Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - J. K. SIMMONS & DAVID SIMMONS: Love Behind Anger, Impostor Syndrome, Saving Youth Lives & Uncomfortable with Awards

Episode Date: January 17, 2023

J. K. Simmons (Whiplash, Spiderman) joins us this week to share stories from his time in this industry going from waiting tables and scrounging for pizza - to becoming an Academy Award Winning actor and making his name in films like Whiplash, Spiderman, and Juno… J. K. talks about the love that is behind the anger of many of his iconic performances while going on to tell us what the most fulfilling moment of his career was with the great Aaron Sorkin. The real treat of this episode was when his brother, David Simmons (The UBU Project) joined us. David talks about being a suicide attempt survivor and how he’s using his experience, recovery, and musical background to save the lives of our youth. Powerful episode this week folks, hope you enjoy it. To learn more about the UBU Project visit ( https://ubuproject.org/ ) and if you want to support their mission I urge you to checkout their upcoming benefit concert on Saturday, January 28th ( https://ubuproject.org/ubu-benefit-concert ) Thank you to our sponsors: ❤️ Betterhelp: https://betterhelp.com/inside 🚀 https://rocketmoney.com/inside 🟠 Discover: https://discvr.co/3Cnb1V8 __________________________________________________ 💖 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou 👕 Inside Of You Merch: https://store.insideofyoupodcast.com/ __________________________________________________ Watch or listen to more episodes! 📺 https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/show __________________________________________________ Follow us online! 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🤣 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@insideofyou_podcast 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/insideofyoupod 🌐 Website: https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Thanks for joining me. Thanks for being here choosing this podcast. There's a lot of other podcasts out there. And if you're here for J.K. Simmons, I hope if you like the podcast, you know, this is a little podcast. We talk about real stuff. It's not celebrity bullshit. We get into mental health, Ryan.

You do. It's a little bit of celebrity bullshit just to start. You start with it, but then you got to get in. You can't just jump in with real serious shit. You got to dip your toes in. Yeah. And I hope you like the show. And if you do, subscribe. If you like the interview, if you like me, chances are I don't know what you're going to like. But I hope you'll follow us at Inside of You podcast on the Instagram and Facebook at Inside You pod on the Twitter. And you could watch on YouTube, subscribe there, write a review, Apple, wherever you want. It really helps the podcast. Great guests today, man. This is a legend. What an actor. Sometimes you have these guys on that you're like, oh my gosh, you came on the podcast. And that's J.K. Simmons. And boy, do we talk about everything. He was really open, open about his life, open about, you know, his brother comes on later in the podcast. David,

David Simmons, very brave soul who attempted suicide twice. And they came up with this amazing organization, the U.B.U project. And I was like, what does it stand for? But it's actually you, be you. You know what I mean? And it's the prevention of you. Youth, Suicide, Addiction and Bullying through Social, Emotional, Performing Arts, Integration, Residencies. Look, there's a concert coming up Saturday, January 28th, 730 p.m. at Scottsdale, Desert Stage's theater. And please head there or donate. Go to UBUproject.org for more information. It's a wonderful podcast. Also, look, thank you for watching Talkville and supporting that podcast with me and Tom Welling or rewatch smallville podcast but don't forget this little podcast here um patreon.com slash inside of you

join patreon support the podcast without my patrons i couldn't do it there's all sorts of prizes and things and uh you know connections and packages i send to top tier patrons and support the podcast if you like a little extra something wouldn't hurt hopefully it won't hurt patreon.com slash inside of you and we need you also if you want to uh look at the inside of you online store you can go there there's autograph smallville stuff scripts lexmas scripts and lunch boxes and inside of you merch and also my band sunspin guys we just came out with our new album i have to promote it sunspin.com you can go to merch CDs autographs zooms go streaming follow us on the streaming platforms just go to sunspin the new album is never is what it is there's another album from last year that we did

really proud of it and there's no other way to promote it than to promote to you guys um you know it's not like I'm a big rock star here and I can get millions of people to listen to the album. We're proud of it. I hope you listen to it. I hope you enjoy it. You can get merch there. We're doing a stage it show and that stage it show is this weekend, Saturday at 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, me and Rob and another special guest, we are going to sing songs from the

album and some covers and it's a blast. We'll call your names out as we see them on the screen and go to stage it.com type in sunspin for the 5 o'clock show next Saturday. or you can go to sunspin.com and get tickets, but really we'd appreciate your, if you've never listened to a show, I think you're going to really enjoy it. I'm very proud of it. And I believe that's it. I believe that's all. Why don't we do it? Why don't we just jump into one of the greats? Let's get inside of J.K. Simmons. It's my point of you. You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum.

Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. J.K., how are you? I am fine. How are you? I'm good. You know, we met at the, it was the benefit for the Australia, you know, the thing they had for the brush fires, like a couple years ago. And we talked and I told you my Paul Giamatti story about how he walked in on me at a hotel when I was with my girlfriend on the bed. and some, do you remember that? Yeah, Jammati, apparently he does that all the time. He just walks in on people.

Yeah, it's like a thing with him. It was amazing because I remember he walked in. I don't know why they gave him a key to my room. It was an accident, but he goes, oh, oh, oh, wow, well, I'm sorry. And he just, he just left. And the next day I saw him, he was doing an interview and we locked eyes. And he looked at him, he goes, oh, my God, oh my God. And he ran up to me, goes, this is the best story.

Can I tell this story? I'm like, yeah, of course. You could tell the story. It was pretty good. But listen, I'm good friends with Jason Reitman, as I know you are. And Jason, I said, hey, I'm interviewing JK. You want to say anything? And he just said, he texts him, he says, I love JK.

I absolutely love this man. He clearly is the connective tissue between all my movies. He stands for a kind of craft that almost doesn't exist anymore. A sheer unparalleled level of talent match with a work ethic, you cannot find it almost any other performer, the ability to be unrelentingly terrifying, and in the next moment, completely tender. One of the luckiest moments of my career was meeting him on Thank You for Smoke. Well, I mean, that's, you know, that's goosebumps kind of praise coming from Jason. And, you know, that meeting on Thank You for Smoking almost did not happen because, mostly because I'm so

clueless about show business in general. I mean, I had read the script. I was going into audition for Jason back in the auditioning days. Oh, yes. I missed that. And had to schlep all the way out to Santa Monica from my place in the hills. And the kids are in elementary school. And, you know, things are very busy at home.

And I slept out there to the casting director's office, park my car, plug the meter, you know, get to get into the office. And I'm waiting. And as usual, you know, you're waiting and you're waiting and you're waiting. and my parking meter is almost expired. And I'm thinking, you know what? I mean, maybe I just get in the car and go back home because the kids are about to get out of school. I can go pick them up, you know. And I'm at the parking meter at my car deciding whether I'm going to plug the meter or just say, screw this audition.

You know, it's just another audition. And this young guy comes up and he goes, oh, JK, JK, why you're? And I was, you know, at that time in my life, it was still somewhat surprising when somebody would encounter. me on the street and know my name, so great to meet you and blah, blah, blah. And I sort of reached out and shook this guy's hand. And it was clear to him the way I stared at him. I had no idea who he was. He goes, I'm Jason. I'm Jason. Rightman. I'm so sorry. I'm late. And you know, come on in. Let's let's do this thing. And, you know, I semi reluctantly went, yeah, okay, all right. Went in, had a little chat with Jason and the rest obviously is history.

