Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Confronting Wes Watson, Fighting Addiction & Finding the Strange Secret to Success

Episode Date: June 23, 2024

Confronting Wes Watson, Fighting Addiction & Finding the Strange Secret to Success

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You really think you're worth it. He's talking about his mastermind. It's nothing but a fashion show. You go there to take pictures with the head guy. Oh, look at me. I'm living this life. So I hit him up. I said, how much is it?

I might go. I technically had the money, but I should never have went. You know what I mean? Like, I shouldn't have spent it. So he's like, it's 15 grand. I got a funny story for you. Quite a common name nowadays. Wes Watson.

Okay. Dude, check this out. This is funny. So my buddy Mike in South Carolina, he was actually my supervisor where we became friends. And he's always in the office watching West Watson videos. He used to call me, he calls me Jersey. He's like, Jersey, check this guy out. And he's at the park, you know, he's all tatted up.

He's like, you know, he's telling his story at the park. You remember his earlier videos? Yes. Where he would tell stories essentially like from a voyeur perspective. Like, oh, I heard this. There was a guy named John. A guy named Jimmy, we used to call him sticks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sticks was walking through the yard one day. Yeah, it was just like, you, somebody told you this story. But you think he was there and he, yeah. But if you notice, his stories as he begins to drink his Kool-Aid more and more become, I saw, I heard, I was there, I was a shot caller for 10 years. You know, so my buddy. I did eight years, and I was never at a 10. Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, so he's.

My buddy Mike's like, check it out. So I'm like, all right, you know, he's pretty entertaining, right? He's, you know, he's a big guy. He's got the tattoos, you know. And, you know, I kind of resonated with that. So I'm like, okay, that's pretty cool, you know. Whether he's lying or not, he's making, he's making money. He's doing his thing.

Absolutely. Right? He's doing his thing, more power to him. So he's on the fighter and the kid. You ever heard of the fighter in the kid? It's Brandon Shob and Brian Callins. It sounds familiar. They're kind of a branch off of Rogan.

Brandon Shob was Rogan's boy. and they got their own little thing. It's pretty big. It's probably, I would say it's neck and neck with you. You're probably about the same fan base. So he's like, he's on the fighter and the kid. And he's like, I answer all my messages personally, right? So I'm like, hmm, I wonder what this guy's selling.

So he gives his number. And I'm like, I text him. So he hits me back. Yo, what's up, big dog? I'm like, sorry. I'm like, hey, how you doing? And he's doing his whole shtick, you know. He's, what's up, big dog?

Sorry, I was on a conference or I was on a call. with some clients, blah, blah, blah. And almost immediately, I realize it's an auto responder, but he's got a program to his lingo. You know what I mean? The whole big dog, you know, all that shit. And he's like, he's doing his shtick. And I said, what was the product?

I said, I'm interested. Now, I probably shouldn't have spent the money, but I had the money to spend. No, no, no, I didn't spend it. I shouldn't have even have been asking. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not going to send you $10,000 to get called a bitch. You're right.

So I'm like, well, what's, what's, what's, what are you selling? So, boom, he breaks it down. You know, he's got his whole gangster thing on. For 2,500, you get this, comes up, blah, blah. For five grand, you get this comes up, blah, blah. For 7,500, he's going on and on. And I'm, I'm already like, okay. So, um, I said, well, let me, I'm already seeing red flags because I'm doing the, the math. And he's saying, I make X amount of millions per month. Now, you and sales, especially in online sales, let's say you want to make two sales. Do you know how many people you have to reach to make two sales? Yeah, yeah, a lot. You would have to, let's say you do, let's say you

do 100, 200, 200, 100. Out of 200 people, eight, let's just call it 100. 80% of those people are going to say, that's spam, delete it. So now you're left with 20 people. Let's say all 20 open the email. 10 are going to say, that's bullshit. Now you got 10 left. Seven of those people are going to be like, not for me. Maybe three are going to buy. One's going to buy a bullshit product. Maybe one is going to buy your high ticket item. So I'm thinking to myself, and those are good odds. Right. Those are good. That's what dumping money into the advertising. Right. So he's like, I make X amount of million dollars a month. And I'm thinking to myself, even if those three were the high ticket item, you would have to sell this many a month. That means you would have to talk to this many a month

personally. So I'm already, I'm already seeing that he's bullshitting, but whatever. You know, maybe. Yeah, yeah, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, like, do, like, do, like, do, like, do, like, do, like, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there needs, there would have to be 12 of you. Right. You know, working 80 hours a week. Right. Right. Right. So, but even at that, I was like, okay, whatever. But he still, I'm sure, no matter what it is, I'm sure. Oh, he's not good. I'm sure he's doing amazing, to be honest. And it's the same thing with the prison thing.

Here's what kills me. It's like, you don't have to say you did 10 years at a pen. You could just say what you really did. You could still behave like a lunatic. You do all those things. People are still going to buy in. You don't have to go to the extreme to convince people. And people will, people have intuition.

And they will believe you and trust you more if you're just honest. What you're doing is you're causing, you're causing people not to try. I think he's hurting himself more. And not all of his message, but I'd say 80% of his message, I'm okay with. Some of it's good. Wake up early, work out, be a man, open the door for a woman, you know, work hard, you do those things, you know, be an honorable person. Like, a lot of it's right.

And then there's the 20% that I'm where he's like, you're a bitch if you're not making, if you're not making this much money, you're a punk. If you don't look like me, you're a bitch, you know, like, all right, you know what. Now I'm done. Dude, so listen. So I was like, okay, I'm still, I'm still entertained. I can still get something from this, right? Like, okay, I'm not going to, yeah, you're like, I'm still, okay.

