WEBVTT - Darryl "DMC" McDaniels and Static on guiding at risk youth 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:05.040 Welcome to Righteous Convictions with Jason Flomer, the podcast where 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:07.520 I interview folks who see the wrong in the world 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:10.360 and are driven to make it right. Today's guests are 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:13.440 both road tested tour musicians who found a common purpose 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:17.720 in sobriety and youth mentorship. One is a multi instrumentalist 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.240 and producer who draws on his childhood experience with learning differently. 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.160 The other a world famous hip hop icon and legend. 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:29.000 My first record was I'm DMC in the Place to Be. 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:33.680 I go to St. John's University and since kindergarten ourcquad 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.640 to knowledge at the twelfth grade and went straight to college. 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:39.800 When I roped that rum have been the attitude in 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:44.800 the presentation that so much of negativity in Braces, I 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.920 was able to touch change not only just in the 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:52.360 neighborhoods in people's minds. With their organization Road Recovery, they 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.440 used creative projects to empower at risk youth who are 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.640 struggling with addiction, Road Recovery, creative staff mentor Static and 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:05.080 the devastating Mike Controller himself, Darryl dm C McDaniels right 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:21.000 now on Righteous Convictions, Welcome Back to Righteous Convictions. This 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:23.160 is as you probably know by now the show where 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:29.200 I have the privilege of interviewing change makers, people who 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:31.399 are doing just badass ship in the world for no 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:34.080 reason except for the fact that they can. And today 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:38.320 we have not one, but two. And I'm freaking excited 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:44.200 because we have Darryl McDaniels, also known as the Devastating 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.440 Mike Controller from on DMC Darryl, Welcome to the show. 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:50.320 Thank you, thank you. Glad to be here, Ja. And 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:55.400 with Darryl we have his partner in do good illness, 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:59.920 the opposite of partner in crime, another phenomenal musician and performer, 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:04.080 and the stuff that they are doing together, I think 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.480 it's gonna inspire a lot of people. Inspires me so static. 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.359 Just glad you're here, man, I'm so happy to be here. 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:14.639 And Darryl, I mean, look, everybody knows who you are 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.440 and people have grown up to Your music has been 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:20.200 the soundtrack of so many of our lives. I'll never 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:22.600 forget the first time I heard King of Rock. I 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:25.359 was in my little office I just started working Atlantic Records, 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.680 and I was running around playing that record on ten 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:31.720 for anybody and everybody. I was like, this is the 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:36.240 craziest ship I've heard and and I grew up. For me, 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:38.480 my favorite band, my favorite rock star growing up with 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:43.440 Steven Tyler, my favorite band with Yeah Yeah. When I 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.919 when I was growing up, um for me and people 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:49.880 bug out. I was never in the soul music because 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:51.760 you got to think about it like this, That's when 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.880 my mom's and pops was still young and cool, so 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.359 that was them music. I didn't have a music when 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.920 I was growing up because I was too busy read 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:04.760 comic books and drawing anyway. But there was something about 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:09.400 the rock and the folk rock that attracted me, you know, 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:15.880 groups like Credence, Clearwater Revival, The Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:21.400 Neil Young, Crosby Stills, Nash and Young, but also Jim Crocey, 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:25.720 Harry Chapin, those storytellers people. So I guess that was 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.760 my attraction to music, because you know, I was in 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.000 the comic books. I don't care about love and girls 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:32.840 and stuff like that. Most of the R and B 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.880 music was about love, you know, Al Green and Marvin Gaye, 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.960 and that was my mother's in the music. But it 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:42.400 was just phenomenal to me because I was a good 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.160 student as a kid growing up, and the rock dudes 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:50.000 would always talk about presidents and governments and stuff like that, 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:52.960 so you know, rock and folk rock was like social 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.600 studies are history and school of me. So that's what 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:59.560 gravitated me towards the music. So long story show. When 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.040 I let start making hip hop songs, I was like, 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:07.560 