Artist Friendly with Joel Madden - DJ Tambe

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

On this week's episode of Artist Friendly, Joel Madden is joined by DJ Tambe. DJ Tambe is an award-winning tattoo artist whose love for the medium stretches back to performing stick-and-pokes as a teenager. That passion led him to Ink Master, where he became a three-time winner (including two consecutive victories) of the hit show and has graduated to a judge. In a conversation with Madden, DJ Tambe opens up about overcoming addiction, the importance of family, and going from contestant to judge on Ink Master, which is now streaming on Paramount+. ------- Listen to their Artist Friendly conversation on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify.⁠⁠⁠ ------- Follow Artist Friendly! IG: @artist.friendly TikTok: @artist.friendly YouTube: youtube.com/@artist.friendly ------- Host: Joel Madden, @joelmadden Executive Producers: Joel Madden, Benji Madden, Jillian King Producers: Josh Madden, Joey Simmrin, Janice Leary Visual Producer/Editor: Ryan Schaefer Audio Producer/Composer: Nick Gray Music/Theme Composer: Nick Gray Cover Art/Design: Ryan Schaefer Additional Contributors: Anna Zanes, Neville Hardman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, what's up everybody. It's Joel. Thank you for listening to Artis Friendly. And you may or may not know, I host a TV competition called Inkmaster, and Inkmaster is back. A new season is now streaming. The OGs and Young Guns are going tat to tat in this epic battle, now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. Go to Paramount Plus.com to try it for free. Hey, what's up, everybody? I'm Joel Madden, and this is Artist Friendly. On this episode, I'm talking to artist, creative director, tattoo artist, and one of the judges from Paramount Plus's Inkmaster, which has a new season out right now. You can watch him there. My friend, DJ Tambi. Let's go. I don't want to bet times. I don't want to have bad. Think about this. Where else do tattoo artists

get to compete in stakes that are really high in front of like the world? old. Millions of people watch the show. I mean, all there is is conventions, and that's not. I mean, you get a bowling trophy, and you get to throw it in a box in your garage. I mean, $250,000, it's high stakes. And millions of people watching.

Millions of people. It's got like this hardcore following of fans that love the show. Super popular show. I mean, people stop me. As much as I would say, people would say, people like go, oh, good Charlotte. I like your band, which is great. I mean, that's my favorite. Yeah. People stop me for Inkmaster and go, I watch the show.

check out my tattoo. Yeah. I just had a guy in the elevator at the hotel. We were just staying at. Old man. Yeah. Old man. He goes, you still tattooing?

I was like, yes. He's like, love the show. Love the show. He's like, you're a great tattooer. Well, what I could see from the show anyway, he said. Yeah. I was like, it's all real, man. But there's something about TV that can fool us into thinking things are light or funny.

And that's where, like, where a guy like me comes in, obviously know enough about tattoos to get tattooed and maybe pick a good artist. You will never know how hard that competition is until you go through it. That's what the biggest takeaway for me is the tattoo artists that come on the competition. It takes real fucking balls to just step in. It could be little things too. It could be like tattooing for 12 hours, but tattooing is silent. We usually bang music. People coming in the vibe. Yeah, it's a whole deal. This is like, okay, quiet, camera in your face. You know, watching your every move. Different angle.

Yeah. Now the judges are going to come talk to you. Make conversation. Yeah. Like blah, blah, blah. It's tough. Yeah. Super, super hard.

It's fucked up. After I came back the second time, they were like, you're nuts. Like, I can't believe you were doing this second time. And then you did it a third time. I have a weird. There's something weird that I love about the competition. The stress. Yeah, you're competitive, dude.

I don't like the stress, but I will put myself. Well, think about it. Through it. Yeah, but think about it. We didn't get to play professional football. That's for sure. We didn't get to go to the playoffs. You don't want me to play football.

Yeah, but like you watch and you wish you could. For sure, yeah. Like I watch sports and I go, man, what would it feel like to go to the World Series? To pitch in that game or to hit and that at bat. And you'll never know. You'll never know. You can only dream about it. But you can find your thing and you can try to take it all the way.

And if there's a world series to play, I want to play in it. And this is the only world series that we got. And that's the only, this competition is the only world series you got right now. And like the conventions are awesome. I actually love tattoo conventions. I mean, I don't like working on them.

You don't like working them, but that's because you've been, that's like you've been doing it your whole life. I'm just a spectator. I go there to see friends that also do conventions. Yeah. That's it. I just like to go there and see people and like,

meet fans and all that stuff. In my mind, everybody's cool. Yeah, everybody is cool. Yeah, so, like, that's cool. I love car shows, tattoo conventions. I love the trophies. I love seeing the trophies. But on the world stage, the whole world's watching.

And to be fair, in the modern world of streaming, the whole world is watching. And the show has millions and millions of people who watch every season and they follow it. And so they start to form what I think is, very well educate. It's a great like basic education in tattoos. Like for me, Inkmaster gives people the very basic education in. It teaches people a lot. A lot about tattoos. Everybody knows styles and, you know. And then they sit at home and they start to judge the lines and they start to judge the line work and the shading and the color. A lot of clients nowadays, they're like, oh, I'm looking at people's tattoos now that I see. And I'm like, oh, look at that line.

What red did you use? But I'm trying to put in their brain like, listen, this is still a tattoo. Yeah. I critique stuff as a judge and I do the same thing. You know what I mean? Of course. But that's the mistakes you guys all make. But like, I like it that people learn a little bit about the application.