You actually auditioned that day? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, he confessed. he basically had me in mind, you know, from very early on to play BR in Thank You for Smoking. And his one concern, I think, at the audition was he said, listen, I'm a big fan of yours. I would love to work with you and have you play this part. He said, my concern is you're so well known for the Spider-Man. I think both the first two Spider-Man movies were out by then, maybe all three. And he said, and here you are playing another sort of, you know, blustery boss. He said, you know, how can we kind of avoid those inevitable comparisons?

And I, like a smart ass, dumbass said, I don't know. I mean, I could not have a flat top wig and smoke a cigar. And he went, yeah, okay, I guess we'll be good. I mean, do you find it? Because I find it when you audition for something and you start this banter back and it's fun and you're like talking it's almost hard to then get into the audition because you're so I mean how do you transition into let's do the work here from hey how's it going all right okay let's do this would you rather just not say a damn word and just just go into it well yeah and

of course you know the first 30 years of my career that's what happened I was guy number 97 being ushered into the room and like here's your name and they find the resume and they go ready go and you do the thing. So you didn't, you know, because they didn't give a damn about who you were. Right. It, it was an awkward transition to that point where they, you know, they have to, you know, your agent has said, now, he's done this and this and this. So you have to treat him with this level of, you know, and, and those first many, many, you know, dozens or hundreds of little lighthearted conversations with directors were, were really the hardest acting. there was because you're just trying to act like you're cool and relaxed and you know in fact you're

just as nervous as you were at those cattle calls on west 46th Street you know where you stood in the snow for four hours before the audition in New York it was quite the transition and now you know to be to be in a position where you know I'm so fortunate to not need a job you know those kinds of meetings are genuinely all about, like, are we on the same page? Obviously, I wouldn't be here if I didn't like the material. You know, do we want to go about it in ways that, not necessarily exactly the same way, but, you know, can we, can we collaborate on this effectively and not just get along, but, you know, have a vision that, or visions that merge, or at least overlap? do you still get nervous first of all do you even audition anymore i i would assume you don't but

do you still ever have to and if you do do you still get nervous or in first days on set when you first deliver those first lines or is there nerves or you just pass that i don't i don't audition anymore there there still are those those meetings with directors that uh that sometimes now are are suggested by me uh because i read something that's interesting but I want to make sure that we're on the same page. Yeah, the nerves, I mean, that first day of school thing really never goes away or never has for me. There's always that, you know, I don't know if it's nerves so much as just, you know, I guess a little butterflies, a little kind of, you know, excitement about, you know, I'm shooting something right now down in Atlanta and working with people that I hadn't worked with before. You know, especially when it's, you know, it's a big movie star you haven't worked with before.

You know, you show up on set the first day and there's always that, you know, as there always will be, I guess. At least for me, that kind of, you know, a childlike naivete about, you know, I've seen you in the movies, you know, you're a big star. I do that too. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Inside of you is brought to you by Quince. I love Quince. I am. I've told you this before. I got this awesome $60 cashmere sweater. I wear it religiously. You can get all sorts of amazing, amazing clothing for such reasonable prices. Look, cooler temps are rolling in. And as always, Quince is where I'm turning for fall staples that actually last. From cashmere to denim to boots, the quality holds up and the price still blows me away.

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Download the Rocket Money app and enter my show name inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum in the survey so they know I sent you. Don't wait. Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Rocket Money. Look, we're going to get into, which is, in my opinion, the most important part of this podcast when your brother David Simmons comes out and benefiting the UBU project to prevent you suicide addiction. bullying it's a second annual light your corner of the world uh with j k simmons and david simmons who is the ub u founder and uh that's saturday january 28th at 730 in the desert stages theater in scottesdale arizona and that we're going to get him to talk about that because on this

podcast we it's not just celebrity talk i like to open up about you know mental health and what we deal with as human beings and i think why people still listen to the podcast is because they want to hear stories and and realize that you know even j k simmons he's you're he's a human being he he has dealt with rejection and anxiety or maybe depression or whatever it is mental health and obviously your brother knows a lot about that as well as you do so we'll get into that but you know i look at your career and i'm just like you know people don't look at the struggles they don't they don't they don't understand how hard it can be some people you know i've worked with people who they were an overnight success that uh just immediately oh my god and he's a star

and i'm one of those who've just kind of like and i'm not a star But I'm, you know, it's one of those things where I did something that was okay and then something that was shit and something that was pretty good. And then shit. Then, oh, that was good. Then it's kind of been like that. It's fluctuated. But you've really gone through it. And you look at your, your resume. And I'm like over 200 films. And you, you know, you got Academy Award and a British Academy Award and all these things. But you struggled. And I know that you've talked about this a lot. But I think it's, it's interesting to hear because. How many times as a young actor did you think, you know, I'm going to do something else. I'll be a teacher. I'll follow my father's footsteps. I'll be a musical director. Were there those thoughts a lot or did they never occur to you? Well, there would have been more of those thoughts.

First of all, I hesitate to use with regard to myself to use the word struggle because, you know, even in those early days where I was, you know, not getting acting work or sporadically getting acting work, you know, I was okay. I was just a single idiot, you know, and all I needed was a slice of pizza and a friend's couch in Hell's Kitchen. And that's what I had a lot of the time. And I, and I had friends. And I, you know, I had, you know, the capability to go out and wait tables. I wasn't very good at it.

But, you know, I was fine. You know, to me, a struggle is, you know, a single mom, you know, working two jobs and trying to be there for her kids or, you know, whatever, a soldier. a trench somewhere. Those are the real struggles. Having said that, the difficult, you know, times that I had trying to get a career going, I think if I genuinely had another truly viable skill set that I could have gone to, I might have done that, you know, when I was here in New York in the early 80s, not finding acting jobs. And one time, a particular, I remember not even, you know, I was back in town after having done a regional theater job in somewhere, Buffalo or Cleveland or whatever it was, and not getting a job, not even getting much in the way of auditions. And then I, you know, hit the streets looking for jobs waiting tables. Couldn't even get that. I mean, there was, it was like nobody was hiring, you know, anywhere. And I'm walking up and down every street in Hell's Kitchen theater district and complaining to my friend Greg Edelman. He was a, you know, Broadway guy here in New York and has done a lot of film and TV as well.

And, you know, we're just, he brought over the six pack and we're hanging out. And he's listening to me, you know, whine about how tough things are. And the next morning, the phone rings wakes me up. I go out to, you know, look at the answering machine and Greg left $2.20 bills under my telephone, which was, I mean, that's a solid week of pizza at that time. So it was those kinds of little acts of kindness from friends that I look back on fondly and that I remember the most from that time. You know, I think we all have egos. I think you have to have some sort of ego to be in this business, to have this, I'm good, look at me. I want the attention.

