The Brunson Brothers’ Story, Part 2

BRUNSON PART 2

WHEN WE FIRST MET THE BRUNSON BROTHERS, THEY FELT THE NATION WAS IN DISTRESS AND THEY’D TAKEN ON MANY OF THE TOP POLITICIANS FROM THIS ADMINISTRATION AND THE LAST.

THEIR CASE HAD NOT BEEN GOING WELL AND AS THE BRUNSONS APPEALED IT HIGHER AND HIGHER, ALL THE WAY TO THE SUPREME COURT,  MOST COMMENTATORS DISMISSED IT AND THEM AS A LOST CAUSE.

BUT AS “THE POET OF THE PEOPLE”, CARL SANDBURG ONCE WROTE, “YOU MUST EXPECT TO BE IN SEVERAL LOST CAUSES BEFORE YOU DIE.”

AND RIGHT OR WRONG, THE BRUNSONS WEREN’T IN THE MOOD TO SURRENDER.

 

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ON A COLD DAY IN FEBRUARY 2023, THE BRUNSON BROTHERS FOUND THEMSELVES WALKING THE HALLS OF POWER IN AUSTIN, TEXAS…

THEY WERE QUITE A WAY FROM HOME, THE GROUND THEY COVERED UNFAMILIAR…

AND THEY BROUGHT A SOUND NOT OFTEN HEARD WITHIN THE WALLS OF THE CAPITOL IN THE LONE STAR STATE…

Raland:“We are about to blast this place.  People have no idea that everybody in this building is about to hear our trumpets.  Right now they’ve got people on their phones, haha, they’re not gonna be able to be on their phones.”

AFTER WALKING AWAY FROM THEIR FOUR-MAN BAND OF TRUMPETS SOME 20 YEARS AGO, TWO OF THE BROTHERS, RALAND AND GAYNOR, WERE ABOUT TO LIFT THEIR HORNS ONCE AGAIN…

INSIDE THE ROTUNDA, HOME TO TEXAS POLITICS SINCE 1888…

Trumpet nats

IT DIDN’T TAKE VERY LONG …

Trumpet nats

….TO FIND THEIR WAY.

 

Trumpet nats

THE NOTES ASCENDING TO THE HISTORIC DOME SOME 218 FEET ABOVE THE FLOOR…

Nats music – brother playing

THE BRUNSON BROTHERS’ JOURNEY FROM MUSICIANS…TO ACCIDENTAL ACTIVISTS…

…MADE THEM UNLIKELY HEROES HERE, IN WHAT HAS BEEN FOR MANY AN UNCOMFORTABLE–AT TIMES–LONELY FIGHT.

THEY’D BEEN INVITED–ALONG WITH THEIR OLDEST BROTHER LOY–BY “TEXAS FIRST,” AN ELECTION INTEGRITY GROUP THAT SHARED THEIR CONCERN OVER FRAUD IN THE 2020 ELECTION AND SUPPORTED THEIR EFFORTS TO SUE CONGRESS FOR FAILING TO INVESTIGATE.

IT WAS IN A WAY A GATHERING OF ELECTION 2020 REFUGEES, THOSE DISMISSED AND DISREGARDED IN THEIR OWN LAND, CONDEMNED FOR THE CRIME OF NOT BELIEVING JOE BIDEN GOT 81 MILLION VOTES.

THE BROTHERS RESPECTED – EVEN LOVED – FOR THEIR WILLINGNESS TO STAND UP IN SPITE OF THE PRESSURE TO LAY DOWN.

Nat: “she’s our hero”

IT WAS ALSO A CLARION CALL…

GAYNOR: They’ve just been doing this day and night for years and it’s so exciting that they’re getting some people on board to support this! It’s incredible.

AND IN THEIR STORY… AN ENTERTAINER’S CHARM…

Raland nats:I got my bicycle…alright I’ll take your 300 bucks…and then I gave her the cash and she stamps it… OK it’s filed…

THEY FINISHED AS THEY USED TO…

Nats: Brothers talking to the crowd

WITH A SHOW BIZ SALUTE…

Nats: crowd cheers

EXCEPT ONE BROTHER WAS MISSING…THE SERIOUS ONE.

DERON: Our leaders haven’t even read the constitution. They swear an oath and they don’t even know what they are swearing an oath to. So we’re hoping that this will awaken them.