everybody's samples and uses James Brown and jazz and funk, 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:10.520 but nobody is using the rock records that I heard 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:13.400 on the radio, and the rock records that were in 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.480 the early crates of Graham, Master Flash and Africa Baan 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.919 Bad and the grant was in Theodore So Larry Smith 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:25.640 before Rick Rubin was our producer and Larry is the 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:30.280 greatest hip hop producer ever that nobody knows about. So 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.120 that's the movie to be made. But Larry Smith, he 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.560 knew I loved rocks, so he was like, de what 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:37.680 do you want to do. My thing was, I want 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.320 to make a record that's like Billy Squire's Big Beat. 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.000 So we made rock Box eighty four was rock Box, 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.279 eight five was King of Rock and then eighties six 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.520 let us make him walk this way. Ol Fare told 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:52.240 you this. When I was like six or seven, I 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.360 was obsessed with Michael Jackson for good reason in Prince 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:56.600 and all that. And then a few years later when 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:58.320 you guys came on TV, it walked this way. I 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:01.720 already loved run DMC and like mom, Mom checked this out. 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:05.360 She's like, that's Arrowsmith. I'm like, what's Arrowsmith? So I 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:09.680 learned to be a rock guitarist from you and run DMC. 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:12.320 It really was the world's colliding when you did that 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.560 incredible groundbreaking collaboration. But when I take from that story too, Dren, 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:18.680 was that you didn't have a type of music that 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.120 was your own, so you invented it right, Yes, exactly, 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:24.839 Yes it was. It was really more of a selfish act. 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:26.680 You just needed something to listen to. You like, well, 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:28.640 nobody else is going to do it, I'll do it myself. 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.640 I think that was the beauty of Run DMC because 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.880 it was Jay Down and Joe doing a bunch of 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:39.240 stuff that related to so many people. Because prior to 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:42.080 Rundy m saying, you know, hip hop was considered the 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.000 black ghetto music. And you know, I grew up in 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.360 Queen's you know what I'm saying, So when I came 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.720 into hip hop, you know, previously hip hop was hip 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:54.880 hop was the message, here's what's going on, you know, 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:58.320 the reality, the truth of New York City because everybody, 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:00.960 and well a lot of people don't notice, people thought 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:06.239 that New York City was heaven. Why because they saw 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:08.440 all of the images of what was going on in 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:13.440 Studio fifty four in Hollywood. Everybody was coming from Hollywood, 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:17.560 to ceo s, the entertainers, the movie stars, the athletes, 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.480 to who's who of the world was coming to New 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.479 York City. The party in Studio fifty four, and it 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.880 was Rolls Royce's, and it was bent Lee's and it 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:30.200 was diamonds, and it was sex, and it was jugs, 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:33.039 and it was cocaine and it was fur coats and 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:36.279 it was champagne everywhere, kind of like what hip hop 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.240 is today. But on that note, it took some young 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.320 brothers and sisters out the Bronx to tell the truth 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:44.919 or no, don't get it twisted. What you see in 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.720 the magazines and in the newspapers and on the news 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:51.760 every night about how great Studio fifty four is, that's 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:54.560 not the reality of New York City. So that's when 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.760 I learned to yo these kids. And the Bronx was 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.359 burning and was drugs and heroine and street kingtings that where. 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:05.040 But for me, I knew that even in the darkness 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:09.520 and despair and the death, in the dirt of the ghetto, 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:14.840 there was fun, cool, creative things like crayons and comic 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.640 books and skateboards and coloring books. So I took it 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.840 upon myself and I did my hip hop music. You 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:22.680 know what I'm saying. I didn't see it as just 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.680 black ghetto music, because in the black ghetto and the 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.680 poor as ghetto and the poverty and the famine, this 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:35.440 kid's coloring and doing poetry and dancing and doing good things. 