Garza Podcast - 14: Lorenzo Antonucci

Episode Date: May 17, 2021

Lorenzo Antonucci is a writer, producer, and actor. We talk about filming Paradise City, leaving Sworn Enemy, and much more. SPONSORS: Click this link to purchase from Sweetwater & help support the podcast: imp.i114863.net/rnrmVB

And our guest today is a writer, producer, an actor. He's gone from playing guitar and swine enemy to being an actor and posting pictures of him being with the rock. And it's been really cool to see that transformation to happen. And he's earned it through the years of grinding. So hope you enjoy this conversation. Let's get into it. Please welcome my big brother, Lorenzo Antoinette.

Great, this sounds great. You know, got the SM7s going. Of course, classic. Remember seeing neat these mics Mitch used this on the second record And it's crazy how the podcast world Just kind of took it around with it Well I think

Howard Stern Really made it famous too Because he would always use it back in the day Those are the mics they used Always These are mics for For the actual podcast world I mean for any kind of

I guess radio talk show. Radio talk show. Yeah, they always used SM7s. I remember one because I had to get them for the studio

when I had one in Austria. And, you know, everybody would, you know, obviously people were starting to use them for metal was perfect from screaming. But, you know,

then I was researching it and I was like, oh, this is what Howard Stern used in his show. Crazy. Yeah, because they sound really clear and big. Clear,

clear and big. Yeah, so, yeah, you had a studio out in Austria. huh? Yeah. That's crazy. Just started a studio from... From 2000...

Yeah, from 2010 to... When I moved back here, when I moved back here, when I moved here, I wasn't even living here yet. Wow. I moved to L.A.

Because I was in Austria back and forth from New York and L.A. I mean, New York and Austria. Big change from when the first day I met you, actually in front of this house right outside. That was our first time in a bus. And I don't know whose idea it was to agree

to share a bus with East Coast Band from Queens. And this big red bus parks and these maniacs walk out. And that's when I met you, met Sal and Polly. Man. What a... I remember you guys were sitting outside. and your mom and your grandma?

Yeah, mom, yeah. Yeah, your mom and your whole family, and you had all the gear on the front, and we pulled up, like, you guys couldn't wait to get in. Yeah. And I was like, this is awesome. And you guys were just starting to, you were at the cusp of blowing up, you know?

And it was awesome, and we shared the bus. I mean, what the hell? It was, like, 50 days. It was a long run. It was a long run. A long tour. What were we thinking? We weren't.

I know a couple of us went on that tour, sober and then we came back never the same. I'm sobered seven years now ironically but I remember his first time drinking he was his 21st birthday and then we got him bombed somewhere in

West Bubba fuck I don't remember what country what state it was where if it was Canada I know we had a crazy bus driver Tomcat Tomcat Tomcat yeah I remember his name dude Tom cat oh my God

I haven't thought about that name in so Didn't him and didn't Tom and Polly on his freaking fight? And then he was going to lead the fucking tour or something? I don't know. Tomcat was, I mean, he was a strange guy. Maybe it was Polly. I don't remember. I don't know.

I know that he, apparently he was a nice guy. He actually introduced me to my first time ever eating mushrooms at, not the, drug mushrooms. But like, oh, what? Like mushrooms that the rainbow stuffed mushrooms. Really? I was like, I'm not eating mushrooms. That's gross. I used to hate mushrooms and olives.

I would never eat it because, you know, you know, the Puerto Ricans, we would make the Harokungandule and they put the, my grandmother and my mom, they used to put the olives inside and you eat it by accent. You'd be like, oh, that's what gave it the flavor. and that's what I never liked olives, the green olives. Yeah. So I never liked olives and I never liked mushrooms until my taste, my palate or whatever, my taste buds changed.

And I started eating olives in Europe. Because I don't know where I was eating. I was like, I don't know if I was trying to lose weight. I don't know what it was. I was like, I'm going to eat olives only. I'm going to eat pickles and olives and drink beer. I don't know what I was thinking, but it's healthy. It's healthier.

And I ate that. At somewhere in Austria, I remember something. I remember I was like 29 or 30. I was like, I actually like olives now. But he's the one that was like, oh, my God, we're going to the rainbow. And I was like, oh, we're okay, whatever. And he was like, they got the best stuffed mushrooms ever. Still to this day, I eat the stuffed mushrooms.

At the rainbow room, they're fantastic. Really? They're the best thing ever. They come out scorching hot, but they're like the best, the best mushroom stuff with some cheese and some

bacon bits and oh man it's so it's making me hungry I haven't eaten all day either stuff stuff mushrooms stuff mushrooms wow I never even seen that

on the menu there it's the best thing they got that in their pizza obviously they got that great pizza there they got the good pizza from Chicago

they should I mean it's not the Chicago style but I mean they're Chicago guys that make good pizza you know is that true that I don't know if it's the rainbow room

or if it's a place down the street how they, there's a rumor that they ship the water. I mean... Probably just a rumor. I've been hearing they ship the water from New York forever and... How do you feel about that? I feel like it's a crock of shit.

Yeah. I feel like it's bullshit. But then I could be wrong. Somebody could be like, well, here's a YouTube link and they're fucking shit with it. I don't know. But I mean, I feel like... Yeah. How bad could the water be? And how much flavor, does that even sound right? Yeah.

The amount of flavor in the water that isn't taken out by some filter in New York that is, any filtered water is, like the amount of water isn't filtered here. It's like, it doesn't make sense. Like, it's the water in New York that gives it the taste. I don't know. I could be completely wrong. My friend, Louis Lombardi, he's a big pizza nut. be he'll probably jump all over.

What do you talk about? They fucking do that. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know about the fucking pizza and the thing. What do you mean? So,

I don't know how true that is. You know, it could be, it could be true or it could be, you know, it could be just some fucking myth, man,

I don't know. Yeah, it's weird. It's kind of one of those things that, especially from like, from us West Coaster, is it's kind of one of those things you hear about when you're young and you just don't question it.

Oh, No, fish is bad for you, and then it stays sweet forever. You know, it's like one of those things. They ship the water from East Coast to here, and that's why the pizza is fucking good. Yeah, I just don't know. And at the end of the day, there's a place on sunset called Joe's. And then there's Mulberry Street, you know,

Ritchie Mulberry, Richie's a good guy, man. He owns Mulberry, and he's a Bronx dude, and he makes good New York pizza. You know what I mean? He makes really good New York pizza, and so there's Joe's. I'm going to ask him, is this fucking thing here with the water? I mean, they're going to be like, get the fuck out of you. You think I'm shipping water from fucking New York. They're going to laugh.

Yeah, I'm shipping water during COVID. That's what we're doing. I'm shipping COVID water from fucking New York to LA. Get the fucking. They'll laugh at me. So I wouldn't even ask that because I just think it's a fucking crock of shit. Yeah. I got to be honest.

But I don't know. I could be wrong. You know what I mean? Yeah. The water in New York doesn't taste any different than the water in L.A. You know what I mean? It's just like, it both suck. Yeah.

No one would know better than you Because you've lived You're from there And then now you live here For a standing period of time So you would know Yeah I definitely

Have an idea I just can't see water Changing the fact that There's a great pizzeria In Jersey That's I don't know 75 miles away

From the great pizzeria in New York But they taste Pretty much identical as great pizza. Yeah. And the water is exactly the same in Jersey and in fucking New York. It just doesn't make any sense.

