Locked In with Ian Bick - Forced to FIGHT a PRISON CHOMO | Dylan Price

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

Growing up in a broken home, Dylan Price quickly becomes an addict, doing whatever he needed to do to fuel his addiction. With the law eventually catching up to him, Dylan is sent to a state prison where something happens to him that will change his life forever. Listen to Dylan's story of addiction, crime, trauma, heartbreak, & desperation and find out how he was able to overcome it. Connect with Dylan Price:www.legacymi.org Instagram: @operation.recoverordie Twitter: @galaxy_mma YouTube: https://youtube.com/@LegacyMI  Connect with Ian Bick: https://www.ianbick.com/Subscribe to our membership program on YouTube to get early access to interviews, see behind the scenes photos & more:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRvVklIft6DMelVW18M0oBw/joinPowered by Q29 Productions, LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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another episode of Lockton with Ian Bick. Really, really exciting interview for you guys today. I interviewed Dylan Price, who battled addiction as a child, gets assaulted in a state prison, comes out and marries a stripper. Also, guys, a couple quick announcements for you. If you want to get 50% off my Lockton merch, check out Ian Bick.com and use code Lockton subscriber at checkout. We have shirts in white, black.

They're printed on next level of. apparel, really soft, really comfortable, great in the gym. Grab yours today. Also, we are now offering exclusive memberships on my YouTube channel for $4.99 a month. You could get early access to interviews, behind the scenes, photos with guests, and interact with me on a personal level. Thank you guys for tuning into the show. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this interview. Dylan Price, welcome on the show today, man. Traveled to us all the way from Detroit. Hope you get a safe flight in. I mean, you're here, so you definitely got here safely. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for coming out today. Let's get right into it. Where are you from? What's your childhood

like? Where was like your family from? Okay, so I grew up in Detroit in an addict household. And for really, do I understand like kind of the people that were raising me, I wanted to tell you this story, my mom being deported from Canada. My mom and my dad, both addicts and active addiction. But they had some sort of argue. My mom leaves. Gets picked up by this random guy in a Ford pickup truck or whatever. And she has like a plastic bag of clothes and they think, okay, we're going to escape to Canada together. And they drive all the way to Canada or to New York and try to get the way through, like one of those like unmanned roads, unmaned border patrol roads. And they ended up like flying into a ravine and getting out of the car and hard.

Huffin it. Take a liter of vodka with him and a plastic garbage bag full of clothes. And following the North Star. This is like 93 or something. And how old are you at the time? I'm not even born yet. This is like my mom had just gotten out of prison. Like two weeks before this happened. She spent two years in prison due to grand larceny. And so she she's huffing her way through with the North Star following the North Star. And the Rick, the guy who picked her up. is a threatening individual to say at least. So they fly into, or they get into Montreal. And, you know, active addiction, man. It's, I don't know how to put it, but it's running rampant. You know, they're actively using,

and they eventually get caught for stolen credit cards, and they get deported back, like, from Canada. They sent her on a plane. Like, put her on the plane, the handcuffs off and just like send her back. They get on the states, they get hit the tarmac, the, what do you call them? Like the Border Patrol agents immediately meet her on the plane. They say everyone gets your cards out or get your passport, your birth certificate, and they start winking their way out. They get to my mom, they check hers, and they scream,

it's her, it's her. They tack her to the ground and have to handcuff her. She's thinking like, oh, I'm going to jail for like ever. She had a five-year tail on that. They get arrested for that like deportionship. And that's what got her deported. So that's like my mother. That's the person raising me. All right.

So I was born in 94. To that guy. Was that guy your dad that she ran away with? No. So she met someone else and then had you. Just straight up. Literally that was a straight up random dude who just stopped. Never met her before ever.

So yeah. Do you have siblings at all or is it just you? I had a brother, but he was like 18 years old. So like my dad had another kid from another mom like when he was 18 and he had me at 42. All right. So you guys weren't really close. No relationship. No, no, not at all.

So when you're born into this family, what's a dynamic like are they, are your parents together? Are they divorced? Are they growing up, are you guys growing up rich, poor middle class? So we definitely were poverty. My dad was not in the household when I was born. When my mom was pregnant, she was clean for the nine months of my, like her pregnancy or whatever. And then nine months after, but she relapsed after nine months when my dad came back into the household. And obviously, I don't remember much before like four years old, but everything I've heard, it's a lot of violence, a lot of drugs.

was arrested a lot and in 99 my dad got arrested for threatening a CPS worker because he thought that it was a drug dealer or something who called my house or my mom's house and he answered the phone and like said I'll kill you you bitch if you call again but it was a CPS worker not a dealer so he ended up serving a year on that but when you got out the state let me go back to him. My mom was using, I don't know where she was, but my dad got me. My dad was a sick individual. He had demons, you know what I mean? He was hurting too. He was an addict. So he got clean, though. He had about two years in active recovery when he initially got me. And we moved to Redford, which is another suburb right outside of Detroit. But it was,

it was a violent upbringing to say of least. And how old are you when like things started to normalize a little bit, like where it was a little bit more stable? Maybe seven. Seven is when my dad got clean. Like he was going to narcotics anonymous meetings, 12 step meetings. He was taking an active role in his life. He was working.

He was still getting disability, but he was working on the table. So we had enough income to stay afloat, but like it wasn't like all our ends were meeting. like we would sometimes not eat dinner um that was nutritious like we'd just like boil a whole bunch of pasta and plain pasta you know what i mean um so you were like one of those kids growing up that always got like the school lunches yeah they eat every male never never i utilized though dude i took full advantage to those free lunches i don't think a lot of people realize like what it's like to grow up like

that sometimes not having you know that meal to go home to and you're counting on those school lunches And I like I would see kids growing up that were struggling and it would be a big deal if like there was the school was closed for a holiday because the family's counting on those lunches. And that's like a very real issue in the country. And dude, honestly, like when I when I was going to school, man, there was a large majority of the kids on freelance. You know what I mean? Like Detroit slash Wayne County area, you know, there's a lot of poverty in there, you know, a lot of suffering, a lot of hardship. Were you bullied at all? a little bit in elementary school.

But I, when I was, like 11 or so, my mom got clean when I was eight. And she was, so both my parents are clean at eight, but not together. My dad's dating some other girl with a son. So I have like a stepbrother at the time, same age as me. And my father or my mother was like living in a, do you know what a three-quarter house is? No. A three-quarter house is a halfway house pretty much. much, but for non-felons. It's for people who are coming out of like an inpatient treatment setting

so they can reaclimate to life. But yeah, it was normal for a few, but my dad relapsed on a cruise he took. And when he came back, the woman he was with was actively using, but he didn't know. She was getting pills mailed to our address. And one day, my dad got her prescription bag, and he looked inside, and it was a bottle of narcos. And opioids were my dad's drug a choice. And he had an opportunity in that moment to, like, either leave or kick her out, but he chose to go back.