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.080 I just hate the fact that, you know, to be 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:40.560 in a gang or to have been to jail and 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:44.120 to be a drug dealer is considered street. Because even 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:45.920 in the streets that I grew up in Queens, you 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:48.920 know what I'm saying, we did creative things. Hip hop 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:53.480 allowed me to say, no, the truth is coming from 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:56.000 these places that you don't have to go to jail, 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:57.800 you don't have to be in a game, you don't 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.600 have to do or sell drugs to be powerful. And 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.520 that was the whole clashing of all of these cultures, 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.920 you know, rock and folk rock, um Harry Chateman and 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.880 Jim crow Chy and Neil Young and John Fogerty. They 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:15.800 taught me as Coola have fun with this music, but 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:20.800 we have a responsibility to be the representatives of the 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:23.960 communities that we come from. So while a lot of 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:28.000 people prefer to rhyme about selling drugs and going to 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:32.160 jail like it's a badger honor, I'm so gangs and powerful. 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.840 I'll make a record about Christmas time and make it 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.280 one of the most powerful forces on the face of 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:41.760 the earth. My first record was I'm d MC in 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:45.280 the place to be. I go to St. John's University 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.880 and since kindergarten, I acquired the knowledge. At the twelfth grade, 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.480 I went straight to college. When I rocked that rhyme, 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:55.320 the kids in my neighborhood who was like seventeen and younger, 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:57.839 they came to me, was like, Daryl, how the hell 0:08:57.880 --> 0:08:59.920 are you doing hip hop? And you cool and got 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.640 deaders and gazellas on and and and catillacts and stuff, 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.559 and you go to school. And that was an opportunity 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:09.240 for me to say, not only do I go to school, 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:12.480 young brother a sister, I get straight these and this 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.480 and that, and I don't curse, and I'm obedient, and 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:18.840 I listened to my parents and teachers, and by me 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:24.440 having the attitude and the presentation that so much of 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:30.400 negativity in praces, I was able to touch change, alter 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:34.000 the states of what was going on in our neighborhoods. 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:37.400 But not only just in the neighborhoods and people's minds. Daryl, 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:41.400 in your memoir Ten Ways Not to Commit Suicide, you 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.480 talked about a lot of these things that influence you 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:47.920 growing up, comic books and the different types of music 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:53.120 and stuff. But you also talked very openly about your 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:58.800 struggles with alcohol, addiction and depression, and it almost killed you, right, 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:00.640 I mean almost killed me too by the way. I 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:03.360 ended up in and rehab myself when I was twenty six. 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:09.040 But can you talk about how that influenced your work 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:12.720 that we're gonna turn to talking about now, um, where 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:16.560 you're helping so many people and leading by example. You know, 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:21.320 everybody knows Daryl from the God has told the world 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:25.560 to walk this way and their Adidas. So they saw, 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.559 you know, everything from Raisin Hell, King of Rock Rock, 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.920 everything that we did. They saw that, but they didn't 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:36.440 see the side of me that was no different from 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:40.600 who they are, and especially that side. Even as a 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.960 young kid, when I got into the music business, it 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:46.800 was like, oh shoot, you can tell stories about who 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.080 you are over music. That was my thing. It was 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.680 like me writing a comic book. But within all the 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:59.400 pressures and struggles that anybody in any given occupation or 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:03.520 career a situation gets, I got all this anxiety and 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:06.640 all of this stuff. I started to look for stuff 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.679 outside of me to survive. So, to make a long 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:15.719 story short, I became an alcoholic suicide of metaphysical spiritual 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:21.480 wreck who almost died, almost odeed, almost drunk myself to death. 