It doesn't. You might need to take a hit and maybe ask your homie on like a good day. Yeah. Just to confirm this rumor. It's definitely a load of rumors and it's a cool thing to talk about.

Hey, they ship barrels in fucking water. New York water coming in. It makes no... It's one of those things. It makes no sense, but it doesn't. Fuck it, whatever. I don't know. I mean, we should Google it.

Yeah. See, that's the problem. But Google is that all you got to do is Google it now. You don't have time to think. That's true. And make yourself use your brain and say, huh, well, does it make sense to fucking, it doesn't make sense? I don't see how it would make sense. Because I've had pizza in Italy and it's not, and it's not New York pizza.

it's completely a different kind of pizza and it's completely different. Yeah. And it's a good taste for what it is. And I think the pizza here, I love how we're in a whole pizza topic right now. I love it. Going in on pizza. I'm fucking starving now. But we like the whole, the whole thing with pizza is, I mean, the whole thing is like, you know, I don't even know where I'm going with it.

But at the end of the day, like, I think it's the oven. if it's a brick oven, I think it's the way it's like how crispy it comes out, how the dough and the cheese and the tomato sauce, that's what, you know, that's the, how cheesy it is and it's fucking, when you could snap the fucking slice, oh, the best.

Boom, and you got that, you know what I mean? That's how you eat a slice of fucking pizza. That, to me, is the way it's supposed to be eaten. Yeah. You know? And then you guys in California want to throw fucking pineapple and shit on it. Get the,

Fuck at it. The fucking thing is nuts. I'm crossing my legs this way now. Fuck it. Whatever. I'm crossing it this way now. Do you put ranch in your pizza? Is that like a big no-no?

There's a big no-no, right? Pepperoni slice is the only thing I do. That's it. That's the only ones I like. No, no sauces, but that's... Nah. If we get drunk and moronic, that's what we would do. Eat the worst stuff in the world.

Eat the worst. Drink the worst. So drinking makes you make the worst choices in the world. It does. It makes you make the word. I'm sorry I introduce you to alcohol. It's coming from this man. Man, I was sober.

I didn't drink a sip of alcohol until I was 21, and I turned 21 on that tour. I remember the day. I remember every single minute of the breaking your straight edge, if you were straight edge. I don't know if you were straight edge. But breaking the moment of your drinking.

I'm breaking you into a drinker You guys taught us Even drinking inside You guys taught us how to tour We were never the same after that tour Like we just You guys I mean you guys have that natural New York hustle

And it's very different from the California hustle You guys showed us like another side of Of a doing something And maybe like subconsciously You just stayed with us Yeah I mean it was like the first first kind of like we've shared buses before you know i think once before that was with biohazard

and a lot of other times was we would have just drvs but you know we never had we we would never had at a at a point to afford a bus on our own you know so it was always like yeah you know good to share and you guys we were all excited because it was like you know the young new band that's coming up that's fucking got a lot of hype yeah and it was fun to be with you guys and you guys because we already clicked before that. I remember being nervous. So, man, these guys, these guys, they're vets. They're like a real band.

And we're just like something like, you always have like this insecurity when you're like the younger band. You know, all these guys are doing, man. And they're from East Coast. And I was scared. 21, I was scared. But I mean, we were always loving guys.

You know what I mean? We were always loving guys. that we didn't, you know, we just were, we were just always the underdog and never, you know, and we were just happy that there was the new band that really was excited to be around with us, you know, that's always, you know, a good thing to have is people really caring about your journey and, or a fan of your band or a fan of what you've done, you know, like that's always a good, a good feeling to know and to, you know, able to do what we did, you know, which was, you know, we had some crazy, that was a crazy tour, man.

It was nuts. I was just thinking about at the time we were, I don't know if it was after a show or an off date, but we were stopped at a gas station and Polly decided to steal some DVDs. And then he comes on the bus. I don't know why is, I look back to the story. I'm like, why did we stay there?

I think because we were getting gas or it was a moment where Tomcat had to have his break What was the point of it? Pauli comes back with like 10 DVDs in his pocket and then next thing you know there's cops on the bus. Pauli was just a kleptomaniac and I miss him. I love him, man. That's two of our brothers.

Pauli and Mitch are in heaven right now. Yeah. Yeah, they had some good time together, man. Yeah, they're both young men when they passed. So young, dude. How old? I don't you, I'm not sure how old Polly was. He was 35. It was 35. Wow.

Just turned 35. That's my age. Yeah. Yeah, you guys were the same age. I can't, I can't imagine that. Oh, no, you're not the same. Were you the same age? No. No, I mean, I was 21, he was 35.

Correct? No, no. I mean, sorry. He was probably 23 or 24. Yeah. On that tour, because he was born 80, 83. He was born. He was done.

He was five years younger to me, so he was born 82. So that means in 2000. What were year you were born? 85. So yeah, he was three years older than you or two years older than you. Yeah, so it was 23 when I met him was 21. So that's just, I can't imagine that. We need to make some Pauley shirts.

I'd be sick. Yeah, well, I mean, you know, did the tribute to him in Paradise City, you know. My character is Pauly. Antoniani. Yeah. So that's a attribute to him, you know. Yeah, when you guys,

it was probably you and Ash going back and forth with your character, I assumed that was probably like a no-brainer. I want, like his name is Pauli. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah, that was definitely what I wanted to do

with the character. It was, you know, Paulie was, I mean, Paulie was, I guess, what I did with the, for me, as an actor, I just captured Paulie and myself, you know, because Pauli didn't play guitar. He played drums, but I played guitar.

You know, I captured a lot of his, his ways of thinking and maybe his, his love for weed as much as I could smoke it on the show, you know, given the time that we had to smoke weed, acting like I was smoking weed, because we were smoking the fake weed, whatever it was. Yeah.

But, you know, there was, you know, and to have Randy there, Lamb of God, you know, playing Dom, you know, he loved Pauli too, you know. So it was a good moment, you know. And I remember me, Paulie and Ash smoking a joint in the back of our RV a long time ago. So that was a fun little, you know, because Ash didn't really know Paulie, but he remember that moment because we did smoke a joint in the back of the RV, driving Ash to his brother's house in Virginia after a show. I don't remember what show.

I think you guys were on the show. It was a Fredericksburg show. Frederick. Yeah, it was like one of those, and you guys were just starting to come up. Wow. And we played that. It was six feet under.

Oh, wow. Yeah, I think that we, yeah, it was a six feet under tour because Job Ford Cowboy played and you guys played a different stage. It was like when we just first started hearing about suicide silence. So, yeah, it was good that,

and Ash supported, you know, obviously the love of Pauli, so I wanted to capture that. And the whole over-it-all stuff is very similar to this one-enemy world on the show. And, you know, that's a lot of my influence in the writing. So, you know, that's as real as it gets when it comes to touring. You know, anybody who watch the show. And if you haven't watched the show, go watch it. Go watch it on Amazon Prime.

Amazon Prime. I think that that's a good idea to have it on there. Yeah. It was cool. I'm on episode two. I was only planning to watch one because I like it. I like doing something fresh. And then last night I was like, I'll watch one.

I don't know if this might be just a personal opinion. But you might have struck gold. Like the whole 40 minute length, I loved it. Yeah. I was planning to be like, okay, I'll watch one. Then I'll pass out. And then once the 40 minute mark stopped, and it stopped in a good point. I'm like, I got to watch this one more.

