Host: Rob Prince (00:20)
In this episode of MI Michigan Story, Life in the Great Lakes State.
Tanner Phillips (00:23)
She’s twirling fire knives and I remember just being like, you know, looking at my friends saying like, you know, this, this girl, like this is it.
Host: Rob Prince (00:30)
Tanner Phillips falls in love with the girl twirling fire knives at a Fourth of July festival. Zach Bigelow’s friend steals a massive mortar from a Fourth of July fireworks display.
Zach Bigelow (00:41)
He hopped the fence and stole one of the big mort mortars.
Host: Rob Prince (00:46)
Like
Zach Bigelow (00:47)
And it’s he he’s just carrying this thing around all day long. Look what I’ve got. It’s this precious, you know, just we’re trying to figure out how we’re gonna launch this thing off af after everybody else is gone.
Host: Rob Prince (01:00)
And Jeremiah Liggett’s life has changed forever when he sees Lake Michigan for the first time.
Jeremiah Liggett (01:05)
Boats were sailing in the distance. You could like look down in the water, clear. Like put your hand down, see all the rocks, you could see all the sand. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life, truly.
Host: Rob Prince (01:19)
America two fifty. Up next on MI Michigan story, Life in the Great Lakes State. I’m Rob Prince.
Well, happy Fourth of July to you, dear listener, and happy two hundred and fiftieth birthday to the USA. What a big birthday that is. It feels a little wrong for me to mention that this is also the first birthday of this show since we made our radio debut on WKR on july fifth of two thousand twenty five. To mention that feels like announcing at a baby shower that you just adopted a new cat. Exciting
Host: Rob Prince (02:23)
But whatever, it’s ex
Host: Rob Prince (02:25)
to me that we finished our first season without getting cancelled so far.
In today’s episode of MI Michigan Story, Life in the Great Lakes State, we have two stories from Fourths of July in Michigan, long, long ago. And since this is the beginning of a new season of the show, I wanted to take a moment to share a couple stories that celebrate this great state of Michigan. To get us started with a delightful story about a small town Fourth of July celebration way back in 1993, we’ve got this story from Tanner Phillips.
I can’t imagine too many people can point to one specific day in their lives that marked the beginning of multiple huge parts of their lives, but Tanner sure can. He can trace his rock music career and his marriage back to that fateful fourth of July in nineteen ninety three. He shared this story at our july sixteenth, two thousand twenty five open mic live event at Ramshackle Brewing Company in Jonesville. Here’s Tanner.
Tanner Phillips (03:20)
In southern Michigan, you know, the probably the most popular day of the year is is the Fourth of July, you know, festivities. Like every little town, if you have a gas station or a Masonic Lodge, you know, you are you are deep in the festivities. And so Hanover Horton, which is just down the road, was having its fourth of July its second Fourth of July ever, right? and
Ever and they and they had put a lot of thought and money and time. I mean it was like they were blowing it out. It was the biggest thing they had ever done. And so they decided to rip off the gong show. Right? So they had various judges from you know from you know handpicked from the area. They were all very interesting characters, including the man holding the gong, which his name was Milton the Beekeeper, and he was a very large man. you know
And you know, the beard that goes down to the ground, you know, kind of paint the picture, kind of a guy. And and so it was the the first performance of my band in in high school, right? So it was like we had all gathered and we’re like, and there was no other band, right? And we’re like, we were gonna be the band. And so, you know, starting out, we knew we had to go over and just befriend this guy, right? Like this was like he was key, he’s holding the giant gong.
And somehow, I don’t even know how Hanover came up with a gong, but they had an actual like giant six and a half foot gong that somebody’s grandparents imported years, you know, before. So we go over, we make you know, make as good as friends with Milton as we possibly can in hopes that we you know we aren’t being gonged. And and so you know we’re we’re all hanging out, we’re watching the berries. And it was also like, you know, a talent competition, so to speak, for everybody in the town. And my wife, who I did not know at the time.
got up and and did a routine with fire knives. Right? So like it’s I feel like that’s the most southern Michigan.
Host: Rob Prince (05:19)
Knives dangerous enough. Why do you need to fight?