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.760 Then when that wasn't working, I was thinking about jumping 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.199 off a roof and all of that. But my saving 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:32.360 grace came from after people telling me over and over, Darrol, 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.160 this isn't good behavior, this isn't good for you, over 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:37.439 and over. And I was functional, you know, I was 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.720 a functional drunk. You know. I was never late, always 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:44.720 showed up one time, completed my task. But what was 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:47.120 going on inside of me was the thing that was 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.560 destroying and killing me. So a long story short, the 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.240 thing that saved me is when I went to rehab 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:56.400 to stop drinking, and the reason why that happened was 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.960 in the midst of being an alcoholic suicide of metaphysical 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:03.240 spiritual record was about to jump off the roof. When 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.800 I was thirty five years old, I found out something 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:10.120 about myself that was known that everybody in my family 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.360 and neighborhood, in the schools that I went to. I 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.120 found out that I was adopted at age thirty five, 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:19.559 which totally, totally, really made me want to jump. But 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:23.400 then somebody brought to my knowledge that, um, yo, you 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:25.560 could find your birth mother and you could find your 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:28.440 birth father and you could solve that mystery. So that 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:30.040 was the thing that made me say, Okay, if I'm 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:31.800 gonna do this, if I'm gonna go through this, I 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.560 gotta get sober. So when I went to rehab to 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:39.959 stop drinking, I discovered the most powerful thing in existence 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:44.280 that any man, boy, woman or girl could do for themselves. 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.920 I discovered the stink card therapy, and therapy was the 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:53.920 thing that set me free. And when I got out 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.959 of rehab, and when I got out of therapy, I 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:00.319 would run into people and people would have pro me 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:04.559 on the d m C. King of Rock level, Like, Yo, 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:08.000 you changed my life, walk this way, my dita's all 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:10.680 of that, and it was basically like, Yo, we always 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:14.400 see Run, we always see Russell, we always see Camor 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.320 and the kids. We never see you. And they would 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.920 ask me, and this's what led me to coming into 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.680 contact with people like Row Recovery. They would say, we 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.480 never see you where you've been at? And I'm always 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.040 an honest guy. Everything I always said on my record 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.520 was true, and if you come to me, I'm never 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:34.280 going to front because hip hop, to me and rock 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:37.320 and roll is about keeping it real. So they would 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:39.800 ask me D where you been and I would go, well, 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:42.160 I just got out of rehab. Or I would go 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:45.400 well I just got out of therapy. And these people 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:49.280 would stop and I would see a total change on 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:51.719 them and they would go, what do you mean by that? 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:54.840 And I would tell them my story. In a hundred 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:59.000 percent of the time, two things would happen. The people 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.120 who I would speaking into they would look around first, 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:04.880 like to see I am was after them, and they 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:09.440 would go, I've never told anybody this DP, but me too. 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.240 If they didn't say that a hundred percent at the time, 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.800 they would go, I've never told anybody this D but 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.880 my mother, my daughter, my wife, my girlfriend, my aunt, 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:26.280 my grand everybody was dealing with a mental health issue. 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.720 And then it all came to me, Jason, the King 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:34.040 of Rock thing, to discovery that I was adopted, to 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.600 all the things that happened to get me to that point. 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.960 I realized this whole King or Rock thing was just 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.240 to set up for Darryl McDaniels to be put here 0:14:43.320 --> 0:15:12.440 to do what he was supposed to do. Static you've 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.760 had a crazy journey as well to get to this point. 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.000 I know you overcame like severe learning disabilities. My mom 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:22.000 actually started what many people considered the best school in 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:25.360 the country, four kids with severe learning disabilities. My brother 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:29.360 was the first student at the Gateway School, and he 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.560 went on to get a PhD in psychometrics. And you know, 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:34.960 I turned out to be the one who didn't excel 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:40.400 at school. After all, you didn't have to, Yeah, exactly 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.880 and uh and that became my my muse. Tell us 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:48.840 about your childhood and how you got involved with road recovery. 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.160 The backtrack a little bit. You know, I had lost 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:55.480 struggles in school. I thankfully found guitar after I still 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:58.360 walked this way, but um, I found guitar. In middle school, 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:00.560 I felt like I could finally do something like Wow, 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.680 I get this instrument. And I couldn't learn like everybody else. 