On Episode 257 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we talk it over with one of world’s hottest pitmasters. Eric Coley from Alabama’s Poppa Pig BBQ is leading the KCBS Team of the Year standings with three Grand Championships and seven top-10 finishes in eight 2024 competitions. It’s a start that’s signaled a breakthrough after Eric went through a two…

Jon and Jason Wade of Optimus Swine BBQ out of Williamsburg, Virginia have one of the hottest competition BBQ teams around. Since moving into the KCBS Master’s division a couple of years ago, the Wades have seven Grand Championships and seven RGCs in 63 competitions. They also own and operate two BBQ restaurants in the Williamsburg area, Two Drumme…

Based in north central North Dakota, Burnt Trees BBQ has a long haul no matter where it goes for a competition. But the husband-wife team of Nick and Shannon Holman is almost always a contender when it arrives, with its 2024 debut proving the point. Burnt Trees BBQ captured the 97-team Smoke in the Spring in Osage City, Kansas, topping the 700-poin…

There are dozens of options available these days for BBQ-themed podcasts, unlike just a few years ago when the options were relatively limited. One of the longest-running shows is Baseball and BBQ, with co-hosts Leonard Aberman and Jeff Cohen. Combining two of America’s favorite past times, Leonard and Jeff have found a sweet spot with engaging gue…

Welcome to Episode 253 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, where we’re joined by the founders of America’s foremost weekly digital news authority on live-fire cooking. It’s been a while since we visited with Ryan Cooper and Sean Ludwig from The Smoke Sheet. Their weekly newsletter that arrives in subscribers’ in-boxes each Wednesday and Friday with a…

Spring has officially arrived, which means there are BBQ competitions across the land each weekend from now through early November - not to mention hundreds of thousands of backyard cooks are firing up backyard smokers and grills. On Episode 252 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we talk to one of American’s most-colorful pitmasters and brand ambass…

It’s another guest-filled show on Episode 251 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast. Leading off is Joel Fleetwood of Meat Rushmore BBQ, which won three Grand Championships in 2023 on its way to an 11th-place finish in the KCBS Team of the Year standings. Joel also was recently voted president of the KCBS Board of Directors. We visit with Joel about his…

On Episode 250 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we talk it over with two of competition BBQ’s top pitmasters - and most-colorful characters. First up is Richard Fergola from Fergolicious BBQ and marketing director of Proud Souls BBQ and Provisions. “Fergie” and the Proud Souls team is ready to throw a big first anniversary bash this Saturday, Marc…

It’s been more than a decade since we first saw Harry Soo on the groundbreaking television show BBQ Pitmasters. People still come up to Harry to talk about his experiences, especially after re-runs of the show air on the cable channel Destination American most weekends. On Episode 249 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, Harry recounts the beginning o…

On Episode 248 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we take a virtual trip to New England and talk it over with one of America’s most-accomplished competition pitmasters for nearly two decades. Bill Gillespie of Smokin’ Hoggz BBQ has Grand Championships at the Jack Daniels World BBQ Invitational and American Royal World Series of BBQ Invitational to h…

The Kansas City Chiefs are the world champions of football, again! We’ll talk about that, plus championship BBQ on Episode 247 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast. Leading off our guest lineup is Phillip Breeden of LC BBQ out of Bandera, Texas. We visit with Phillip about his Champions BBQ Alliance Rio World Championship Cookoff last weekend and previ…

Word is there’s a big football game coming up. On Episode 246 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Show Podcast, we do our best to bring you both football and food perspective from both the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers sides as we countdown to Super Bowl Sunday. First up is Megan Day, pitmaster of Kansas City’s Burnt Finger BBQ. Megan again is he…

There’s a lot of championship talk on Episode 245 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, beginning with pitmaster Paul Keltner of Rooters ’n Tooters BBQ out of Mount Pleasant, Tennessee. Paul knocked off a Grand Championship at the 61-team KCBS Lakeland Pit Festival to start his season in style. It’s a continuation of a remarkable last few seasons of co…

After a few weeks off, we are back to fire up Season 6 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast! We want to thank our listeners and sponsors from the beginning, way back in 2016 when we started the show on local radio. Our first guest of the new year is the busiest man in BBQ, our friend Tim Scheer who’s the boss man for Blues Hog, Gateway Drum Smokers, Sh…

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! We hope it’s a great holiday season and a celebration of family, friends and great food! Episode 243 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast is our finale of Season 5 and it’s a good one with a pair of open-fire stars to help us conclude the year on a winning note. First up is Bill Purvis from Chicken Fried BBQ o…

It’s always an entertaining and opinionated conversation when we get together with Travis Clark, whose Clark Crew BBQ is a former American Royal World Series of BBQ and Jack Daniels World BBQ Invitational Grand Champion, along with a two-time KCBS Team of the Year. On Episode 242 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we visit with Travis about the rest…

On Episode 241 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we visit with two of the candidates for the upcoming Kansas City Barbeque Society Board of Directors election. Paul Buob from Smokin’ Ghost BBQ and Thomas Gearhart of Mudville BBQ tell us why they want to join the board in what some consider a time of choppy waters and expand on some ideas they have …