I'm still, I'm still, I'm still, I'm still nibbling, right? So, but I back off because I kind of wanted to see, it just doesn't add up. So I was like, let me, let me step back and just, I just want to see where this goes. So I'm following him on Instagram. And he's like, now anybody who's done any type of personal development is not going to respond of people who are making fun of you. Like, oh, your car's rented. You're not going to go, no, it's not. Look at the title. If you have any type of, you know, personal development in you, right? So he's talking about his mastermind. Now, I have friends that have put on masterminds,

10 grand ahead. It's nothing but a fashion show. They don't give you shit. You go there to take pictures with the head guy. Oh, look at me. I'm living this life. So he's like, I'm doing a mastermind. Miami. This is what you get. Day one, blah, blah, ba, day two, day three. And I, and I'm listening to it. And I'm like, so really all I get is dinner with you and some pictures and to be on your videos, and that's going to draw attention to me because I'm with Wes Watson. Right. You know, everything he's offering, I could get on YouTube for free.

So I hit him up. I said, how much is it? I said, I'm not far from Miami. I might go. I technically had the money, but I should never have went. You know what I mean? Like, I shouldn't have spent it. So he's like, it's 15 grand.

And I was like, to hang out with Wes Watson for three days. I don't know. So I just, I back off. So anyway, fast forward right after the thing. he's like he's on his story all you all you haters want to talk about my cars rented he's got the title uh Lamborghini west watson bentley west watson and i thought like i shouldn't have said anything but we had somewhat of a rapport so i was like bro who cares like who to fuck care why would you even waste your breath on these people and his guy messages me back bitch you don't

even have 15 grand so shut the fuck up why are you even talking i was like what he's like he starts ripping into me. He's like, you can't even afford to come to the fucking mastermind, you fucking bitch. And I'm just like, dude, I'll slap the shit out of you. Like, I don't care if you, I don't care how, you know what I mean? Like, the loudest person in the room is the weakest person in the room. Look, he's clearly geared up. He's clearly on test. I can tell you his stack right now just by looking at him. He's on test trend Winstrel, right? Just by looking at him, I can tell you. Probably on a little growth hormone too. He's doing good, good for him. Looks great. But bro, that don't teach you how to fight. You're going to get knocked the

fuck out. Yeah. I'm not the guy because I just, I don't want to fight anymore. But like, you're going to say it after the wrong person and they're going to fuck you up. It's funny because he's like, he just, it was, it was to the point where he was at the point in life where he was like drinking his own Kool-Aid so hard. And he really believes, like, I was a shot caller in prison. I'll come to your house and shank you. And I'm just like, dude, you, I actually, I didn't respond. I said, um, I was like, I'll see you on the way back down, bro. And he was just It's like, fuck you. I'm like, okay.

I mean, he's going to have a massive heart attack one day. Oh, fuck, yeah. He's going to have to pay somebody to take care of him for a few years. They're going to piss through all of his money. He's going to end up living in someone's spare room on social security disability. And he's going to realize that his behavior got him exactly where he is. Right. You know, it's an arch.

I mean, he's riding high right now, but exactly what you just said. I mean, you can't sustain that forever. You know, you run full throttle. You got you eventually got to shut down. And the people that are hanging around him are hanging around him for the hype, they don't really like him. No, not at all. You know, not at all. You see the way he talks to the guys he works out with?

Oh, yeah. Pussy. Listen, I met a guy. This was when he, West was in, I think, L.A. Yeah. Because I met a guy that said he went to the gym. He said he shows up with like 10 or 15 guys and trains all of them, puts them on different machines. He is, and I mean he is, you've never heard anybody talk to someone.

Just brutally. Just guy, he said, he said, I was there one time when a guy came in late, he said, just belittled the guy. He's the guy was, oh, so sorry, I'm sorry, Wes. He's like, they pay for him to abuse them. And psychologically, there's got to be something wrong. With the guy, for sure. Like, I thought, like, you're not, it's like a masochist that has a, or what is that relationship where you have a woman? A Dom and a sub.

Yeah, right. Like, people are, like, you've got to know this isn't normal. Yeah, they want to be abused. Right. Want to be, yeah. Like, I mean this figuratively, but some wives like to be beat. And, and of course, I mean that figuratively. There was a book. There was a book that came out. Do you remember that it was a black guy wrote the book and said black women like a black women want to be beaten? Good Lord. And that was the name of the book. And I mean, it was like a bestseller. And people, this is 20 years ago. 20, 25 years ago. People were going nuts. Like I can't believe. But he was a bestselling book. I'm sure it was. I'm sure it was. Yeah. I mean, it's the truth though. Again, I don't really mean women like that. be beat. I'm just saying, you know, but like, I mean, some people, you know, look, I respond better to, I guess because where I grew up in the 80s, like, I mean, I, you could blur this

out, but like, you know how many times I've been called a retard on a job site? Right. You know, it's like, I said, I said a crescent wrench, not an adjustable, you moron. Oh, yeah, my whole, growing up, that was a common thing. Oh, are you been eating retard sandwiches ago? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Half a brain in your head was a compliment. Like, oh, you did good. You got half a brain in your head. Like, normally that would be a brutal insult. Right. Like my generation was like, yeah, I got half of these. It's a compliment. I got moving on up. Yeah. Doing good. But now, I mean, you know, my story is just, you know, being taught toxicity, being taught violence, always seeing violence in the house. Born in Hayward,

Bay Area, California, 1980. Born to two people that probably should have never had kids. Right. Like, I wouldn't even adopt them a dog, you know? You ever see, like, that meme, it's like when you've dealt with all the other telemarketers, this is the final boss, and it's like the Indian guy with all the head drapery on. Like, my dad was, like, the final boss of Good Time Charlie's. Like, if he didn't have a beer in one hand and a joint in the other, and he's, like, telling a story about, like, his heyday, he didn't want nothing to do it, you know? All right. So he was, he was just,

like, a complete, he was just a good time, Charlie. No responsibility. You know, he didn't want anything to do with uh he he was the type of guy who you know he had like kids everywhere proud of proud of that but wasn't so proud of like buying them school clothes didn't really want to take care of them but love to say i have eight kids yeah yeah yeah don't don't get me wrong he had his like priorities in check like he made sure he had alcohol weed you know cigarettes but after that it was like we'll get to that so and my mom she made it very clear she would she did not want children so abundantly clear from day one Yeah, she, so she was diagnosed later as like a bipolar and all this.