He chose to, he asked her, I'm going to take some of these. And it was off for the races. man. And he never looked back from that. He just went back down that path again. Yeah, man. What was it like for you as like a child to see that? Because you go from being born into seeing him addicted to getting clean and you're like, wow, there's a chance for my life to be normal and then to see him go back into addiction. That's got to be tough. And you were predominantly living with him too. Yeah. Man, dude, I literally, that's so true. Because I can't, there's so hard to describe. But I didn't know anything until I was in like football, like sports, extra-cracked activities.

And they take me to Pizza Hut, like after one of my practices. And they sit down with me. And I felt something was weird. Like, because my mom and dad never got together to talk with me. And my dad sits me down and he says, Dylan, I relapsed. And I just break fucking down. Like I'm like 12 years old in the middle of people. Huts sobbing because I know what that is. I know what that means. It means the life that I know it has

changed. That's a lot of pressure to be on a on a 12 year old like you shouldn't have to know what that what that's like man. So how do you how do you like cope with that how do you get through that how do you work through that at that age? Bro I you know I don't think I did I don't think I did I definitely did not have the coping skills necessary to fully comprehend and work through that trauma. But what I will say, though, is that my mom really tried to pick things up when he relapsed. She took me full time. We were counting pennies on the floor for laundry. You know what I mean?

So, like, we were really shugging, but she tried really hard, man. She tried really hard. but school was messed up because I had to move schools and that's when the bullion really began. It was like, I don't know, seventh grade. Yeah, it was seventh grade. And you know middle schoolers, man. Like they're old enough to know what hurts people's feelings, but still young enough to not fully grasp empathy.

So it's just, they're like emotional terrorists. You know what I mean? Now I'm curious about something. Was your mom using when you were born, like during her pregnancy? Not during her pregnancy. She had nine months clean during the pregnancy and then nine months after, totaling 18 months. Because I'm wondering if that like carries down. Oh, yes.

So scientifically, scientists have located a gene in like the addicted brain that is predisposed. So, like, if you have addict parents, like, if you have one addict parent, you're 25% likely to become an active user. If you have two active using parents, it's like a 50% chance that you're more likely to become addicted to a substance. And when do you know this now, like, looking back on it or did you knew it at that age? Oh, definitely. I know it now. So you are basically like, like, it's kind of fucked. You are born into, like, you're destined to become an addict in a way. Like, there's a 50% chance of you.

becoming an addict. Yeah, I definitely was destined to be an addict. And you didn't choose that. Like that was what, I mean, that's just something to think about in itself. Like, I don't think adult realize, like, if they're using and they're bringing a child into this, into the world, like if they're on alcohol or if they're using drugs or anything, it could fuck their child up and have like an adverse effect on it. And their people are just not talking about that. Yeah. So I grew up in the, like when my parents were, I grew up in 12-step programs. I went to meetings with them and stuff, and you could see that.

You could literally see the trauma, the lack of coping skills, and the children who came to the meetings. They're just actively bringing their kids to... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, one, to be honest, man, like, there's a lot of... There's a lot of positive qualities with coming to a 12-step meeting. There's a lot of community around it. But that's just, like, so different to grow up. I mean, instead of having, like, a family pizza night or a game,

night you guys are going on a 12-step meeting yeah that's just that's absurd to me like I just I can't imagine that that's funny that you say that because I honestly I never thought about it like that but that is right that is well that was your normal we probably should have had a pizza night so when do things start taking a turn for the worst for you is it like high school where you start going down a bad path are you hanging out with a bad group where do where do things turn for you well what I'll say is so in the when I was in middle school and I was getting bullied and stuff it was tearing down my self-esteem. So by the time I did enter high school, I was desperate for friendship.

You know what I mean? Like, in high school, you're trying to find yourself, trying to find out who you are and who you are going to be. And I had no idea what I was going to be. I had no idea who my friend groups were. I really, man, I'll be honest. Like, I was a loner in high school. My freshman year, I had literally zero friends.

But my mom eventually moved with her boyfriend at the time to a nice suburb. Like a nice suburb. It's called Plymouth. It's in Wayne County still. But it was like 6,000 people high school, a lot of extracurricular activities. They put me in baseball. I was varsity in my sophomore year, so I was pretty good at baseball. And that was my friend group.

And then junior year, I tore my rotator cuff and that took me out of baseball. So I had nothing to do, no friends, no nothing. And that was like the one thing that made you normal. Exactly. The baseball, the friends, it gave you some sense of normalcy in your life. Absolutely, it did. That was the main thing that kept me connected to the community and outside addiction. How did that injury affect you mentally at that point?

Does that like change things for the rest of your life? Yeah. Yeah, it did. I had hopes that I was going to get a scholarship for baseball, break this cycle because my parents hadn't gone to college. My mom went back to college once she got clean. But for me, like, that was the plan. I'm going to, you know, get a baseball scholarship. I'm going to go to school, and I'm going to get out of this. So when the actual injury happened, I didn't even, it took a while for it to register that I wasn't going to play again. You know, I went to physical therapy

and, you know, they were telling me that it was unlikely that I was going to be able to compete at a high level. So I took that as like, instead of like trying to work through a continuing physical therapy, I was like, fuck it, let's find something else to do. And that's where I encountered, like, the drug group. I had a group of friends. It started with marijuana, as everyone does, you know what I mean? Not that I'm saying, like, marijuana is a gateway drug, because there are a ton of positive qualities. to marijuana. I wouldn't recommend it for an addicted person, but there are a lot of positive qualities

healing-wise. But it started off with that drinking. I didn't get in my first legal trouble until I was like 17. We were all smoking in a parking lot like 4 a.m., like loud as hell, just being reckless teenagers. The next thing we know, four police cars pull up around us, the buddy in the front seat who had the marijuana on him, like shoved it in his pants in between his nuts. And we, the cops, because we were 17 a time, they couldn't arrest us. So they got my mom. And my mom was tearing us a new one, telling us how irresponsible we were and shit like that.

But that's, that was par for the course of the time. And then it progresses worse from here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, way worse. So at its, like, worst peak, what kind of drugs are you doing? At the worst of the worst, crack heroin meth. And how old are you? Well, I started heroin at 19. Was that the first, like, hardcore drug aside from marijuana that you did?

