Clay Pays Tribute to His Cousin, Steve Travis, Taken Too Soon

CLAY: We’re about to be joined by Buck’s dad. It is Father’s Day weekend. I hope all the dads out there are having a fantastic early start to your weekend. I’ve got three boys of my own. I cannot wait to hang out with them during the course of this weekend.

My dad was scheduled to be on with us, but yesterday — I just want to kind of fill you guys in — near the end of the show, I got some awful news.

My first cousin, Steve Travis — he’s 62 years old — died unexpectedly yesterday, my dad’s nephew. He is incredibly broken up about it. He didn’t feel like he could come on and talk about Father’s Day because of this death we just had in the family. But I just wanted to tell you a little bit about Steve here as we roll in. He’s a father himself. His daughter, Jennifer, is absolutely fantastic, and he is a 30-plus-year listener of the Rush Limbaugh Show.

He was a huge fan of Rush, and when I got the offer from Julie Talbott — who is Buck and I’s boss and she’s fantastic — to come and be able to take over the show, I only called a couple of people to ask them about it, and Steve was one of them because he was such a die-hard Rush Limbaugh fan. And it’s been really fun the last year because he listened every day, and he would text during segments and share his opinions and thoughts as someone who had been listening to this show for a really long time.

And yesterday — he had been in perfect health — he was outside early that morning working in his yard. Like I said, 62 years old, had just recently been to the doctor, gotten a clean bill of health, and he just collapsed and died, and so my family is still stunned. We ask for your prayers certainly for Steve’s close family, his daughter and his wife. But my dad, again, it’s his nephew. They kind of grew up together.

He was just so broken up over this that he didn’t think he could come on and talk about Father’s Day. So, what I would just say to everybody out there is, “If you’ve got a dad, hug him. Grandpa.” Sometimes families don’t get along. None of us are guaranteed anything at all, right? And so, I would just say, as all of us are celebrating Father’s Day — I know Mother’s Day just happened — if you got people in your family that you care about, don’t ever neglect telling them how much you care.

I know that things can be controversial and difficult on a day-to-day basis. Certainly, no family is perfect. But I do think in times like these — and everybody has unexpected, awful things that happen in their family that none of us can control. But I do think that I would just want to say to everybody out there, first of all, Steve was an incredible longtime Rush Limbaugh listener and I am honored to have known him.

And he is one of you to his core and to his soul and he’s a big reason why you’re listening to me talk on this show right now. And for everybody out there who is certainly getting ready for Father’s Day, just take the time to tell the people in your life that you love them because none of us are guaranteed any day, any hour and things can happen at any point. We’re going to be joined by Buck’s dad, who is phenomenal.

I don’t want to make the whole show certainly any kind of downer. We’re gonna have a lot of fun to close out this Friday edition, but I just wanted to mention why my own dad was not gonna be on. He didn’t think he could make it through segments talking about Father’s Day after what happened yesterday in our family. So, Buck, look, you know this, and everybody else out there knows.

You never know when something tragic might happen in your life, and so we love spending time with all of you. We know that your families are incredibly important, and I would just say as we head into the final 30 minutes of the show of Father’s Day weekend. If you get the opportunity, gotta love going out there, maybe you haven’t talked to them in a while, take the opportunity to reach out and try to make sure that you don’t take anything for granted when it comes to the important relationships in your life, your family, your friends, everything else.

BUCK: A lot of thoughts and prayers for you and yours, Clay, and we will obviously have to have your dad on on another day. We all want to meet Papa Travis. That needs to happen.

CLAY: He will 100% come on. He just… I really… He is an incredibly emotional guy. He would have broken down 30 seconds into the Father’s Day discussion — and we weren’t that confident, to be honest, in his cell phone, as I said for a while. So, I’ll bring him into the Nashville studio.

BUCK: Yeah, I was gonna say, we’ll do it in Nashville. The dads in person is how we’ll do it.

CLAY: He’s excited to meet you and he loves obviously my dad listens to the show every single day, so he wants to come on. Our moms were on. My dad will be on at some point. But coming up next, we are going to be joined by Buck’s dad here in the New York City studio. It’s gonna be a lot of fun in honor of Father’s Day.

BUCK: It is a fun hour. People ask me this and I’m sure they ask you this too: Do your parents listen? Do they listen? They listen every day! (laughing)

CLAY: Yeah. Yeah, it’s what your mom was saying last night when we were meeting. My mom listens every minute. She just texted me. She’s driving back from Florida where she’s been down with my sister for a while, and she said, “Hey, we’ve been able to pick you up for the first two hours just driving in the car all over Florida. You’re all over here!”