 

WE’D MET DERON BRUNSON IN LATE FEBRUARY OF THIS YEAR WHEN WE SPENT TIME GETTING TO KNOW THE FOUR OF THEM BACK IN NORTHERN UTAH, WHERE THEY WERE BORN TO ATTENTIVE PARENTS AND RAISED TOUGH, IN THE RUGGED VALLEYS OF THE WASATCH MOUNTAIN RANGE THAT STRETCHES FOR ROUGHLY 160 MILES ALONG THE WESTERN EDGE OF THE ROCKIES.

AS YOU MAY RECALL, THEY’D FIRED OFF TWO LAWSUITS DEMANDING NOTHING LESS THAN THE REMOVAL OF THE PRESIDENT, THE VICE PRESIDENT, AND MOST OF CONGRESS FOR VIOLATING THEIR OATH OF OFFICE – AN ACT THE BRUNSONS CHARGED WAS TREASON –THE EQUIVALENT OF WAGING WAR ON THEIR COUNTRY, SINCE IT MEANT THEY MIGHT HAVE INSTALLED A LEADER WHO DID NOT ACTUALLY WIN THE ELECTION.

AFTER LOSING THEIR BATTLE IN THE LOWER COURTS OR WAITING FOR DECISIONS THAT NEVER CAME, THEY’D APPEALED TO THE SUPREME COURT WHO WOULDN’T GIVE THEM A HEARING.

BUT AT THE TIME, THEY WERE STILL OPTIMISTIC AND ABOUT TO TRY AGAIN…

DERON: What I’m holding here is what I call the “petitioner’s petition for rehearing” and this is going to ask the Supreme Court to rehear what they denied, and you’re the first to see it, actually. Ah, this is going to be mailed to the United States Supreme Court and hopefully it’ll be a couple days and they’ll actually docket it.

LARA: Well, you’ve lost a bunch of battles, but you’re still in the fight.

DERON: We’re still in the fight.

RALAND: Moses did too. Oh yeah. Now he was discouraged because he was given the staff to go out there and man, he was going to change Pharaoh’s mind. Failed the first couple of times. He was like, “What am I doing? God gave me this assignment.” But it was necessary to take that journey because by the time he was able to free the children of Israel, they saw how God works and I believe that the majority of this nation, even the people who hate Trump, a lot of them pray.  I believe that those prayers are going to be answered. Just a matter of time, and that gives me a lot of hope. I’m seeing progress here.

IN THEIR EMERGENCY PETITION, THE BRUNSONS HAD ARGUED THAT LAWMAKERS’ IMMUNITY FROM PROSECUTION VIOLATED THE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS OF AMERICAN CITIZENS. THAT’S BECAUSE IN THE FIRST AMENDMENT, ALONG WITH FREEDOM OF SPEECH, ASSEMBLY, RELIGION, AND THE PRESS, THE FOUNDING FATHERS ALSO GUARANTEED THE FREEDOM TO PETITION FOR REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES. THE BRUNSONS ASSERTED THAT MEANT ELECTED OFFICIALS WERE NOT IMMUNE FROM THE LAWSUITS OF EVERYDAY CITIZENS.

BUT OVER NEARLY TWO YEARS EVERY COURT, INCLUDING THE SUPREME COURT, DECLINED TO HEAR THEIR CASES. FOR ANYONE BUT THE BRUNSONS, THAT WOULD’VE LIKELY BEEN THE END…NOT SO FAST:

Raland nat: I’m going down to the court, filing a lawsuit against the three supreme court justices.

UNDER RALAND’S NAME, DERON AND LOY SUED AGAIN – THIS TIME GOING AFTER THREE LIBERAL JUSTICES PERSONALLY: SONIA SOTOMAYOR, ELENA KAGAN, AND KETANJI BROWN JACKSON, FOR – ACCORDING TO THEM – NOT DOING THEIR JOB.

Justice Jackson: I will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.

ONE THING THAT STOOD OUT TO US: THEIR LACK OF FEAR.

LARA: A lot of people in this country are afraid to go out onto the streets now. They’re afraid to protest because they’re afraid the FBI is going to come knocking on their door. They’re afraid of being called “domestic terrorists.”

LOY: Well, we’re in a special situation because we don’t have families that we have to be worried about. So, we are independent of that stress and that worry. We don’t have children that would lose a father. We don’t have a wife that would lose a husband, so we feel like we’re in a good position where we don’t have as much to risk maybe as someone who has a family.

GAYNOR: I’m just so blown away by these guys. That’s enough.

LARA: No, tell me.