After we not only survived, but thrived with our Thanksgiving Weekend cooking adventures we now turn our attention to the stretch run for the final month of 2024. In one of the final big BBQ competitions of this year, Bill Heyen and Triple H BBQ out of Gillespie, Illinois, came away with the Grand Championship at the Atlanta BBQ Store Classic. On E…

Happy Thanksgiving Week! It’s Episode 239 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast and we visit with two of the best cooks in the country for lots of last-minute Turkey Day tips. John Lindsey of All Qued Up BBQ and Ronald Burns of Hotty Totty BBQ are the head coaches of the #arkassippicombo line of outstanding rubs and sauces. They tell us about how to mak…

You might know Robby Royal of Rescue Smokers from his days on the groundbreaking television show BBQ Pitmasters, or perhaps the Michael Simon program BBQ USA on Food Network. Whatever the case, Robby is still winning big on the circuit and on Episode 238 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we talk it over with the Georgian about his recent Grand Cham…

When he first tested the competition BBQ waters in 2018, Norris “Syd” Sydnor of Good Googly Good never envisioned being a points chaser or contending for any Team of the Year honors. But when he began having big-time success in chicken a couple of years ago and got off to a great start in the bird category in 2023, Syd and wife Li took an early lea…

In a down-to-the-wire KCBS Team of the Year battle, Jordan Kirkpatrick and Janky Leg BBQ came through in clutch fashion. Needing a Grand Championship on the season’s final weekend to leapfrog Brad Leighninger and Gettin’ Basted, that’s exactly what Janky Leg accomplished on Day 1 of Boo-B-Que in Oak Grove, Missouri. Adding an RGC on Day 2, Jordan c…

The Kansas City Barbeque Society has released a 16-page report in the aftermath of the scoring errors and subsequent audit following the American Royal World Series of BBQ Open. The link to the full report is posted here: KCBS CEO Rod Gray joins me on a special edition of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast to discuss the event, from the time that errors…

The husband-wife team of Greg Boggs and Karryl Boggs - Boggs Hog BBQ out of Audubon, New Jersey - had one career KCBS Grand Championship in 64 career competitions prior to last weekend. And what a weekend it was for Boggs Hog as Greg and Karryl doubled their prior amount of title after sweeping both ends of the Red White & Que in Jackson, New Jerse…

One year after winning KCBS Team of the Year honors for the first time, Ercole Chila and Uncle Pig’s Barbecue Pit has brought home a Jack Daniels World BBQ Invitational championship home to New Jersey. Ercole joins us on Episode 233 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast to describe the tension and eventual elation upon learning that his team had capture…

The American Royal World Series of BBQ Open results saga continues to be a big story and on Episode 232 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we visit with the two pitmasters most affected by the initial scoring mistakes that led to a full audit and change in the order of finish. First up is Jordan Kirkpatrick of Janky Leg BBQ from Benton, Illinois. Fi…

Episode 231 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast was to be an American Royal special, reviewing the event and visiting with the Grand Champion of the Open. But major technical issues delayed the awards and has prompted KCBS CEO Rod Gray to initiate a full audit of all the scoring before results are made official. This has caused quite the stir and unde…

The American Royal World Series of BBQ is special to many pitmasters, none more so than Darren Warth. A three-time American Royal Open Grand Champion with his Iowa Smokey D’s BBQ, Darren is ready to chase No. 4 this weekend when more than 500 teams converge on Kansas Speedway for the world’s biggest BBQ competition. The man known as the “GOAT” for …

It’s always a blast to talk open-fire cooking with BBQ Hall of Famer Ray Lampe, better known as “Dr. BBQ.” This is especially true as the American Royal World Series of BBQ nears and on Episode 229 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, Ray tells us about what makes the American Royal so special for him, talks Turkey Smoke and gives his thoughts on some…

Richard Fergola has accomplished a lot of awesome things in competition barbecue, but had never won his hometown KCBS event. That all changed last weekend as Fergolicious BBQ earned Grand Championship honors at Smokin’ on the Trails in Gardner, Kansas. On Episode 228 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we visit with “Fergie” about that, plus plans fo…

On Episode 227 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we talk to the man behind the upcoming Saluting With Smoke BBQ Festival, Sept. 15-17 in Yorkville, Illinois. Sean Young, an Army veteran who is brutally honest about his life struggles after leaving the service in the early 2000s, formed Mission Zero Hundred Hours to help veterans deal with PTSD by c…

It might go down in competition BBQ history as the “Basted Triple” or whatever clever phrase you’d like to use. But if Brad Leighninger and Gettin’ Basted win a fourth KCBS Team of the Year, last weekend will be a big reason. On Episode 226 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, Brad joins us to recap his remarkable feat of cooking a Friday-Saturday dou…

Chris Davis of Crossed Rifles BBQ from Schertz, Texas, knocked down the Grand Championship at last weekend’s prestigious Red Raiders Challenge in Lubbock with a huge score of 713.16. We visit with the Marine Corps veteran on Episode 225 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast about his journey into competition BBQ, which he credits for helping him cope wi…