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:06.040 I couldn't read music at all. I just put the 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:08.160 records on and learn it, play it back. And then 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.640 around that early part of high school, I was struggling 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:12.840 so bad, you know, I was pretty much gonna fail out. 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:15.600 And I really love that story about your family in 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.160 the school because we didn't really have that even in 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:21.400 New Jersey too much, Like they had a great education program, 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:25.080 but they didn't have how to deal with everybody's differences 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:27.240 in learning. You know. The truth is I wanted to 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:29.080 be a rock star at that point and play rock 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:31.200 and roll that whole vibe. So I was following and 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.280 emulating maybe the wrong aspects of rock and roll, drinking 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:37.160 and experimenting with drugs as well. But that got me through. 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:39.360 You know that I was the kid who always compensated. 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:40.880 So now it was fast forward. I end up joining 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:43.720 an awesome band in my early twenties called Hours, and 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.200 I was in the band for almost sixteen years and 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:47.920 we actually got to make a record of group in 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:49.320 as well, so we got that in a common dy. 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.280 I did develop a bit of an alcohol and substance 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:55.240 abuse problem. I got sober around thirty four years old. 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:56.800 To be it was a little about nine years in March, 0:16:57.440 --> 0:16:59.960 and I always knew Road Recovery in Jack and Jeana 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:01.480 way back, even with the band I was in. We 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.080 always supported their events, and I wasn't you know, like 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:06.239 like D described, I was functional, but I did my thing. 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:07.919 I had a reason why I needed to get sober. 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:11.600 So I mentioned Gene and Jack. So it's Gene Bone 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.560 and Jack book Binder are the co founders of Road Recovery. 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.600 They both had full careers in the music industry and 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:21.840 they created this amazing organization. We do these programs where 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.840 we go to either clubhouses or group homes and we 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.000 do this art music. But really what's going on. We're 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.960 trying to teach communication and life skills through our own experiences, 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.560 and it's not about addiction only. He reminded me of that. 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:37.880 He was just about showing up, being vulnerable and meeting 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:40.399 them where they're at. So I show up, I'm like, 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:42.160 I guess I'm still in my thirties at that point. 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:44.320 I'm like a little over a year sober. And I 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:46.600 realized when I walked into that room and this group 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:51.400 home that even though my you know, getting through sobriety 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.320 and working at was almost secondary to the fact that 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:56.919 when I related to these kids, I brought me right 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.760 back to high school when I dealt with these learning disabilities, 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:03.399 and that's how I was able to relate. So it 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.880 got under my skin. And now we're talking years later. 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:07.680 I mean, I guess I've been with Roll Recovery since 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:11.080 two thousand thirteen. In two thousand fourteen or thirteen, D 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:14.560 and I met, but in fourteen we collaborated on a 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:18.400 local group home organization New Jersey. We did a benefit 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.840 to help kids in therapeutic foster care, so we already 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:24.560 had that bond. When when Static was like, Yo, I'm 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.760 working with these people called Role Recovery, I was like, 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:30.440 what do they do? They was like, Yo, we keep 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.400 kids out the streets, we educate them, we give them 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:37.680 an opportunity to be creative. And anybody struggling with any 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:41.720 substance abuse to drugs and mental things. I mean, because 0:18:41.840 --> 0:18:45.280 that was me. I see myself in all those kids. 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.679 So Road Recovery it's just another form of rock and 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:52.440 roll or just another form of hip hop. Without having 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:58.120 to specifically only use music. We use music as debate, 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:02.440 but we get a man and we recreate these souls 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:08.159 and spirits. Basically, road Recovery is it's entertainment industry professionals. 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.120 It's a nonprofit and everybody is considered like we kind 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:15.480 of become mentors and Road Recovery creates a way for 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.520 young people to communicate and build up their life skills. 