But me personally, I don't buy into it because I know I was around her, so I know what type of person she was. She was just a drug addict and with no discipline and a hateful person. So here you come to your psychiatrist and he puts a tag on it for you. So it's okay now. I'm a bipolar. You got an excuse. Yeah, it's not my fault, you know. But so, you know, I was born in Hayward. We moved to New Jersey.

I want to say, like, maybe 1988, 1983. These are some of my earliest memories. We had, like, an apartment, but it was more so a basement of someone's house. So, you know, to call it an apartment is, you know, it's the nice way of putting it. Do they have, like, basement apartments in, like, in California? Like, I always think of that as being, like, New York. Well, this was in Jersey.

I mean, I'm sure. Yeah, we, we. You moved. we moved to Jersey, but I mean, I wouldn't, by any stretch of the imagination, call it an actual apartment. Okay. It was just, it's just a shithole basement. Right.

Okay. You know, the smell of mildew was very common. So, yeah, same deal, though. My dad, you know, his, the landlord, uh, hated him, you know, probably 200 bucks a month. He couldn't come up with that, you know. He's half the time he's working, half the time he's not, it's Jersey in the 80s before climate change. So there's always a foot of snow on the ground, you know.

Um, and my mom was just, she's always running around doing whatever. She was a guise, amongst other things. So, but my earliest memories were violent. You know, there was always violence in the house. There was always screaming, drugs, you know, chaos. I remember one night, I think I was maybe five, six years old, and I hear this just horrific noise outside, just like metal, smashing, you know, all this craziness.

And I'm, like, peeking out the window. And my dad's on the hood of the car, like, just punching through the windshield. Just glass flying everywhere. You know, I see blood, and she's in the front seat with a friend who happens to be a man. And, you know, of course, they're just talking. Nothing's happening. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, we're just friends.

Yeah, what's this problem? He gave me a right home. So, you know, those are my earliest memories. It was just... Your dad doesn't sound like a good time, Charlie. Like, good time Charlie doesn't sound like the guy that jumps on the hood of the car and starts trying to punch his way through the windshield. Yeah, he probably didn't drink that day.

You know what I mean? It's like not so good of a time if he's not got a buzz. He's home watching me. He wasn't able to go out and party. so it's like, you know, cramping my style now. So, yeah, that was a common occurrence. So one day, I'm doing my thing in the basement. I see my mom come down the stairs and she's got like two pieces of paper in her hand.

She goes behind, like this little picture frame, tucks it back there. And a couple weeks go by. And I notice I'm not going to school that day. You know, it's like, am I going to school? What's a deal? So my dad leaves for work and she's like, packing, you know, book back. like, come on, let's go. Get in the car, take off. We're heading in Newark Airport. So we fly to San Bruno, where my grandfather lives, just, we don't tell my dad, we just kind of like, just

disappear. He doesn't know anything. He doesn't know where we are. He just comes home and everybody's gone. So even though it was, you know, unhealthy and toxic, when she got away from him, it was like she didn't have any type of, like, authority figure. So she just spiraled out of control out there. It was, you know, just drugs and just, you know, different men. And this I mean, I only saw a couple of different guys. I don't want to make it sound like she was, you know, with all these guys. But I saw a couple. But I remember always being at like, you know, get-togethers parties,

San Bruno, Milbray, South City. And there was always, like, they're always like smoking methamphetamies. You know what I mean? They always had, they're, I remember being a kid and looking on the stove and they're, like, boiling the pipe to clean it. And there's always all these people around. You know, her boyfriend's letting me shoot a gun in the house and stuff, like, setting up cans. And, like, I forget if it was a 22 or a pellet gun, but I remember, you know, it was just chaos.

This is not normal behavior. No, no. Normal for me, but at this point in time, it'd become pretty normal. So I remember, you know, like I said, she was a train wreck. Everywhere she went was, there was always a problem. There was always a fight. She always got accused of stealing something. She was, you know, it was never her in my opinion.

I don't know why this keeps happening. Yeah, it's everywhere I go. There's a problem. So they would also fight. And I remember she would just, you know, it's not a sob story. I'm just telling you what happened. But she would always take it out of me. You know, she'd always beat the piss out of me.

So he, her boyfriend would start beating her up. She grabbed me. Come on, let's go. The whole ride home, I'm getting punched in the head and slapped and, you know, screamed that. And it got to the point where it really didn't even affect me anymore. I'm six or seven and I just know to, you know, take the, you know, take the, you know, take the. It's horrible.

Yeah, it is. but it's, you know, it is what it is. Truthfully, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I mean, it made me who I am. I mean, I have pretty good defenses, and I have pretty good judge of character now. So I remember one time we're driving home, and this was essentially like the pinnacle of it, living out there. We're driving home, and like the mid-80s were like really bad with gang activity in Northern California. So we're driving home from his house, and it's like three in the morning.

same routine she's you know freaking out hitting me you know all this craziness pulls stops the car in the middle of the street leans over and opens the door and gives me like the jo dirt routine just get out and i'm like looking around like this is not anywhere near where we live you know we're at 45 minutes from home so she just kicks me out of a car takes off how how old were you six three in the morning yeah just kicked in a bad in a shitty neighborhood gang ridden oh horrible horrible horrible Like, I remember, at six years old, I remember thinking to myself, like, this is not good. Even if it were a good neighborhood, but I knew that this was a bad neighborhood.