I would say so. I started, I had Xanax before, like the anti-anxification. I had a real problem with that. So how are you exposed to heroin or the, or any type of drug on that level. Aside from marijuana, like, what's that first experience like? Like, what's that the decision your mind being made saying, I'm going to try this?

How do you commit to doing that? Man, well, it was a conscious choice for me. So I had a friend who was, you know, a pillhead at the time, taking Xanax, Viking, and whatever. And I get in his car one day. And I just, I straight up telling him. him, I want to do heroin today. And the drug act that he was, he was like, all right.

And we live in Detroit, you know what I mean? So, like, Detroit's a relatively easy access for heroin. But, like, why? Like, looking back out of now, yeah, why would you just say, like, man, I want to do heroin today? Insanity, brother. I don't wake up thinking that, or even when I was a kid, like, that was never in my mind. So coming from you, what's that like?

Like, what do you think it was? I don't know. The allure that it had, it took my parents away from me. You know what I mean? Like, the fact that you can love your child so much, but this drug is so much more important, that allure, that like that curiosity of why is it so good that they would choose this over their entire family

and everything they love? And that was the pull from me. It's like maybe this thing. maybe this drug will give me the feeling that I always wanted but never had. So do you think had your parents not been addicted to that drug, you would never have even thought in your mind to try it? Yeah, yeah, definitely not. Definitely not. It just, like you said at the beginning, like this was predestined.

Does that make you think, like going forward, like when you have kids one day and what you want to do with your life, does that make you more conscious? Oh. As like a parent thinking about what you're going to do with your kids? Yeah, I am a fatherhood. I have a two-year-old. And yeah, man, I am super, super on top of that, man. I understand that because her mom, my wife, is also a recovering addict. I'll tell you more about that, but my daughter, like, I'm so hyper-conscious of, like, what environment she's in, what she's going to see.

Because kids don't always do as you say. they do as you do. You know what I mean? So I want her to see me working my ass off, staying away from drugs. Like, I don't want to really take her to 12-step meetings either because that's kind of exposing her to that, that idea that drugs are something. You know what I mean? Yeah. So you're 19 years old, you try heroin. You're doing other drugs. How are you supporting this drug habit? Do you have a job, or are you committing, like, crime to support it? Yeah. So at 19, I was selling heroin, too. We were living in this busted-ass trailer, me and the guy who initially got the heroin together. And we were selling, just trying to use what we wanted, but use it for free.

So we'll sell, I don't know, 20 bags, take 2 20 bags and get a free 20 bag for us. So you were doing it just to support the habit. You weren't looking to make money. I mean, I was looking to make money, but I was doing too much heroin to make money. Yeah. Basically every drug dealer I've talked to when they're using, they don't really make much money. Yeah, no. Because they're smoking their supply.

Yeah, literally. That was exactly the case. Now, are you injecting heroin or are you smoking it? Well, at this time, I was not injected. I was snorting it. But it only took like two months before I injected it. And what's worse? To inject.

Definitely to inject. That's the worst because it goes right into the bloodstream. Yeah, so the effect itself is way stronger when injected and also way more addictive. However, I will say that if you're in the process of shooting up, the risk is huge. Huge risks. Myocarditis, which is like bacteria in the heart, like HIV age. I have hep C. I got Hep C from injection.

Yeah, not fun. And you still have it now? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm being treated for it. So like... So do you have to like disclose that to people? Like, is that like considered like a... It's not like HIV where like it's transferable like that. It's only transferable through like bludge to blood contact.

So if I was bleeding into your open wound, you have a low likelihood of getting it. but it is a possibility. Now, at this point in time, do you have any relationship with your parents, like while you're using at your peak? No, so my mom wanted nothing to do with me because I kept stealing from her. I stole everything in her house.

And she's clean. Yeah, she's clean at this time. She's going on like 11 years clean because she got clean initially when I was eight. Okay. I'm 19 now. She wants nothing to do with me. I still, every time she would go to sleep with me in the house,

I'd steal all her TV. she has woken up multiple times to know TVs in her house. And you're just taking it to the pawn shop. I'm not even taking it to the pawn shop. I was too lazy to do that. I would take it to the drug dealer and just say, please take this TV. And she's not trying to help you at all,

like trying to get you clean, like bring you to her rehab. Desperally she's trying to do that, bro. She's done, but I'm not listening to shit. You know what I mean? I'm just poo-pooing her. I'll survive.

I'll make it. And that wasn't working. That wasn't working. And what about your dad? So my dad, if you remember, he relapsed when I was like 12. So he was still using, and I didn't see him for like six years. So he's using for almost a decade more after that, because you're in your early 20s at this point.

Yeah, yeah. Man, I actually, my, so like I said, I didn't see my dad for six years. So when I did see him again, he was the shell of a human that I remember. He was 90 pounds soaking wet. From what I understand, he had lung cancer but didn't do anything about it. And I stayed with him for a while in the middle of my addiction. And you're both using together? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So he's not injecting, but he's snorting. How is he supporting his habit? He's getting disability. Okay. He's getting disability and his partner was also getting disability. So they were using together. We were all kind of supporting each other's habit. What a relationship.

right there. It was really messed up, man. I look back at it now and realize and see how kind of sick it was. But at the time, like, I was so wrapped up in like, what, what's going to get me my next one? And that was the mentality I had. You know, that's the mentality of my dad and his partner head. Let's just get high. Now, what actually lands you in jail? Is it just petty crimes or do you do something serious that lands you into that? Or is it like a buildup? And so it's kind of like a buildup. It's it's crime after crime. So my first charge was a retail fraud trying to steal from coals. I shoved like a $60 bottle of like cologne in my pants and tried to walk out. Every kid did that. I remember when before they used to lock up the colognes at like CVS and Walgreens, the middle school kids would go. They would steal it and then sell it. It was like the Ralph Lauren, the knockoff. Yeah. Literally. Or the, there was some other popular one, Verve or something.