Tanner Phillips (05:22)
So
so it’s a and and you know, I learned this later, but it’s like she she made a lot of money twirling metal sticks and and in her youth and you could light them on fire I mean you could put sharp ends on them and light them on fire and do cool stuff with them. And I remember just being like, you know, looking at my friend saying like, you know, this this girl like this is it. I was just like, This is amazing you know, she’s twirling fire knives and you know, she’s got her little C D player out there because there wasn’t, you know, a PA or any kind of real you know.
Host: Rob Prince (05:52)
Like a boombox.
Tanner Phillips (05:55)
It was literally coming out of a boom box. No, yes. So and and as it was playing, you know, the C D as they did back in the, you know, back in the old days when we played C D’s was skipping and and they were just like gong. I mean it was just straight across, like gong her, gong her, gong her. So, you know, Milton Milton doesn’t even get out of his chair ’cause that would be too much of a chore, just reaches over and hits the gong and you know, and she was devastated because it was I mean, it was quite the amazing, amazing performance and then
a little bit later, you know, I like, I should stick around and like, you know, hear you know, hear the band play, you know, ’cause it’s you know, super cool.
Host: Rob Prince (06:30)
Yes.
So she’s and how does what do you say?
Tanner Phillips (06:37)
I mean we were just saying how rigged the whole situation, you know, like we were just like we’re like, that was really impressive and we all feel bad ’cause following that’s gonna be, you know, if they gonged you, we’re in serious trouble. And and
Host: Rob Prince (06:54)
Tudo.
Tanner Phillips (06:54)
First
first performance. Yeah.
Host: Rob Prince (06:56)
What kind of band?
Tanner Phillips (06:58)
it was a rock band. So it was the wrong band for Hanover. No, it was it was originals. I mean, we went on we we went on to tour, we went on twenty some year I mean like I give you all kinds of stories about Michigan musicians and yes, absolutely. Okay, yeah, yeah. So so that but but again, first performance and if you know anything about southern Michigan.
Rock and southern Michigan do not mix. And I and I say that as like I went to school with like Ted Nugent’s kids, right? And even though you know Uncle Uncle Ted, as we call him round these parts, just you know, it’s like he kinda doesn’t always go over because again, it’s just a little too much for the people of the area. so you know, we get up, they had the stage, we had the band, you’re like, we’re you know, we’re getting right like and we’re allowed like one song. So like
you know, massive setup, the whole, you know, but you like on top of the world and it’s and my wife, you know, is out there watching and like, yeah, I’m gonna rock this. This is gonna go, you know. Future
Host: Rob Prince (07:59)
I mean your future one.
Tanner Phillips (08:00)
wife, yes. Right. Girl I’m trying to impress out in the audience. And and you know, we play and you know, ten seconds in they realize it’s not country. And you can see, like, ’cause it’s you know, the five, six judges, you can see the angry faces on the judges and they’re all turning.
And each one turns the next one, you can say gong gong you know, gong And you know, Milton takes his gong and he jams it between his legs and he’s like, I love rock music. You let those boy play. And so we got we got yeah, yeah, we got we got two songs in. Yes, yes. Two songs. Two songs, because there was only supposed to be one, but we got a second.
Before they were like I mean essentially they came down and they turned the power off and But yeah. But the two people that liked rock music I f in the crowd that day I feel like we really impressed.
Host: Rob Prince (08:51)
How did this then transition into like she was your wife? How did you how did you
Host: Rob Prince (08:55)
But
Host: Rob Prince (08:56)
parlay like this is unfair to both of us into could you go get
Tanner Phillips (09:00)
So I I met her again. So so we were we were still young. on my sixteenth birthday, which wasn’t very far away, I skipped school, which is not a thing, you know, that you should should for any listeners out there, but I I had skipped school. I had air quotes borrowed my parents van, you know, because they used to be you turn sixteen, you go to the DMV, you get your license. Well that morning I drove that van to the DMV, got my license and
Host: Rob Prince (09:28)
Kind of ironic.