GAYNOR: Well, these guys, I mean, the only way we can have freedom is if people want freedom more than life. And that’s the attitude that it took to get what we have. Now, everyone that hasn’t really worked for their freedom, hasn’t sacrificed for it – they’re the ones first in line to sell it. And so what these guys are doing is they’ve given up their time. They are, and you don’t know about Deron’s stress, and these guys have been just going after this, going. What do they do for fun? This is what they do. This is their heart and soul. They don’t do anything else. As a matter of fact, these guys, I mean they’re single. They’re not dating, they’re not out going to clubs and stuff like that. They are eating and drinking and sleeping this, and they’re praying, and I’m just telling you that I believe they need to be heard. And it’s so awesome because now they’re being heard and you’re giving them a chance to be heard.

GAYNOR WAS THE ONLY ONE MARRIED WITH CHILDREN AND WE MET AT HIS RECORDING STUDIO IN THE MORMON CITY OF PROVO, HOME TO BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY. IN FRONT OF A STUDIO WALL, LINED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS AND LEGENDARY FACES…WE TOOK A STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE…

LARA: Oh my goodness. Okay, but what about that one up there? The White House? What does it say? “Taking a tour at night.”

GAYNOR: Oh yeah. The Secret Service gave us a private tour in the evening. Our own tour in the White House. We got to go downstairs into the kitchen. They really never let anyone in the kitchen. This is when President Reagan and Nancy were up – in – sleeping just above the kitchen.

LARA:: Wow.

GAYNOR: And they told us to be very quiet. So we had a private conversation, Then we sat at a table and they took us on a tour of the oval office and stuff. It was just us. I mean, I remember seeing a saying on President Reagan’s desk that says, “you can achieve anything you want if you don’t care who gets the credit.” I thought that was kind of interesting.

LARA: You saw that on his desk?

BROTHERS: Yeah. I always remember that. In the Oval office. That was pretty cool.

LARA: What did you say to him, Deron?

DERON: I don’t remember…oh yeah.

LARA: You don’t remember?

DERON: I asked him – so we’re standing in line shaking his hand and I says, “I would like your business card.” And he turns to Nancy – no,  he says “I don’t have one.” Then he turns to Nancy and says “should I have a business card?”

Lara laughs

Nats: Here are the Brunson Brothers.

 

 

THEY PERFORMED FOR THAT SAME PRESIDENT IN THE NBC CHRISTMAS SPECIAL IN WASHINGTON, D.C. IN 1988. 

 

Nats: playing Trumpets

 

…TAUGHT REGIS HOW TO BLOW THE HORN…

 

Nats: First thing that you have to do is make a “buzz” sound from your lips. Alright, great great.

 

LED THE KICK-OFF CLASSIC HALF-TIME SHOW AT NEW YORK GIANTS STADIUM…

 

Reporter nats: And it’s all led by the Brunson brothers 

 

AND MET JUST ABOUT EVERY BIG NAME IN SHOW BIZ AT THE TIME.

 

DERON: One that I remember, Neil Diamond was there and it was kind of a party of celebrities, whatever.

 

LOY: Donny Osmond was there, too.

 

DERON: And also….

 

LOY: Suzanne Somers.

 

DERON: Suzanne Somers, and Barry Manilow. That was cool.

 

LOY: That’s right.

 

DERON: Yeah and so it was nice just to sit down next to Neil Diamond and just talk to him because I was kind of a big fan.

 

LOY: We were the entertainment. We were performing for them.

 

RALAND: We apologized for playing loud because he was at the front table. He goes, “No  man, you’re my kind of music.”

 

LOY: He raised his wine glass, “Yours is my kind of music.”

 

DERON: My kind of music.

 

LARA: Did music make you rich?

 

LOY: No, you kidding?

 

RALAND: Rich, poor, rich, poor, rich, poor. We were never really taught business. Made a lot of money. Lost a lot of money, made a lot of money. got screwed over by people. Made a lot of money, got screwed over by people.

 

LARA: That’s the story of many artists, right?

 

THE BROTHERS SAID THEY GOT TO TOUR WITH THE FAMOUSLY FLAMBOYANT, LIBERACE, BECAUSE HIS VALET, WHO PLAYED TRUMPET HIMSELF, INTRODUCED THE ENTERTAINER TO THEIR MUSIC…

 

Liberace: And I get to play all kinds of music with these wonderful musicians, everything from Chopin to chopsticks and I also get to wear some of the most glamorous costumes of my entire career.