And all the gang members were like, someone threw out a perfectly good white boy. And I was gorgeous, too. Let me tell you. Blonde hair, blue eyes. I was a target. So, no, I remember, which, by the way, none of this ever happened if you ever asked her. I didn't do that. What are you talking about?

But... Hey, real quick, just wanted to let you guys know that we're looking for guests for the podcast. If you think you'd be a good guest, you know somebody, do me a favor. You can fill out the form. The link is in our description box, or you can just email me directly. Email is in the description box. So back to the video. So I remember I'm standing in the middle of the street and I just watched her like little

red station wagon take off. And I'm like, what the fuck do I do now? You know, like, so I run off to the side of the road. And I kind of like dip down behind a car. and I'm looking around, and okay, there's no cars coming. It's safe. You know, I can run over to this house, beat on the door. I'm beating on the door. And even at six years old, I remember thinking of myself, like, I don't know who's going to answer this door, but I can't be out here. Right. Like, if I'm out here, I remember there's, there was always on the news. There was always like a, you know, like a dead body being found here or someone got kidnapped over here. As shootings and all the time, especially in the Bay Area. I mean, probably still now. But to give you a little context of that, you ever heard of Santa Cruz, California? Yeah. So when my dad and my mom got together, my mom had been, I don't want to say missing, but just all of doing what she does, you know. And she finally calls my grandfather and she's like, hey, I'm pregnant.

I got a new boyfriend, blah, blah, blah. So she's like, can we come by and you can meet Bob and all this and that? Yeah, yeah, come by. Mighty kind of you. So they go to my grandfather's house in San Bruno, who fast forward to 1987 I'm living with. And he pulls my dad to the side, and he said, listen, I don't know if you know what you got going on here. He said, but I thought that she was dead because there was a head found on Santa Cruz Beach this morning. And I figured it was hers.

Like, that's how she operated. You know what I mean? Those are the circles she ran in. He said, so I figured it was hers. And I'm like, you know, bracing myself. So when she called, I was like, oh, thank God. So that was the kind of, you know, that's the type of people they were. which my grandfather did great financially.

He was just, you know, he was home from the war. He, he, PTSD. He was also a drug addict, but he was functioning. He got a, he got a check from the military, got a check from the post office. So he did very well, but he had bars on his windows. He was agoraphobic, you know, answered the door. What do you want? You know, with a gun on his belt type shit, you know.

So. His daughter's a maniac. Yeah, his daughter's a lunatic. All right. She's bringing this guy around, you know, who's like. He's trying to warn him. Yeah. You know what you're signing up for, bro.

He's probably got no shirt on when he met my grandfather. You know what I mean? I'll give you a little context about him. He's got a big joint tattooed on his back. It says, feel like a number. That was like his favorite tattoo. He's like, check this out. I'm like, that's great.

Maybe not at the parent teacher conference, though. You know? So, yeah, so she, you know, I'm beating on the door. And I remember nobody's answering. And in the back of my head, I'm like, thank God they're not answering. Because I don't know. Yeah. I don't know who's going to answer this door.

So I turn around and I go to run to the next neighbor's house. and I here comes you know here she comes up the street get the back in the car I'm thinking myself I'm six you kicked me out in the middle of the ghetto and I'm in trouble for seeking help yeah so we go home same routine you know get my ass kicked um a couple weeks go by you know I was a troubled kid so like I wasn't really troubled but I had I felt like I was okay personally but I had a lot of shit going on so whenever I'd go to school you know like the like The kids would like, hey, Bobby, you know, go punch that kid in the face. It was like some sixth grader.

I was in the second grade. They wanted to see if I would do it, you know. So I'm looking for attention. I'm a kid. I'm misguided. So I run up clocked this kid in the face. And, you know, the principal is constantly calling the house. He's like, look, Cassie, Mrs. Thornello, whatever.

We're about to expel this kid. He's in the second grade and we're going to expel him. So she barely even said anything to me. I just heard her on the phone, but she didn't, you know, she didn't care. So a couple weeks, maybe a month go by. and I remember we come home from one of her benders and there's a note hanging in the shower and it's my grandfather.

He wrote a note. He wrote her a note. And now, you know, people like to use their kids as bargaining chips. Like, you can't kick me out. I got the kid, you know? Right. So when you are to a point when you say to someone, take that kid and get out of here, you know you've had enough. And that's essentially what I said. Like, you know, you need to put them on a plane. You need to go to rehab. You need to get out of here.

So, however much time goes by, I don't think more than a month, same deal. Getting ready for school one morning, you're not going to school today. A bunch of clothes in a book bag, she doesn't tell anybody, show up at San Francisco International. I remember she's like scurrying me to the terminal, and, you know, we're like at the terminal, and I'm still, like, clueless, you know, and she's like, all right, you're going to hop on this plane. And I'm like, with who, you know? Like, who am I going with? She's just by yourself.

Just get on the plane. I bought you a ticket. The stewardess is going to keep an eye on you. I'm like, all right. So I'm wearing her jean jacket because I just didn't have a coat. And later on, I found out that her pack of cigarettes was in there with a grandma in it. So like, at six years old, I've already smuggled drugs. And, you know.

But so she leaves the airport, calls my grandmother in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. And she's like, listen. And, you know, your grandson's on a plane. He'll be in Newark at 4 o'clock. You need to go to wherever Bob is, find him, and you guys need to go pick him up. And she's just, and my grandmother's just like, oh, this is, right. You know what I mean? Like, but in all fairness, my dad was the same person.

He just wasn't violent. You know what I mean? They were both train wrecks. Right. But he was just not physical and not psychotic. So, long story short, you know, I get off the plane. I'm like, I don't know what I'm getting off to. I'm just got my book bag on this little kid, you know, just traveling with comedy and, you know, mind of my business.