Of course. And seeking out just good tattoos. I mean, there's a lot of people just getting a lot of, a lot better tattoos nowadays. In the 90s, we used to just get tattoos. That was it. It was just a tattoo was a tattoo. So if the guy did this, that's what you got. Well, I started tattooing in the 90s and, you know, we had 10 bins of flash.

And that's what you got. Dirty ass flash that no one cleaned, whatever. And people just stand there flipping through and pull something out. That's it. That's, I mean. Now people have opinions and taste and they, they go, I'm more of a traditional Japanese tattoo per. Like, it's cool. It's good.

It's good for tattooing. Like, I think we're tattooing is today, but... It's turned into, like, a fine art, you know? It is a fine art. There's people creating full-on oil paintings on the skin. That's crazy. People are going from these crazy school art backgrounds to tattooing. You know, they're like, I could sit around and maybe not sell my paintings,

but they're doing it on skin and they're just blowing up instantly. Yeah. The possibilities now in tattoos was, I mean... And I got to tell you, I like it. I like it, too. I mean, for me, because I'm in it, it's a struggle staying afloat and trying to like, just trying to stay present in the game and like, holy shit, this dude's doing this crazy Renaissance art style paintings on the skin. It's like, no, I got to keep up with, you know, you got to keep up with everybody. I'm sure it's the same in your business, but. Yeah, it is. That's why I try to stay pretty well-rounded, because I can please so many people and do so many styles. You know, I got a lot of artists for, you know, I got a lot of artists for. friends that are like they do one style and they're just oh it's so dead right now they're sitting around they're not doing anything because they don't cater to everybody right you got to be versatile

not everybody wants a you know monster butthole in his face yeah eating ice cream you know what mean like it's like that's what you do i'm sorry but yeah try some portraits or something yeah the realism side of thing keeps me keeps me busy like all the time i just feel like overall all, it's a lot more of a welcoming space. I mean, yeah, well, in the 90s, when I started, gangsters, gangsters, bikers. It was a biker shop I started at. It was just, it was thugs.

Now it's soccer moms. I tattoo brain surgeons, lawyers. I mean, you name it. The old guy in the elevator just said something to me. That guy would have thought I was going to steal his wallet in the 90s. You know what I mean? It's a lot different. It's a lot different now.

Yeah. I mean, plenty of those guys were nice, but when you're like a 17-year-old, like, little dork, and you're like walking in the shop, you're like, I'm terrified. It was, I mean, it was a lot different. Now it feels like, like, uh, it was dirtier. Yeah. It was dirty. But also, I think now more people can, because of social media, just like music, more people can get out there faster.

Oh, yeah. So there's probably a downside to that as well, because if they're not a good, experience it's not going to be as as good a tattoo because the application of it is what it is but like that being said i understand the downside of that part but that being said it's more open to people who are artistic and and want a tattoo and build their own career and not be beholden to some shop or yeah you know there's a lot more it's democratized yeah which i think is great well it's great money nowadays too i mean people are, you know, it wasn't, I was doing 10, 12, $25 tattoos when I started, you know, it's a lot different now. Now you make a lot more. Yeah. It's got to feel good. It does.

Yeah. Yeah. It feels good. But I got to stay afloat, you know, you got to keep, you know. But you ever like take that in? Yeah. That you've like, super grateful. Yeah. Um, all the time I try to stay grateful for. I know you're grateful. Where I came from, what I'm doing now. I know you're grateful. But do you really, like, feel the success? Forget about being grateful. I'm grateful, too.

I'm... Like, it's hard earned to be successful. To be successful is hard. I still don't... I still don't have a complete grasp on it. Do you ever think, like, I make more an hour than a doctor? Yes, I think that. A surgeon.

I think that out a lot. A lawyer. Yeah. You make more than a lawyer? Like a high paid lawyer. Yeah. Because I know the price of your time. tattoos. I'm not going to say him here, but you are a top dollar sought after. It's hard to get

on your list. It's backed up. It's booked through like the year. Do you ever think like when I started out, I was probably like dismissed as a troublemaker who was into like graffiti. I was a troublemaker. Out there with your graffiti. Spraying the walls. Yep. Rapping. Skapboard. Ruin the curbs. Drawling. What are you doing in there? Drawling. That's all I did. In your room. Yeah. On my wall.

Like listening to hip hop and drawing. Like, what are we going to do about him? He's a loser. Yep. Burnt my whole house down. And now, but think about it. But the whole thing down.

You burnt the house out. That's crazy. Yeah, I did. Okay. It was my stepmom's house. Okay, I want to talk about that. And she already hated me. Was it an accident?

Burn her shit down, dude. Was it an accident? Yes. I was smoking weed. Uh, put my, put my pipe away. You left it in the drawer.

Burned the house down, bro. With all your paper, with all your drawings. cardboard box I put it away in. Right. Crumpled up paper and stuff in there. But they hosed the whole house down. The fireman came out and we found the cause of the fire, dude. Black-ass weed pipe.

Pot head. Yep. They were just like, what a punk. Yep. So think about that. I'm just saying it as it funny. It's funny now, right? I mean.

But what I'm saying is, is the only reason I'm making a point of this. And I had no plan on what we were going to talk about today. But when I think about you as a kid, I know you as a kid, I know you as, this nice guy. We became immediate friends. I was like, I'll be friends with him. You know, you meet a guy? We're cool. We're going to be friends. Not a punk. You know what I mean?

I was like, if all the friends were doing breaking in somewhere, I was like the watch. I was the one watching. I'll be out here watching for, you know what I mean? I would do some shady shit too, but I always had like this like, you know,

then butterflies were. Yeah, but also sweet. You're like, I'm going to watch your back. Yeah, I was there. Yeah. I was doing it. Yeah. But I was kind of like that too. Yeah.