like that that we would get and that was a popular thing now they lock up all that i was at yesterday i was at walmart getting like polaroid uh cameras they even lock those up now they're locking up everything the whole electronics department's locked up all man because i've stolen dude literally you name a store i have taken that place for a ride bro so you steal from coals you get arrested for that yeah yeah so that was my i was like 18 when i first got arrested for the retail fraud but that was probably like a slap on the wrist yeah yeah yeah literally like i i not reporting probation like i did like that got got out from with like a 500 bond went to court never saw a judge probation officer again and then you just kept

doing things like that yeah yeah so that was a learning experience instead of like man i got a not steal shit it's oh okay i got to be better at stealing so i uh i i tried to like creatively um steal shit from other stores but because i was banned permanently from coals like they had my picture next to their register. So could you go on a coals today or not? I don't think so. I don't think so. I think they want me out. I don't think they want me there. That's okay. You know what I mean? Yeah, who shops at coal? Right. I get it. I think they're going bankrupt. Yeah. But yeah, that was my first charge. But they, it progressed quickly. So after the year of non-reporting probation, that was when I was selling the heroin. And I was supporting my habit with

retail fraud too. Walmart, like J.C. Penny. Public sometimes. But yeah, I was stealing to support my habit. Honestly, my drug dealer at the time was this old-ass African-American woman who had like kids and grandkids in her house. So she, instead of like me paying her,

she would let me steal like Spider-Man and Superman toys from Walmart. exchange it for drugs. Wow. So I was stealing like literal action figures in exchange. That was, that was my play for a while. So this eventually all catches up to you and you get jail time for all of these different crimes you're committing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I get, this is, I get caught in another cold. That's how, um, one of them. So I was sick one day,

withdrawing from opioids. And, um, I don't know if you know anything about withdrawing from opioids, man, but it is a nightmare. Like, you feel like you're dying.

And I call my buddy, because I'm not driving at a time. They already suspended my license at this time for not showing up to court. So I asked him, hey, I need a ride. I'll take me anywhere. I just need to steal something.

So, of course, I choose Coles, again, despite me being banned. And I just go in there with a backpack and start shoving Nike shirts and shoes in my backpack, not even giving a shit. They're watching me. They're straight looking at me.

I'm making eye contact with fucking employees. boys, as I'm shoving Air Force ones into my backpack. It was not good. So I try to walk out, and the loss prevention guys right behind him. He's like, don't fucking do it, dude. I'm already on the phone with the cops. So like, we look at each other, me and the driver, like, oh, fuck, we're screwed. So we jump in the car, and I'm like, because I put some clothes on under my normal clothes. So I have like four pairs of shorts on, two pairs of boxers, and I'm trying to rip him off. is he's speeding down the street. And we see cops coming the other way with their lights on trying to stop us.

And they ended up, he's trying to escape. He's trying to literally high speed chase these cops. And I'm telling him from the back seat, like, bro, they're going to get us. Stop the car. They're going to get us. And so he stops the car. They actually didn't stop. He didn't stop it on purpose.

They cut him off. They rode him off the road into the grass. Oh, wow. And they come up, guns drawn. I'm in my boxers. Like literally, like, I have one pair of boxers on. I'm on the phone, like, trying to call my mom, tell her, like, mom, I'm about to be arrested.

Like, just letting you know. And he pulls me out. He doesn't even let me get shorts or pants on. He makes me sit in the boxers. And they knew you were wanted at that point. Yeah, and I had a whole bunch of warrants for retail fraud, drug possession. and then at the time that I actually got arrested, I had heroin needles and a crack pipe on me.

So they arrested me for that. I served like 43 days in county jail for that. And when I get out, I'm supposed to be on probation. I do not do probation well. Like I've never completed a probation in my life. It always ends up in jail time. Usually because they hit me with like a lot of the like 12 meetings a week or, you know, go to one-on-one therapy,

community service and I just was too lazy to do that because I was caught up in my addiction just getting the next one. So I'm like 22 or 23. I'm using heroin on a regular base every single day, maybe $50, $60 a day, which is a pretty bad habit. And a dealer at the time near my house lived in an apartment on the second floor and I had a buddy who would go with me to pick up drugs with him and this time he wasn't home so our thought is the drugs are in this house all we got to do is get in so we try crowbarring his door and we're in like do you know apartment lobbies like so like you walk into apartment building and there's like separate apartments but they're all in the same hallway together.

Yeah. So we're in the middle of the hallway with six other apartments right by us. Trying to crowbar this guy's stuff. Doesn't work. So we go downstairs and we go around to the back where the patio is and I boost this guy up into his house.

He unlocks the door and we ransack this dude's house. Take like a thousand dollars worth of drugs and money. iPhone, I think. And they end up calling the cops. So, like, they knew where I lived. And I don't know how the guy knew it was me who robbed him.

But I get a call for my mom saying that your drug dealer's here and he's threatening to shoot me and, like, shoot up the house. So I'm like, oh, fuck, dude. So I call the police. I'm like, hey, there's this drug dealer at my mom's house. What do I do? Like, can you please go there? armed. So they go, they kick him out, but they can't arrest him because there's no proof.

But that's when he tells the police that I broke into his house. So when I come home, they're waiting for me. Like, I'm, I'm thinking I'm gravy, dude. I think the cops kicked this guy out. Like, I got all the drugs were squared away. I get back and there's two cops waiting for me inside of my house. And that's when I got popped for the home invasion. That's what sent me to prison. How much time do you get for the home invasion? So I got 13 months total. And are you clean by this point?

Like when you go into prison? Hell no. I am sick as a dog. I am sick as shit, dude. Like literally, I'm throwing up shit in my pants. That was like the first few weeks of prison? Yeah. So I got, so in Michigan, they have a protocol where they send you to Jackson,

which is a prison that, like, it's a max security, but it's also quarantine. So I got there And that's where like the throwing up The pissing out of my butt would be Like it was bad dude What year was this an hour over? 2016 I was like 22 or 23 maybe

And this is your first time ever really like doing a long sentence Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah This is my first time I'm riding the lightning Yeah what are you thinking Like when you're when you get a little bit sober up and the withdrawal pains are subsiding. What are your thoughts about this prison where you're at? Man, I was shocked at first. You know what I mean? I was anxious. Because I'm a small guy. I'm 5'6.

But I mean, I can scrap. Like, I can fight. I was when I was bullied. I always used to fight back. And this is just a regular state prison. It's nothing special. Right. Yeah. Yeah, nothing crazy. What type of people are there? A lot of drug addicts. For the most part, it was a lot of addicts. There was, so, like, in the prison itself, like, in quarantine, I was pretty much locked away from everyone. You know what I mean?

Like, there wasn't a lot of violence, because people are just trying to get to their own spot. But when I went to, like, the actual prison they sent me to, there was, like, gangs. wishing you could be there live for the big game soaking up the atmosphere of the crowd but too often life gets busy or the price hold you back

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So that was my man Oh shit That was That was when I got checked So I I didn't want to join a gang dude Like I just wanted to do my time and get out This is the first week you got there to this prison

This is the first week They're approaching you to join a gang Yes So how does that go down So I'm like literally like in the day room And they it's I don't know what they call themselves The Aryan nation

The Aryan Brotherhood the white power, one of those. And they said, hey, man, you got to rock with one of us to be safe. You got to put in work. And I'm thinking, like, fuck, no, I don't. What do you mean, bro? Like, I'm just chilling. You know what I mean?

