Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Jazz Thornton shares a fan encounter with THEY Olympian

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

We chat to mental health activist, author, speaker, and influencer Jazz Thornton! The GOAT Simone Biles is a fan of hers! Jazz roasts Jono hard! Who dedicated a song to her? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mental health advocate Jazz Thornton with us right now. How are you? Hey, good thanks. How are you? All that jazz. You need to read a book, release a book called All That Jazz. Oh, I should. That could be book number four. Done a couple of books. Right now you've got to write another one for Jono and his pun name. Yeah, just write a book for me. Jazz is like, I poured my story out three times. But anyway, I'll do another one for you. Now, we managed to catch up with you. It was probably a week and a half ago,

and you were just about to head off to New York. Incredible thing you got to be part of. Are you going to explain it? Yeah. So I was part of the Kate Spade New York Global Mental Health Summit. They do every year, usually alongside the UN, but this time they did it with Fashion Week. Ended up speaking alongside some insane people. I'm not sure how I ended up on that stage, but was very thankful to be there.

Well, you're very modest. We know how, because you do wonderful, wonderful things for mental health around the world, and particularly in New Zealand. But you were a bit nervous because you were speaking in front of this huge audience in New York, but you were coming, you were talking after someone pretty famous as well. Yes, yeah. I found out about a week beforehand that I was speaking directly after Simone Biles.

Oh, what? I don't know how you follow Simone Biles. You come on with a big backflip. You do a double backflip. Yeah, I can do the worm. But what threw me even more is after she spoke, I went backstage to get my mic on, and then she just looks at me and she's like,

oh my God, I've seen you all over my TikTok, I love you. And then I just froze and was like, how do I go on stage? Jazz, that's the goat. That's amazing. What do you say to that when Simone Biles I've seen you at the Olympics or something and that's when I'd say something like that.

I've seen you do some flips. So do some name dropping, though. Who else was there with you? Taraji P. Henson. Oh, my God. She was just at a premiere with, I think she's in a movie with Kevin Hart. So she came straight from there. I've spoken with her for the last few years.

Cynthia Gurumada, who's Lady Gaga's mum, was there. Sophia Wiley, who you guys might not know because she's a current Disney Channel kid. Excuse me, why would we not know current Disney Channel kids? Probably your hairline. Amen, sister. Put that in all that jazz.

I'll read that and I'll remember this funny moment. So the talk that you did, how did it go? You know, a big audience after Simone Biles? It was, I got a standing ovation. So I think it did well. It was really cool. And something else I thought was really awesome.

Rachel Platten, who sings that amazing song, The Fight Song. This is my fight song. Now this song was very special to you, helped you out through your life, and you got to meet Rachel Platten through social media. Yeah, we've been talking for like a year and a half, and I fangled so hard when she slid into my DMs.

And then we finally got to meet, and she invited us to a concert she was doing that night, and then she dedicated Fight Song to me, and I just sobbed, uncontrollably sobbed. that's so cool because it is an inspiring song the lyrics are awesome about you know keep fighting you know it was incredible to know that you've had that song and it's been a song you've used to get through some pretty tough times and then to meet the person who sung that song it must be just an incredible moment it really like honestly took the breath out of me like it was the

song i would blast when i was in the intensive care unit of the psych ward like it was the thing that i really held on to and um for to be like even to be in new york in september which is suicide prevention month and for me to be speaking at this event while she's there releasing a new album like it just felt like worlds collided in the most crazy way um and little jazz would have never believed that that would even be possible so yeah well i still can't really comprehend it yeah and i'm hey would have been a special moment for rachel too i imagine for her to know that she that her music had such an effect yeah she she pulled her eyes out as well um we ended up spending the whole day together and she cried multiple times

and just realised the impact that she had made. Because I guess you don't really see it a lot, right? Like in person, you hear it so much online, but for her to actually see someone who is alive because of the music she created was pretty special. What a great story, Jez. Well, listen, we'd better let you go. You've got some writing to do for all that jazz.

You go and hit the keyboard. Chapter one, I met Simone Biles back there, you carry on from there. No, thank you very much. Oh no, we're so proud of you Jez, such a wonderful ambassador for this country and everything you've done and you know sharing your story and saving so many lives and doing so.