So, no, I get off to play my grandfather and my dad are there. They pick me up and I'm thinking to myself, like, it was kind of just a whirlwind because, you know, at this point in time, all this, like, I already am to the point where, like, you know, I've seen things that most adults haven't seen. I've done things that most adults haven't done. I already know to keep my defenses up. You know, if someone hands me something, I block it. Like, you could hand me, when I remember when I got to Jersey, someone would go to hand me like a snack or something. And I'm like, oh, okay, thanks.

I was ready to, you know, defend myself. So things were pretty good then because it wasn't violent anymore. But my dad, being a good time, Charlie, that he was, like, if we were, he didn't work a lot, like, because of the weather. So, you know, we'd go to the liquor store. Because of the weather. Yeah. But, I mean, because, you know, he was in construction.

So it was like, if it was raining, he's like, oh, got to. day off you know time to get drunk so you know we'd go to the liquor store and it was like half a pint of blackberry brandy uh six pack of bud nips pack of camel down filters slim gym for the boy you who for the boy you know let's go to the lake so it's freezing cold and i'm like dad i'm freezing like it's january i don't want to be at the lake you know and he's like uh yeah this will warm you up hands me to blackberry brandy so i take a swig you know and he's he just thinks it's funny, you know, and then anytime we were around his friends, it was like, hey, guys, watch this. And he handed me like a camel non filter, you know, six, seven years old.

I'm like, yeah, look at me, dad, you know. So he was just like, I always say he has the Michael Jackson syndrome. Like, he's essentially forever 15, you know, minus the. Yeah, yeah. Other than that, he was like forever 15 and just did not know he was an adult, you know. Um, so like I said, he always smoked weed too that was another thing um anytime we were hanging out it's like hey guys watch this let me hit his joint i came back in the second grade to jersey and from like second grade to like sixth grade was just regular kid shit you know he he stopped doing all the weed smoking in the cigarette he just kind of did his own thing and i didn't see him that much he worked a lot so by the time i his sixth grade you know prepubescent starting to get a little rowdy me and my kids start or me

and my friends started getting into, like, more, like, hooligan shit. Give an example, like, the first time I got arrested, where I'm riding my bike. You see Goodfellas? Yeah. You remember the Latonza heist? Yeah. I joke around, I call it the Alfonso heist. All right.

We go past this pizzeria, and he's cleaning the pizzeria, and he puts the bubble gun machine outside, and I'm like, there's got to be, like, 12 grand in that thing. At least. So me and my buddy, Mike, we take it, and we bust it upside down, and, you know, Only like $80 came out. So I don't know where the other $11,000 went, but, you know, it didn't translate. So we think we're like John Gotti at this point. You know what I mean?

We're riding around. We got satchels full of quarters. We're buying Mad Magazine. I bought a Mad Magazine and, like, Charleston Shoes. I'm like, I'm set for life, you know? Long story short, he got caught by his parents and he, uh, cops showed up in my house somehow, but he didn't tell him. Yeah, yeah. So.

They fingerprinted it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They wanted their $47 back. But I always joke around. I call it the Alfonso heist because it was, uh, the guy's name was Alfonzo a pizzeria. And I'm pretty sure word on the street was he was connected. And when the cops were like, do you want to press charge? Oh, no, no. Are they allowed back in? Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. Just no big deal. Don't come sniff it around here. But it, you know, it was just kid shit.

But then seventh grade is when it started to get like a little more adult. Um, there was a kid in town. He was like a seventh grade. Yeah, I know, a hardened adult. A hardened vet over here. Uh, so there was, there was, there was an older kid in town. Um, he was a punk, but his dad was the chief of police and he just ran amok. He just did whatever he wanted. He's still punk to this thing if he's watching this. No, but I'm only kidding. Now he, um, his dad was the chief of police and he's like, he just did whatever he wanted. His parents were divorced and he tried to play the whole like, I don't even talk to my dad. I'm not, I'm not a snitch. I'm, you know, I don't mess with the cops. Meanwhile, his dad, like he, he did whatever he wanted and his

dad would be down the road, I'll get to this, but his dad would tell his mom like, hey, you know, people are hearing things right and i'm going to have to do something about it so tell him his little cronies to calm down yeah for a couple weeks he's running interference oh for sure 100% this guy got caught you know allegedly got caught trying to buy an automatic weapon online and got demoted from his position and he was the chief and he got knocked down to like this other equally as authoritative position right to where it's like you're still running the show you know what i mean you're still you're still running amok in this town so the kids like you guys want to make some money yeah sure he's like i got a pound of weed you know we'll

you guys sell it at school we'll nick it up and dime it up you know okay cool um this is a chief of police's son yeah okay selling weed okay yeah yeah kid shit but i mean it was a couple pounds here and there you know um so he's like he's giving it to us you know quarter pound at a time we're selling to all our friends going to parties and shit then he's like i guess something else for you what's that uh i got i got some powder i get You know, I don't know where he got it from, but he's like, I get really good powder. If you guys know anybody, you know, he, we're like, we're 12. Who do we know that's, you know, no, we don't know anybody.

But he's like, all right, here's what I'll do. I'll give you X amount. And then like, I'm just going to stay over here. And whenever I have somebody come through, he'll just grab it off you guys. You guys make a couple bucks, 10, 20 bucks a gram. And, you know, I get my cut. Everybody's happy. He was getting it for like 26 bucks a gram, which is super cheap.

And it was really good stuff. And, uh, when you get it out of the evidence. Locker. Yeah, no kidding. There's a steep discount. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's really getting a steal on it. So he's like, we were just as little lackeys. Yeah. You know, but I remember being like 12 years old, maybe 13. It was seventh grade,

so however old. And we're at this little house party. And granted, my dad made like 500 bucks a week. You know, he could have made more, but he's probably making 400, 500 bucks a week.