Like, let's do our time and let's get out. That's the goal here. Like, can't we all just get along? And that didn't work out. So, like, I told him no, but super respectfully, I was like, listen, man, I'm just trying to get my time done. I'm not really trying to put in work for anyone. I'm not like that. I'm not about that life, quote. And it's, he seemed kind of cool about it.

I thought like, all right, that's cool. And then I was alone for a while. You know, I mean, it was about a week, week and a half. And I'm, I'm showering. And while I was showering, two people, one of them was a shot caller for the African-American people there. they were they were in bloods i don't know what game they were affiliate with but i'm i'm pretty sure it was the bloods um it was two of them oh shit man and so like when i was showering normally and i heard them at first i heard them come in um and i asked what's up i'm butt-ass naked bro and i ask like what's going on are they naked or are they just they they're they're in their they're in their whites and grays um and one of of them turned off the shower, dude.

And I was, like, I was mad, confused. I thought I was about to, like, scrap or something. I thought they came in there to, like, smoke a cigarette or some shit. And one of them just hits me. Like, I wasn't expecting it. I was like, hey, man, like, what's up? And it was just a fucking haymaker, and he hits me. And, like, I...

And what do you do in that moment? Man, fuck, dude. Like, I'll be honest, dude. I froze. I froze, bro. You know, I, uh, I fall to the ground. And one of them kicked me in the head. And I started covering my head up.

And I felt one get on top of me. And, uh, they raped me. Holy shit. Yeah, bro. I mean, that really changed my life. What are you, like, thinking, like, in that moment? What, what happens? Does anyone, does anyone come in?

Bro. I'm screaming, bro. Like, I'm screaming. Everyone in the pod can hear me, Doug. Everyone in the pod can hear me. I'm screaming, help. No one came in. They all let her happen.

Where are the, like, the officers? This, I don't know, bro. Literally, there's no officers. There's no COs in there. Like, the only time I saw CO was when they brought fucking commissary or something. It was like a 60-man pod, and they just had cameras.

And when they needed to talk to someone or pull someone out, they would, all they would do is make an announcement and then pop the doors. Do you know what these guys are in prison for? One of them was for assault, and I don't know what the other one was in for. So what's your next move after this happens? Like, what do you do next? Do you go to the hospital? Do you go to the CEO? So I went to a CEO. And you reported what happened? Yeah. Yep. I reported what happened. And they put me in solitary confinement. So they put you in the shoe, they put you in protective custody, basically.

Yep. Do they send, like, medical to come check you out? Do what, does anything happen? Nope. Nothing. No. Did you ask for them to check you out? No.

No, I didn't want anyone touching me. I didn't want to, dude, I was, I was so fucked up. Like, I just remember having this horrible anxiety. Like, it was going to happen again at any moment. And they didn't even provide any type of, like, like, psychologist to come to see you? Not a shit. They literally provided nothing.

That's crazy. They put me in the shoe. They, like, I was punished for what happened to me. That's how these prisons work. Like, if you need protection or anything, there's, like, they'll say protective custody. All it is is them putting you in the shoe. You're not in, like, some special unit or anything like that. It's just, it's crazy what they do.

So you spend how long are you put in protective custody for? two weeks or so and do they move you to a different prison uh no they move me to a different unit pod okay and are people talking about in the prison what happened oh yeah like words getting out oh yeah for sure um and how long are you into your stay at this point like how much time do you have left six months you have six months left yeah yeah yeah yep so how do you even navigate like what are you doing like i couldn't even imagine that having that mindset of what has happened because that's traumatic. Like, no one deserves that to happen to you.

And you still have six months left to do? What's your outlook at that point? Violence. I wanted revenge, which I never got. And I wanted to not have that happen again. So I did put in, quote, unquote, work for the Aryan brother. Dude, honestly, I don't even know what they're fucking white dudes. So you went to them and you said, hey, I want to

ride with you guys. Because they knew what happened. They knew what happened. Honestly, in my personal, I, I know. Do you think they set you up? Yeah, I do. And dude, that's so crazy you say that because I honestly, like, I never thought that someone could have that. Because I didn't do anything wrong on these people, you know what I mean? They just wanted you to be a part of them. Dude, to do, bro, I'm telling you, man, I've thought about it a lot and I truly do believe that's what happened. So they let you in to ride with them now? Yeah. So what are you doing for them? What do you have to do for this protection? Um, well, a lot of it was I held knives. So like in my particular bunk, um, I could like, there was this open metal grate underneath the second bunk

and you could hide like three knives in there at once, no problem, can't even tell. So that's, That's mostly what I did. And he had a fight, I guess. There was another kid. He was African-American real young. I honestly, in my, now this is just a guess, but I think he was a chomo. So like when he came into the pod,

the quote-unquote shot caller told me that I was going to fade with him. And we did. We just went there. and honestly, the kid was small than me, but I got my ass kicked. But you fought and you showed up. Yeah, I showed up. I was ready to rock because in my head I thought, if I don't do this, they're going to do something to me.

So this prison turned you into more of a violent person. Oh, dude. You went in as a drug addict, not a hardened criminal. You were in for shoplifting, and it turned you into something you never wanted to become. Yep. Well, actually, I was in there for home invasion. Yeah, but it wasn't like a violent. Right, exactly.

You say home invasion, you're thinking like, armed guns and stuff. You guys are a bunch of addicts that, you know. Jumping through windows. Yeah, exactly. I think it's insane that you have a one-year sentence and they're putting you in with these types of people. Bro, literally, that's exactly what I was saying. That's a real problem in the system. I mean, like, why are like fraud guys?

Why are drug addicts being put into facilities with dangerous individuals and there's no security? Like the, the CEO aspect, the ratio. It's terrible. That was honestly one of the craziest. part. Like, you could have gotten killed. Like, you literally, and all you had was a drug addiction. Yeah. I think back to it now and definitely recognized like, holy shit, man, I was, I was sick. You know what I mean, going in there. But what that prison turns me into, like, what happened while I was there, was by far worse than what I experienced an active addiction up until that point.

So with this just being like a, like a state prison, like a regular level state prison, there's still a lot of politics in this, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, like, what are the politics like? Are they checking paperwork? Are the sex offenders and the snitches not allowed at certain tables? Definitely, so the sex offenders, they tried to put sex offenders in our pod, like, a few times. And that always worked out really poor.