But do you ever think like I was in my room drawing? Everyone just thought I was done for. Hopeless. For sure. And now, if we just talk professionally, right, forget about Harvard or Yale, forget about college, forget about all that. And just think in professional terms of I'm a professional in my field. And this is my compensation package.

This is what you have to pay me for my time because so many people want my time. The pay isn't something we decide on based on how great we think we are. No, it's simply time. This many people want my time. I have to set the price that will weed out so that I don't have to decide because I love you all. Yeah. Right. That's how we make our price.

I'm bad at. Right. I know you are. I get it. That's why we get married. I feel bad even. Yes. Right.

She does all that. Because there's something about our partners in business and in life in marriage where they value our time too. So they help us set the bars so that we don't have to make all that. We'll get overwhelmed trying to give our time to everyone for free. But so we need someone that goes, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like, stop. Leave that to me.

My wife is the same way. She'll just go, that's gone. That's gone. Just do that and do that. And then I'm like, oh, feel calm. Yeah. So to think about it, let's just, and then I'll get off of money because I know art and money is weird. It's not for me.

I love getting paid to do art. Yeah. Because everyone said I wouldn't. For sure. Now, no one says that anymore. Anytime anyone says, you care about money. Yeah, I do care about money because you were likely one of the people that would have said, I'll never get paid to do this.

Well, I feel like at our age, too. I mean, that's a lot of things that sometimes is avoided when somebody has, asks you to do things. I get tons of people ask me to do stuff. And I get a lot of friends ask me to do stuff. Can you do artwork for this album cover? Can you do this? Not that I'm going to charge my friend, but money ends up being like, there's certain big companies I've done a lot of stuff for that right off the bat they talk about money because they know, they know what's up. But money's usually pushed to the back. I've done album covers for rappers. I've done all this stuff. And I didn't even get an album cover that I designed. But that's my fault. You know, now it's like,

You know, I got my wife and she'll, you know what, if you hold out something to me and you say, I'm going to take it. That's human nature. Yeah. Oh, it's free? It's for me. That's okay. You should put that on a shirt.

If there's a price, must be nice. I just came over that. Back and back. No, but what I'm saying is, is that everybody wants to dance around value. For sure. And if we don't put a value on ourselves, we will never, establish a value. And I'm never mad if someone quotes me. I'm going to think about it. There's factors. Do I really want it? Okay. Can I afford it? Okay. You go through your list and if all the

boxes check, then you got a customer. The unfair thing about art is everyone expects us to do it for free. They expect it because it comes from our brain or whatever. They think it's easy. They think it's easy. It doesn't cost us anything. And it doesn't mean we don't do things for people all the time. We do. Oh, yeah. Artists bring value to every situation they're in. That's my opinion. That's how I feel. I feel like artists, all they do is add value. They add value everywhere they go. There's a disaster. Who raises money? Artist. You stuck on something? Who do you ask? You ask an artist. You know what I mean? It's creative force. So, but back to my original thought that sprung into my head when I was thinking about little DJ drawing, smoking pot, upstate New York. Yep.

Everyone's like, what's he, what's going to happen to him? What the fuck are we going to do? And now you're at the top of your game, aside winning Inkmaster and all that comes with that. I love your work. I love you. You're a pro. You do great tattoos.

You're not, you know what I mean? It's just you're really at the top of your industry. You do great work. And you're a pro. And you make more than a doctor, a lawyer. if we just go by hourly, right? Yeah. And I think about that, and it makes me happy to think, like,

in the terms of what artists are treated like when we're young, when we have a dream. For sure. I mean, most of the time, it's the, you're going to be a doctor. You're going to be a lawyer. You're going to be something like that. That was not in this, in this kids. Yeah, never.

You're writing your little songs. You know, like, I was in my bedroom writing my songs. Yeah. And I was like, what are they going to do, those poor kids? After a while it was just draw. Yeah, maybe you're not doing shit in school. Just keep drawing. My teachers, just draw.

Everybody else doing essays and shit, drawn. It's a good teacher. Yeah. That's probably someone that helped you. I'm sure. Hard to judge like who the angels were. You know what I mean? You of them.

Along the way. Hard to say who. I've always had a pretty good support group, you know, family too. Pretty cool. Inkmaster, you win three times. The third time was with me. It was. That was a tough one. Did I vote?

For me? Yeah. Yes. And that was the deciding vote, wasn't it? Nico and Ami didn't. Yeah, you were the deciding vote, I think. It's fucked up that I end up being the deciding vote a lot. Like, it's fucked up.

It was last season, too. I got a lot of shit for my decision last season. So did this guy. I still stand by it. I mean, not for my decision, just for that one line that I said. What did you say? I said that his tattoo made me. me feel made my stomach hurt made me feel like I want to throw up or I said vomit yeah I said vomit

but that I feel like that that's how you felt but I feel like that wasn't even that bad of something like to say about worse I mean there's been worse if we were in an art gallery standing there you know like feeling having these feelings about paintings that are up I would have felt some type of way about that painting it's the same it's the same feeling I'm looking at only it's on somebody for life, right? It's on somebody that is an open canvas, gives up their, their whole leg or whatever. And it was a pretty absurd tattoo. Listen, I don't care what anyone says. But I mean, thousands of comments. You know, I got in a pretty, I don't, I don't like to read comments because they'll put you in a bad place if you get too deep, or me anyway, you know. When I read comments. My wife loves reading them.