We all have that no matter some people will say, no, no, I just do it. I don't care about everybody else. And I think it's kind of bullshit. But, you know, the ego thing, was there at an early age when you're in New York struggling and doing all these things, was there ever a big. party that was like, how did they not see how fucking good I am? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know if I would phrase it exactly that way, but, you know, I mean, by the time I got to New York, I had done, you know, I started doing summer theater in

Montana when I was in college at the Big Fork Summer Playhouse in Big Fork, Montana. Everybody go there. My brother and I both worked there. And then I spent a few years in Seattle after graduating with my music degree, not knowing what I was going to do, you know. I still at that point thought maybe I have it in me to be an opera singer. But I just kind of auditioned for whatever came along. And I ended up being able to do a pretty nice variety of things.

I was doing straight plays and musicals and playing the leading man and playing a wacky character part and really not being type cast as anything. And then I get to New York and I'm going to these cattle calls for like a leading man role. And everybody in the in the line looks like Robert Redford. And I'm just kind of this guy who's just starting to admit that he's losing his hair. And then I go to a, you know, a cattle call for some character part. And everybody in line looks like Marty Feldman and they're all, you know, hilarious. And I'm like, where do I fit? How do I find work?

And fortunately, you know, had a few casting directors in New York in those early days. Alan Felderman, Jay Binder, particularly those two guys who saw me as a versatile guy. and saw me in different ways. And I was able to do all through my regional career. And, you know, I hope it's continued into my film and television career, as Jason Reitman alluded to, you know, to be able to have opportunities to show different aspects of myself, different characters, different aspects of the human condition that we're all here trying to sort of shed some light on.

and sometimes with humor yeah did you did you uh have a good childhood where your parents very supportive of you loving unconditional love proud of you i didn't really get that so i always ask people this question because i'm curious as to how it was in their child and how they grew up uh yeah well never ask a question you don't know the answer to right isn't that what they tell the lawyers and the uh the interrogators yeah um yeah we did uh my brother and sister and i absolutely did uh our Our parents were incredibly supportive of whatever we were in. And, of course, we're particularly delighted. Well, not, of course, because you don't know our parents.

But my father was a music teacher. They met in the chorus of a musical in college at Knox College in Illinois, Galesburg, Illinois. Evansville, Indiana. I grew up in Indiana, southern Indiana. Yeah, well, we were, you know, I was born in Detroit and, you know, spent several years in Ohio. So we're all, we got that whole Midwestern thing. We do, we do. But our parents, obviously, very supportive of our forays into the performing arts.

And we all, well, my brother and sister both played instruments. I never, my hands didn't connect to my brain very well in terms of that. But, you know, we were all singing and sometimes performing in plays and this and that. They were very supportive of that. Or whatever, whatever sports thing I was doing. or a, you know, whatever academic thing. My sister just retired as a professor at the University of Washington. She inherited that, the teacher gene from my father.

My brother inherited all of the above, you know, the performing artist and the teaching aspect. And yeah, so that's a long-winded version of saying, yes. Parents were incredibly supportive and loving and understanding of, you know, what a career, any career, but especially a career in the performing arts that, you know, it's going to take it a while to get off the ground probably. I remember my, I went to Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I think Dan Fogelberg's saying about it. But I remember them coming to see me to play, and they took me to Denny's because, you know,

we're a classy family. And we sat there and I said, I'm going to be an actor. And my dad looked at me and I never forget. He goes, eat your steak. I never forget it. That's what he said. I don't think anybody believed in me to do something like that. And I don't blame them.

I don't blame people for going, look, small town, I wasn't popular. I was the shortest kid in school. I didn't know who I was. I was just out there. And if anybody would have, you would have asked them what I would have done. They never would have thought I would have become a successful actor in Hollywood. Was there something? Because for me, I've talked about it, but I did a play in high school.

And I remember the popular kids in the hallway the next day saying, hey, you were funny. who never talked to me and i said oh not being me i've talked about this then that's the way i'll do it and was there something that you remember a moment of validation or applause that made you feel like i'm doing something right well there were hundreds really i mean you know along the way going back to you know my classmates you know my my teammates from the from the football team in eighth grade laughing when Kyle Lafferty and I played Tweedledum and Tweedle D in Alice in Foodland. And then I think the same year, the next year I played, I played Bottom in a midsummer night's dream. Actually, not a midsummer night's dream, all the tinker scenes from a midsummer night's dream,

Pyramus and Thisbee, for those of you, Shakespearean scholars out there. And just kind of, it was a great coming together. of different aspects of society, you know, in my junior high in high school, you know, in those days in the, you know, late 60s, early 70s, it was like, you know, there were the jocks, there were the hippies, the geeks, there were the brainiacs, the geeks, you know, there were the theater nerds, you know, there were these little cliques and they really didn't overlap. You know, you couldn't be a jock and a hippie. And I was struggling with that because I was feeling I was sort of pulled by a variety of

of different little micro societies there. And that was one of the few times where I felt like, you know, not that I was consciously attempting to do that, but those those little groups kind of intermingled. And there was a commonality there that was uncommon. Right. I mean, it's just, you know, you, you're, one of your first roles you did like all my children, right?

Like, I don't know you don't talk about that a lot, but like I always find these soap operas, people go, oh, it's a soap opera. But the amount of dialogue these folks have to learn and go up. It was terrifying. I couldn't do it. When I say that, I really, I could not do that. I would, I would explode. How did you, what were your, what was your preparation like trying to do something like that? Well, I was very, very nervous. I think my first time on all my children, I played a couple of different characters on that a few years apart. My first time I played a Canadian Mountie. And Erica Kane, for those of you who are familiar with Susan Lucci's character

for a thousand years on that show, was stranded on Cobbler's Island somewhere in the Great White North. And I was a Canadian Mountie, not like, you know, Nelson Eddie, not wearing the red outfit, but, you know, in the office. And I did my first episode, learned my lines. And, you know, She had more lines than I did. So it was just a question of not screwing up and, you know, hitting your mark and just trying to be there and trying not to hyperventilate. And, you know, all the experience doing theater all those years and having those opening night jitters helped, I think, prepare me for that. The writing, of course, is not exactly, you know, Shakespeare or Arthur Miller. But, but I, you know, I felt like I pulled it off.

I acquitted myself, okay, I didn't soil my pants. I didn't, you know, fall off my chair and it was fine. And then I was called back. I was living with my aunt and uncle at the time off and on between their house in Westchester where my five cousins grew up or, you know, couch surfing in Hell's Kitchen. And my recurring line in my three or four episodes that I ended up doing was we can't get out to Cobbler's Island to rescue Erica Kane because it's fogged in. So I must have said 13 different times, did you tell them about the fog? And I, of course, my brilliant actor brain realized after I had done my first episode when I went back to do my second, oh, wait, I'm Canadian, eh? So I need to say, did you tell him about the fog? And so this character that

I was playing between the first episode and the second episode, which were probably a few episodes apart, you know, in the grand scheme, I'm guessing some of the diehard. all my children fans kind of wondered, wait a minute, it's this guy, it's the same guy, right? Why does he sound like a completely different human? Knowing you, you probably did really a lot of research with that dialect or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, we didn't have computers at the time.

So I was at the library reading about the RCMP. What year did you do a few good men on Broadway? 1990. That was technically my second Broadway show. the first one was a little flop musical. And I joined the cast of a few good men. They'd been running for several months. And I got hired to be the new understudy for the colonel and the doctor, which is a

character who's not in the movie. So people won't know who that is. Now, this is before the movie, right? Well before the movie. I mean, Aaron Sorkin was just some kid from Scarsdale who got lucky and had a play on Broadway. I mean, not lucky happened to be a genius writer. But, you know, nobody knew who he was.