Tanner Phillips (09:31)
So and I I had driven driven up to my drummer’s high school, which my drummer went to Hanover Horton and and at the time I did not. And I was like, we’ve gotta like we’re gonna go do something cool. We need, you know, go go find us some girls. We’re gonna you know, like we’re gonna do the whole nineties, you know, cool like it was nineteen ninety would have been four or five? Yeah. So the perfect year. Yes, peak peak nineties, yes.
So so she was one of the ones. She actually had to and hopefully my wife’s out there not listening too hard, but she actually had to call home to her parents to say, like, listen, can I skip school? Cause she was like that, like good, you know, and they were like Yeah. And and I mean the best mistake that they ever made was just telling her, like, hey, you never do anything wrong. You’re like the biggest goody two shoes on planet earth. Like, get out there and go at, you know, like go be a kid.
And so she came and like the rest is history, but yeah. So and we’ve been together like, yeah, twenty nine years, married for like twenty four, twenty five, so I probably should know. Yep, two kids, a sixteen and and a ten year old.
Host: Rob Prince (10:42)
Thanks to the gong show.
Tanner Phillips (10:43)
All thanks to the Yes. And the fire knives. And as it’s she used to do it for like football games. So like it g it was one of those like every friend I’m like, wait, hold on, you gotta come to this football game and you know, being in music, sports is not
Doesn’t really align with me, but I’m like, no, no, it’s cool. It’s a football game, but we just gotta come check this out. And you know, and you go and she’d be there twirling these like fi I mean, fifty feet up in the air, going back and forth, locking you know, and it was so s the school system around here, it was it was even such a it was like a thing that people come came to see because there’s just not I mean there’s only a couple people that do it on the planet. So yeah.
Host: Rob Prince (11:21)
Does she still do it?
Tanner Phillips (11:22)
She doesn’t even now we now we work in insurance.
Host: Rob Prince (11:27)
Wow. Great. And d tell us the band.
Host: Rob Prince (11:35)
Well
Tanner Phillips (11:35)
So the band back in the day was called Madcap. It transitioned into Not Another Hero, which like a lot of like southern Michigan people would know. but we we did a lot with the lot of the the you know, the verve pipe and sponge and all the really big Michigan bands, you know. So
Host: Rob Prince (11:53)
This gong show had the beginning of your marriage, the roots there, the beginning of span you
Tanner Phillips (11:59)
A absolutely it was
Host: Rob Prince (12:01)
can trace basically the biggest moments of your
Tanner Phillips (12:05)
Back to the gong show. I literally can. Yes, the July fourth, the best J July fourth they ever had. I’m just putting it out there.
Host: Rob Prince (12:14)
Tanner Phillips. He shared that story at our July 16, 2024
Host: Rob Prince (12:19)
Five.
Host: Rob Prince (12:19)
open mic storytelling event at Ramshackle Brewing in Jonesville. Again, his band is called Not Another Hero, in case you want to check it out now that you know its awesome origin story. This is MI Michigan story, Life in the Great Lakes State, the America 250 episode. I’m Rob Prince.
For people who love blowing things up, there can’t be any greater day of the year than July 4th. For all the rest of the year, society really frowns on people exploding things, but for one day of the year it’s considered normal. It’s like the purge, but just for pyromaniacs. But fireworks are expensive and pretty tightly regulated here in Michigan. So if you want something that really makes a bang on a budget, what better way than to hop a fence and steal a big mortar from a professional fireworks display? Well
Really horrible idea for reasons that I hope are obvious to everyone, but it seemed like a good idea to
Host: Rob Prince (13:55)
Dude.
Host: Rob Prince (13:56)
Zach Bigelow’s friend back on the fourth of July in the year two thousand.
Host: Rob Prince (14:03)
Five two live event.
Zach Bigelow (14:09)
We’re all of age at this point in time, so we can you know, we’re in biting and we’ve been day drinking, turned to evening drinking, turned to a little bit towards the dark end of night drinking. Okay. You know, you’re twenty one, you’re a superstar. But it one of my buddies decides we’re over in Hanover and they have their fourth of July fireworks. He hopped the fence and stole one of the big mortars.
Host: Rob Prince (14:36)
Why?
