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Speaker 2: It gives the soundtrack of our lives. And you know,
Speaker 2: I'm so grateful and honored that I now have a
Speaker 2: stake in the game and that people, you know, tell
Speaker 2: me things like, oh, you know, I risen to your
Speaker 2: music when I go work out, or you know, I
Speaker 2: was really depressed and it was so exciting, you know,
Speaker 2: because I listened to your music and he told me
Speaker 2: out of my depression or he gave me some insight.
Speaker 2: So I mean, yes, it not only does it affect me,
Speaker 2: but now I'm grateful that my music is helping to
Speaker 2: affect others.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Music Saved Me Podcast. I'm Lynn Hoffman
Speaker 1: and normally you'll hear me on Music Saved Me interviewing
Speaker 1: musicians about the healing power of music now. Previous episodes
Speaker 1: have included Winonah and Jelly Roll, among others. Today, Music
Speaker 1: Saved Me producer, creator and the host of the popular
Speaker 1: taken a walk podcast, Buzz Night steps into sub for
Speaker 1: Me with an episode with actor, musician, activist Corey Feldman.
Speaker 1: Here's Buzz with Corey next on music saved Me?
Speaker 3: Hi, Corey, I wanted to ask you, do you believe
Speaker 3: music has saved you at any point in your life?
Speaker 2: Oh? God, Yes. In fact, I would say that music
Speaker 2: has saved my entirety of my life. If it wasn't
Speaker 2: for music being on this planet, I don't think I
Speaker 2: would have survived any of it, to be honest. As
Speaker 2: a kid, you know, going through the abuse that I endured,
Speaker 2: it was always music that took me away. I mean
Speaker 2: I remember being a little kid, you know, running around
Speaker 2: in my grandmother's living room. She used had one of
Speaker 2: those old wind up record players. And one of the
Speaker 2: very early records that I ever got into was Billy
Speaker 2: Aley in the Comments because that was just you know,
Speaker 2: the thirty five rpm or what ever, you know, a
Speaker 2: record that she had sitting out there, and and when
Speaker 2: she played it, you know, or we played that album,
Speaker 2: you know, reminded me of Happy Days because those were
Speaker 2: the songs from Happy Days. That's how I knew the music.
Speaker 2: So I was like, oh, you know, it's from that
Speaker 2: TV show, little known to me that it was actually
Speaker 2: from thirty years prior, but that was that was the
Speaker 2: first music I got into. So I got into like
Speaker 2: the old fifties and sixties stuff. And then the first
Speaker 2: band I got into was Kiss, which is crazy because
Speaker 2: they were really popular in the seventies. And then Sean Cassidy.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you even remember who Sean Cassidy is,
Speaker 2: but that was my first pop star that I got into.
Speaker 2: And then you know, later developed you know, this thing was,
Speaker 2: you know, having a big affection for Michael Jackson's music
Speaker 2: and then later getting into Beatles and Pink Poyd and stuff.
Speaker 2: So music has always been kind of a segue for
Speaker 2: me when I'm depressed, you know, when I'm when I'm manic,
Speaker 2: when I'm angry, when I'm happy, when I'm wanting to
Speaker 2: sell it. I mean, it's sexy time, It's everything, you know, music,
Speaker 2: music is the soundtrack of our lives. And you know,
Speaker 2: I'm so grateful and honored that I now have a
Speaker 2: stake in the game and that people, you know tell
Speaker 2: me things like, oh, you know, I listen to your
Speaker 2: music when I go work out, or I put your
Speaker 2: music on to go run to because it motivates me,
Speaker 2: or you know, I was really depressed and it was
Speaker 2: so exciting, you know, because I listened to your music
Speaker 2: and you know, it pulled me out of my depression,
Speaker 2: or it gave me some insight. So I mean, you know, yes,
Speaker 2: it not only does it affect me, but now I'm
Speaker 2: grateful that my music is helping to affect others.
Speaker 3: So I think it's fair to say that you believe
Speaker 3: music has spiritual healing powers for mental, physical, emotional problems.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I mean, first of all, I think that you know,
Speaker 2: there's great science and research behind the idea that you know,
Speaker 2: the tone, the very tone of the music can affect
Speaker 2: you in a different way, The frequency of a musical
Speaker 2: note can affect you in a different way. You know,
Speaker 2: these different effects, different emotions that are evoked just based
Speaker 2: on the chord that's being played. It doesn't even have
Speaker 2: to be a particular song or a particular lyric. That's that.
Speaker 2: Then you add on, you know, deep and meaningful lyrics
Speaker 2: and things that have you know, a message behind it,
Speaker 2: and you can really, you know, gain quite a lot
Speaker 2: from listening to certain artists. So yes, absolutely, it's provocative
Speaker 2: and thought inspiring.
Speaker 3: Why does music have the ability to give people hope
Speaker 3: and really dark times.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that it's if you go back to
Speaker 2: our history, I mean literally go back to the earliest days,
Speaker 2: you know, you will find that music has always been
Speaker 2: inspirational and motivational. You know, they used it. I mean
Speaker 2: even going back to like the old war films, you know,
Speaker 2: nineteen twenties and stuff like that. They would use these big,
Speaker 2: proud marching bands and you have very boisterous sounding stuff,
Speaker 2: you know, to make us feel like we were in
Speaker 2: charge and we were winning. And you know, it's like
Speaker 2: even propaganda films. We're using music very early on for
Speaker 2: stuff like that. And even before that, I mean you
Speaker 2: go back to the country days, you know, when they
Speaker 2: didn't even have film yet, they didn't have anything, but
Speaker 2: they had records, you know, records where I think the
Speaker 2: very first form of medium there was radio and there
Speaker 2: were records. I mean, those were the things that really
Speaker 2: started at all. So I think music has just always
Speaker 2: been something that's connected humans.