And, you know, aside from the couple of movie and TV actors that they had headlining, both the original and then the replacements. When I joined, it was Brad Whitford in the Tom Cruise role. Wow. And, you know, the rest of the cast, Ron Perlman was playing the colonel, whom I understudied. The rest of the cast were, you know, relatively unknown New York theater guys. You know, is this true? that Aaron Sorkin heard that you were going up because you were the understudy and that you were going on to play Colonel Jessup. And he raced to the theater when he heard you were going

on. And he was just, to this day, he said it was blown away by this powerful performance. And is it one of your favorite performances that you've done in your career that you can recall? It absolutely is. Honestly, if I had to choose the one moment that was the most profound and meaningful to me as an actor. It was those four or five performances that I got to go on for Ron, who was incredibly generous. And Brad and the whole rest of the cast, who were so welcoming and opening and wonderful. And then, yeah, the highlight of that being that Aaron came to see the show. And I don't recall if it was my first performance, I guess it probably was. And he that interaction is is one of the the most fulfilling uh moments of my career as an actor because

his acknowledgement that I had fulfilled what he put on the page was was you know all I've ever strived for as an actor inside of you is brought to by rocket money if you want to save money then listen to me because i use this ryan uses as so many people use rocket money it's a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions crazy right how cool is that monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings and you know what's great it works it really works ryan rocket money will even try to negotiate lowering your bills for you the app automatically scans your bills to find opportunities to save and then goes to work to get you better deals they'll even talk to customer service thank god so you

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you're doing a good job. How doesn't everybody have Rocket money? It's insane. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Download the Rocket Money app and enter my show name inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum in the survey so they know that I sent you. Don't wait. Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show. Ever wonder how dark the world can really get? Well, we dive into the twisted, the terrifying, and the true stories behind some of the world's most chilling crimes. Hi, I'm Ben. And I'm Nicole. Together we host Wicked and Grimm, true crime podcast that unpacks real life horrors one case at a time with deep research dark

storytelling and the occasional drink to take the edge off we're here to explore the wicked and reveal the grim we are wicked and grim follow and listen on your favorite podcast platform all i want this is how selfish i am and childlike is i'm first of all i'm upset that i couldn't i didn't see that performance because knowing you in movies like whiplash and shows Oz and all these great performances you've done, I can only imagine you saying you can't handle the truth. And God would I pay for you to be that intense, get back to that moment from 32 years ago and just say, you can't handle the truth. I would die to see that. Did you, do you think when you watched Jack Nicholson do it? Did you think I was right up there with him?

I'll be 100% honest. Those of us who did the play saw the movie as wonderful as it was and we're like, the play was better. Wow. In many ways. And I'm not going to say, you know, that's the beauty of part of the beauty of what we do. I mean, people like to hand out trophies and awards for the best actor and the best this and that. But, you know, the reality is it's about as apples and oranges as you can.

be jack nicholson you know when i played that part i was 35 years old that was what the character was that erin wrote in the play right right he was not a fat cat who was uh you know sitting on his throne i don't know how old jack was when he did it but he was you know the character because he was the guy playing it i mean because he was the guy playing it he was it was brilliant but it was a different character too because he was an older guy the character as written is a guy who's he's on his way to the White House, you know, or he's at the very least going to be secretary of defense or, you know, a senator. I mean, he's a guy who's on his way somewhere and not a guy who's, you know, who's settled

in to, to this is, you know, I'm the king of this domain and that's it. So that to me was the fundamental difference between those characters. How do you? How do you, I look at you and you have a great childhood and your great husband, father, I assume. I'm not your children. But how do you find that place and where do you go to when you snap? When you become that guy in whiplash, when you become Jessup, when you become, when that moment comes, how do you go into that dark place? And did you ever experience such darkness that that helped you with that moment or those moments?

you know i honestly i think however you know easy and and and and and full of love you know your childhood and and your life is we all have difficulties we all have disappointments we all have things that you know break our hearts or piss us off you know we all have things uh that we're you know uh an anger i think that we carry around to some extent that the the The common thread, and people shake their heads at this, but between those three characters that you mentioned and what is to me so important as an actor almost always, is that for Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Jessup in a few good men, for Fletcher in Whiplash, for Vern Schillinger and Oz, those incredibly deeply angry, powerful men with their

powerful emotions. It all comes out of love. However twisted that love may be, you know, in Vern Schillinger's place, it's like, boy, I love me some white people, you know. I mean, I mean, that's the way he views his, his philosophy, his world view, you know. Yeah. Not that I hate this, that I love that, you know. Right. Right. In Internal Jessup's place, so brilliantly, brilliantly written, you know, unit, core, God, country. That's what he loves in that order. And that's what motivates everything he does, including, you know, the illegal, you know, dangerous, you know, horrible, immoral stuff and the justification for it. It's, it's always, you know, Fletcher loves jazz so much and is seeking perfection every second

of his waking life that when anybody or anything gets in the way of that, you know, his love for that, then they're going to buy God to hear about it. Have you ever really snapped like one of these characters in a real life? Have you ever lost your mind? A few times, mostly when I'm in the car by myself on the 101. But a very few times at work and not quite to that extent, not, you know, not throwing any of those, you know, on set rampages that we unfortunately have seen on video of whoever. Yeah.

But I mean, and it's usually, it's usually comes from a place of either, you know, what I in the moment see as some kind of artistic integrity that is being compromised or or or just a personal, you know, just, just being. or unkindness coming from, you know, somebody in power, whether it's a director or producer or whatever it may be. And those are the, you know, the handful of times that I, that I, you know, have raised my voice and said things that I, that I look back and, you know, wish that I'd maintain my composure a little better. Fortunately, as far as I know, there were, there were no cameras rolling uh during those times um there there may be audio recordings out there and you know

i mean yeah yeah there there are times in you know in in real life when i was when i was whatever you know heartbroken or betrayed or or whatever when i was uh you know lost control um yeah fortunately there's there's uh the person that i was born to be and the person that my parents raised you know i uh i never i never lost it enough to uh to take it out on somebody in a in a way that was you know that that uh that you couldn't take back right you know i quickly i just think of my father's voice when he snapped when his when he was angry and that's where i can channel it because it was the most terrifying thing i'd rather him do anything but yell at me like it would go from like you know he was just a big guy and that's just like when he got mad he'd be like

you know it would go from i'm not going to tell you again from there to what did i you know just he would get so enraged and i would like oh oh and you know that's sort of how i channel that whenever i have to flip out um whiplash quickly um i there's few roles not not many roles that i've seen where i say not that i can't do it but how did how did he do that how it seems almost impossible like the role you played the the dialogue the snappy you know the the turning on a dime emotions changing boom boom boom beep it was it's not just to me the best performance of the year that you won the Oscar but and I'm not kissing your ass it's just a fact that I know a lot of actors most actors would say it was one of the best performances I've ever seen in anything

I've ever seen and I just I mean what was your work ethic to prepare this well I I've been preparing for that my whole life. When I first met Damien, Jason Reitman sent me the script for the short and the feature film of this thing called whiplash by this kid nobody had ever heard of. I have, by this time, I'm in that position where we're like, I'm not auditioning, quote unquote, but we're going to go meet, right? We're going to have lunch. I'm going to meet this Damien Chiselle. Now, first of all, I read this script and it is up there with, you know, up there with, you know, A few good men, Juno, it's up there with the most brilliant things I've ever read and potentially

had the opportunity to be a part of, including Shakespeare and everything else I did over the years. So I want to do it. And this is, we're having a meeting to spend a three-day weekend making a short film for which everybody's going to get paid $173. But none of that matters because it's sheer brilliance, you know, and I want to be a part of it. We set up a meeting at the old Daily Grill, which no longer exists. On the top floor, yeah, of course. We're going to have lunch there.