 

RALAND: Liberace would come out. Okay, he started out the show. He’d do about 15 minutes and he’d say, “Okay, I’m now going to introduce you to these four guys.”

 

LOY: This is 150 sold out shows that we did. Sold out.

 

RALAND: Sold out. Yeah. They were sold out.

 

LOY: All of them.

 

THEIR ACT DREW THE ATTENTION OF THE FAMOUS— AND THE SOON-TO-BE-FAMOUS.

 

LOY: We were playing at the Imperial Palace hotel in Las Vegas. After the show, we would be there and sign. We had our albums, and we would sign them and this young guy came up and he says, “you guys are so great, I want-” and he bought an album, and he says, “could you please sign this?” and he says, “and I’m a musician and I just auditioned for a TV show, and it  looks like it’s going to happen. and it’s called… now remember this–it’s going to be called ‘21 Jump Street.’”

 

LARA: Wow.

 

LOY: And we said, “what’s your name? he says, “Johnny Depp. remember that.”

BUT NEITHER FAME NOR A LITTLE FORTUNE WAS ENOUGH TO MAKE THEM FORGET WHO THEY WERE, THE BROTHERS SAID…

LOY: Every performance, we would say a prayer that people would feel uplifted and have a spiritual, hopeful feeling. And it seems like… every time. We wanted people to feel a positive feeling from our performance. We didn’t want to just get up there and have it be entertaining. We wanted them to feel something good.

THEIR FORMIDABLE TALENT WAS GROUNDED IN AN UNCONVENTIONAL BEGINNING…

LOY:  I’m three years older than Raland, the oldest, and they were doing a lot of sluffing, they weren’t going to school.

LARA: They were what?

 

LOY: They were not going, it’s sluffing.

 

LARA: Sluffing?

 

LOY: I guess that’s a Utah term, where you’re sluffing, you’re skipping class.

 

DERON: Yeah.

 

LARA: You were skipping school? Both of you?

 

RALAND: Yes.

 

LOY: All of us.

 

LARA: All of you?

 

RALAND: All of us. yeah.

 

LOY: Our father was a schoolteacher.

 

LARA: Oh, he was?

 

LOY: And he was not too happy about getting noticed that his kids weren’t you know, going to school. My dad said, “look, if you’re going to skip out, skip school, then your life is your responsibility now.” I think my dad might have been just joking or just kind of trying to make a point, but they took it so seriously to become the world’s greatest trumpet players and be famous and rich and they wouldn’t have to go get an education, and that would be the simplest way to do it. My parents basically said, “Okay, you could practice upstairs in a bedroom closet. That’s it.”

[laughter]

RALAND: With headphones on.

LOY: That’s because those trumpets were so loud.

LARA: Wow.

LOY: I remember going up there during the winter. It’s like 20 below zero outside, and I hear them practicing, and I open the door and there’s this wall of steam that hits me.

RALAND: It was really warm in the closet.

LOY: It’s like a steam–

LARA: Oh my Lord.

LOY: Just like a sweatshop. I see them, they’re practicing. They look at me and be like, “What are you doing?”

RALAND: Yes. What are you doing man?

LOY: They’re practicing Arbans. Arbans is what professional studio trumpet players practice so that they can get all of the time signatures and all kinds of different note structures and everything. That’s what they were studying. They were going to master…

LARA: The two of them?

LOY: Yes. The two of them.

RALAND: Yes. This is before school.

LOY: So, they were going to master the trumpet. Well, you guys were skipping school. Let’s stick with my story.

[laughter]

LOY: They were doing this early in the morning, early in the morning, on their own.

DERON: Four o’clock in the morning.

LOY: They’d get up and do that.  I just picture my mom saying, “Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea, you giving them the responsibility of their future, because now it’s now we hear–” It’s like this …anyway…

LARA: Some people might say, four dudes from Utah, college dropouts, no legal experience, bunch of musicians. What the hell are you thinking? You got no business going before the Supreme Court. You’ve got no qualifications for it. You’ve got no experience. You’ve got no chance of this ever succeeding. So, what are you doing? You’re wasting everybody’s time.

RALAND: You know where that question comes from?

LARA: Where?

RALAND: Trump haters, because the people that are really believing that the election was rigged, we don’t get a problem from those people. We get a problem from the people who think that we’re Trump lovers or Trump’s supporters.