And I remember my buddy pulls a lot of money out. I think he went to write down some girl's number or something and he's like looking for paper and it's just like $1,500. And even then I remember thinking like, we're not even 13, you know? And there's like we got, you know, $1,400 on us selling these aren't like kid drugs. These, like we're getting like, this is real, you know. This is serious. Yeah, yeah.

I have five kids now and I can't imagine like my 14 year old with, you know, a quarter ounce all graammed up on her. You know what I mean? So, like, when I think about, the 80s were a different time, though. Like, I think we grew up a lot differently than these kids nowadays. You know, it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, you see the thing where it's like, I mean, I definitely was one of those kids that I got home from school. And, you know, my mom said, okay, go outside and play. Come back when the lights come on or you hear me scream for you.

Like, I was blocks away. Oh, yeah. When I was in summer school, she used to buy, or in some, during summer. she used to buy a summer pass to like bush gardens or bush gardens is four or five miles minimum for my house i would ride my bike five miles across the highway right go there stay there all day yeah ride all the way back and try and get there before dark oh yeah because she'd yell at me yeah yeah and then i mean this is all summer like i'm i'm spending bush gardens or adventure island for three months during the summer right right it was just looking back now It's like, that would never happen.

I don't trust my kid to get the mail. Right. I'm like, who's going to get them? Yeah, I'm watching. I'm like, I'm paranoid. We're probably part of the problem because, like, our generation, there was like serial killers everywhere and kidnappers. So we're like, I mean, it's that expression, what is it, hard men, create good times, good

times, create weak men. You know, we're at the weak men part, you know, because we were so, my generation was so, like, neglected and thrown to the wolves that I'm like, even though that's what made me and that's what's given me my drive and my ambition and my passion for life, I'm still trying to protect my kids from it. Yeah. It made me on accident, because it could have killed me. Yeah. Several times. In fact, it very, very close to killed me several times. Um, but no, uh, so yeah, he's, you know, we, we start, you know, moving powder for him. And, uh, I don't know why it stopped. Maybe he, I think he might have went to jail or something like that. Forget what happened,

but I think he went to jail for like an assault charge or something. And we just kind of like parted ways. I don't remember exactly what happened. But the next year, this what I'm about to tell you, really set the foundation from my personal development later in life. So the next year was eighth grade. And me and some friends, I was starting to hang out with some different kids.

And like grunge music was like taken over. So everybody was like a pothead, you know. Everybody wanted to experiment with psychedelics. And me and my friends were doing some like pretty severe hallucinogens. I don't want to say, they were because I don't want some idiot kid to try it. Yeah, yeah. But we were, you know, it was the beginning of, it was right before Thanksgiving, uh, my eighth grade year. And I was like tripping hard. You know what I mean? Like we, we had been like tripping all day long.

Just like severely tore up, you know. And I remember coming out of my body and seeing myself on the other side of the room. And I was just like, I freaked out. I was like, okay, we like overdid it. I mean, doing anything that young. I mean, doing anything in. general, you shouldn't mess with your mind. But at, you know, 12, 13 years old, you're doing like, like brain damaging drugs, you know? Um, and I remember it was so vivid and horrific that I was like, I don't, I don't ever want to do that again. So naturally, like six months later, we're doing it again. And because I don't, you know, do not learn my lesson. And the same exact thing happened. Then I was like, okay, I've learned my lesson this time. We can agree that we're not

going to do that again. A couple weeks later, we're smoking weed. And I guess I just wasn't healed enough yet or out of the woods enough yet like psychologically and it came back and dude it haunted me for like two years like it was the end of eighth grade summer uh going in the ninth grade and i remember freshman year staring at my notebook and i hadn't smoked weed or drank anything in months and i'm staring at my notebook and it looked like someone's dropping rocks and water it just kept going like booboo you know what i mean so i'm thinking of myself like i'm screwed I'm absolutely screwed because I'm not I'm not getting high like I'm just crazy yeah some severe damage here too much yeah yeah yeah and it's not getting any better

so um I last like freshman year it just kept getting worse and worse and it's haunting me which I don't the only a couple people know about that part um you know I just I don't I don't really dive into it too much but I remember ninth grade I was just like man I got to get out of Jersey it's cold it's depressing it's it's it's reminding me of this. Like, I got to, I got to get away. I got to start, you know, I got to get somewhere fresh. So I hit my mom up. I'm like, you know, can I come? It seems like a good idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, I told you I don't learn my lesson. So I'm like, you know, can I come get to know you? Can I come stay with you? And she's like, yeah,

of course, you know. And two weeks prior to me going out there, she's like, I don't think it's a good idea. So I'm like begging her. Like, mom, can I please come like stay at your house? I'm going to jump off a damn bridge over here. So she's, she's like, all right, fine. So I go out there and almost overnight just from leaving that cold, you know, like the pressing environment and going to like an environment where it's sunny and there's palm trees and it's just, there's multimillion dollar homes and everybody's has nice cars. It just brought me out of it. The weather's 65 or 70 every single day. It's just beautiful. It's perfect. It's paradise. And this was mid-90s. So like all the stuff you see out there now, how it's pretty much falling off the earth. Yeah, yeah. There was none of that. It was just paradise. Yeah, I was going to say it was ideal back then.

And I was right in Silicon Valley. Now the Californians have ruined it. Oh my gosh, bro. Dude, it's a cesspool. It's a cesspool. Where my mom lives now, which I don't talk to her any part of her family anymore, but like you have to step over human shit when you're walking down the street. Yeah.

Like there's apps that tell you, don't go here. Someone just, you know. Last time I was there, I stepped over at that body getting through Market Street. Like I'm walking, I was in, I was on Market Street in San Francisco and I'm like, everybody's like stepping around, stepping around. And this guy's like on the ground. I step over and I look back, he's just laying there dead. I'm like, oh, shit.