And I have this image of Damien Chiselle. It's a brilliant, brilliant script, obviously written by somebody who has an inside understanding of jazz music and what it is. Jazz music, a quintessential American art form, particularly African American art form. And I hear the name Damien Chiselle, and I'm going to this meeting, and I'm looking for Antoine Fugwa, right? I'm looking for some big, tall, impressive black guy with a, you know, beret or something. That's my impression of who Damien Chazel must be, having written this, you know. And I'm, I get to the Daily Grill, like right on time, and I'm looking around, and I don't see Antoine Fouqua. And then this, you know, this skinny little kid from Jersey.

you know, kind of raises his hand and go, J.K. And I go, oh, wow. Okay. Hi, Damien Chiselle. How are you? We sit down, you know, we start doing the mutual admiration thing. And one of the first things he says is I want to, I want to take the onus off of you as far as the technical aspect of this character, because I want, you know, I want you as the actor. Okay. If you, you know, we'll have a technical advisor. We'll have a body double who can do the conducting in the long shots, you know, he said, don't worry about those aspects of it. And I looked at him, I'm sure, a little bit oddly. And I said, dude, I went to music school. I have a degree in music. I thought I was going to be a composer and conductor. Oh, my God. And my father was a choir conductor, you know, his entire career. I said,

that that's, you know, and he was like, you know, there's, there's some kismet going on. here that's amazing he also wrote it with miles teller in mind he didn't write it for me he just when when jason suggested me he he went oh that's a great idea um he wrote it with miles in mind not knowing that miles had been playing drums and cheesy rock bands you know ever since he was in eighth grade so i mean the the combination of uh you know a lifetime of of preparedness that brought the three of us together on that project was you know it really was one of those just just meant to be were you tough to work with on that particular role where you were you method where you like i want to be this guy i want everybody around me to be intimidated or were

you just jovial and happy j k simmons dude we were we had so much fun on that shoot i mean you you you had to because we were you know we shot that whole thing in like 17 days i mean it was insane the budget and and and the compression of time that that created and fortunately Damien's brilliance and, you know, everybody who came together on that to make it work. But, I mean, you know, we're shooting those kind of crazy, stupid 15, 16-hour days on that movie. And Miles, who, as we now know, is an alpha, right, is playing that, you know, meek character. I'm playing, you know, the character that I played. Damien is this young filmmaker who actually between the short,

film and the feature, the short film, which was with Johnny Simmons in the Miles Teller part, by the way, who was brilliant in a very different way than Miles was brilliant. But the three of us on the feature, you know, just had a great time. Just were, you know, and Damien gave us the freedom, as brilliant as the words were on the page, Damien gave us the freedom to just go off, you know, and improvise and do our thing. And the combination of the brilliance and the structure that he provided, but allowing for, you know, us, the self-expression that we both wanted to bring. I mean, it was magic in a bottle. And then in between takes, we would, we just immediately dropped it.

And Miles would go into the, you know, I'm not. really a pussy you know and uh and we would you know it was a very different oh my god different like fun vibe on set well we started a little late i'm going to get your brother out here and talk about really important shit here in a minute but i just want to ask a few more quick questions um when you went up for your oscar speech was there part of you that was thinking it's about eff in time or was there because you're so humble everybody's so sweet and nice when they get these speeches and your message of the call your mom and call your mom call your mom it was just i mean resonated but i mean were you kind of like did you feel like i've always felt like i didn't

belong like i don't belong here i don't belong in hollywood did you did you feel ever feel like i don't belong here i don't really belong with this or you know what was your feelings when you went up on stage no i i i still feel like i don't belong yeah um and i i i mean i i i didn't there was there was no You know, it's about time that ever entered my mind. And I've had a complicated relationship going back to childhood with the whole concept of awards for, you know, artistic endeavors and, you know, that's a whole different podcast. Right.

But it was basically everybody that I knew who really understands the ends and outs of awards season and all of that. I mean, everybody said, dude, there's no way it's not going to be used. So there was, and I had won every trophy, you know. two trophies a week in the in the two months leading up to that so it was you know it was it was it was like if they if they say and the Oscar goes to and they don't say my name I'm a schmuck you know because that's that's the expectation right you know so it was you know it was almost a relief when when they did say it and then and then as had been my want that that whole award season you know

I never wrote quote unquote wrote a speech I didn't know exactly what I was going to say All I knew was the theme, you know, what I wanted to focus on, which in that case was, was, you know, what's really important, which is family and started out talking about my wife and thanking her for everything that she is. And there are kids who were in the balcony and then their relationship, you know, her being such an extraordinary mother, which led me to talk about, you know, my mom, our moms, everybody's mom and dad and, you know, how important those are. all those relationships are. And it was really, you know, maybe the most rewarding aspect of my career. That was certainly the biggest audience I was ever in front of, you know. I mean, you know, a hundred times more people saw the Oscars than saw Whiplash. So, you know, I was reaching this broad audience and the feedback that I got from that.

I mean, from comical to like deeply moving to life-altering interactions that people had with their parents as a result of some, you know, journeyman bald character actor telling him to call their mom and dad, you know, it was amazing. Would you do another Spider-Man if Sam Ramey approached you? Absolutely. Did you love it more? I would do anything that Sam Ramey approached me with. You love working with him that much.

Okay. I mean, I mean, almost anything. This, I mean, I could talk to you for ages. I mean, you're just like, you're incredible. You're so open. And we're going to get a little more open now. I'm going to bring on your brother. Ontario, the wait is over. The gold standard of online casinos has arrived.

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President in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See golden nuggetcassino.com for details. Please play responsibly. Howdy, howdy? How are you David Simmons? I am fabulous. Hello, my fabulous brother with even less hair. Who's older? Depends on the day. I'm the big bro. You're the big bro? David, was he a good big bro? He was an excellent big brother. He, my favorite big brother story is he watched me sleep through a fire in our shared bedroom. in Worthington, Ohio. As he and our mutual father were beating at it with like wet towels and things

and smoke was clearing and they look over and there I am. Oh my God. He was a sound sleeper. Yes. Look, David, you're the executive director of the UBU project. I mean, you have an awesome musical career.

You've been in all 50 states across the world, honors graduate at the University of Montana School of Music, another school of music with your brother, actor, director, or teach artists. I mean, it goes on. Mental health advocate is the most important probably in keynote speaker that I believe, especially for this podcast and for the world listening. I mean, and by the way, you performed with REO Speedwagon. That was, I mean. I did. I did. That was cool.