FOR THE BROTHERS, THIS WASN’T ABOUT TRUMP…IT WASN’T EVEN ABOUT TRUMP- HATERS…

LOY: It’s about holding our representatives’ feet to the fire, to be honest. To be honest to the Constitution that they swore to uphold, to be honest to their oath.

LARA: And why does it come down to you?

DERON: Anyone could be doing what we’re doing.

LARA: But they’re not.

DERON: But they’re not. Maybe they don’t know how, or they don’t know what to do. It’s something I saw, and I thought, “I’m going to do something. ” I’m not going to be one of those people that are qualified, attorneys, law firms that could be doing this, and don’t. They have a lot of money, and they still don’t do anything, but yet we’re fighting for them.

DERON BRUNSON’S PATH TO LAW WAS AS UNUSUAL AS HIS TO MUSIC…EVERYTHING HE KNEW HE TAUGHT HIMSELF.

DERON: I decided just to follow the rules and I followed it, followed the rules, took it to court and I won.

LARA: So over the course of time, how many cases do you think you’ve been involved in?

[Raland laughs]

DERON: Oh, I would say maybe a dozen, minimum.

LARA: Wow.

THE BRUNSONS WERE NOT UNAWARE THAT MANY LAWYERS SAW THEIR SUPREME COURT CHALLENGE AS A HOPELESS AND NAÏVE CONSTITUTIONAL QUEST AND TOLD US THEY SIMPLY DIDN’T CARE. WHAT MEANT MORE TO THEM: THAT OVER 60,000 PEOPLE TOOK UP THE CHALLENGE AND JOINED THEIR FIGHT…JUST AS THEY HAD WITH JIMMY STEWART’S, MR. SMITH, IN THAT 1939 CLASSIC THAT SO RESONATED WITH THE BROTHERS.

DERON: People have put money in those letters. When they do that, they’re putting skin in the game. It’s a testimony that they want to be and do what we’re doing, that it’s them doing it with us when they do that.

LARA: Those 60,000 people that wrote a letter, they could file this case.

 DERON: Well, they could do that. They could do that.

 

LARA: What it represents is the will of the people, right?

 

DERON: It does.

 

LARA: So when people say it’s frivolous, how does that make you feel?

DERON: I say, “Really? Read the complaint and you tell me if it’s frivolous. You tell me if the Constitution was written to protect your God-given rights.” Loy was on a show and someone to him says, “Hey, the Constitution, oh, it’s just old stuff. It’s written by the rich and only to protect a certain class of people.” And that’s wrong because the Constitution was written to protect your God-given rights that every man, woman, and child has.  It’s just that this country is the only one that recognizes it and has a constitution written to protect it.

THE BRUNSON BROTHERS TOLD US THEY WERE NOT SURPRISED WHEN THEIR LATEST SUIT AGAINST THE THREE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES WAS DISMISSED. THEY’D ALREADY FILED THEIR APPEAL IN THE 10TH CIRCUIT AND WERE WAITING TO SUBMIT AN OPENING BRIEF…

Mr. Smith nat: “You think I’m licked. You all think I’m licked. Well, I’m not licked and I’m going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause, even if this room gets filled with lies like these, and the tailors on all of their armies come marching into this place, somebody will listen to me.”

THEY TOOK ACTION, THEY SAID, BECAUSE LIKE MR. SMITH THEY DOUBTED THE GOVERNMENT EVER WOULD.

ODDLY ENOUGH THE REAL MR. SMITH–JAMES STEWART–WAS NO STRANGER TO THEM…

Nats: Welcome to a Beverly Hills Christmas with James Stewart. Mr. Stewart’s special guests tonight are Lucille Ball, Burt Reynolds, and the Brunson Brothers.

WE ASKED THE MUSICAL BROTHERS TO DUST OFF THEIR TRUMPETS…

LARA: Where’s your trumpet?

BROTHERS: You mean right now?

AND SHOW US HOW IT WAS DONE..

Nats of the brothers explaining how they do a rocking motion on stage

THEY ONCE SAID THEY RAISED THEIR TRUMPETS TO SAVE OUR SOULS…

Nats of playing together

NOW THEY SAID IT’S TO SAVE A NATION.

DERON: You have a desire for something, go for it. You just might reach it. And so that’s what we’re doing. We’re going for it. We’re putting everything we’ve got into this and we’re going for it, and we just might reach it. And who says we can’t? So far, we haven’t lost the battle. We’ve lost a couple of steps, but we’re still in the battle. and that’s America.

=======================*THE END*=========================