Zach Bigelow (14:37)
And it’s he he’s just
carrying this thing around all day long. Look what I’ve got. It’s this precious, you know, just we’re trying to figure out how we’re gonna launch this thing off af after everybody else is gone. You know, we we’re over at my buddy’s house and
Host: Rob Prince (14:53)
What does this thing look like? Is it it’s
Zach Bigelow (14:55)
It’s about it’s a little bit bigger than a softball. Okay. And it had this like cone at the bottom, real short, maybe like two, three inch cone. Okay. And a long fuse. We’re
Host: Rob Prince (15:05)
Okay.
Host: Rob Prince (15:06)
Right.
Zach Bigelow (15:07)
thinking, how are we gonna launch this off? We’re
Host: Rob Prince (15:09)
Right.
Zach Bigelow (15:10)
very intoxicated.
So of course, you know, the the fourth of July they have traffic cones the the sitting around. We decide to procure one from the road.
Host: Rob Prince (15:28)
wow.
Zach Bigelow (15:30)
And make a little makeshift mortar launcher.
Host: Rob Prince (15:33)
Right. And the idea being you’re gonna launch it.
Host: Rob Prince (15:36)
Yeah.
Zach Bigelow (15:37)
Yep, yep, set it down, light it and run like the dick in
Host: Rob Prince (15:40)
Okay.
Zach Bigelow (15:41)
Well the only place that we could figure out the the be the safest was the center of the baseball field because there’s no trees.
Host: Rob Prince (15:49)
Right.
Host: Rob Prince (15:49)
And safety was your top priority yet.
Zach Bigelow (15:51)
It
was. At this point we’re thinking if this goes off we’ve gotta make sure that it doesn’t catch anything else on fire.
Host: Rob Prince (15:57)
Good for you.
Zach Bigelow (15:58)
So we put it on the the pitcher’s mound. ‘Cause it’s the s about center, there’s nothing around it, it’ll launch off and it’s probably two, three in the morning. Everybody
Host: Rob Prince (16:08)
Which which baseball field is this?
Zach Bigelow (16:11)
This
would have been Hanover Horton area one. There was a baseball field over there. Okay. Still is probably. And it was probably about ten of us. We all got together and we built, you know, made made this little ramshackle shimmied up mortar launcher and realized we didn’t have enough fuse to that only had a short fuse, so we either have to light it and run. Or Buddy says, another friend was like.
I’ve got some wick at at the house, so we go go to his house, walk over, grab some more wick, ’cause he makes his own whatever. He’s got
Host: Rob Prince (16:46)
Whatever you need that for.
Zach Bigelow (16:48)
he’s got his own like fuse wires and stuff, so we ran more of it and light it and we watched the watched the wire burn down, hit the thing and we’re sitting there, sitting there, and it felt like an eternity. huh. To the point where we got bored and walked away.
Host: Rob Prince (17:07)
my goodness.
Zach Bigelow (17:07)
We had
no more than got like half halfway through the field. Uhhuh. The baseball field. And it just
Host: Rob Prince (17:15)
Boom It was
Zach Bigelow (17:16)
It was
prettiest purple I’ve ever seen, but it didn’t launch in the air. It just went right there on the pitcher’s mouth.
Host: Rob Prince (17:26)
That any kind of rubber cone didn’t really contain it.
Zach Bigelow (17:30)
No, no, and it echoed everywhere and lights started clicking on and here comes ten drunk zombies running from the field trying to hide. So yeah.
Host: Rob Prince (17:44)
Were there any ramifications of this? Did anyone ever say like what what
Zach Bigelow (17:48)
Nothing. I we never heard a word. We played dumb. We we we were passed out. We drank too much that day, you know.
Host: Rob Prince (17:55)
And what was left of the cone afterward?
Zach Bigelow (17:58)
We never went back but for a couple No
Host: Rob Prince (18:00)
no.
Zach Bigelow (18:03)
nothing was on fire, so we were good.
Host: Rob Prince (18:04)
What you just ran. We just ran.
Zach Bigelow (18:07)
Nope, we’re outta here.
Host: Rob Prince (18:10)
Wow, that’s pretty insane.