Speaker 3: Describe how you feel when you realize that your music
Speaker 3: has impacted a member of your audience who may be
Speaker 3: going through a challenge.
Speaker 2: It's a beautiful feeling, you know, especially when somebody says
Speaker 2: something to me, like, you know, your words really inspired me,
Speaker 2: or you know, I was reading your lyrics and it
Speaker 2: made me realize that, you know, I could do better,
Speaker 2: or life is worth another chance, or I shouldn't give
Speaker 2: up on myself. But things like that, you know, it's
Speaker 2: so beautiful. It's such a beautiful feeling to know that
Speaker 2: something that I can create from the pain that I've
Speaker 2: endured and I put that into my art, and that
Speaker 2: that can actually be transposed to another human and they
Speaker 2: can download that frequency and feel that connection. I mean,
Speaker 2: that is a very powerful medium. You know, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3: As someone who has had struggles, what do you want
Speaker 3: folks in the audience to know about those? And some
Speaker 3: need that they might be forgetting Well, you know.
Speaker 2: What, Look, we all about these struggles, right, Nobody has
Speaker 2: a perfect life. If it was, then you wouldn't be
Speaker 2: getting the full experience and you would be getting deprived
Speaker 2: of the human experience because you know, look, there's no
Speaker 2: reward without risk, There is no glory without work, there
Speaker 2: is no you know, victory without struggle. So we must
Speaker 2: endure the bad to achieve the good. And I think
Speaker 2: that you know, as a human being, you know, you write,
Speaker 2: and especially as an artist, you write about your struggles,
Speaker 2: but you also write about coming out the other side
Speaker 2: of it and what it takes to endure it. So
Speaker 2: I think it's good to always lead by example and
Speaker 2: to put positive messages. You know, there's so much music
Speaker 2: out there that's meaningless and nonsensical, and you go, you know,
Speaker 2: what do we really need to know about your moody
Speaker 2: or do you really need to you know, talk about
Speaker 2: you know, how much money you have or what kind
Speaker 2: of car you're driving. Nobody cares. But when it's something
Speaker 2: that's motivational and inspirational and can cross generations and give
Speaker 2: you that spirit, that that uplifting feeling in your soul
Speaker 2: that makes you want to dance, it makes you want
Speaker 2: to you know, feel inspired and do good things or whatever.
Speaker 2: I mean. That is such a powerful tool that we're
Speaker 2: given as songwriters and as artists. I don't think it
Speaker 2: should ever be taken for granted.
Speaker 3: Talk about some of the artists and some of the
Speaker 3: songs that have lifted you up at dark moments that
Speaker 3: might be meaningful to someone listening today.
Speaker 2: You know, one of the most powerful songs ever goes
Speaker 2: back to Michael Jackson Man in the Mirror. I love
Speaker 2: that song because it's you know, it says so much
Speaker 2: and Michael didn't even write that one. It was actually
Speaker 2: written by Taya Garrett. But it's a beautiful song. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just it's so on point because we all, you know,
Speaker 2: we all feel insecure, and you know, sometimes we look
Speaker 2: in the mirror and we give ourselves that self assurance
Speaker 2: that we need to keep moving, to keep going forward,
Speaker 2: and sometimes we don't like what we see looking back
Speaker 2: at us, and that's when we have to phase ourselves
Speaker 2: and deal with it and have some self healing and
Speaker 2: repair work. And so I think that's a very powerful song.
Speaker 2: It's always been so spiritual and inviting. And I wrote
Speaker 2: a song actually that is kind of inspired by that song,
Speaker 2: which is called It So Simple, which is about, you know,
Speaker 2: how the world can be a better place if you know,
Speaker 2: we choose to take the time to help each other out,
Speaker 2: to care about each other, to be real, you know,
Speaker 2: things can get better, but it's up to us. It's
Speaker 2: an inside job. So you know, that's a song I
Speaker 2: wrote when I was fifteen, so you know, and again
Speaker 2: I think that actually was before Men in the Mirror
Speaker 2: came out. But it's in that same vein of you know,
Speaker 2: kind of self work, self healing and looking inside ourselves.
Speaker 2: And I think that's a beautiful message. Beatles have been,
Speaker 2: you know, my therapy and you know, through the last
Speaker 2: forty years or whatever. So God bless them.
Speaker 3: Any particular Beatles songs, oh.
Speaker 2: Too many to count. You know. I love pretty much
Speaker 2: everything everything that they ever did. I love all of it.
Speaker 2: You know, the Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, their solo stuff,
Speaker 2: the Wing stuff, Paul stuff, Post Beatles, everything, and then
Speaker 2: you know, Pink Floyd is another one, Billy Joel is
Speaker 2: another one. There's so many great songwriters that I love.
Speaker 2: And then even you know, more contemporary artists, people like
Speaker 2: you know, Eminem, I've always liked Eminem, you know, or
Speaker 2: a lot it's more said, I think it's great, or
Speaker 2: you know, even and even still like people like Halsey,
Speaker 2: who are amazing, you know, moving into today's artists. So
Speaker 2: you know, there's a there's a wide spectrum of music
Speaker 2: that I listened to, but as long as they're saying something,
Speaker 2: that's really what it comes down to.
Speaker 3: Corey, thank you for sharing your journey on music save me.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Music saved me. God bless you.