That was a, and there's a cool, an even cooler thing is my very dear friend, Walt Verson, was their road manager at the time. Lots of long stories as to how we met. But I had written and recorded a little demo of a song. He played it for them. they show up in the dressing room of a show I'm doing I get a text David come meet us at the stage door I walk there

not quite ready to go on stage and here I meet my high school heroes in my t-shirt and shorts hi heroes and they have learned a song I wrote so we played that yeah yeah so we played that at an after show

cabaret which usually has 10 people there 100 people are there and you know they're going nuts that you know the shit it's a good song and uh crowd's going nuts and i'm looking at the guys and you know they're smiling i said you want to do another one and the bass player like a kid in the candy store can we do mustang sally oh my god yes we can choose a key somebody count to four yeah it was it was an awesome experience did you what's your favorite really quick a rio speedwagon song the both yeah uh for me riding a storm out without question yeah i mean i i i i

I'm not going to argue. Is it weird that mine's heard it from a friend, who heard it from a friend. Ballad, plushy. I am. You know me. I swear to God. That's just another stalker song. That's right up with every step you take.

You know what's funny is I had Steve Lukather on the podcast, who's obviously one of the best guitarist in the world from Toto. And he said the same thing, J.K., I said, oh, I just love. you know that song some people live their dreams he goes oh you're such a pussy you like these love balance he said the same thing but i do all right on to important things all right you know the ub ub you project is just it's it's stunning and you know david you're you're you're a survivor i mean you've you've hit rock bottom you know what it's like you've been there so there's no better person to sort of had this mission than you, and I just think it's wonderful. Why don't you just tell me a little bit

something about the project and what you're doing? Well, very quickly, and yes, thank you. Being a suicide attempt survivor, thriving survivor, as I refer to myself, is a very powerful thing. March 31st, 2009, I thought the world didn't need me anymore, and God and a bunch of doctors thought otherwise. And, you know, seven and a half weeks on a psych ward, blah, blah, blah, Fast forward to 2016 or 17, J.K. is helping me put together a new CD of music I've been writing. And I'm driving across the Phoenix Valley, and I hear on the radio in an interview of the statistic that the leading cause of death for youth ages 10 to 14 in the state of Arizona, it was suicide. And I was galvanized. I thought, okay, I'm a musician. I'm a songwriter. I'm a teacher. I've done all these amazing things. And more important, I'm a survivor.

I'm recovering alcoholic. I got bullied, blah, blah, blah. What does this all look like together? And so I thought about it for a while, kept recording the album. J.K. sang on it. And then J.K. and I and my friend Walt, who was the road manager, Vario Speedwagon, I don't believe in coincidence, but we all happened to be in L.A. when J.K. was filming counterpart.

And so we're hanging out in his trailer and we're talking about this thing. And he and Walt went, well, of course. you need to do this and you know what are we going to call it we came up with this name and that name and the the phrase ub you had been a part of my professional life before and i thought about and i said what do you think ub u project they went yeah and so what i did was was based on a model that our mutual mother used to do a lot she was the head of uh artists in the schools for the montana arts council and she would send you know theater companies or a poet or a jazz musician you know all of these you know, talk to your people who just got tired of the rat race and, wow, paid vacation in Montana,

you bet. And I created this one week residency model where I go in on a Monday, I talk to the kids, depending on the school I'm working with. Sometimes I tell a little bit of my story about suicide survival and all that stuff. Sometimes I don't. It depends on what the school wants to do. And for a week, we have this ongoing conversation about what hope and resilience and self-compassion and empathy mean to the kids. I never defined it. once for them. And at the end of the week, the whole time, and this is all wrapped in the guys of they think they're in a songwriting workshop, which they are. But it's a parlor trick, because they've chosen one of those four words, I call them treasure chest words. They've chosen one of those

four words as the main topic of their song. And by Friday, they've written a song. Sometimes it's just a chorus and a verse, maybe a couple of verses and a bridge are thrown in there. But two of my favorite stories are there was a bunch of fifth graders. Remainter, these kids are 10 years old. They're writing a song about hope. And I use, this makes me sound a lot more educated than I am. I use Shakespeare's sonnet structure as my songwriting structure because it's easy. You know, four sentences, you know, four lines in any verse, 10 syllables per line. There's a rhyme scheme.

The kids have a framework to hang their creativity. And so I say, okay, right, we're talking about hope and this, that, what's a good opening sentence? What's the opening line of our song that is just going to make the audience, you know, my god i need to hear more and this one girl raised her hand and i could see by her face she had lived a lot more in 10 years than i had in 60 and she said i hope that i get over my depression and i said okay i understand that i live with you know depression you know uh post traumatic stress disorder anxiety i work with a therapist all the time are you seeing someone yes blah blah blah blah i congratulate her i was proud i said okay great now is it your depression does it define you or is it

just something you have to deal with and she thought for a second and she said no it doesn't define me i said good because your sentence is 11 syllables long and we need to get rid of one syllable what's one syllable that we can get rid of and she said let's get rid of my let's do and so again roomful of 10 year olds came up with and of course it's an 80s power ballad because that's the style that chose for it yeah and they came up with i hope that i get over depression because it makes me not love myself yet. That is definitely my conclusion. That's why I need some time to have a rest. Ten-year-olds are teaching me about life balance. In the chorus, they came up with shine as sort of the go-to thing. Shine. Hope shines light on depression. Shine. Hope shines giving

me compassion. Shine. Hope takes away my obsession. And then I'm going, okay, we need one more, one more. And this little kid like Horshack and welcome back Cotter back in the 70s. Oh, Mr. David, Mr. David, Mr. David. What? And, you know, I could see the words coming from his brain to out his mouth. He goes, hope shines light on depression like a diamond. Dude, wow. 40 years are writing songs.

Never once have I come up with a mic drop like that. I'm surprised Jay Z. And that just happens to be on my new album that's coming out in a couple of weeks. I mean, it's amazing. And you're pretty much saying that music is saving lives. Absolutely. That, you know, so the use. BVU project augments a school's existing curriculum with songwriting music to help students

address difficult topics. Um, you know, it's amazing because I've always dealt with depression and anxiety and I've hit lows. I haven't hit as low as obviously you have gone. Thank God. But I had those thoughts. And then I said, whoa, stop it, stop it. But, you know, tell me just a little bit about, were you depressed growing up? When did this sort of happen? When did it hit you? When weren't you aware of it? And J.K., when were you aware that your brother was struggling? Probably when I slept through a fire in our bedroom. But that's a great question. I wasn't really aware of it because, you know, as J.K. will attest, as our sister will too, we had a great childhood. Parents, amazing, supportive, beautiful.