Nobody cares, you know, so it's a cesspool. But, so I go out there, 10th grade, and it was like, even in the nice areas, the high schools were, like, riddled with, like, gangsters and want to be gangsters. Right. You know what I mean? Do you remember the big steroid tobacco in Major League sports with Balco Industries? I don't know about the industry's part, but I remember there was a few of Barry Bonds. Very Bonds.

So the gym that he was running out of with Greg Anderson, I believe his name was Greg Anderson. It was Barry Bons, Jose Canseco. It was called Bay Area Fitness. Now, when I was in the 10th grade, I move out there and, of course, like, you know, it's like I want to be gangster. So I link up with all like the bad kids, you know what I mean? And they're all tangled up in that place. Like you go there, you buy steroids, you buy whatever you want, right over the counter. So the kid that I

This dude Hawson that I linked up But he became my best friend He you know Actually everybody I was friends with out there He's dead I'm the last person alive So he's like Yo come to the gym with me I'm like yeah all right

We go to the gym where you know Everybody from high school's there At any given time you'll see like Jose Canseco there You'll see Barry Bonds there You'll see like anytime like WWF came to town You'd see like Triple H work not Triple H But like Undertaker in this time You'd see him in there working out

You know, nobody messed with him, but it was the place to be. So my buddy Hawson was linked up with them, and I stayed out there for a while. It was me, him, these two other guys. Like I said, they're all dead now. But so I go out there with them and, again, petty criminal shit. Just he was, you know, he was affiliated with the Crips, this little group of Crips from San Mateo, California. They were all Tongans. And they were like money collectors.

So now I'm going from like a wannabe in Jersey to in my like idiotic, naive mind like, oh, I'm a real gangster now. You know, I live in California. I'm surrounded by all these gangbangers like this, you know, in my just immature mind, like that that was cool to me. Right. I, you know, I looked up to it. So these guys were like the real deal though. They would, you know, people, it's a lot more organized out there. Like someone would come to a couple of them or something.

still alive. I was more of a hang-around with the Crips. My little crew was me, Haas, and Yusuf and Pat. And then he would bring us to hang out with these other guys, but I wasn't really a part of them. I would just come, go to the barbecues and stuff like that. So some of them are still alive, so I don't really want to call them out like that. But like, people would come to them and say, look, so-and-so is this 10 grand. Can you go take care of it? Yeah, no problem. So they go in there, kick the door in, you know, shotguns, the whole deal, get the money. Um, those guys, they were involved with real shit. Right.

We were punks. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? So I hung with him, but I didn't really, you know, get too tangled up with him. Hauston, on the other hand, he was completely tangled up with him. So I leave. I come back to Jersey because, you know, surprise, surprise, my mom's still a train wreck. And I just couldn't live with her.

And it was like, it was like when I was a kid, the manic episodes and the craziness, you know, it was still there, but I was 16, 15, so she couldn't, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're too big to be a target. Yeah, right. at this point. But it was still like a lot of psychological abuse. Well, I mean, you know, like mental health doesn't get better with age. It gets worse. Hell no. Dude, there's no such thing as staying stagnant when it comes to your mental growth that I learned. You either expand or contrast. There's no such thing as staying in one place. You're either going to get better

and it is very difficult to fight through that or you're going to get worse. And that's what happened with my grandfather. He got worse and worse and worse until he was agoraphobic. And I I was at his house one time he put a gun on my stomach. You know, he's, and then he starts laughing. I'm like, you need help, bro. Yeah. I don't know if I'm going to come over here anymore. Yeah, it just gets worse and worse.

You get darker and darker. And he said that. He was, you know, he was like, I wish you could see into my mind because it's very dark. He said, I don't understand it. It's getting, it's getting smaller and darker. And, you know, he just died crazy. But, and that's where my mom's going. And I can't even be around her.

And that's why, you know, I firmly, like, have to break the chain because I'm not doing that. I've been crazy. Like I've been stuck on a trip essentially. I've been to a place where I wasn't in control and I was hallucinating or or having massive panic attacks because I could see my pulse or I open my eyes and I see the wall breathing three, four months after I was I was sober. So I'm like I have to I have to well myself out of this and I have to keep pushing or I'm going to end up like them. I come back to Jersey and when I come back to Jersey, it's like, everybody's selling drugs, everybody's whiling out, everybody's happy to see me, I'm back. Oh my goodness, you're in California, this, that,

and the other thing. So, long story short, the kid that was providing us, he's like, he's like, look, you know, working sucks. So let's do that again. You know, let's go back to selling drugs, he said, but this time, I want to say he did go to jail because I remember he came home with a connection. And we were going up to New York and like Spanish Harlem. And we would go into this clothing store. Now, mind you, we're like white boys. And there would be like all kinds of candles on the ground still lit. Oh, what happened here? Oh, I'll never forget this. We go up there one time and it was like, there was candles and roses all over to ground. And they're like, I'm like, well, what happened here? Oh, so-and-so got shot last night. It's all

good. Come on in. I'm like, what the fuck? And what they're lighting cancer? Saneria. What do they call that? Santeria? I don't know. I think it was just like a Memorial. Oh, okay. You know what I mean? Like, they were just like, you know, their buddy got shot last night over a drug deal. And it's just business as usual, you know, like keep it moving. We got, you know, we got more drugs to sell.

So we're in this clothing store just counting out thousands of dollars. And they come, you know, they're coming back with just ounces and ounces. It was so fresh that it was wet and moist. It wasn't even powder yet. Like, it was just pressed, just shipped. And it was just, it was almost paste. And then we'd take it back to Jersey and chop it up and, you know, a gram, a quarter, or whatever.

so that took off like a wildfire we this this town that we were in that i essentially grew up in is filled it like a lot of country boys like we were by a lot of we were by philly by new york but this one specific place in ocean county had like a lot of hicks in it and dude they love like every friday night it's like the bar let's get an eight ball you know Saturday let's get an eight ball it's you know it was just you're like blue collar guys that blue collar guys had money to they had money roofers, siders, and Functioning at it Dude, functioning like a

But yeah, they But they spent money, man I mean, they'd spend, you know, I've had guys spent $1,500 bucks on a weekend, you know, and Monday morning, they're at it. You know, I, dude, I drink three beers now the next day I feel like I got shot, you know?