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.640 But we use music, like the says, like like a bait. 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:24.879 But we use music or dance, or poetry or painting 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.280 or any form of art or expression. But the idea 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:29.199 is the way we line out the programs with the 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.840 creative staff mentors. We always have like a check in meeting, 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:35.199 so we want to create the dialogue and it's like 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:37.359 a business meeting after that of like life skills, so 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:39.840 we say, well, you're working on that project. That is great, 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.320 but to do that, can you at least commit to 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:44.880 next week that we have this much done. So even 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.080 though these kids are brilliant and we love the quality 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:51.080 of the work they do, it's not necessarily about how 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:53.919 good the final product is. It's about being engaged in 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.119 that journey. So it sets everybody up with life skills 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.480 and even me as a creative staff member after doing 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:03.359 the cycle, I have better life skills just from communicating 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:05.520 to the young people and getting like we're all learning 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.159 from each other. But that's that's essentially what you know 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.000 Road Recovery does and the project we were doing in 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:12.879 the Bronx But that's why I contacted you, like, hey, 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:15.920 Jeane wants to meet up and Daryl comes down to you. 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:18.280 I guess it's Clay Street. We worked in the organization 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:20.480 at the time. Road Recovery was partnered with Bronx Connect. 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:23.760 It's called RTG. We're doing the show, Darrel. The shows 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:26.400 up and he's talking to all the young people. They 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:28.679 know who you are. They know and you're saying when 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:30.800 I it was snowing, and I was when I walk outside, 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:33.399 the snow that falls on me is the same snow 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:37.280 that falls on you. And that vulnerability, which is everything 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:39.640 we try to do with the creative staff at Road Recovery. 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:42.919 Daryl is embodied in seconds enough for a bunch of 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:46.000 the young people to walk up to him and say, hey, hey, DMC, 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:48.080 we have a song. Do you think you could be 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:50.960 on it? Because because he was that open and vulnerable 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.439 and Key says yes. They basically wrote the lyrics Twinkle Twinkle, 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.159 Little Start. They changed it and they talked about stopping 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:01.080 the violence on the streets. The phenomenal on they came 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.680 up with and allowed me to participate on. It's called 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:20.080 Twinkle Twinkle. RTG released the grip tell you I don't 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:23.760 drink anymore. I am done with coals, being sober every day. 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:27.679 It's brunder full before I get I gotta pay my duels. 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:30.720 I can't turn the battle and come to loose. You 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.919 can't have a world that's rumber fold took hands in 0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:37.040 the head yet run but chose I'm here to fix it, 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:39.240 So I come with two. I got a message for 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:42.080 the kits when I comes to school, don't rock put 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:45.280 a shit on rock at all. I walked on. I said, 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:48.080 I did not fall. To call me a bowl because 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.600 I don't fall. Call me better but the better than y'all, 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:54.760 or something like a poll in his overall so as 0:21:54.840 --> 0:21:57.399 he trump, the guys said it over y'all. If you 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:00.720 need a superhero, come who to call. I'm not simper 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.359 one of the tipping all the dome. I'm on the 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:06.680 road to recover bread just like cool you want to 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:10.040 discover me, you gotta be shotting like the thums to 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:14.480 the supercol inside of you. I'm on the road to 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:18.080 recover bread, just like, Oh, you want to discover me, 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:23.080 gotta be shotting like the dumas to be supercool inside 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:50.239 of you. Don't tell you, you still tell you now 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:52.960 listen on this show, we have a couple of traditions. 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:56.439 The first one is something we call the magic wand question, 0:22:56.560 --> 0:22:59.399 and that means I'm gonna ask you first, Darryl, if 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:01.720 you had a magic wand and could wave it and 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:06.040 to fix one thing, what would it be? Oh? Man, 0:23:09.240 --> 0:23:13.240 I would fix poverty. I wouldn't make sure kind of 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:18.359 um Harry Chapin's mission and I work with World Hunger 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:20.919