I bet. She loves reading them. And then she was like, you know, they're tearing you up right now in the inkmaster page. you got to see that and I'm like nah and then I'm like all right maybe and I sat there a whole night like holy shit so I feel like if I was a tattoo artist I would be a lot I would sweat a lot more because I have this like intraper this intrapersonal relationship with a thing I'm not a tattoo artist yeah I don't fucking care yeah I'm just gonna say what I think and I and that's what I love about the about the competition and all the people that make it you're pretty nice I'm pretty nice, but I always tell them, I'm like, I don't have to be a tattoo artist. I'm never going to be tattoo artists. You're never going to have to come to my shop. But that's good. Right? So I don't, that's a, that's a good opinion to like, to have you there. So I'm just going to say what I think. But that's the, that's going back to Inkmaster, that's why I love it, because it's competition and people get heated about it. And if you say there's nothing at stake, I'll tell you there's something at stake because everybody's pissed off one way or the other at us when we decide. a final decision and we never know what the fuck we're going to do.

Network loves it's like stressful. Yeah, network loves it. But that's the brilliant thing about reality is actually there is a ton of reality in there. And that's what we all love to watch. We love to watch people doing things. I get that a lot too. Like how much of it is scripted? None.

Except for my fucking shit. Yeah. In this part of the competition, you have two hours to tattoo, giraffes, as automobiles in black and gray realism you should push that one too no no this is a terrible

so I always have to have my shit written down because I can't remember that shit you do pretty good get better at it oh you're getting way better yeah yeah I like doing it my favorite part is like being in the room with all the artists and like joking around

with them in between takes and yeah I always try to make them laugh and some of them are and Dave never did that You know? The other judges never really, I mean a little bit, but... Yeah, you know, the show evolves. I get that, too. They're like, David and... Bring back the old guys.

Yeah, yeah. Chris and Oliver would have loved this tat. I'm just like, dude, they would have ripped this shit apart. Ripped it apart. And I said it made me want to... I used the word vomit. I don't... I don't... I didn't... I wasn't like, this fucking makes me want to puke, dude. Also, like... This makes me want to vaunt. Like, it was like, even like, I feel like vomit's like an artsy word for throw-up. Yeah.

Right? You know what I mean? Like, if you ever hear me say, bring back the old guys about anything, move me to a fucking shack in the mountains and give me a shotgun and a rocking chair. That's just how I feel. I like new. I like things to evolve. I think it's a great.

I like change. I like, so that's how I feel. I think we're a great panel, dude. And I'll do this as long as I can. Same. And the next guy that comes after me, if there's another guy, I'll be like fucking cool. Yeah. But I actually think that's how actually, that's actually how David, I'm not saying Dave doesn't feel that way.

We've always had like a good rapport with each other. Yeah, Dave's, Dave's cool. That's, it's not him. I'm not talking about him. There's like a section of fans that like, but by the way, I get it. He's a, he's a, he's a superstar, rock star, great looking guy. Yeah. Cool.

And he was, I actually watched the show when he was the host and was a fan. So I get it. That's like me playing. Like, if. If we were saying, if there was any competitive part of this, it would be like a basketball player against another basketball player. Like, that's how I feel. So I'm always going to try to beat everybody.

Well, but it's not like, it's not like, I was a fan. That's how I got on the show. Everybody that watches has their favorites, right? Yeah, yeah. It's like watching the first version of a movie and then number two comes out and they switch an actor. You're like, it's not. I also like that.

So it doesn't really like, if someone's like, I like the old, whatever, it's not actually many people to say that. But like, I get, I don't care. I'm like, cool. Cool, yeah. I like the new one. Yeah. Change is weird sometimes. Yeah, change is weird for people. I like change. Yeah.

I grew up in a very change-filled life, always moving, moving houses, up, down, up, down. Everything was chaotic. And so, like, I like change, comfortable in change. Change is good. Yeah. Do you have any, like, learning disabilities? I was in like I had some special ed classes when I was younger ADD, ADHD

well in school I'm ADD I'm sure I was never like medicated for it you know I had the friends on the riddling and all that stuff you know but I was in special classes a lot of it was for not I can't remember when I read so I would have to like teachers would have to like

I'd have to be in classes where they actually talk to me Yeah it's like a whole reading a book and remembering the whole story. It's not going to happen. Neurodivergent. That's what they call it now. Because I know because of school. My kids are in school, so there's all this stuff they send you about that I think, I believe it's neurodivergent.

Is it neurodivergent? Yep. Yeah. So it's like the spectrum of learning, I'm on the same dyslexia, ADHD, all those things. I'm on that whole, same thing. I can't read very well. I can't. I need the prompter pretty good.

Well, it's little short bullet points. If you told me to read a page, I'd start and I'd end up over here and I wouldn't, getting from here a word at a time is never going to happen. Yeah, it was a lot. It was a lot that had to do with reading when I was young. I mean, I was never really good at any school.

But you're going to be honest. I got my GD. Yeah. You know, for some reason. Do you have it anywhere in like a drawer? I don't know. Maybe my mom's got it. Yeah.

I hope. I have my diploma. I actually. graduated, I had to go to night school to get the credits to graduate. And then this one teacher that held my fate in his hand was a science teacher. Nice dude. I had to go to him and say, if you don't give me a C, I'm not going to graduate. And my mom just wants me to graduate. If you don't give it to me, I understand, I get it. I was a terrible student. It wasn't personal. I'm terrible at learning. I don't understand why I'm not good at it. But I, um, I,

I really want to graduate. My mom's, she really wants to see me graduate. If you don't, I understand I'm not going to graduate. I'm not coming back. But he was like, I got you. And he gave me the grade. And I got, and I graduated with a 1.65 GPA. I was in high school for like five years.