Like, they, it was a paper. So everyone gets their paperwork checked if they look suspicious. You know what I mean? Like typically, like, the homies from the street or something who, like, come in don't really get their paperwork check because everyone kind of understands. But, like, the child molesters and stuff, they got some shit that come in their way. And they had a rough go of it, to say the least. There was, there were shot callers who, on a whole, were pretty chill people. but what they asked of you of their people was not indicative of a good leader you know what I mean

like there was a lot of violence it was really I think it was all an attempt to kind of I don't even know how to describe man but like fit in you think these people are actually tough no dude They were just going along with it. They were just going along with it. They were just exposed to this like ecosystem, political system, and they turned into this. Absolutely. That's kind of like what you had to do as well.

Yeah, that was. Because it's sink or swim. Like you learn to adapt, really, that's the one thing prison can teach you. It's, you have no choice but to adapt. Yeah, that's 100%. Because not adapting, it ends up with what happened. I mean, you know what I mean?

Because you think going in that like, okay, I can do this. I only got 13 months. I can do this without violence. I can do this without linking up with the gang. Because that's how what you're, you're grow up meant to think the system's like. You're growing up meant to think that all cops are good

and that the law is always right and that the court system's fair and that you can go to a system and you're going to be safe. You're in prison. You're doing your time. You're supposed to be safe, protected. That's all the movies, dude. I don't need to worry about that. I don't need to worry about someone coming in the shower after me.

I don't have to worry about gangs and violence. But I was wrong. I was wrong. I mean, prison is, they called, like the prison I was in, they called it Gladiator School because of the violence that was there. You had to fight. And you're just seeing violence normally on a regular basis. I actually, dude, I saw, I was in the lunch line one time.

And this Mexican gentleman literally like walked up behind someone two feet in front of me and sliced his face wide open. Like you could, bro, like you could see his teeth through his mouth. It was horrific. Blood everywhere. Now, I, that was the first time I saw anyone slashed or something. So like I'm fucking, holy shit, what's going on? help this guy. Everyone around me is not doing anything.

I'm just sitting there. You know what I mean? So prison's a weird spot, man. You know what I mean? It turns you into something that you didn't think you were capable of being. Now you get out, how long did you actually serve on that 13-month sentence?

374 days. So about a year, basically. You get out. What do you do when you get out? Are you back into drug addiction or are you trying to get your life together? A little bit of both. So like I understand, at this point, I definitely understood how damaged I was, how important it was to get some sort of sobriety under my belt. Did you see like mental health treatment at all?

Not at that time. No, no, no. In fact, I thought to myself that I'm not the problem. It's the state I'm living in. It's because Michigan has access to drugs. Because I thought it was everyone else, not me. So what I did is I told my mom, I'm moving to Florida. And she wanted to come with me. So she sells her house to,

move down to Florida with me. Pack everything on top of a Honda pilot. Because she's trying to save her kid. She's trying to save her son. And she goes, we drive down to Florida. And from day one in Florida, I was seeking out drugs. Like I would go up to homeless men on the street. Hey, man, where's the heroin it?

And that never worked. But what did work is I went to a strip club. And I go to a strip club. I asked one of the dancers to get me heroin. And this dancer pulled out a bag of fentanyl. And in my head, I'm like, I'm in love. And now this woman... With the stripper or the drugs?

A little bit of both. So, like, it was her. So just her, like, willingness to whip that bag out and give me fentanyl right there and then. And she told you it was fentanyl. Yep. absolutely she did and uh we do it together and i find out that this girl's like home she's living in a homeless shelter with bedbugs and shit so i'm like come on home with me and you bring this

stripper that's homeless i bring that stripper home to the and me and my mom got like a a mobile home trailer when she sold her house she didn't like buy a house in florida she just got like a mobile home trailer save some money puts them in the bank um so we get there and man like my mom is live it at first. But to be honest, man. The three of you guys are living in this mobile home trailer. My, dude, my addiction was sick, bro. Now, this woman that you brought home, she becomes your wife. Yeah. That's a crazy story. Yeah, dude, it gets even crazier, too, because I honestly, dude, I'm ashamed to say this, but I got my mom to relapse. You got your mom to relapse because you brought her home? No, I brought drugs home with theirs.

So, like, imagine if you sit in a barber shop, eventually you're going to get a haircut. You know what I mean? But your mom had been clean for like 15 years at this point. Literally. So she didn't clean 17 years at this point. And she like hurt her foot or something. And I kept suggesting get some viking and get a couple norcos, get some opioids in you. And that just set her off.

And that just set her off, dude. Wow. So I was having to, like my. girlfriend who later became my wife was still stripping and on the side she was hooking up with like guys for extra money and you are okay with this oh man it's hard to describe so like not really i was not really okay with it because i got drugs now it's full on like prostitution yes correct it's full on prostitution so she's getting paid for this and what's like the conversation

like at home uh well i i definitely try to like do you think think about it or oh yeah yeah i definitely think about it it hurts me it's like when she would come home with money i like i couldn't help but obsess over like oh man like who is the guy who is the guy how'd you get the money and honestly like as sick as i am i thought is he better than me did you enjoy it and like even for a job like i i dude i'm telling you man like i was so insecure about it you know what mean because in her eyes it was just for drugs but in my eyes it was like some sort of infidelity you know what I mean but really it was an exchange of goods and services yeah so you were looking as this is what you guys needed to do to provide so you guys could keep up your habit and stuff yeah

yeah that's crazy I've never actually talked to someone that like we have a lot of friends that have like a girlfriend on only fans or something but that's like different because that's like virtual right so to talk to someone that actually had like that the physical act of it because it's a it's a job right people do do work that it's the oldest profession in the world but it's got to be tough for the man but i guess you're also you're addicted to drugs so it's a different outlook like my outlook's going to be very different as someone that's sober than someone that's addicted to drugs trying to do whatever to get by because it's a lot of money they're making literally and at this time like all three of us are strung out addicted and we realize like okay like the only way this is

going to change is if we get treatment. So we didn't understand how to get treatment in Florida. So without any place to live, without like any plans, we drive all the way back to Michigan because that's where we know there's treatment available. So I tell her and my mom like, let's just go back. We'll find treatment. We'll get in the treatment separately. Or we'll all go one at a time. And that didn't work out, man. So we go back and we're sleeping in the pilot. We're sleeping in the Honda pilot. S-U-V, like all three of us cramped.