And then luckily I saw the second one. because that was the first one where a Polly was introduced and then and then and then band. It was awesome. Yeah. I was like, Dan, that's like,

like they're recreating like a light, like the sworn enemy vibe. Yeah. So gnarly. That was cool, man. Yeah, yeah, you know, you know exactly what the vibe is.

It was awesome. You lived it. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm glad, I'm glad for, for music, people who really do this for a living,

for someone like you can say, well, this is awesome and it's authentic and it's coming out, you know, Like, you know, and it keeps you wanting to watch is a good sign of, I think we did our job, you know, leaving the cliffhangers and making the show, you know, leaving the cliffhangers and making people who know the business still engaged, you know, because, you know, TV shows are hard to make. And I guess pilots are really hard to make. And you said it right there. Like, it left me wanting more.

And it was like 40 minutes. It was like a perfect sweet spot of like that ending and that holy shit, I kind of want more. Meanwhile, some pilots are like really hard to get through because you're just, they're just establishing the world. And you're like, who are these characters? And I don't kind of, but you already kind of had a familiarity of it. You know what I mean? You already kind of know the world because you're a musician and you were toured for a living successfully. So you know the ups and downs you've seen with all the band members and the relentless.

And obviously you know a lot of those guys, you know, you've been on tour with all of them. So it was a familiar, you know, you had, you gravitated towards it easier, but at the same time, you're a musician and you can start, you know, kind of like dissect it. Oh, is that really the way it really is? Yeah. But you, you, we all are musicians. So we actually were able to make it as authentic as possible. Yeah.

You know, and it only gets better. I know. I can't wait to watch more, man. Yeah. Yeah. I wasn't expecting. And you said the perfect world. or a cliphanger.

Yeah. But the first one I had a perfect clip hanger. I was like, oh, I have to. I have to.

And what I really liked the way, how it was ending, and you're getting kind of like, you're, now you're emotionally invested in it. And a good show,

movie or anything where music is something that kind of makes you think about your life. It doesn't even have to do anything to do in music. And there's a moment, his character is Johnny,

you know, Andy. And he was talking about his regrets. And then it shows him like seeing like the chick. And then for some reason, that scene made me think about a moment in my life. I'm like, that's what something good does. And it makes you think. Makes you reflect on other things that happen to your life.

Yes. And brings you closer or sucks you into the world more because you can relate to it now. Yes. You know, and that, I think that that's, that's a good sign. Yeah. Yeah, because a lot of people, you know, and it does show like the two different worlds of being in the music, being in the music business, you know, because it's as authentic as as can be, you know, maybe it could be more authentic. I don't know. You know, but for what we were trying to capture with a little bit of that supernatural twist in there is, you know, there is, I mean, we haven't even gotten into it.

go into season two brother there's so many things you know you know how much there's so much meat to fucking to get you know to eat off of bro like the shit that we've all been through on the road yeah come on you know what i mean like it's it's just the beginning yeah it's infinite right you guys it's like all right like part of you and i should like talk about it you know how how a team can't come and go where do we want to want to take this it's really endless yeah you know that's the great part of, you know, being able to pull from so many places of realism. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Especially things you've lived. You're pulling from all these things that you've lived and it just opens up all these doors. So it's kind of, it's, you know, I think that we did a really, really good job for independently making the television show on a scale of a high-end production. Yeah. You know? That's high-end.

we were able to do this and it was a grueling process although we had the best time of our lives making it it was fun but like you know to get it finally out and into the world was very very tough you know it was very very hard there was you know there's more than 200 people involved in this show to thank you know without those 200 people we wouldn't have been able to do

at least you know between the cast the crew you know the post-production teams you know like there's more than 200 people honestly because there was different you know on a daily we had about 80 people working every day on the show so if you have 80 people working every day as far as the you know the art department your your gaffers your grips your your your your production design team and they all have teams your wardrobe has a team you know your camera team you know your camera you know B cam A cam you know the director of the assistants the AD the first AD the second AD like it's it's it's it's just endless of just departments and then there's transpot the people that just transpot all the the trucks

and the it's because it's a union show right so there's 80 people doing that easily daily and then you got your cast and we have a big cast so and then you got you got you cast so and then you got background. This is not even with background. And background is extras, but the nice word is background because extra sounds, you know, a little, hey, I ain't an extra, you know what I mean? I'll be background. You know what I mean? But background's the more cooler feel, you know, than just being called or he's an extra. He does background is better. That's a nicer way to say. It is. He does background, not he's an extra because he kind of is like a punch in the face if you think about it.

So that's not even counting that. This is. is counting, you know, without background. I mean, some days on those like, like the some of the show stuff that we had to, you know, do and we did it very creatively, we would have like 150 background come. What? So that would be a day of 300 people that you got to feed that day. You got to feed all those people. It's mayhem.

So all the people that got to coordinate that and help facilitate the areas to keep now that COVID's a thing. That's even more when you have. that many people. So thank you to the, say, 300 people that were part of, you know, coming to, you know, shoot Paradise City. They're the most important, you know, like I think that they, like everyone on, on the, you know, especially in any show or any movie that, the least credited people are the ones that you never hear about, you know,

and I want those people to recognize and understand that I thank you. And I know we personally thank you. I appreciate you guys because I've did it all. I've done it all. I've PA'd for commercials with Zach Merck. You know, I've worked under one of my really good friends. He's like a brother to me. And he's one of the biggest commercial directors.

And I, and I, and you know what? They ain't nothing wrong with Pian. P-A.N. is great. I peed, and I was in my late 30s already. You know what I mean? And P-A-N is pretty much being a personal assistant. Yeah. And making good money because it's a union project.

So you're not making, you know, you're making like $250 a day. Yeah. That's a good job from where I come from. That's great job. I would do construction. 150 a day is great. You know, from the world I come from. You know, I come from, you know, what I come from is my mother making $250 a week and my father

making $500 a week. You know what I mean? That's the world I lived in my whole life. So that's not, this was like, whoa, you know, like if you're making $250 a day doing PA, you know, it's like 16 hours a day, 15 hours a day. It wasn't the best. It didn't feel great, but I've done it. And what I'm saying is that without those people, you know,

without the people that really do some of the work that is the most non the most thankless you know what I mean give it up to them yeah to the ones that that because this is a thankless business anyway but yeah that's my my my two senses is is I want to thank the people that you know were there who who who who were just as tied just as hungry, just as cold, just as hot if it was hot out, just as cranky, just as I want to go home and, you know, they don't reap the benefits that the cast does and the producers do and the director does and the creator does and, you know, the executive producers and the writers and the, like, shout out to the people that don't get the, don't get

the recognition for all the hard work because they were. there probably more hours than anybody else. Yeah. That's all I got to say. I'm just, I'm just being humble Lorenzo right now. I love it. I'm into that. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes. Uh-huh. Yeah, there's just so many people and so many small details that need to be done,

especially when you're doing it independently and yourself. It's just all these little things have to be done by somebody. Yes. And it's a lot of work, a lot of money. And at the end of the day, it takes an army, an army of Navy SEALs, man. You know what I mean? To get something that, like, what we did, you know, may seem like, oh, it's cool. You know, somebody would be like, oh, I watch the show.