I made it to like 10th grade. So, you know, I was that guy. You think that's funny. That's a crazy number. That was my number. final average. It's more than mine. Oh, I'm so damn proud of my kids.

They both have 2.0s. My daughter got all, she on a roll this year. She's ahead of her, ahead of herself. She's smart. Your daughter's smart. Yeah.

I can tell. Switched on. But she definitely has a little bit of me, you know? Yeah. For sure. She's very like, you know,

starts a project, leaves it there, starts another project, leaves it there. Yeah, yeah, that's a, that's a certain wiring. I mean, I do that too, you know. Really good at multitasking.

Actually, I don't want to get into this too deep because I, it'll be, we could actually do a whole episode on it. But I just got a brain scan. And so I've been learning a lot about my brain. It's fucking sick, dude. I'm sure. They take pictures of your brain and then they tell you like what's going on. All right. We'll be right back.

We have a commercial. Hey, what's up? Artist friendly listeners. as you know, or maybe you don't know, I host a TV competition called Inkmaster, and a new season is now streaming. The OGs and young guns are going tat to tat in this epic battle now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus.

Go to Paramount Plus.com to try it for free. They don't want to, yeah, they don't want to do that. And they can see the activity and stuff. Anyways, high ADHD, but also I found they were like PTSD. You have PTSD, which is crazy. Kind of knew there was something like that, but I'd never been put so plainly to me. Yeah.

So that was like shocking to me. Just from old, from trauma. Trauma. Yeah, same. I'm sure I got out of it too. But I'll tell you that this is why I encourage people listening to this show all the time. I'm like, go and do something towards your like mental health, whatever version of that is for you, whether it's therapy,

is always really good. It's a good place to start. But even it's like meditating, reading a book about your brain, figuring out the things you experience, right? Like losing your temper or getting overwhelmed or depression or whatever. Go and read about it.

You're not different from anyone else. So we're like a garden variety. Maybe an audiobook. Audio book. Yeah, what I'm saying, though, is like learn about watch YouTube videos. Because I won't remember it. Or like watch YouTube videos.

If you're struggling with depression, the thing about depression is tricky because you don't know you're depressed. Someone has to kind of tell you, like you are classic. I mean, but then you get familiar. I struggle with all that stuff.

Right. So you get more familiar as you get older with depression. I struggled with depression and had to like really work on it. And then I did. And it got smaller, smaller, smaller, smaller. And it is a very manageable part of my personality now

is anxiety and depression, which are kind of weirdly like co-exist. What I found from my experience is they coexisted. Yeah. And they were both. And they were like with these functional little pieces of my like mental dilemma. So when I went down the road and started working on it in therapy, which we've talked about this. Yeah.

Talked a lot about therapy. We actually kind of have therapy sometimes. Yeah. When we like are on set or like at lunch or whatever. Because, you know, me, I just love to talk about. Yeah. Like to get real. You're a great therapist.

I just like to talk about our. feelings. I know, but you're like, DJ, how are you feeling today? You, you, uh, like, I miss home or I'm, uh, it's hard being away. Like, I'm like, yeah, it's tough. Keep that in mind that what you're doing is really hard. Yeah, it's easy to be on a TV show and that's fun, but it's hard because you have to be away and it's not normal. Yeah, it's not like you're in your tattoo shop and the comfort of your own design of the life you built for yourself. So anyways, what I always try to tell people is like, do something. towards your understanding of your own experience, your own mental health.

The most powerful thing you can do is become fully aware of yourself and what you're going through in real time. And a lot of people do it instinctively. They just learn how to be that animal. But some of us aren't as great at acting on our instincts from moment to moment. You know what I mean? So when I learned that I had to deal with the depression thing and the anxiety thing, and then I actually started doing it. And then, you know, go down the road 10 years. That was 10 years ago. 10 years of work.

They're small now. They used to be big. Used to be overwhelming. Now it's small. So I can contain it. I can look at it. I cannot. It doesn't feel overwhelming.

I can go, oh, I'm a little anxious today. I don't know what that is. I'll keep an eye on it. And you just keep it in mind. Yeah. And then you're like, that's probably not a good idea for me today. I'm anxious today. So like start to move around things that might cause more anxiety.

That person really makes me anxious. I'm going to move around that today. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely situational or like, I mean, you're, obviously your depression and my depression is completely different. So, so, and everybody who deals with that. So it's like, you know, there's a scale on how much. they deal with it. Yeah.

You know? I mean, so I feel like it could be harder for for other people. I'm not saying I'm super depressed and anything like that, but each person's going to be different on how they, is it too much to handle? Is it, you know? And for some it is, but. Yes. So what I'm saying is, is it was really hard.

Yeah. And it was really hard to work on. That's the hard part. Is actually digging in and getting to work on it. Learning, learning how to work. about and then it gets easier. It's like going to the gym. It's really hard.

And then you get the habit down. Why I always tell people, just try. Just show back up. Therapy or whatever it is that's making your life better. Just show back up. There's a reason people go there. They get stronger. There's a reason people go to the gym.

It's not a fluke. It doesn't mean that you're going to be the same as them in how they do it and what they do there. It means there's something there. that they're getting and you have to go there to get it. You have to go to the place where you get it, which is, you know, it's not just the gym. It's the metaphor. You got to work for it. You got to work for it. And you got to try and try and try again. And you, and that's what I did. And that's why I feel so strongly about it because I know how much better my life is than it was 12 years ago.