We figured out while I was on the psych ward after my attempt in 2009, that there was something that happened in my childhood around age nine or ten that my child brain couldn't deal with and yeah and it could you know it can be anything as simple as you know a kid said something mean in a cafeteria to you know I got beat up by a family member and it was neither of those two things because I never talk about the specifics but my brain you know the incident happened here in my brain just kept spiraling the rest of my life and so in the hospital they died they went through a variety of diagnoses. And they finally landed on major depressive disorder recurrent. And I was already dealing with free floating anxiety and PTSD. And they figured out, and JK, remember my 50th

birthday on the psych ward? Super fun. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Great time. And our mutual sister, who's sort of the family historian, among other things, had put together a year 50. Here's David Simmons here is your life scrapbook because you know we had been planning on celebrating my birthday not on the psych ward but you know and but while I was there and looking at that at that scrapbook you know pictures from you know birth to almost death and they figured out that I had been dealing with untreated major depressive disorder since I was 10 and it was just untreated untreated therapist therapist never quite figuring it out and then after my attempt and getting out of the hospital and the arts by the way saved my life literally i mean my you know my brother was a huge

part of it because i remember um they called my wife at the time uh and said what can we do for him and she said just talk to him and i remember one i don't know if you remember this kim one specific phone call where he called and it was an hour of him going um i uh well how about them tigers keep this guy some synapses firing and then a producer three months out of the psych ward hired me to do a national tour it was a small role and while i was on that tour he had also hired me to play theater roosevelt in a one-person show and so on that tour i memorized a one-hour script and it was that that process that got new synapses firing and things like that. So, you know, I look back to something as early as at my 50th birthday on the psych ward, JK bought me a guitar. And that was one of the tools I used as I was recovering on the ward.

Yeah. And kept playing and I would do these tours that weren't guitar tours. You know, they were, you know, sort of traditional musical comedy, which is great. But I was all, I would always have a guitar with me. Yeah. You know, and then, you know, like I said. 2017 or so I was galvanized to I knew I had to do something I had to take all my experiences all my training everything and focus it on something that to this day I haven't found another organization that does what we do it's a lot of great organizations out there but yeah it amazes me I think people don't think about not just themselves when they go through this and it's all the horrors that I'm going through but what weight it puts on family so just Jay, what was, were you shell shocked?

Was it something that you had any inkling of like knowing that he was suffering or dealing with this stuff? What was, what were your emotions like? Well, we, uh, you're talking about that 50th birthday in the psych ward. I mean, that, you know, off and on over the years. And of course, you look back, he's 10, I'm 14, you know, and, and we were a lot of the time that we were growing up, you know, we were in very different circles, you know, we almost never went to the same school together until we were, because it took me forever to

graduate college, until we ended up as college class, not classmates, but together at University of Montana. So, so, you know, I'm 14 years old. I'm this, you know, I'm adolescent consumed with all the things that adolescents are consumed with. And my little brother is just my little brother is just this little kid who's always been there. And, you know, sometimes he's a pain in the And sometimes we're having fun together. But he's, you know, he's enough younger that we're in completely different, like, social spheres, you know. It's easy to look back now and see, you know, that he has off and on been troubled and that there have been times when that's gotten the best of him, as it does almost all of us, you know, at one time or another. And then, you know, some of the stuff he lived through as an adult, some of the difficulties, the heartbreaks, the problems that, again, you know, in and of themselves are, I don't want to say unremarkable, but, but I mean, you know, we all go through shit, right?

And your proclivity, your mental health, you know, is affected to a different degree, depending on a variety of things. Obviously, none of us, even during times of, you know, particularly sort of tempestuous times when there was concern about, is David okay, you know, it never occurred to any of us how not okay he was at that time. time. And, and when you have a family, you know, a birth family that says as loving and as close knit as we were with our parents and our parents who were also like the world's best grandparents, you know, David has a son, I have two kids, our sister has three kids, and now multiple grandkids, you know, for us all to be just completely gobsmacked by that and, you know, having already made plans to go to Minnesota and celebrate his 50th, you know, big milestone birthday. And then, yeah, finding ourselves there with this with this shell of a human being, you know, who was, you know, I mean, something that I hadn't seen, you know, made me, made me understand and appreciate some of the good work in cuckoo's nest more so because, because, you know, to look at your brother's eyes.

and not see your brother was difficult and, and sobering. And I think as is the case for a lot of people when someone you love is in that level of pain and difficulty. You know, we all tend to blame ourselves to some extent. You know, how did I not see that? you know, how, you know, how am I so self-consumed that, you know, that I don't see the pain of those around me. And, and, you know, coming full circle, that's one of the things that he's teaching now to these kids who just think they're having fun writing songs for a week, you know, you know, one of the tools he's giving them is that not only that, that self-emathy, but, but, you know, the compassion. I mean, we joke about it, but it's an absolutely true phrase. say that he's saving the world one kid at a time and and every week that he's out there doing

that he's so you know that ripple effect that butterfly effect is is kicking in and uh and he's having effect on the lives of people that he'll never meet that's beautiful you know i uh david a few minutes ago when you're talking about how you block you have a tendency as a child to block out those really dark times somehow to protect yourself i think that's what the body does i had an experience where, you know, I was in a situation where it was, it was uncomfortable, I was, I was almost molested to the point where it was, it was a dark, scary story. I won't get you into that, but I, I escaped. And I was supposed to be at my grandparents' bungalow upstate, like, I was a little boy, and I was just like a few bungalows away. And I remember, I had an hour

and it would only been like 35 minutes, but I knew as a little boy, as an eight-year-old kid maybe that I can't go into the bungalow to my grandparents right now and because they can't see the way I am right now because I was so shook. Somehow I knew and I had to gather myself and I remember sitting behind this tree for like 30 minutes to compose myself and went in and from that day I blocked that moment out for 20 years. And I, um, I, So I know what it's like to be a child who feels like they don't want to be shamed or it's their fault. And that's why I didn't tell anybody. And even though nothing really happened, it's still devastated me.

And I, and I, and I didn't. And I think a lot of kids deal with not only that, you know, bullying and molestation, whatever it is, dysfunctional families. And we block out a lot of stuff and it resurfaces when we get older. And it's how we deal with it. So, you know, it's to be able to get kids at a young age to sort of be in touch with their feelings is not an easy task. And it seems like through music, you're able to at least break the surface or whatever and tap into a little bit to give them some comfort and kind of healing. Well, and that's, sorry, I'm budding in here, but that's the brilliance of what David has as designated as the toolkit, you know, he gives these kids tools to which again they think is about you know songwriting and it is

and there have been some great songs that come out of it but you know he's he's giving them the tools to to dig out of you know whatever whole it is that they're in and and and again having that having that effect on a number of kids on a weekly basis didn't this didn't this organization this foundation sort of start and how many kids have joined to isn't it like something astounding like 7,000 kids now are part of a program or something tell me if I'm wrong right it's it's not like a traditional arts program where I work with all these arts kids our wheelhouse is you know mrs. McGillicuddy's fourth grade classroom and there may be a couple of artsy kids in there but it's mostly creating common ground in a safe space so kids with no experience or lots of

experience, feel safe and comfortable creating all this stuff. We started in our hometown of Missoula, Montana in September of 2018. We're coming up on our fifth year. We have, in the classroom itself, one-on-one, you know, in the classroom with kids. That specifically, we're at about 5,000. But if you include all the virtual work we did during the pandemic, conferences, and things like that. We're at about 15 to 20,000 people who have experienced, you know, some call it a toolkit. I refer to it as a treasure chest

because it's something the kids already have. And I say, you know, it's already there. And, you know, I work with kids in juvenile detention. A lot of them say, I have no hope. And I say, yeah, you do. You just don't know where it is. And we're going to try and find it. And very quickly, speaking of cool songs,

this is also on my new album. The kids I worked with in juvenile detention wrote a tune called Don't Give Up on Life about resilience. And one of the things I do, all the Spanish I know, I have learned from my students. And so if I have a number of bilingual students, I'll say, let's translate this or what do you want to do. And so they came up with the chorus they came up with was, and I also learned a new style called Chalea, which is a kind of Mexican music. And the chorus of their song was, D is, don't give up on life, everything will change. Don't give up on life. Everything will change.