It's cool. Yeah, it's cool, man. All right, moving on. And they don't have no clue how hard it was to do that. You know what I mean? Like, people just be like, oh, that show sucks. And I'm not saying people are saying anything about Paradise City. I'm just saying, in general, when you hear somebody that just has to shit all over a show

or shit all over a film or shit all over a band or a project or anything creatively and they don't know how hard the process is. They don't know how hard it is to make that vision come to life and they don't appreciate it. And it's just exclude all the haters. Hators go fuck yourself. I don't want to hear any haters. I don't want that around me.

Negative energy. Toxicity. Get out of it. There's too many haters out there. Just stop it. Just stop hating love, man. Just create. and have fun and love people because what else is there?

Hating does nothing but make you hate yourself. You really hate yourself. If you can't stand looking at other people successful because you're so mad at hating yourself and you can't get nowhere because you're just so mad at you block yourself all day, that's why. There's one thing I noticed that just it's so bad on all levels

is a sense of entitlement. When you feel like you're entitled to something, it's horrible. Yeah. You know? I remember like little, you know, if I look back in my career, little moments the week months I had, like I felt entitled

oh, if you start saying, I've been around for this long, I should have this, or anything like that, it's a lose-lose. It's like, man, so many years I've been around it, but who gets a fuck? It doesn't matter. You know, we're doing what we're doing and we're all equal.

Just because you've been in a band for 20 years, to me, I learned that it doesn't mean shit. It doesn't. It means you're, we're all equal all the time. Yeah. You know? I got a great way to make everybody understand how equal we are besides anything else.

And I'm going to say it in front of the ladies here, and it's a little, it's a little, but it makes the most sense. We all wipe our ass equally in the same way. I don't care if you're worth a billion, a trillion, 100 million, 150 million, or 150 million. We all wipe our ass and we're disgusted until it's clean. I don't care who you are. Yeah. I don't care who you are. What prince you are.

I don't care if you got 10 trillion in the bank. Everyone's got to do it the same way until it's clean. Yeah. That's it, man. That's just my analogy on that one. Yeah. We're all human, man. That's right.

God. Well, it's good that you're aware of it and you know and you live that way. Yeah. That way. You'll be, I mean, you've, you've probably had so much experience in, Even just like the music industry, how like you're coming up or no matter where you're out, you're in career, you're around younger bands,

or older, and that sense of entitlement, you're like, what the fuck? What the fuck you're doing, man? Yeah, I mean, I forgot the level of egos in the music world. You know, I know that they exist, and I just haven't been around it long enough. Like, like, as far as dealing with a band that's got a bunch of egos or a band member,

I've, you know, there's a couple of band members in Swin'any me that, you know, had some, they were troubled, you know what I mean? And it is what it is, and that's fine. I remember some, you know, some band members we would be on tour with that of other bands, and I'd be good if I never see them again. You know what I mean? Like, it's, I'm fun, cool. You know what I mean?

Like, no big deal, but just because of the sensitive entitlement and who they thought they were, I don't got to mention names, you know what I mean? But just people like, like, really? And then you look at where they are now and you're just like, oh, that makes sense. Yeah. So there's a lot of that in the entertainment world, I feel. And, you know, I feel like there's a lot of, you know, I think that if you're just a good person, you're happy for when people are doing awesome, you may not be doing awesome at that moment.

but if you're happy for that person, it'll come back to you. It'll happen. I'm a prime example of starting a new venture, a new career, pretty much in entertainment, pivoting from music to wrestling for that short window into TV film and acting. And, man, it was a grueling process, man. It was not easy getting to rejection, seeing people 10 years young. than me, doing it for 10 years longer than me, doing so much better than me. And I'm like, whoa, it was very hard to understand that and be like, well, it's all about

the amount of time you put in. The 10 year grind is what gets you to the goal is what, you know, they say you got to have 10,000 hours of, and whatever you do to be successful. And then I started to notice like, now 2021, you know, three years of, you know, three years ago, I, you know, I just did ballers. And I was like, whoa, this is the biggest thing I've done

for TV, even though it was two episodes, but it still was big for me. You know, I was like, so excited about it. So, and my friend Rob, who put me on it, he's like, bro, that was nothing, bro, what do you mean? That was not, that was, I'm not, that was fucking huge for me. I worked with the rock. You know what I mean? Like, to me, it was the fucking, it was the best

thing in the world. Yeah. But that's, was the parallel Paulie died that same day and I'm shooting them with the rock that same day. That was the worst and best moment in my life. And how do you navigate that? That was brutal. Paulie died that night and I had to be on set 5 o'clock in the morning. And Sal called me with the news.

think about that I'm going to set for my first day I'm going to be in a scene with the rock and Paulie's dead that was my day fucking brutal that's brutal man

yeah it was fucking like what what yeah bro it was like the worst and that was like I've never you know you know it was an interesting

you know and I don't even know how to you can't explain how it felt or what it was like it was just the best and worst thing at the same time happening. You know, I couldn't even, it was awful. But, you know, here we are. You know, it's like, and that was where I'm going with how hard it is to get to where you

go when you're, where you're going is those are, you know, small, not small moments, but those are, like, those are moments that you, that gives you the hope. like all right even though that that was the two episodes that was two days of work that was the best like two days

like holy shit I'm on two episodes of Ballers it's HBO wow and then then you still got nothing from there you know like nothing's happening you're still like trying to audition

and you wish you could audition for something and nothing's happening or you wish you could get for something and you're getting nothing and the phone ain't ringing and you're just like what the

he just gets it feels like it gets harder and harder with these but those little injections of inspiration keep you going boom boom boom and you're just like I can do it I got this one I can do the next one you know and then you can and then you just got to keep uh keep trying and that's what uh you know that's what I think is is has been the part of the success is like you know I never stopped I never gave up and even though it felt like I should you know like damn shit you What am I doing this for? But now it's like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

It's fucking, it's awesome. Yeah, I really like the way you put that. You have injections of inspiration. Yeah. Because that's exactly what, like, what it is. You have, like, these random, like, but that keeps you going to, like, the, like, next thing. Yeah, it's like a shot of adrenaline, you know? Yeah.

You feel like you're falling asleep and it's not, you know, you know, getting to where you want to go. And you're like, ah, what are you going to do? You're going to do when you're fucking depressed. Or you're like, ah, nobody gives a fuck. Oh, shit. And boom. Hey, I'm here.

Hey, how are you? Hey. And then boom, you back to like, ah, no, I'm not, you know, I got to keep working, you know, nobody cares. Nobody cares. And boom, it hits you again. But now it's just like, that was like constantly starting to, now I'm busy. Busy, very busy.

I mean, I did a lot in 2021 so far. That's pretty, you know, I just did a, I did two Bruce Willis movies this year. And one of the Bruce Willis movies is with John Malkovich, Michael Rooker, and Olga Kirillanko. I mean, that was in, Olga's on, she's the James Bond girl. Yeah. That's, that's pretty awesome. That's great. I got an amazing scenes with Michael Rooker, man.

He's an incredible human. Shout out to Michael Rooker. You inspired me hanging out. with you and talking and then going he taught me how to shoot guns it's just like wow you know and he's he's you know god he's in a galaxy bro and he's you know it's coming out huge new character on suicide squad because he wasn't in the first one i don't believe i don't think he was in the suicide squad i'm not sure but yeah yeah so he's a he's a he's a very very very wonderful man and everybody shout out to everybody involved in, you know, the movie White Elephant.