Host: Rob Prince (18:14)
Zach Bigelow. He shared that story at our August 25, 2025 Open Mic Live Event at Ramshackle Brewing in Jonesville. This is MI Michigan story, Life in the Great Lakes. I’m Rob Prince.
Would you like to see MI Michigan Story Life in the Great Lakes State live and in person? Well, we’ve got several events coming up in the next few weeks. On Saturday, July 25th, we will be returning to the Fledge in Lansing for a free open mic storytelling event at 8 p.m. And then on Saturday, August 1st, we’ll be heading back to Jonesville for a free open mic storytelling event at Ramshackle Brewing at 7 p.m. You can get more information about those events and more at our website, MI MichiganStory.com.
That’s also where you can find all previous episodes of the show on our podcast, as well as reach out to us
Host: Rob Prince (19:21)
Ciao to us.
Host: Rob Prince (19:21)
if you’ve got a story you’d like to share. Again, the website is MI MichiganStory.com with an MI at the start. This is MI Michigan Story, Life in the Great Lakes State, the America 250 episode. I’m Rob Prince.
While MI Michigan story doesn’t exist just to talk about how wonderful the state of Michigan is, even though I do think it is wonderful, I think it is appropriate to take a moment to celebrate the Great Lakes state at the beginning of the second season of this show. For those of us who live in Michigan, we know that the Great Lakes have an overwhelming grandeur about them that, personally, never ceases to leave me awestruck. Our next storyteller, however, was more than just amazed by the experience
Host: Rob Prince (20:40)
Yeah.
Host: Rob Prince (20:40)
of seeing Lake Michigan for the first time.
It literally changed his life. Jeremiah Liggett shared this story with me at our May 16, 2026 Open Mic Storytelling event at the East Lansing Art Festival in East Lansing. Here’s Jeremiah.
Jeremiah Liggett (20:56)
Me and my friends, I was told that there was a an adventure we were all gonna go on to go. The end goal was Lake Michigan. All right. Between Lake Michigan and where we were was four
Host: Rob Prince (21:10)
About four.
Jeremiah Liggett (21:11)
to five miles just of sand dunes we had to climb over. We were not prepared, we had no water.
Host: Rob Prince (21:19)
And so who are these people you’re going with?
Jeremiah Liggett (21:21)
I was with you my friends Eric, Nick, Gabe, two Gabes and Alex and Alan.
Host: Rob Prince (21:29)
All right. Do they normally good trips? okay. This is
Jeremiah Liggett (21:31)
This was the first one we’ve gone on. This is the first one we’ve gone on.
Host: Rob Prince (21:35)
it’s so you’re it’s summer, what month is it like July or something? When is so it’s kinda hot.
Jeremiah Liggett (21:40)
July. one hundred percent.
Host: Rob Prince (21:43)
Really hot. You’re coming from East Lansing, and you’re going kinda northwest to Lake Michigan. Did you what did you think was gonna happen? Did you have any idea what was what the plan was? No.
Jeremiah Liggett (21:56)
I was I wasn’t a kid who really got a chance to go outside of my neighborhood really. So this was my first I guess you know, go ahead and go do it. All right. I’m of age, I guess, to go be free, I guess. So you know, this is my first little bit of freedom. so it was yeah, the first time.
Host: Rob Prince (22:16)
So walk me through that day, what happened?
Jeremiah Liggett (22:19)
Okay, so we wake up relatively early, you know, we’re all pretty tired, relatively groggy and we’re driving that way. we get there, get out the car, we see one big sand dune and we’re like, so it’s just right over like
Tanner Phillips (22:34)
Like,
Jeremiah Liggett (22:34)
Mrs. Gonna be right over the sand dune. We walk over one, we’re like man and we see it says like think like you have to meet I guess seven posts on the hike and then
After seven you’ll get to we thought there’d be maybe like each Dune post. Each Dune post. No, no. It was like it felt like five do for every five dunes, there was one post.
Host: Rob Prince (23:01)
my you had seven.
Tanner Phillips (23:02)
Yeah.
Jeremiah Liggett (23:03)
It was it was terrible. I mean it was it was terrible, you know. Space definitely grew between the groups. We all kind of divided. some of us were not ready. I was in the the front of the group though.