On Episode 224 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, it’s a review of the KCBS World Invitational where it was a weekend to remember for Aaron and Christy Stoffer of Man Meat BBQ. Aaron joins me to talk about the team’s Grand Championship, worth $6,000, in the Invitational on Sunday one day after Man Meat scored a whopping 711.4 overall total but had t…

On Episode 223 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we take a trip to southern California to visit with one of the top teams on the West Coast. It was quite a 48-hour period last week for B’ Mackin BBQ out of San Diego as the team got its first-ever draw into The Jack Daniels World BBQ Invitational on Thursday and then won its first Grand Championship…

Richard Fergola has been on the competition BBQ grind, cooking three KCBS doubleheaders over the last three weekends. We discuss that mental aspect of that, plus much more with the pitmaster of Fergolicious BBQ and Marketing/PR director of Proud Souls BBQ & Provisions on Episode 222 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast. “Fergie” says even seasoned vete…

On Episode 221 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we talk it over with Curt Wallace from Smoked & Furious BBQ out of Oklahoma City, the No. 4-ranked team in this week’s KCBS Team of the Year standings. Curt tells us about how he got started in competition BBQ and risen into national prominence in a relatively short period of time. We also talk about…

Anyone who’s attempted competition BBQ knows how hard it is to win a grand championship, no matter the sanctioning body. Joel Fleetwood and his Meat Rushmore BBQ team is fresh off an impressive rarity, KCBS Grand Championships on back-to-back weekends. On Episode 220 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we visit with Joel about how it happened and wha…

In addition to being one of America’s great pitmasters, Fred Robles wears many other hats in the BBQ world. The 2019 American Royal World Series of BBQ Open Grand Champion runs his own butcher shop (Rio Valley Meats) in Weslaco, Texas, and is president of the Champions BBQ Alliance, a sanctioning body that’s successfully into its third year. We tal…

On Episode 218 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, the guys recap their holiday cooking and other adventures and take a dive into the archives to find one of the most-popular guests of our time in podcast form. So iconic in the BBQ world that he needs only one name, Darian Khosravi - better known as Kosmo - went from modest beginnings to a career of …

We head into the long July 4th holiday weekend with a bang on Episode 217 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast. Leading off is a conversation with Christie Vanover, whose website GirlsCanGrill.com is one of the top sources for BBQ information including recipes, instructional videos, product reviews and much more. Christie also is a champion pitmaster a…

Byron Chism has cooked BBQ all over the world and won 39 Grand Championships along the way. But Chism, who will be inducted into the BBQ Hall of Fame this fall during the American Royal World Series of BBQ at Kansas Speedway, is best known for producing the first widely distributed rub specifically designed for BBQ. On Episode 216 of the Tailgate G…

On Episode 215 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we visit with the family team fresh off one of the biggest prizes in competition BBQ. The O.G. Bandits out of Oak Grove, Missouri, led by Josh Farley and Ashton Smith, earned a $25,000 prize for their Grand Championship at the KCBS Competitors’ Series Made for K.C. BBQ Championship in Kansas City. Th…

On Episode 214 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we catch up with 2021 American Royal World Series of BBQ Invitational Grand Champion Bill Heyen, whose Triple H BBQ picked up their second Grand Championship of 2023 last weekend in Covington, Tenn. Heyan and wife Andrea, part of a large farm family in west-central Illinois, have 12 GCs and seven RGC…

On Episode 213 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast we catch up with John Lindsey of All Qued Up BBQ about his latest happenings, of which there are many. John leads off by telling us about his role as one of the all-star mentors to backyard cooks on the new television show Barbecue Country on The Country Network. The show made its debut this week and …

Those of us who love BBQ can agree there are few things in life better than a perfectly cooked baby back rib. But outstanding Ribs haven’t been good enough - compared to Pork Shoulder and Whole Hog - to win a Memphis in May World Championship since 2002. Until last weekend, that is. On Episode 212 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast, we visit with Joh…

It’s National BBQ Month and there’s a ton going on to celebrate the occasion at Proud Souls Barbecue and Provisions Kansas City. Richard Fergola, Marketing and Public Relations Director for Proud Souls, stops by Episode 211 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast to give us a rundown starting off with Demo Days the next two Sundays, where folks can learn …

Team Blues Hog shocked the BBQ world in 2022 by winning what many consider the biggest prize in competition BBQ - Memphis in May’s Grand Championship - by cooking Whole Hog hot and fast on an oversized Gateway Drum Smoker. Next week, the Blues Hog team returns to Memphis with a target on its back, traditional low-and-slow pitmasters ready to take a…

There’s a new No. 1 team in the KCBS Team of the Year standings this week and we learn more about Colorado Bulldawg BBQ from pitmaster Levi Stoakes on Episode 209 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast. Levi, wife Jessica and their mascot bulldog named Brisket have traveled the country, cooking 13 competition so far in 2023 and have been a top-five scori…

Buckle up because Episode 208 of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast is one of the longest we’ve done, checking in at 72 minutes … but it’s packed full of big names with good and fun info. First up is Mark Lambert, a seven-time world BBQ champion who’s won the overall title at Memphis in May twice and is reigning world pork shoulder champion. Mark and hi…