And, you know, I can't thank them all enough. You know, and React is the one, the other one that I did in February with Bruce Willis and Patrick Muldoon and Matthew Marsden. That one's dove too. That's like a modern-day diehard. Yeah, well, these are, and I play a redneck cop down south boy. Nice. Yeah.

Officer Bledsoe With a duchy mustache. Wow. I see that. Yeah. I see you killing that part for sure. Yeah, it was fun. It's a fun role.

For me, anyway, you know, to play a cop, I've never really, I've played a cop in a horror before, but I've never played, you know, like a crooked, dirty cop. Yeah. That's what this character is. He's, you know.

But, yeah, and then two pilots that I'm doing right now. I worked with Tom Seismore. He plays my dad. That's awesome. It's called Scarlett. It's based off of the book called Scarlett, so I'm not sure how it's going to be positioned as a show, but the pilot is the working title of Scarlett. But it's a mob series, and it's a female take of the mob from a news reporter, and she's African-American. And that's never been done before. And Tom Seismore was my dad. And that's, you know, the scenes I had with him was pretty awesome that we shot on Sunday. Yeah. Yeah, it was awesome. Tom Seismore is a legend. Legend. So that was cool. And that's, that's, you know, I mean, that was a, we just finished

wrapped out. And I just did another small, another independent one that's kind of like, This is like if there was ever a prequel to entourage, you know, and, you know, showing how hard it is for a New York actor to move to L.A. and become a star or to just become the, you know, a working actor, the grind it takes for, you know, like the New York competition. It's like a fun comedy, like kind of like anterage with a sprinkle of Larry David, you know, a little Kirby enthusiasm going on. So we shot that pilot too

And I play Nick Bonelli Which is cool I play like like this You know kind of a tie in New Yorker that books everything I'm the one that's the hot shot That I get all the roles Yeah

And this guy Pete Solando He's uh You know Always up against me And he's like yo I see this guy every time And he's always gonna win Fuck this guy

It's a fun It's a fun pilot So that's uh Hopefully these two will get picked up and go from there. Then we released Paradise City, which was epic. Yeah.

Fucking, I mean, especially for our community, you know, for the rockers and the metal guys, you know what I mean? It's huge for us. It's huge. Something that you're doing and Asch is doing, and me and Cece always talk about this, like what you guys are doing is so massive

because people need to think about the industry, our scene, our genre, in a different way like it just always seems like it's in like this fucking box you know like someone just needs like there's nothing like you just it could go anywhere you know and and then

and then since it's it's a show it could bring people in that's not even involved with that there's nothing about like like the music you know so it has transcending qualities to it you know and I just I just

it's just to me I love seeing stuff like that because someone needs to fucking do something just that like you know it doesn't have to be this it could be

anything you know it could go anywhere you know and it's great it's great that uh someone's actually doing something about it

because there's people think about it you know maybe like the back of their heads but no one talks about it no one does anything but where people actually do something and then actually make it a reality I mean that's that's truly special man

yeah I think that um that hardcore and you know our genre of music and metal and you know our world is an interesting world and it is inside this box sometimes and and and then every time you see like someone like little john on that evolution of hip-hop he's talking about the bad brains and minor threat whereas influence you get like stoked on he's like yo that's just fucking awesome yeah you know because those are hardcore bands, you know, from the late 70s, early 80s. Yeah. You know, like, that's cool to hear, you know, the influence from, you know, big producers

or big rappers, you know, talking about it, that there's a lot of influence from our music in a lot of the mainstream world, you know? Yeah. Especially Beastie Boys were in about, you know, hardcore bands and they would always jump on stage with the Chromeags, you know, MCA would, you know, like, just a lot of stuff like that, like, you know, to me, is very. what I feel like, you know, Moby's a big hardcore kid, you know what I mean? Wow.

You know what I mean? He was at the last H-2O show that before COVID that I went to with my boy Chris and Toby and, and, um, a night, ignite played too that night. Uh, it was out here somewhere. I was the, the, fuck was the place that they're called. It was the, not the grove, something like the grove, some spot observatory, like somewhere, somewhere near that. Yeah.

And, you know, it's good to see, you know, like big, I guess, famous or whatever you want to call them, that they're all hardcore kids. Yeah. And then they were into our music that really, that moves me. That and that, that, that, and then there's in this business there's so many hardcore kids, you know what I mean? Like there's huge showrunners, huge directors, you know, huge, you know, huge, you know, actors and, you know, they all came from this world. in some ways, or managers that are, you know, own companies and stuff like that that are all in the TV film world. And they all come from listening to some fucking Murphy's Law or Lee Way or some H-2O or Mad Ball or listening to Swan Enemy or bio hazard or, you know, any of these genres, you know, any of these hardcore bands, which is cool to see. So there is a, there is a connection, you know.

it seems that there is a connection and there there is a way to to do other stuff you know since uh you know hence you know paradise city it's great yeah it's huge it's definitely been a crazy journey and hopefully it continue to grow you know i don't know whether i don't know where the i don't know where the music's going to go now because it's so hard to tell you know what what's happening with live events and you know are you guys scheduled the tour soon i mean we're scheduled a tour in october we'll see what we'll uh we'll we'll we'll see what happens but um man like maybe similar to you like i haven't worked so hard with music the past six months my whole career you know doing like stuff that's outside of like touring the music yeah you know evolving into i guess you

could say like the digital world you know like this whole thing has been insane There's just so much little stuff. Right. And it just takes hours and hours just to kind of figure out how to turn shit on. Yeah. It's just like it's crazy. And it's good to see you always. Lorenzo was always a name you kept hearing, especially in the scene because you're always doing something.

And that's rare. Right. It was very rare. Like you're always either like obviously like, you know, like you left sworn enemy, then you hear about all. oh, he moved. Oh, now he's getting arrested. Lorenzo was an actor. But it's extremely,

extremely rare that you keep hearing someone's name pop up consistently. Right. I can't even, honestly, I can't even think of anyone else that it's been that way. It says you just kept, you just kept doing something.

How did you do that? I don't fucking know. I don't know, man. And I know that I wanted something more than just to be the average guy. You know, I wanted to do, and there's nothing wrong with being the average guy, but I wanted more. You know, I wasn't going to settle for, you know, well, the band didn't work out. I'm going to not, you know, I'm going to go back to construction. We'll go fix cars because that's all I know.

I don't got an education. that wasn't Failure was not an option for me So when I started recording bands in Austria You know I started You know Getting into the engineering part

And mixing part And I fell in love with it I was like this is awesome I learned all about it I was like I'm still in music And I'm doing good This is like a new career for me And I was learning

And I was getting really good at what I was doing And I knew how to just work I just knew how to do it and because I had no other choices, but then when the opportunity came to try to get into the wrestling game and try to get a try out for the WWE and work for that, and, you know, that was another door that opened into a different realm of entertainment. And I was like, if I don't do it now, when I'm going to do it?

