing in his band, one of the band members, the drummer was the son of the driver from my resort. His name is Kevin. All of us became great friends. Of course, Heather Perry, who was with Jimmy for a long time, Heather and and I have become great friends also because she used to live in the Bahamas.
A Tribute to Ralph MacDonald, the Drumming Legend
[13:31] Do you have a favorite member of the Coral Reefer Band? Well, call it ex-member probably. Heather is probably my number one friend and Ralph MacDonald, there’s nobody in the world that can play the drums like Ralph MacDonald and I’ve heard a lot of music and he is just number one for me. I love the man.
[13:52] Now granted, anyone that hears your moniker knows that you love the Bahamas.
But I was wondering, have there been any other places in your adventures that especially stick out in your mind? A Bahama, a Bahama Bob hotspot.
Bahama Bob hotspot. Well, I love Las Vegas and I go there four or five times a year and I love California.
And I ended up, fortunately, in my excursion getting into the Playboy Mansion a number of times.
Europe: A Cultural Journey from Sweden to Russia
[14:24] But my best, probably one of my best trips actually was to Europe and going into Sweden and Denmark and Poland and learning about all the Baltic states and into Russia, which some parts of that great museum in Leningrad, which used to be, it was Leningrad is St. Petersburg, I guess it is, and the culture and things that you could only read in books and I got to see it in person.
And that was probably my greatest experience, over and above my party atmosphere of the Caribbean.
Exploring Special Interests: Music, Travel, and More
[15:02] You mentioned your love of music, your love of travel. Are there any other special interests of yours? I was surprised to find out that you actually have a farm as well.
Well, that’s just, it happened after my father passed away. My younger brother was just kind of floundering around. So he loved animals. So I ended up buying a farm, putting him on the farm, and we started raising Angus beef. And now we’ve got a very high quality beef that gets sold. And, and it helps me do a little, when I throw a party, I don’t have to pay for the beef, I get it for free.
And cheeseburgers in paradise, of course, always are better when they’re made with Angus beef, Angus hamburger.
A Global Message from Mr. Bahama Bob
[15:46] My last question to you, given that this program goes out all over the world, what would you, Mr. Bahama Bob, because I’m not allowed to call you Mr. Schneider. What would you like to say to the world?
Spreading Peace and Harmony through Simple Acts of Kindness
[16:01] Let’s all live in peace and harmony. And when the next time you see someone in an elevator, say hello to them. Next time you pass someone on a sidewalk, say hello to them and you’ll be surprised how much it will come back and be beneficial. There’s just, there’s too much distrust. There’s too much hate, hatred in the world. And, you know, the melting pot of the world is getting smaller and smaller and smaller, and it’s gonna take a lot more energy and everyone’s part to be friends and turn the other cheek a lot. But that’s basically all I can say.
Gratitude for Wonderful Friends and a Beautiful Life
[16:36] I just, I’ve got so many wonderful friends and I don’t know how many are gonna listen to this, but thanks to everybody for making my life the best it is.
[16:49] All right, well, thank you, Bahama Bob, for your time, and thank you for the smiles.
