By Michaela Gordoni
HOME TOWN’s Ben Napier was ready to put up a fight with someone who stopped him on NYC’s streets, but it was all a misunderstanding.
“We’re walking down Fifth Avenue. We’re in a sea of people and we are [crossing the street toward] another sea. You know, the hand [on the crossing signal] comes up and then it turns to the guy walking and we start to cross,” Ben said on an episode of “The Heirlooom Podcast” this month.
“We started walking across, and a guy — who’s covered in tattoos on his arms,” he recalled, “wearing dark-rimmed glasses and a Brooklyn hat — pops me on the shoulder, like stiff-arm.”
Napier instantly got on the defense, waiting to see what the strange man would do next.
“So I’m like ‘here we go,’ and I turn, in this fight-or-flight mode,” Napier said. “He says, in his accent, he says ‘HOME TOWN, love your show man.’”
Napier said, “I was like, ‘Thank you! Wow! This is really cool!'”
The event happened when their show was very new on the channel, and Napier wasn’t quite used to these kinds of interactions yet. But after the man said that, they had a quick friendly interaction before going their separate ways.
On his episode of “The Heirloom Podcast,” Napier also talked about what it’s like to grow up in the South, how he learned to do hard work and his family’s legacy, which highlights faith and humility.
Getting to share his stories has been on Napier’s bucket list. In January he shared some photos from filming HOME TOWN but mentioned he’d like to do other things, like guest star on podcasts.
“ATTENTION: here’s some film from last year. Pictures of @erinapier and I working or not working. Which, is what we’ve been doing since Christmas. A little of both. We will start filming again soon, but I am wanting to do something different! I am wanting to do some podcast interviews,” he said.
“Today is my brother Tom’s birthday and he told me that we should start being guests on podcasts since it’s all he listens to on the road. So, if you’ve got a podcast or know of one we should do, shoot me a DM. Here [are] topics we can discuss: Cars, Art, Houses…” He went on to list a dozen other topics he’s happy to rant about.
Related: Ben Napier Calls Spending Time with Daughter Helen ‘Infinitely More Important’ Than Work
Napier and his wife Erin recently launched Season 3 of their HOME TOWN spinoff, HOME TOWN TAKEOVER. In it, they give the small town of Sebring, Florida, a huge home and business makeover.
“You could tell there are people who really love it and they care about it, and parts of it are doing well,” Erin told PEOPLE last month. “But the downtown, specifically, was fifty or sixty percent shuttered.”
The season’s finale just wrapped this week, but it’s available to stream on Max.
Read Next: 5 Fun Facts About HOME TOWN’S Ben and Erin Napier
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