If I don't do it now, how am I ever going to get to be that way want to go. I don't know how to do it. I didn't have someone telling me you need to go here and you need to go there and that's how you're going to get, you know, this is how you're going to connect the dots. I always had no clue of acting, writing, nothing. I never knew how it was done. I just was so in my own world in my box, in that little box of, oh, I'm into hardcore band. I play guitar and, you know, occasionally I come home and I go work construction when money's tight. that was it that's all I knew

you know but I knew I wanted way more than that I'm getting younger I'm gonna be in better shape than in my life at 50 I'm gonna be more successful by the time I'm 50 mentally I'm gonna be successful

because I get smarter every day and that's I guess what kind of kept me going like I can do anything I want nothing can stop me nobody can stop me and you know I don't listen to the people that are like,

well, you should do this and you should do that. I mean, if you really love this, then you should just focus on this. And like, I mean, no. Only you know. Only I'm going to do what I want to do. Yeah. And focus, I know what my main focus is,

but I make sure that everything that my main focus is, is on screen, being the actor, but everything that I do moves in that direction. too. Yeah. Everything I do is moving in that direction. If I'm writing something, producing something, making some kind of connecting the dots in that way is positioning me to be on the screen.

Yeah. And it's the Stallone model. You know what I mean? So I'm not stopping. You know, and now that the momentum has been, you know, it's going. And it feels good. It's like, now I know I'm legit. becoming a real thing.

Like before, I was just like, oh, you know, and I'm sure 50 million friends, you know, that sit there and roll their eyes behind your back, they're all there. They're all there. Don't act like I don't know you're doing it. You know what I mean? Like, they all roll their eyes.

Oh, you know, they make fun of you. It's all good. Go ahead. You fuel me. You give me the fuel. Thank you. Keep rolling your eyes and keep saying that you can't do it. And look at him.

He's a jerk. and blah blah blah la go ahead i i love it it's fuel from it just fuels me up you're giving me the gas it's pure fucking gasoline baby yeah just give me the gas because i'm all gas no brakes baby you ain't gonna stop me man it's crazy how long it takes for you just to get momentum huh how much it takes for you just to start yeah it seems uh for what you just said a while ago it seems for what you just said a while ago, it seems like it just kind of happened. We're just starting consistent.

Yeah. How much? How many years that takes? 26? 26 years. I started, I met Sal from Swan Enemy in 1993 at a studio.

Man, I can't believe I forgot the name of the studio. Where was that? It wasn't the Roxy. Maybe it was the Rocks. He was in Queens, and we used to go there to practice. And I met him to my friend Mike Palmer, who was the bass player in his band Corruption, and I was a singer, and I was just going to try out for the band.

In 1993, I tried out for the band. I was 15. I came in with 2 40s of Budweiser, my pack of Newport's, and I had braids, you know, because I'm Puerto Rican and Italian, so I'm just a confused Puerto Rican Italian. I had braids in my hair.

I came in and I tried out and I got the gig. And then I played my first show in Bond Street, I think. And that was with close call out of line, a bunch of hardcore bands from back of the day. I think 25 to Life might have been in. It's a long time ago. So 1993, I stepped on the stage and played in a band. in the band

or we joined the band. So from 1993 to 2003 is when our record first came out on Electra. So that was a 10-year gap for getting signed to a major label.

Yeah. Ten years it took from 1993 that me and South, I mean, me and South had different bands, you know, and I think Mike Raff would jump in. I don't think even met Raff,

but he was our first guitar player on his reals against. But I'm not sure if he came in in downfall or he came in in mindset, but we had a bunch of different bands before we were mindset, which was then Jamie from Hapri was like, Jamie Jost was like, we're not keeping mindset. There's a band in Philly, a punk rock band, and they're going to sue us, blah, blah, blah.

And you got to change your name and here's your name. Then Jamie gave us one enemy. So if you think about that, that was a 10 year bro 10 fucking years of going to the studio every Tuesday night yeah it's a fucking fun night yeah we're gonna get signed yo we got shows oh we got a weekend show oh that's great we're now we're weekend warriors two weekends in a one month and we're like yo we're playing with hate breeding Connecticut and then hate breeding Massachusetts the next day and oh we're playing with death threat you know like oh we're playing with agnostic front for a weekend or we're playing

with mad ball or whatever it was you know what I mean and that's when we were like oh we're getting on you This is like 98. Wow. All right. So look at how long it takes. It took us, took me. I don't know. I was a moron.

You know what I mean? I didn't know. It was what it was. I didn't get no education. I knew nothing about nothing. I knew I picked up the guitar. I was self-taught. I didn't, well, my friend Pete Ross taught me a few things.

I used to pay him $5 an hour. And he taught me some slayer riffs and some scales. Back in the movie when we were kids. And then, you know, I didn't know. didn't know how to get anything, but we slowly just never gave it up, never given up, got to the point now, holy shit, Jamie just got assigned to Elektra Records. Jamie and Steve Ross and Steve Richards, I mean, that team got assigned. Now, we're on Elektra Records, man.

There was no hardcore bands on a major label. We're one or two. I think sick of it all and H2O were on majors as well. So I guess the three Queens, New York bands were all on major labels. and then Hayprey was on Universal. Wow. But then we were the first hardcore band besides Hayprey to be on OzFest.

And then it started to trickle down into 2004. And then we started to go. You know what I mean? But it was, you know, a short window of that being a successful run too because then it started to die out. Swan enemy had a great moment. Then boom, it started to pivot like what over at all is. You know what I mean?

Like that's exactly what the fuck happened. And then just people are miserable. The tours are shittier and shittier. Then you start drinking more? You start drinking more and you're fucking drunk on stage. Even though I was drunk on stage a few times when it was great. But, you know, but then Europe gave us that injection of inspiration. We would go to Europe and it would be massive.

Oh, yeah. You know, we're playing festivals. Everybody's singing along. We're selling mad merch. We're fucking headlining. It's great. Come back here. Oh, God.

You know, fucking shows a shot. Oh, they would be good and some of the shows would be shitty. And then you're like, oh, man, what the fuck? fuck and then you get that injection you know then you go to japan and we was in japan and people asking you for your autograph in the street and you're just like what the fuck is going i'm buying an apple store what the people know who i am here it was this culture shock on that regard you going to japan right but i mean obviously because they were around knowing you were playing so they would stay around the square and i didn't know but i was like but like so these injections

these little things would keep us will keep me motivated on yeah i want more than just just being the average guy. Yeah. When didn't you know that it was time to walk away? I think it was Arkansas. Maybe Arkansas. I don't remember where we were. We were in a K-F, a K-A-C.

What is it? K-O-A, K-O-A, the RV parks and the campgrounds. And we had to drive, I don't know, 300 miles or something. and we were up raging all night the night before, all of us. And we all made a pact. Like if this band breaks up, this new lineup, you know, with J-Rad and J-Men and Sid and me and Sal, if this new lineup, if somebody leaves, we should just call the quits

because it was just like, that was kind of like the pact that we made. And we were supposed to drive 300 miles, and we all woke up, hungover, miserable, it was hot. miserable and we were like fucking drinking whiskey all night and the tour manager Kevin he's our tour manager sound guy I love Kevin. Shout out to Kevin Kane

he's fucking hammered too and he's supposed to drive. Oh fuck and he doesn't want to drive fuck you I'm not driving and everybody and then I just fucking got in the car and I started driving the got in the RV and I was driving that shit out of the park like a raging lunatic you don't want to drive nobody

fuck this, I quit. I quit. And the fucking drummer quits. Everybody quit. And I was like, I'm done. I was like, I'm finishing this fucking tour. And I'm finishing the Earth Crisis tour that we're doing in Europe. It was like the hell on earth.

And I'm done. Wow. And that was it. I never looked back. I never regretted it. I had enough. I knew I was, I knew I wanted more.

