Jeff Foxworthy, the comic who has sold the most albums of all-time, returns with fresh and classic material

When once asked about his most prized possession, Jeff Foxworthy, the comic who has sold more albums than any humorist in history, emphatically noted that it was the photo of him cracking up Johnny Carson.

“I’m looking at that picture right now,” Foxworthy said while calling from his suburban Atlanta home. “When I stare at it, I think about that moment in my life that I made this man, the greatest talk show host of all time with no one close, gut laugh. Johnny wasn’t just the host of ‘The Tonight Show.’ He was ‘The Tonight Show.’ It’s still the highlight of my career.”

Foxworthy, 64, has sold more than 8 million albums, starred on an eponymous sitcom and a sketch comedy series, and written several best-selling books, among other accomplishments. But it all goes back to that photograph with the host of “The Tonight Show.”

“It was a different world back then,” Foxworthy said. “It was about getting on ‘The Tonight Show’ and if you could get to the couch and make Johnny laugh, there was just nothing better than that.”

Back then, most successful comics delivered jokes. However, the top comedians today who are headlining arenas, such as Jo Koy, Bert Kreischer and Gabriel Iglesias, tell stories.

“It’s so true,” Foxworthy said. “I don’t say this often out loud but when I watch these people, and there are so many of them, I say, ‘Where’s the jokes? You’ve been on for three minutes without a laugh. Where are the jokes?’ I guess times change but remember what it was like with Rodney (Dangerfield)?”

Comics such as Dangerfield, George Carlin and Don Rickles had an arsenal of jokes. The same goes for Foxworthy, who hit comedic paydirt with his 1993 album, “You Might be a Redneck If…,” which sold more than 3 million copies.

“I can’t believe that it’s been 30 years since that album was released,” Foxworthy said. “Time flies.”

He will share some of those classic jokes when he performs Thursday at the Coeur d’Alene Casino. “Not long ago someone asked me if I would do an old joke and I said, ‘I don’t even remember how that one goes’,” Foxworthy said. “But I’m doing about a third of the classic jokes during this tour. People want to hear those jokes. I never thought comedy would be like music since an audience wants to hear the hits but that’s what it’s like. So I’ll do the older material. I get it. I remember watching George Carlin back in the day when he was doing all new material and I remember thinking, ‘How great it would be if Carlin did his bit about ‘The 7 Dirty Words.’ A third of my set will be new material and a third will be from my most recent special.”

“The Good Old Days,” Foxworthy’s 2022 Netflix special, harks back to those days before the internet and cellphones. “Somehow we survived then,” Foxworthy said. “It was a great time back in those days.”

It could have been a very different life for Foxworthy, who left a job in computer maintenance at IBM, to become a comic. “If I stayed there I wouldn’t have had as near as a wonderful life,” Foxworthy said. “I didn’t have a normal life but I’m glad the way things worked out for me.”

Foxworthy is a unique success story since it’s been on his terms. When he starred in ABC’s “The Jeff Foxworthy Show” during the mid-’90s, he insisted the program would be shot in his native Georgia. The same was so for “Blue Collar TV,” which ran on the CW during the early 2000s. After each of his stand-up performances during that era he would fly back from wherever to his Georgia home so he could spend more time with his daughters, who are now 31 and 29.

“Someone recently asked me how much I spent flying back home after shows so I could be there to take my kids to school every day,” Foxworthy said. “I said I didn’t know. But whatever the cost was, it was worth it, even though I got back at 2 a.m. It meant that I could spend 100 more days with my children each year, that meant something to me.”

Unpredictable comic Ron White believes Foxworthy saved his life.

When White hit his nadir during the ‘90s, Foxworthy tabbed him as tour support, in an effort to offer his friend stability and a second chance.

“Jeff Foxworthy is a prince,” White said from Atlanta. “He helped me out when I was at my lowest. I started a pottery factory in Mexico and I was with a crazy woman and I thought I would never be solvent again. Jeff pulled me out of that and hired me as his opener. He turned my life around. He’s a great guy and he’s also hilarious.”

“When I look at Ron White and Larry (Larry the Cable Guy, aka Daniel Whitney), I knew how funny they were,” Foxworthy said. “I enjoyed being on ‘Blue Collar TV’ with them. When they had their success I was like a proud papa. It was like, ‘That’s my boys.’ ”

While watching director Judd Apatow’s HBO documentary “George Carlin’s American Dream” in 2022, Foxworthy was taken aback by the length of the iconic comic’s career. “At one point Judd pointed out that George hit his 40th anniversary of stand-up,” Foxworthy said. “I looked at my wife and said, ‘Holy crap, 40 years of stand-up!’ Carlin did stand-up forever!’ My wife just looked at me and said, ‘You’re at year 39 as a stand-up.’ ”

The Grammy nominee has no plans to retire. “I don’t want to stop since I still get so many ideas,” Foxworthy said. “I just hope people continue to come out since I still have so much to say.”