no te rindas anything can be the light if you push through and fight don't give up on life and la vina no te rindas and then in the recording i do my best you know that is carlo santana but yeah yeah yeah these are a bunch of kids and i got a note from a kid i'm getting goosebumps you can't fake goosebumps i got a note from a kid in juvie uh his first name is eddie uh i can say that and it was instead of a you know one of the notes we got from a junior high kid was lately i've been thinking and killing myself, but you teached me about hope. You know, what do you do with that? But this kid wrote this long letter of, dear Dave, because we're pals now, dear Dave,

I've been thinking a lot of what you talked about, and I get it now. I understand hope. And my plan is 10 years from now when I'm out of here, I'm going to prove them wrong. I'm going to prove the people wrong who told me I'd end up in prison like my birth parents. I'm going to show up at their door with my wife and my kids and my job and say, I'm proving you wrong, I made something of myself. And I'm like, good Lord, you know, that's my Christmas bonus. This is an outlet.

This is another outlet that I don't think a lot of people are aware of. And I'm so happy and glad and, you know, just thankful that you came up with this idea and that you're working to help these children around the world with this because I think it's something that's ignored. I didn't know these statistics. I didn't know 10 years old, the 14 suicidal. How could it be that? It's just overwhelmed.

So, first, lastly, to let you guys go, and I know you got to go. But the benefit is the UBEU project to prevent you suicide addiction and bullying. It's the second annual light your corner of the world with J.K. Simmons and David Simmons. The date is Saturday, January 28th. It's coming up very soon. So you really need to go. It's at 7.30 at the Desert Stages Theater in Scottsville, at the Fashion Square. You can go to www.w.dessertages.org.

It's spelled D-E-S-E-R-T, because I would have spelled it, Dessert, Stages.org, 480, 483, 1664. This is a beautiful thing. We're going to post this. We're going to get awareness out there. I love the both of you. I don't even know you, but I feel like, you know, you guys are just remarkable human beings. Thanks for your stories. Thanks for just being you and helping people, you know, that's it.

Let me just wedge in there that anybody that. can't get to Scottsdale on January 28th. You can just go to the UBU project online and find ways that you can help. Yeah, please go, please go. There's a lot of people listening, a lot of them that deal with mental, you know, you know, illnesses and just, you know, I know they're going to love this episode. This is just an important one. So thank you, J.K.

Thank you, David. And all my love to you both. Thank you, Michael. And all my love to both of you, especially, JK, and I'll see you in a couple weeks. Love you, my brother. See you soon. Love you. Bye guys.

Reading, playing, learning. Stellist lenses do more than just correct your child's vision. They slow down the progression of myopia. So your child can continue to discover all the world has to offer through their own eyes. Light the path to a brighter future with stellar lenses for myopia control. Learn more at slur.com. And ask your family eye care professional for SLR Stellar Lenses. at your child's next visit well not only was it a great interview but a great cause yeah you know

it's a it's a beautiful thing i i was stunned by that um that statistic that um the deaths in arizona ages 10 to 14 the number one cause was suicide that's terrible and uh yeah but hearing them guys these guys talk about it and i just think it's you know we think therapy you know I always promote better help therapy, which is amazing and exercise and all these things and maybe seeing a psychiatrist and getting the right meds and all these things that you can do. But then you start doing something with what they do, this organization, UBU, which is, it's a creative thing.

It's getting someone who doesn't necessarily have to have any music background at all and learning how to be creative and just writing lyrics and speaking from their heart and writing down and creating things that they do. didn't think they could create and it's kind of exploded um like this organization and uh so it's just awesome jk and david thank you so much for coming on the podcast and uh yeah that's about all i have to say about that um it's good he's a legend he's a legend what a get what a get great episode coming up next week too we've got a lot of great guests coming up this year and i hope people continue to tune in keep this podcast going if not i'll have to take down all these posters and make this

into a bedroom or something. It's not a podcast room anymore. But thanks for all the support. And a big shout to all my patrons. They really support this podcast. Without them, I couldn't do it. Go to patreon.com slash inside of you. Become a patron today. There's top tiers. One of the tiers is I send you packages, gift packages every couple of months and a little note for me. And there's Q&As with me online. We do a private YouTube for all the patrons. And there's a bunch of stuff there. So go to patreon.com slash inside of you. I'll message you as soon as I can thanking you and

yeah, we really need the patrons to keep this thing going. So I can't thank you guys enough. And without further ado, why don't we get into the top tier patrons, Ryan? Okay. Should we do that? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Nancy D. Leah. Sarah. V. Little. Lisa.

You. Kiko. Jill. Brian. H. Miko. Robert. Robert. C. B. Correct. Jason. W. Sophie. M. Kristen. K. Raj. C. Joshua. Jennifer. N. Stacey. L. Jemal. F. Janelle. B. Kimberly. Mike. E. L. Don. Supremo 99 Santiago M

Chad D W you Tbleu Chad W Leanne P Janine

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R. D. I own. I own Luther Corp. That's a new one. I own Luther Corp. What's up, Dan? A. S.

N. Yes. An angel. M. Rianan. C. Corey. K.

Dev. Nexon. Michelle. Also K. A. Jeremy. C. Brandy.

R. D. D. Camille. M. S. Joey. I don't know.

M. Eugene N. Leah. Corey. Heather. Think famous actress. Heather. Heather Locklear.

Jake. Think Busey. B. Correct. Megan. Trainer. Megan T. is correct. Mel. C. S. Orlando. C. Caroline R. Christine. S. Eric. H. Shane R. Emma. R. Andrew M. Zatuichi. I don't know.

seventy seventy uh seven wow andreas san an oracle karina n amanda r jenn b kevin b e stephan k k lina 82 billy s jammin s jammin just think jammin jammin jamming jamming jamming jay Jam and J. Leanne. Leanne, J. Correct. Luna. O. R.

Cindy. Think Cindy E. Correct. Mike E. F. Mike Flanagan. Stone H. Think Stone Hinge.

Think Stone Hinge. Brian L. Cameron E and KDB. You got like 90%. That was a lot. Jesus. Well, a lot of them have been here for a long time. Yes.

you got a lot there's a rhythm to it there's a music to it um we love you we couldn't do this podcast without you've said it before thank you patrons thank you everybody for listening um Ryan you know from the Hollywood Hills and Hollywood California I'm Michael Rosenbaum I'm Brian and a little wait for the camera we love you guys and remember please please please be good to yourselves that's the most important thing be good to yourself I'll see you next week and even if you don't know the guest I know you're going to come back and visit all right Take care. Hi, I'm Joe Sal C.

Hi, host of the Stackin' Benjamin's podcast. Today, we're going to talk about what if you came across $50,000. What would you do? Put it into a tax-advantaged retirement account. The mortgage. That's what we do. Make a down payment on a home. Something nice.

Buying a vehicle. A separate bucket for this edition that we're adding. $50,000, I'll buy a new podcast. You'll buy new friends. and we're done. Thanks for playing, everybody, and we're out of here. Stacking Benjamins, follow and listen on your favorite platform.