But I didn't think that Sal was going to continue to ban because we did make that back. But then he just, you know, he kind of, kept it going and with the guys he's got and that's cool you know i'm more power to him they made a really great record with um rob flyn from machine head that recent one there's some really good songs on that so i you know more power to them and i i support them and i you know i was always happy that they he continued because i know sall loves to do it and you know and more power to the guys that are playing in the band now and you know i knew i i had to go for something new and bigger because i mean you know i have dreams that make people's eyes roll or make people think

that i'm you know make people look at me like i'm crazy yeah i i don't i don't care you got to dream bigger don't don't don't dream at all you know i mean like i'm not sitting here being delusional i'm just being a guy that wants it you know i mean i want i want what i want i don't have to yeah you know i don't have to you know tell you what it is i just want i know what i want i want to have what a lot of my friends have, you know what I mean? Yeah. Killing it. I love it for them.

I love it. I love them killing it because it makes me want it more. I mean, I'm like, I know when they didn't have anything, they got it now. And I know when he didn't have anything and he's got it now. Like, yo, next. I'm next. You know what I mean? Like, I'm next.

And that should be inspiration to anybody who's in their 40s and they're like, I don't know what's going on in my life. Keep fucking working and shut up and do the work. And don't act like it ain't going to happen Because only you can stop yourself Only you can You know, if you failed is because you gave up Yeah

That's it Yeah did you ever struggle with like Especially like for you especially For you especially of the past few years Like we're like He's want to be like fuck it and quit Or like where self-doubt This creeps in there and you're like dude like

What are you doing? Did you ever struggle with any of that? No. Because those thoughts would come into my mind of, no, those thoughts didn't come to my mind because I couldn't see myself doing anything else. I couldn't see myself, I knew I had, if you have a plan B and you're not focusing on plan A.

I didn't have a plan A. I didn't have a plan B. I knew what I could do. I knew I could go fucking make, I could go build a house if I want what I'm all my friends to do construction. I knew I could do anything in that capacity for work and earn money.

But I didn't want to. So that wasn't a plan B because, but I had that, I guess, subconsciously knowing that I could do that. Plan A was the goal. This is it. I'm right at the cusp of knocking the cover off the ball. I'm hitting singles.

Boop. Boop. I'm getting on base, man. You know? Soon enough, I'm going to get a home run. Maybe a grand slam. Yeah. I'm out of the dugout.

It was hard to get into a fucking dugout. It was hard to get there. That took fucking forever just to sit in the dugout and watch everybody else play. Yeah. Now I'm in the fucking game. I'm playing with the major league guys. I'm in the game. That's it.

Next is the next, next, the next shit. You know, like, that's how I look at it. Like, now I could never give up. I would never. There's no reason. I mean, I'm doing it, you know? Like, it's fucking, it's, I think that this is the, and to look back at this success, I mean, to look back at the journey is what the success is, man.

You know? Yeah. I think Viola Davis posted something. That's one of my favorite actresses in the world. I mean, she's top, top notch for me. She, um, and that was. funny that she was at the Gifting Suite the same day we were there and I was really starstruck about it like I can't believe I just signed a guitar that she just signed like 10, 50 minutes before

we got there and basically she said think about where you were and where you are now and think about where you're going. That's it. Something like that she posted and I was like, Oh my God. You're talking about her. Like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, to imagine the struggle she had. She started a late, too, 31 years old. Hey, she went to Julia.

She went to some real, real training for acting and all that stuff. And then there's no, there's no, um, you know, I think it was julia, but there's, there's, there's no, like, uh, you know, shortage of, of, of, of her working on her craft to get to the place where she was. But, I mean, just imagine all the obstacles she went through, like anybody else. And now, you know, she's one of the best. In my opinion, this is just one of my fan

favorites, one of my favorites. And, you know, when she kind of talks about, you know, what she talks about on her Instagram or when you see what things that she's posting, and it's just, I gravitate towards it or I can relate to it and I'm just like, I'm on the fucking

right path. Yeah. I'm on the right path. You're on there. I like how you put it to where. Like, look where you're at now and look how far you come and look where you're going. Those, those, that, that trifecta is massive. And I never really thought about it that way.

I'm always missing one of them. Yeah. We all do. Huh. We all do, man. We all get bummed out, you know? It's like, you know, when you're not, when you're not hitting at all cylinders and you're not fucking, you know, and we're not fucking crushing it,

and you're just like, man, it's fucking brutal. Oh, fuck. Yeah. Oh, shit. What else can go wrong? It sucks. It sucks. It sucks to not be on.

It sucks to not be fucking doing awesome, man. It does. But guess what? If you did awesome all day, every day, then you wouldn't know what the fuck that meant to be doing awesome. You would only know what the fuck is. That's why there's those trust fund kids and those celebrity kids that aren't kind of groomed the right way that they get lost

because they don't know what it is to have 0.0 and then having something and work. working for that. They were just giving it the whole time. Yeah. And it's like, like, kind of like they, they're, they're, um, entitled to it. And they don't know how hard their family member or their dad or their mom had to work for what they got. So in my opinion, you know, pretty much that journey of building from zero, taking all the punches and the the nose and the beatings

and the blood, sweat and tears and then getting that good score and then back to the blood sweat and tears and getting another couple of two three good scores, back to the blood sweat and tears and you're just like, when is it going to fucking end? I don't think it ever ends because the more money you

got, the more famous you are, the more shit going on, you still hit the highs and lows because more people are after you because more people need attention for me, more people need something from you and you're just like, you're getting pulled from all different angles, you know,

and I could just imagine. I have a lot of successful friends, and I see how they handle it. Some of them, you know, have meltdown. Some of them can deal with it. Some of them just know how to compartmentalize the differences and do it in that matter.

But for me, I think that, you know, I've been through some of the worst shit in my life, man, you know? And, you know, I could, I'm harder than a rock. You know what I mean? Like, nothing's going to stop me. You know?

That's the only thing I can, you know, because being, having everything great and handed to you every day, that gets old too. It has to get old. Because you don't know what it's like to not have it anymore. You know what I mean? Because now you have it. I just can't see like, like, yeah.

And people can say money is and everything or this, that, and the third. But I believe that if you work for something and you've made it and you got enough money to take care of yourself and people around you and everybody that you love and you're getting everything you want, you're going to hit those highs and lows too to make you appreciate that money you still have to keep you hungry enough to keep earning so you can take care of everybody that you're taking care of in the way that you can and hopefully give them the inspiration to grow and live. and pass that positive energy and what you're instilling them, what you're putting inside them to give them the ability to grow or the ability to have the courage and to do so, you know,

because what else do we do with that money? If you have it all and you're not enjoying it with anybody, what are you doing with it? Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, you got to enjoy it with somebody. Yeah. You got to give it.

it to somebody so they can enjoy enjoy this awesome life with you if you have an awesome life of living this crazy awesome life you got to have people around you but then it's got to be the right people because then there's the leeches yeah there's the the parasites that come in and they want to eat for free and then they're entitled to eat for free strange huh yeah it's kind of wild it's crazy it's like wild goose chase and you've probably seen many forms and versions of those kind of people especially I can't even imagine

in the acting world how that is yeah you know everybody is agenda driven you know you got to be careful with people's agenda I think that there's a lot of them

that have a lot of them are in snake's skin you know yeah and they may not even know it. Yeah. You know, because everybody's just trying to come up. Everybody's just trying to come up.