Yeah. It just takes fucking work. A lot of work. Yeah. But you've done that. Yeah. A lot of change. A lot of change. I used to be, I mean, dude. I used to, I mean, it started with, it started with pills. I started on the whole OxyContin train early in my career as a tattooer. Like unknowingly? Like to get injured or something? No. I, uh, I started tattooing in the hood, bro. Like super hood. Had this lady come in and she was like, you know, she worked at like the hood pharmacy. It was like, it wasn't like a right aid or like a,

something like that kind of pharmacy. It was like pharmacy. It just says pharmacy out front. Right. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. And she's like, if you ever need any kind of pills, I'll trade you tattoos for pills. And I was like, I don't really take pills, whatever.

I mean, obviously smoking weed at the time. I was, I was young. But maybe a friend was like, yo, tell her to get some oxycod. And I was like, so, dude. once twice a week, she's bringing me the pharmacy bottles of a thousand pills or whatever that they fill prescription bottles with of 80s, 80 milligram oxy cottons. That's what's crazy about tattooing. So I started, so I wasn't doing them at the time. I'll pay with drugs. Oh yeah, dude. That was a, it was different back then. But so, so that happened. I wasn't doing them at the time,

start selling them. Dude, I was, you know, however all that was, 20 years old with a safe full of cash. I would say. Right. At one time, a pill was going for like $40. Yeah, yeah. And I'm getting like eight, you know,

four, thousands of them a week. It's designer fucking heroin. Yeah. So I started taking the pills, snorting the pills. Ooh. And then,

and then when the pills weren't around, obviously it's heroin, so I switched to heroin. Cocaine in between there, too. I was around cocaine my whole life. just a big uh

I had a um my uncle was a drug dealer I was raised uh my my grandpa had a gambling joint he owned a gambling joint or all like a like an underground speak easy yeah yeah which I mean

I used to spend time there as a kid and and all that I was just I was around that whole mafia drugs kind of thing right um so my dad was my dad was drugs my whole life cocaine so i never wanted to do it are you guys close yeah yeah yeah my dad's he he got off drugs when i got off drugs is he sober yeah yeah oh wow yeah i mean great yeah well i mean he drinks

canned beer you know i mean so kind of sober to me you know anything about like heroin yeah now now i mean he doesn't like wake up and need to drink you know he's not like that but yeah so we're close now but i never wanted to do cocaine my whole life because i had like a bad taste in my mouth for it but But anyway, my mid-20s, I started doing cocaine amidst all the other drugs. As far as my drug career, I mean, we were doing acid every weekend when I was 14 years old, mushrooms, all that stuff. It's light work compared to the other stuff, though. Yeah.

But it's still like. So the cocaine wasn't, you know, it wasn't enough. I started cooking cocaine, smoking crack. So cracking heroin, crack and opiates were just my daily, right? Or cocaine and, like, I used to mix cocaine and oxycontin in the same. same line and snore a line. You know what I mean? So it was like chasing the dragon like all all the time. Crazy. I was living at a friend's house because I was squatting. I lived in my car for a while and knock at the door and my, it was my brother or something. And he was like, oh, everyone's going to

be at cousin Debbie tomorrow. We want you to come by. So intervention. Okay. Ended up going to rehab in Arizona. And then didn't want to go back to upstate New York. So my mom lived in Vegas. She's like, you come live with me. I'll take care of you, get you back on your feet. So rehab, working for counseling? Rehab worked. Okay. I was in there for like two months. They were sticking us in rooms, like just making us re-induced certain things. It was kind of getting old. So I told my mom was paying for it was like 10 grand a month. So I'm like, just I'll come live with you. You could do the same thing. So I moved to Vegas, started going through counseling, was doing great, got bag on my feet, got a job at a bad apple.

That's your shop? Yeah. There was two local. locations at the time. I started working at the first location. And then they moved me to the second one was across from a strip club, uh, cheetahs. Okay. Started tattooing strippers, uh, you know, just getting back in the, the, the cocaine talk and all that stuff. The places where those things are readily available. Yeah. Right. And then next thing you know, we're in the bathroom snoring line. So I relapsed. Ooh. They, uh, started getting deep into it again, cooking it, all that. They put me back at the original bad apple. I walked across the side street to 7-Eleven one night after work, got a beer, walked back and I hear, whoop, whoop, female cop got me. I had my pipe in my pocket, an eight ball.

So they put me in jail for like my parents could have got me out, but they left me in there. It was only like nine days, but it was like the worst nine days ever, you know? Right. Like straight from like smoking crack to like thrown in jail. You know what I mean? I was like snoring coffee in there. Terrible. Like, like, trying. to get, you know. Anything. Yeah. But I had those nine days to just sit there and think about how much of a shit had I was

and all that. So that kind of sobered me up. That was, I think, the breaking point. Listen, I'm saying this because I love you. Yeah. That makes me really sad because the guy I know is a kid in a sandbox on a playground. Right. And I never had that experience, but I certainly didn't love myself. And I certainly did things that didn't reflect someone who loves themselves and who cares about themselves and who

believes in themselves. All the things we need to be successful, we have to believe in ourselves, enough to get up every day and try again. Because success is trying and trying and trying again, right? So we have to believe in ourself enough to try as many times as it takes. If we don't believe in ourselves, we're not going to try. Right? And we have to love ourselves enough to believe we deserve the success. I mean, that's where it starts, right? Right? Yeah. And somewhere in the young formation of our self, I don't know, is it zero to 10 or 12? I don't know. Zero to seven, whatever it is. That's different for everyone probably. Something told us we weren't valuable. We weren't special and then we started kind of believing it. Wherever that came from,