Host: Rob Prince (23:17)
All right, so you’re okay.
Jeremiah Liggett (23:18)
Yeah, I mean
Host: Rob Prince (23:20)
Were you just gonna leave these other guys behind or why why did you separate like that?
Jeremiah Liggett (23:24)
I knew that they were gonna make it at some point. I couldn’t. It was too hot.
Host: Rob Prince (23:25)
I see. You just didn’t want to wait. no.
Jeremiah Liggett (23:32)
I was wearing sandals, so I just took my shoes off. But if you stop moving, you almost are sickened back. Losing progress. So it was it was definitely But I mean when you when we made it, when we finally made it, that water was clear. Uh-huh. There was like it almost was like
frosting over top of the over top of the it was just fog but it was so beautiful I remember like just crying.
Tanner Phillips (24:01)
Really?
Jeremiah Liggett (24:01)
It was the most to this day one of the most beautiful things. Like and if you like look like my eyes are getting like watery just thinking about it. Like genuinely one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve ever had. And I would not have been able to have that if I was not in the city the great state of Michigan. So yeah truly a a beautiful experience.
Host: Rob Prince (24:20)
my goodness.
Jeremiah Liggett (24:21)
And
we were only there for like maybe an hour and a half and we had to the hike was three hours. We had to sit in the water for an hour and a half and then go all the way back before it got dark. ’cause there were no like lights. There were no I mean we had our phone flashlights, but we made it just in time. Just in time. We made it down past that big hill or big dune. Got to our car, sun was setting.
Host: Rob Prince (24:43)
my goodness. You had no time to spare. What was the walk back like?
Jeremiah Liggett (24:48)
it was way better ’cause all the big hills I feel like now we’re going down them.
Host: Rob Prince (24:53)
I see.
Jeremiah Liggett (24:53)
So it was way better. But I feel like I was reborn after I got out of that water. It was so like my body was all covered in sand. I was hot. I was sweaty. So I took off all my clothes or not all my clothes, but I went in that water. I came out just like like it was amazing. It’s amazing. I loved I loved that so much. Love that so much.
I’m not really even a take my shirt off kinda guy, but when I saw that water, it was just like a natural, like, I need to take all this and boats were sailing in the distance. You could like look down in the water, clear. Like, put your hand down, see all the rocks, you could see all the sand. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life. Truly. Truly.
Host: Rob Prince (25:42)
Wow, that is epic. So how are you a different person now?
Jeremiah Liggett (25:46)
I definitely feel like I’m instead of holding on to the things that like I guess the perspectives of other people, I just live my life almost more free. I’m not worried about what somebody else is looking at me thinking. I’m gonna do what’s best for me. And it’s it’s a way better way to live life. I live life stiff for so long. Looking around like, what is this person thinking about me? It doesn’t even matter, man. Life is so short.
I blinked and I’m twenty three. You know what I mean? Like, no, I’m I’m I’m trying my best to live the rest of my life, however long I got left, the most free and the most just, you know, kind and, you know, loving to everybody. yeah, no, that I don’t know what it I don’t know what’s in that water. But that water is just beautiful. It’s perfect. Truly.
Host: Rob Prince (26:37)
That’s a really wonderful story. Thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you very much.
Host: Rob Prince (26:41)
Jeremiah Liggett, he shared that story at our may sixteenth, twenty twenty six Open Mic storytelling event at the East Lansing Art Festival in East Lansing.
Thanks so much for listening to this edition of MI Michigan Story, Life in the Great Lakes State. Today’s episode was produced and edited by myself, Rob Prince. MI Michigan Story is presented by WKR Inis Lansing. Would you like to see MI Michigan Story, Life in the Great Lakes State, live and in person? Well, we’ve got several events coming up in the next few weeks. On Saturday, July 25, we will be returning to the Fledge in Lansing for a free open mic storytelling event at 8 p.m.
And then on Saturday, August 1st, we’ll be heading back to Jonesville for a free open mic storytelling event at Ramshackle Brewing at 7 p.m. Remember, I can’t make MI Michigan story without your Michigan story, so get me your story today at MI MichiganStory.com. That’s mi Michigan Story dot com. Thanks.