Everybody's just trying to come up from being the assistant to being the boss. Yeah. Nobody wants to be the assistant forever. So it's just how you apply the positioning yourself by doing so with integrity and doing the right thing. you don't get rewarded for doing the right thing at the wrong time. You get rewarded for doing the right thing at the right time. Yeah.

So these, the facts I live by, you know. Yeah. I try to anyone. No, you're, you're doing it, man. Yeah. It's a tough, uh, it's a tough game, man. It is. I've seen many, uh, seen you in a lot of scenarios.

and one that I'm very proud of you of and it's kind of one of those worst case scenarios where I saw you in Las Vegas we're at the T-Mobile Arena you're at Vegas, you're in an arena you're at a UFC fight you know obviously like your nerves are high and yours non-drinking.

Oh yeah. I remember when I saw you and I was like, wow he did it. Yeah. You're doing it and did it. What was that drinking? Red Bull probably? Yeah.

Not alcoholic girls. I mean, non-alcoholic rebels. No sugar, sugar-free rebels. That's how I was drinking. Yeah, that's right. We had a good time at the... I forgot what? That was fight night.

Fight week. Yeah. It was really good fight. I'm like, man, if he's not drinking here, he did it. Wasn't easy. Wasn't easy. A lot of this is... Again, the alcohol was my enemy.

It doesn't mean it's everybody's enemy, and I don't have any shame. of anything moving forward from it, you know, like I've done a stupid shit drinking, and everybody does. I don't care who you are. Nobody's too cool to say it either. And if you're hiding, I'm perfect when I'm drunk. Yeah, okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I know a lot of those guys that they say that they're perfect when they're drunk. I know a lot of them. Those are, you know, they're around. But, you know, alcohol makes you make the worst decisions. makes you, in my opinion, this is me speaking.

This isn't like I'm saying that if you're doing it, it's going to make you do the same. I'm talking about for alcoholics who can't just have a couple of drinks and keep it moving. They've got to have all gas, no breaks. That's the kind of drinker I was. All gas, no breaks. Yeah. And, you know, think about the compound effect of being an alcoholic that way.

drinking three or four days a week, feeling like shit three days of those recovering days, but still trying to be productive in some way. Yeah. Right? So if you take those three days and you compound those three days out of the entire year, how much of that year have you lost?

Hangovers, sluggish. I'm on the couch. I feel like shit. I don't want to do nothing. you compound that over three years. You lost two years of your life of doing nothing. Yeah. That was an easy indicator for me to say,

I'm done drinking. I'm done. Being hungover. And as you get older, after 35, the hangovers were worse. I was like, what the fuck? They last three days. Yeah.

They last, they're fucking miserable. So I was like, hmm. And then with you, you have to be laser, short focus. I mean, on point all the time. And like there's, especially when you're taught, when you're cross the line of drinking, like, things don't click like three days later. Like, something's like kind of off. You're not like, you're not, you're not that's fucking on it.

Yeah. Yeah. And especially in your case, like, you have to be on it. Yeah. And I think that that's been a part of my success as well is that I've been, you know, I guess focus, laser focus, even though it gets hard. And, you know, if you don't have a vice, you don't have a place to go and decompress and drink when you're down. You know, that's what a lot of people do when they're down. And that's how they get past it.

And they're not sitting there racking their brain about why things ain't moving. You know, they're out drinking now. And it's like, whatever, I'm drinking. It's all good. But think about that. Like being able to be sober and dealing with the ups and downs and having that always in the back of your mind, like, damn. I don't have a place to escape. I'm still here.

Sober dealing with my problems. That's tough. And that was the first year of being sober. I had to deal with that. I was like really challenged with. But I don't think that there's, I don't think that there's anything wrong with it. I think that that's a great learning experience for anybody to just,

if you got a problem if you have plenty of you know nights that you hear that you did this and nice that you hear that you did that it's time for you to put the booze down man yeah it's time for you to put the booze down because eventually the chickens

they come home to roost they do and they don't fuck around so I would definitely be you know this is just like the I guess I'm trying to speak to people that were in my position because there are some people that they have a couple of drinks

and they might have a hiccup here and there but it ain't as brutal as some of the other hiccups that people have five to eight times a year. You know what I mean? Like bad shit that they do or stupid shit they get into fights with their friends or stupid shit, you know? Yeah.

You don't need that in your life and it's just poison. So at the end of the day, here we are. Like I'm just trying to inject any kind of inspiration into somebody of just like, hey, you know, you could be, you know, it could be worse. You know, drinking doesn't solve any of the problems.

And that's just in my opinion. And drinking's got a bunch of empty calories and makes you look old. Yeah. Yeah. And you got sober and then you finally lost, you're able to lose the moose, you know? Yeah. Losing the moose.

I used to love those videos that. You oppose, man. You got to lose the moose. Yeah, you want to eat like shit. You're going to look like shit. You want to eat clean, you got to look lean. You eat clean, you look lean. That's true.

That's the model, you know, I guess. But these, again, it's a tough, it's a tough game, man. It's a tough world. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, you got to learn how to just navigate through the bullshit and just always try to be as good as you can end it all. good because that's what's worth for me. Nothing's changing my, you know, nothing's changed my path because I've been just constantly doing the same thing and it's just keeping me elevating, elevating, elevating. So I feel like my formula of being me, just being me and I'm not trying

to be anything else. I'm being me is working. So as long as you're true to yourself and who you are, I think that that's what's beneficial for any artists, you know, as long as you just stick to your guns and you do what's right for yourself. And you can make educated decisions that you've got to make to boost your career or to do, you know, to brand yourself as a bigger, I guess, brand yourself for the, in a commercial way, I guess. I don't know how you would want to utilize that for, depending on what lane you're in. you know what I mean but you know there's ways to do it with taste and not coming off looking

thirsty and forced and fake I think yeah yeah well uh big brother I don't want to take too much of of your time so let's let's end this one on a high note and that and that was pretty high you know dude thank you for for for for your time and it was cool like I met you here here. It's 15 years ago and now you're back here and you're you're you. Yeah. You're you. Yeah, man. It was awesome talking to your mom. That was badass. Yeah. Well, until next time, where can people find you? Lorenzo Antenucci Jr. is my, Lorenzo Antenucci, J.R. Jr. is my Instagram handler. At Real Antenucci is my Twitter.

She's on Facebook. I got Lorenzaanthagy.comnet is my website. You know, there's a few other places. You can, you know, check out my Antonucci pictures. You know, follow me on Antenucci Pictures. That's my production company that I just started soon to be having some stuff come out, you know, with my, you know, branding it through my company, trying to, you know, trying to grow that, you know,

because I do have my own stuff happening and, you know, in the back of my head somewhere. somewhere bad kids living. Shout out to, you know, everyone a part of the team, you know, shout out to my manager. Shout out to my PR, Jasmine, Melissa, Camille. You know, shout out to everyone that's been, that's been by my side since day one.

You know, I love you. Shout out to you. I love you, you know what I mean? Like, we've been doing this a long time, brother. Love you too, man. Yeah. And everybody who believes in anything that I'm doing, I appreciate it. And, you know, this has been an awesome journey to get to this point right here where I'm sitting here with Gaza in Corona, California.

It's a beautiful thing. Yes, it is. And we're just beginning. It is just the beginning. It's crazy, huh? Yeah. I'm 23, not 43. Well, you are definitely a very handsome man.

Oh, thank you. I love it. All right, everyone. See you. Later. Peace.