I don't know where it came from. I couldn't tell you that my mom didn't make me feel special. She made me feel special sometimes. She wasn't perfect. My dad also loved me at times and then he was definitely not perfect. He left. I don't know which thing. And then there was a lot of bad teachers. I didn't have one good coach. Yeah. So I don't know. Maybe it's a collection of all of it. maybe it's the environment of all of where, you know, when you're in an impoverished places with people having to be creative to feed themselves, that's when you get into crime and you get into the endeavors that are super creative endeavors. They're just illegal and they're dangerous and they are crime. I'm never even mad at like guys doing creative crime,

but it's still crime. I don't like people that hurt people. Yeah, creative. crime is cool. It's not cool to me. But what I'm saying is, is that the young you that went down that road and fucking smoked the heroin or the crack or the cocaine or took the pills, wherever that got there, that part makes me sad because, and then also it makes me love you because of what you've become. And it tells me like, oh, the guy that I thought you were, you were back there. Because the guy who emerged had to be there. You didn't learn how to be this guy. He was there.

It's the other potential. There's another potential of you right now that's strung out somewhere miserable. I'm gonna'amena. And, like my music, my hair changed with me and has to be able to continue my rhythm. For so, Potion 9, of Sebastian Professional, has all what my hair needs. Nutrition Profunda, Protection Contral Against Against Against Against,

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bar records. I know people say they would have been dead or in jail, but that's where I haven't been

dead. And the stats actually say that too. Yeah. If I stacked up

all your statistics of your life and all the things, if we went down a long

list and you read every fucking experience and everything, we could probably

calculate both of our statistics and they say like the factors that would emerge, the outcomes that would emerge would be drug addiction, jail, really high failures at lots of things, right? So anyways, what I think happened, you meet a partner and you stick it out long enough to actually go, oh, there's hope. Like over time, things do work out. Like if we stick together, we'll figure it out. It's not easy. I've been with

my wife for 18 years this year. It's not easy. But every year is a little more hopeful for us because we figure out one more little thing we don't have to deal with. We fight about this thing. It's on a loop. And then we crack the code. Now it's gone. And we just keep moving past, like, and we just keep evolving. And then you have a kid. And then you see your, that's, oh, that's a potential me. You have this evolved kid who's like the better version, like you 2.0.

It's like the mix of you and the partner you chose. And then you have this like better version of you and you're looking at them. And they're just like perfect in your mind. And then you go, I would never let anyone treat. my kid the way they treated me. I would never let them even come around my kid. Half of you fucking losers and you, God bless you, you didn't work your shit out, but I was dropped into a box full of crazy, whether it's the teachers or the people in the neighborhood

or the wherever, I would never let any of you around my kid because you're not safe. You have bad habits and it might get on me and it might get on my kid. that's how protective you are, right? That's what happens when we win. Because you could have lost. You could have just gone to jail, got out, do it again. Who knows? Do it again.

And we could still at our age. We could decide to drive the car right off the road. Right? We have to make that choice every day to do better and better and to be like the best version possible. I couldn't even imagine doing any of that shit. Right, because you love your life. I'm like so far past that.

Right. But that's because you're, that's because you, love your life. You have stuff at stake. You wouldn't risk it. Even if I don't love myself enough still. I think I do, but sometimes I'm like, I'm not so sure. I love my life. I'm not risking the kids. I'm not risking. I never go back. Certainly, I'm still a person that we all have our things we got to work on. Man, I make little mistakes, but I'd rather make a little mistake than a big mistake. Yeah. Anything else you want to talk about? I know you have some, uh, that was the therapy session with you. So you're relaunching gone for the weekend. Yes. Which you're wearing. Yes. Which I love.

I kind of in the beginning wasn't doing it correctly how I wanted to. Right. And now just taking it more seriously and it's going to be a more broad like entity in itself. Like limited drops obviously recently got it trademarked, which is like a big a big thing. So that kind of starts the the big ball rolling. and just trying to make it a whole... It's a lifestyle. I like the limited drop thing because that's what I'm drawn to. That's what you're...

You know what I mean? We like a lot of the same things. Yeah, we like special. Things that's hard to get. Things, you know, it makes it not as easy. But there's, I mean, the website will have everything from, I mean, one, two, three of a piece

that's a huge gold charm. That's one of my characters. That's all diamond out. That's like, $15,000 to like things everyone can afford. So like from art to clothing to I love that stuff my whole life. I've been like probably my goal since I was a kid is to have a clothing print. Like 100% I've always wanted that to be my name.

And now you have the trademark. Yeah, have the trademark. And I know the clothing industry is a hard. There's a lot of competition, right? I mean, it's probably one of the hardest things to get into. Really, all it takes is one celebrity or a famous person to wear your clothing, and then that's just how it all begins. Sometimes, but I do think the people that succeed at it, this is why I think over time,

you'll succeed, because it's your lifestyle. You wear your own shit, you want to make your own toys, the toy you made, which is like your creatures. Oh, yeah. Is that what they're called? No, just sculptures. Okay. So the toys you make, I love them because it's like Willy Wonka.

Yeah. I always wanted to do that. I know you're into a lot of the same stuff that I like. Yeah. I mean, look at, this is like what my office looks like. Yeah. And you have another one of mine over there. Yeah.

These have not released. I have, you know, I'm working on these. These are like, you have these before anybody. You know, that, the first one over there is a prototype. That doesn't even, I re-I redesigned. This guy. I redesigned that one, and now it looks a little different. He's a little like stockier and chubier and stuff like that.