We have a dog in the car and a cat in the car. So this is rock bottom. Jail wasn't rock-bottom. Right. And it gets worse too, bro, literally. So, like, we're living in the car for a while, stealing. We'll drive to, like, different Walmars throughout the state of Michigan.

steal as much as possible and then either trade it to the drug dealer themselves for the product or find someone to buy it. And that went on for like four months. And my mom's like elderly. She has MS, but she's still using. I continue to get my mom high. And it's chaos. We're always arguing there's always a problem going on because that's just addiction. You know what I mean? then my mom decides one morning when she wakes up, I'm going to treatment. So she goes into a hospital and says me and my wife kidnapped her and forced her to do heroin. Now, we did not force her to do heroin. She was just saying this to get shit.

But when I go in to follow her, I'm like, mom, what's going on? And the cop pulls me aside. He's like, your mom's telling me that you forced her to do heroin. And I'm literally looking at him. My heart sinks to my stomach because I'm thinking I'm about to get arrested for this. So I literally run out of the hospital and I go to the car. I grab my dog out of the car, leave the cat. And we just start walking.

And we have like a family friend who has been trying to get me clean for five years come pick us up. we get to their house and they have that in a stay the night they have like I don't know two or three kids one kid's like 11 years old we're sleeping in his room and he has a wallet in a closet I had $60 in it so I just steal the $60 from this 11 year old kid

and I go spend it on drugs and I get back and they're both the people who I've been trying to get me clean we're sitting there and they're like man like I we know you stole that money you got to go and uh so that was just then we there was just me and my significant other at the time your mom was staying at the rehab yeah my mom went into rehab we didn't know which rehab she went to um so what's like the moment where you guys are both you and your wife are like we need

to fix this we need to turn this around we need to get help so that didn't come we actually uh we're living in the car and she reported the car stolen while she was in rehab your mom did Yeah. So there is a city police, Canton police. They ran my plates one day and saw that it was a stolen vehicle, quote unquote, and they arrested me and my wife. They took the dogs and the cat. Like they dragged, dude, like I still have time about it. Like, they dragged my dog out of the car and took him to the main side as I was locked in handcuffs in the back seat. This dog was crying, like, in more. whining. He knew what was happening. And that was messed up. So they take us to jail. And we're sitting there for 24 hours or something. And they pull us out and they said the charges had been dropped because they found out that the car obviously was not stolen.

And that left us without a car. So we thought we would go to rehab too. Just that moment, you said we're going to go to rehab? So her and I couldn't talk because she had warrants from Florida where they said they were going to come get her, but they never did. They just said that so they would hold her an additional 72 hours. But a guard let me scream to her that I'm going to rehab. I'll go to QEH, which is a rehab in Detroit. If you get out, go there. So I go to QEH.

I'm withdrawn. I'm still sick. because I only spent 24 hours in the jail. So I was still withdrawing, in the process of withdrawn. So they started giving me meds and stuff. I'm participating. Now, QBH, the rehab that I was in, wasn't necessarily the best rehab.

You know what I mean? It's just kind of a boarding house for homeless people who are also addicted. But I meet someone there who has property for rent. And instead of completing the probation, or not the probation, the rehab, I said, listen, like, I'm going to leave, let me rent a room from you, and me and my wife will work for you to pay the rent. So I do that. And now this place that we move to is in the absolute worst part of Detroit. Like, it's the east side, the street's called Six Mile.

You've seen the movie 8 Mile, right? Yeah. South of 8 Mile is the ghetto. And 6 Mile McNichols is the real name of it, is by far the most dangerous part, the most violent, the most addicted. Imagine Baghdad. That's what the east side McNacles looks like.

Burned-down house is everywhere. And this is, we're living in like an old church building. and the guy who actually ran the place, the landlord, he was not really a nice guy, dude. Like, he tried to trick with my wife, so he was trying to get her to do prostitution. And she wouldn't. So eventually, like, he demanded that we leave, despite us having our entire house here. So he calls the cops, and I run, because I think that I'm going to get arrested, because I still have warrants.

You know what I mean? So I get out of there and my significant other stays. And it turns out the cops left and the landlord like choked her, pushed her down the stairs. And like that's when she got out. So now we're both out on the street, nowhere to live. But we're still using. You're back to using again. Back to using.

But we're literally, like I can't just squit, the squalor that we weren't living in. Like, legitimately burned down houses. Houses that have no roof, but they had a crawl space that was, like, the wide is this table that we could crawl into and sleep. But we would never, and this is when the time my wife began real prostitution. Like, she was walking the street, getting picked up by strangers, and be gone for days and I would just wait there. And dude, I can't. There's no words to describe you what that was

like, like sitting in a dope house. Every single person in that house has either slept with my wife, beat my ass, or stolen from me. Every single day, bro, like for months. We spent like seven months out there living in burned down houses. My wife got raped twice out there. But that's the consequences of addiction, man. Like, that's what we were living, and that's what was normal to us. How do you turn this around? Because obviously, this isn't going on right now. So you had a pretty quick turnaround time, because this isn't too long ago.

Yeah, so actually, this is, we had about six months out there. And I, we were in a crack house one time, and I'm sitting there. And something hit me, man, a moment of clarity. I like to say, even to this day, that like, whatever energy manipulates all of existence was speaking to me. It told me, your mom deserves to know you're alive. This girl who is, like, she's three years younger than me, who was, like, 22 at the time. She deserves to have a normal life. You can do this.

And I'm, like, sobbing in this chair, holding her, saying, we got to get out. we have to do something. So the next morning we called rehab, and we go. And the first place we went to was team wellness, and that is like a co-ed place so her and I could see each other, but that was only three days. And then we split, went to different places. My wife went back out there.

I continued to stay clean, though. I was in treatment, consistent. for like eight months. Like, I had no phone. Like, I was really scared of myself because I know that disease lives inside of me today. Like, right now, that disease lives here. It's arrested because I do things every day

to make sure that I'm living in life in recovery. How do you fight those urges? Dude, I'll be straight up, man. Like, that moment of clarity removed those urges from me, bro. Do you think if you didn't have that moment of clarity, you would have end up dead? Yes, without question. There is no doubt in my mind today.

If that moment of clarity did not come, I would die. Dude, when I was out there, like, I was getting fucking jumped on the regular. Like, the regular. I, like, and I couldn't shower for six months. So, like, when I did shower when I got in rehab, there was black, red blood coming out of my hair. Like, dude, I was disgusting, bro. Do you value your life a lot more now? Holy shit, dude.

I love my life today. Because, you know, there's people that do. less drugs that pass away from drug use and you've gone through like this whole thing and you've survived that and you overcame that it's crazy it really is to think about like when you put everything into perspective yeah i dude i you said at the beginning of this that it was kind of destined to be and i'll say that addiction is the greatest thing to ever happen to me it allowed me to grow and value my life in a way that I never thought would be possible. It showed me what not to do with my daughter. You know what I mean? I'm assuming your wife ended up getting clean

now that you have a kid. So actually like three or four months into me being clean at the rehab, I'm sending her regular messages saying like please come back. Like you are in oblivion right now. Like you are suffering in an abyss so deep that there's no way out unless you get help. please let me help you and uh one day she comes visiting me at the rehab and she's blowed out like high out of her mind on heroin and i tell her like i can never see you again like i can't do this this hurts too much and uh eventually she she went into rehab she she called me one day and she's like i'm going in. So like I she served like 14 days at rehab detoxed. I got her into a sober living house. Yeah and then she started working this stuff. She started going to 12-step meetings.

What about your parents? What's your relationship with them like today? Yeah. So when I moved away from my father, he overdosed and died. Oh wow. I'm sorry to hear that man. And like two months later, same thing happened to my brother. He overdosed and died too. And that's just the consequences of addiction, man. Do you use that as like a motivator or something to keep you going? Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely I do. I have a lot of motivation today to continue with life.

What I will say is I got a whole bunch of people in my circle addicted to heroin. And about every single person that I got addicted is dead now. my friend Corey Peters and my friend Zach White had both of them best friends like I'm Zach was autistic and he was a real cool cat

dude he even though he had autism he was funny as hell he would just like say pineapple like out of nowhere like you'll be playing video games and he'll say that in it dude I don't know man he was just a really warm figure but I got him addicted to heroin man And one day, like, someone that he was using with, like, he overdosed in the car.

And they just pushed him out of the car and let him die. Wow. I mean, something we don't think about is how our actions affect others. Bro. I think about that a lot today because it really hurts, man. Like, knowing that, like, the actions that I did took someone's son away. What happened to your mother? My mom stayed clean after she got into that rehab when we were living in the street.

She stayed clean, started work because, like I said, she went back to school, became a social worker. She's the inspiration from, like, me when I got clean, to go back to school for social work. And, yeah, man, she's a powerful woman now. You know what I mean? She's helped a whole lot of people. She works for a drug and alcohol treatment center in Michigan, too. Yeah, what do you do for work now? What's your life like now? So my life now consists of recovery in all aspects.

I work at a drug and alcohol treatment center, helping people with like just reducing the barriers to recovery. You know, either it's like homelessness, they can't find a place. They need primary care doctors. They need medically assisted treatment like Suboxin or methadone. and then I just recently started my own business where I connect people with a peer counselor, a peer recovery coach, to follow them throughout the inpatient and treatment settings.

Because the continuity of care needs to be there. You need to have someone who's been on your side from the beginning of your journey to the end. I mean, not that there is an end, but, like, need to follow you through, and that's what we're going to do. And we consult with other treatment organizations, stations like in all 50 states.

Like we'll fly out anywhere and do an audit for a treatment center to make sure that they're like they can be CARF certified, the Center for Addiction Recovery Facilities, or integrating new programs. We just prepare other treatment centers to be the best possible treatment center they can be. That's awesome. And how long are you been cleaned for now? I'm going on in five years.

So is this like the first time you've actually sat down to talk about your story? Yeah, dude, literally. Like literally the first time. What was like the motivation to like fly out, meet a stranger, talk about your story? Dude, I... Like, what would you say to like people that are, that want to share their story or hesitant to talk about it? What's like your experience? Man, it's important to share that experience, strength, and hope.

That's the entire... To carry the message to the person still suffering. that there is another side to this. You know what I mean? Addiction is a monster, bro. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. And it happens like it could be your mother, your brother, a sister, a friend, another family member.

This is a very real, you know, issue in the world. And it doesn't just affect you. It affects the people around you. Dude, literally, like everyone in America, they have a mom, a dad, a son, a daughter who has some sort of addiction. You know what I mean? whether it's to marijuana prescription pills. Like, just because it's prescribed by a doctor,

doesn't mean that it's not going to affect you in your ability to not become addicted. You know what I mean? Like this, these are still drugs. Now, if you could go back to your teenage self and have a conversation with that person, what would you say to him? Man, I don't know.

To be honest, I would just tell him to enjoy the suffering. You know what I mean? Like that is, Dude, like, I, that I, that was, dude, it was really hard to overcome. Being raped, addicted parents, like, yeah, it was hard to overcome. But, dude, holy shit, this trauma motivated me. Like, I don't have to suffer alone in here. There's people out there whose story is just like mine who needs to be told.

Someone who has something to be said that you can recover from this. That's why it's important to share my story. Because my story is not unique in that. a garden variety drug addict. You know what I mean? I am not special in any way. Like what's special is the community and joy and fulfillment you get after those hard moments of wanting to change.

Those moments of clarity, we've got to focus on those and use those. Because otherwise, we're going to die out there. You know what I mean? And I know that I don't want any more son's daughters. moms or dads to be gone. And I owe it to Corey and Zach, the people that I got addicted to heroin. I owe it to them to bust my ass today.

I believe... Do you know what to say you're familiar with a Phoenix? Yeah. I believe I am a Phoenix. I have died and risen from the ashes. I have been reborn. I'm not like a Christian. I mean, like, dude, I don't know what religion's what.

You know what I mean? but I do know that there is a force out there greater than me. And whatever it was pushed me. You know what I mean? And it gave me that moment of clarity to just see for just a split second that there were something greater out there. And I was scared at first because I was comfortable in that insanity, dude. Like that's my whole, that was my whole life.

Drugs and alcohol and violence and trauma, that was it. I was everything. But I was comfortable with it. I was scared to live outside of my comfort zone. I was scared that I would fail. I was scared that I didn't have it in me to do the things necessary to stay clean today. But I do. And now you have the story to share.

And like we were talking about earlier, it's those stories that no one really knows about that are the most relatable to individuals because you're just like you're the typical average person that did not choose this lifestyle. You did not want this lifestyle. It was kind of thrown at you. And certain decisions of others and yourself brought you down this journey and you were able to survive that. And now you have the story of hope and inspiration to, you know, inspire others. So, Dylan, thank you for coming on the show today. It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you. And I wish you the best.

I wish your wife the best, your family, your daughter, and excited to see what you do. with your story and continuing to like spread that positivity. Thank you. I appreciate being on, man. You got a cool thing going here. And I'm glad to see that you're helping people share their story. Thanks, man.