So yeah, that's Montclair and this dude's name's Gimmy. His name's Gimmie. But yeah, I've always been into toys, my whole life, clothing, the whole, you know, everything when I was young to graffiti to, I did everything that was in the whole hip hop, you know, rap, break dance, graffiti, everything, clothing. I was trying to be involved in all of it, and I just still have a love for it. But gone for the weekend, it's, you know, it appeals to the drug addict, and it appeals to the camping family.

That's kind of where I was at for it. And like we're around the same age, but like, yeah, we like details. We like to buy a shirt with a little more detail. Yeah. And I won't wear it. I'm not into the whole tattoo. You won't catch me with a shirt with a, traditional rows on it.

It's just not me. I don't want to drag it like a big dragon or a coy fish on my shirt. I'm not going to, you know, is that what the general public and people that like tattoos in my industry are going to wear? Yes. But I want to create things that I would wear.

Yeah. And that I'm into. So it's just a lot of big bold lettering. I mean, you're wearing a ton of it right now. For all I wear. It's, that's all you need.

Mixed with a cool design and, good hits on a shirt. You got it. But these are, these are all, limited release you know what I mean there's uh there's like I I made making 15 of them and 10 of them so you have one of them I feel very honored and um I love toys yeah I've always dreamed I've always dreamed of I don't know I've had this like secret dream of having like a toy company

and like inventing toys I'm with you bro because like I love toys yeah I like building Legos I like the packaging, even if I go to, like, if I go to Target and I go to the toy section, and I look at, like, toys with my kid, when my kids were little, it was like three kids at the store, well, one of them had a credit card. And we would buy up the fucking place whenever we were around toys. Because I just, like, it was, I always dreamed of, like, Christmas coming down and there's all these presents. Like, that was my dream. We should do some toy shit together. And I love toys. I love, like, like, like, sculptures.

You know, it translated into sculptures and paintings, but at the core of it, really, is just like a toy with good packaging. Oh, yeah.

Details, feels magical. That's really what I got to work on and got to link up with somebody for that kind of, the packaging side of things. You will.

Yeah. Probably just start on like Etsy. Find someone good. It's really just overseas and communicating with people. Right. What's your favorite brand? Of.

clothing. My favorite brand of clothing? You have a favorite? Chrome Hearts. Is that one? I love Chrome Hearts. I know you do. And you've been rocking Chrome for a long time.

Decades. Yeah. Well, I believe in them as a brand. I believe in them. It's a family-owned business. It's like Bruno Cuccinelli. Right? It's like this built in L.A.

By a family. Yeah. They take care of their people. It's like a, you go into the factory and it feels like a vibe. Like they care. Like Chrome Hearts is a special. brand. That's why I believe in it. I love to believe in the brand I'm wearing. You know, gallery department? I met them. And I saw it when they've been like growing slowly, but like.

Yeah, which is a cold crazy. It's a whole crazy how they came to be. But yeah. Yeah. But I like them. If you're the coolest brand in the world, you should still have a shop where people feel like it's warm. You go in and you're like, man, this is really nice. I'm glad I bought that shirt. I feel great about that. Yeah. Yeah. I've always, uh, it's a lot. It's a always been a love. Yeah, that's why I like, I love that you do that. It's like one of my favorite things that you do is your like your toys and your stuff, your clothes, you're like, you just got to keep doing it because it's cool. I'm trying. I'm trying. I'm going to get, I'm going to get way more into it. It's like, so much, so much in my brain that I just want to just, I just got to get myself to just do it.

Just do it. Put in the work, right? Just got to put it, put it in the work. Just do it. Yeah, but you're doing it. I'm doing it, but not to the level that I'd like. to be doing it. Yeah, yeah, but that just comes over time. Yeah. It's just got, you got a cool brand. The stuff always looks cool. Just keep doing it. Yeah. And then you're going to step in some shit. Yeah. You're going to come up with an idea one day and do it and it's going to be that, that moment of like, aha, all of this has to get you to there. Yeah. You can't think about the results of any one thing. You just have to like keep having fun and like let it all grow. That's the coolest shit anyways. You know what I mean? Yeah. So is it online? Is that where people,

Do you buy it online? Yes, online. GoneFTW.com. GoneFTW.com. Yeah. And it drops. A little play on words there, you know what I mean? Everything's limited, so get it when you can.

And then once it's gone, it's gone. Once it's gone. That's my new mantra with good Charlotte merch. Everything's limited. Once it's gone, it's gone. And then we'll do the next collection. And never again will we just, like, I've been preaching this, like, figuring out, like, let's have three designs that are like the Ramon's T-shirt,

right you can get those at your whatever that's what we were talking about too our merch something you can always get yeah yeah but our merch when we go on tour you can only get it there and once it sells out yeah it's gone like these ones that you yeah yeah when those ones are super limited yeah and the next idea i have is pretty cool like i want to do it i want to keep doing collaborations with brands yeah and then just do little drops with each tour i wear that brand too pleasures oh yeah pleasure is dope yeah great guys yeah Another one. Just doing shit they think is cool over time.

Brain dead. Brain dead. Yeah. Brain dead is, again, brain dead pleasures. People doing all that. To me, that's the brand mantra that works. Do what you can with what you got, when you can. As you grow, just keep doing shit you think is cool over time.

Limited is good. And then it's a winding road to get to the top of the brand world. Yeah. DJ, thanks, bro. Yeah. Thank you, Joel. We'll do it again after the show. It was a great therapy session.

As usual, talking to you. The best, dude. All right, man. See you on set. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of artist friendly. If you really liked it, you can follow, like, subscribe to the show, anywhere you listen to podcasts, Spotify, Apple, Amazon. We appreciate your support, and we'll see you next time.