I don't know how they do it. Don't care either. But, so yeah, as soon as I got out of high school, I found that I was going to become a dad. And, you know, normally people would be like, oh, I got to get my shit together. Instead, I was like, oh, I got to like, step up. I got to step my game up.

I got to sell a little bit more drugs here. You know, I'm a, you know, I'm a family man now. I got to do the right thing. I got to provide. So I found out that if you cooked it and turned it into rock, right. It was 100 for a gram as opposed to 60 a gram. Now, some of the cut would fall out, but you still, you're getting about 30% more. However, it attracts an entirely different clientele.

Right. I go from roofers and siders coming by at a respectable hour to people knocking on my window at four in the morning. Hey, I need one more gram. And I'm like, no, you need to go. You're like, but here. But here's the other gram. So I did that for a while. That, you know, that was obviously not the right thing to do.

So two of my buddies that I was doing it with, I kind of saw the writing on the wall. And you know where Flagler Beach is? No. Daytona. Yeah, I never do it at Tiana's yeah Okay So I'm up in Jersey I have like a three-story house

I'm splitting it with my buddy Nobody has a job All we're doing to sell a crack I have a kid What's funny is I was selling a crack And he was selling powder And he looked down on me

Because like Oh you're dealing with scumbags I'm like you do realize It's the same drug correct Like there's no difference here But anyway So long story short He, uh, that, that dissolves pretty quickly.

And I said, look, I want to get out of here. Once again, I want to start fresh and do the right thing. So my two buddies that were doing it with me, uh, they stayed behind and I took off to Florida. Like, we weren't partners, but we were just all friends who did their own thing. Uh, not long after I left, they got raided and, I mean, one got 29 years, one got 27 years. Oh, yeah, they got, they got a hand it to them. Um, the one was a, uh, had no criminal record. Is this state?

Yeah, all state. much time do you do in state um so some were ran concurrent there was multiple charges there was a gun found uh there's a lot of rock found he had a record so he wound up getting quite a few charges some of him ran concurrent he got officially got 29 years and officially did 13 then my other friend who had no record but he was still part of it um he got less charges but they were trying to like divvy up the time and the judge was like no you're both getting it. He wound up doing like seven or eight and a clean record. You know, he was on, he was track, track and field kid. But, you know, I mean, the company you keep, he wound up doing

seven or eight. I think he got sent to 23 or 24. But the judge wasn't playing, you know, it was just like, look, you know, we warned you, we warned you, and here it is. And I missed it by the skin of my teeth. Like, I just happened to go to Florida to Flagler Beach was a little north of Daytona. A few weeks before. Dude, like, I just missed it. And I was always over. And I was always over there. Like I, you know, I, I just remember thinking of myself, like, thank God, you know. So what I realized at this point, well, I didn't realize this to later, but I started going to church, right? I'm like this like hardcore into it, you know, like God saved me, which he did. And I am a very strong believer still to this day. I'm not perfect. However,

it was just another addiction. You know what I mean? It was just another, it was just another extremist move because I hadn't I didn't learn until later on you know what my parents taught me was addiction extremism you've been an addictive personality now right like like it's just wild yeah you know if I'm interested in something then I just consume it for weeks at a time and then I'm done with it right you know that's how I that's how I got with uh you know when I was selling drugs it was like I'm gonna be this kingpin you know when I was you know I god spared me and I started going a church so it was like we have to be in church Tuesday Thursday so you know what I mean you know then after that it's like the next thing you're into the next thing if it's not food it's sex if it's not

sex it's not sex it's drugs if it's not drugs it's this money you know you have to realize like none of this is healthy you can partake in whatever you want with to an extent like I wouldn't suggest partaking in drugs anymore because it's a chemical but like you can have fun without being a maniac right you know like I could still have a beer you know every once in a while I might I might smoke a little wheat. Every couple of years, if I feel like I need to go on a spiritual journey, I might take a couple hits off a joint. But here's the thing. When I need it, it works because I don't do that shit anymore. So like every couple, like two years ago, I was going through some things. And I was like, man, I need to quiet myself down. So I spent three days smoking weed. And at the end

of three days, I was like, I got the answer I was looking for. I'm good. You know what I mean? Like, it's just not my thing, but I felt like I needed it. And I got the answer I was looking for. so I was doing the church thing for a while and again being an extremist I kind of you know it just it began to wear off and then my old ways started to pick back up this was right around the time when like the opiate thing was happening you know everybody like you stub your toe here's a hundred percissets you know yeah so I had someone in my life who was like actually everybody in my life that We didn't really know what it was.

We didn't know how bad it was. You know, you're going for a backache. You go, you twist your ankle. It's a prescription. Yeah, here you go. Doctor gave it to me fine. I got a script. I'm good.

It's legal. So I had like hundreds of them just from all the times. I've ended a doctor. You know, I got, you know, I cut my hand. She writes me 155s. I'm like, well, I don't even know what this is. To me, it's Advil. So one day I pop one.

And I'm like, oh, shit. That's what that is. You know, like that doesn't feel too bad. bed and then I was telling my buddy about it and he's like oh should I buy him off you a dollar milligram it's like what he's a yeah I buy him a dollar milligram so I go from like I'm in the union at this time in the operating engineers union I party but I'm not like a drug addict right I don't do any type of drugs anymore I might drink you know I drink on the weekends the regular you know just whatever um and I remember I think I had like 110 milligram per

cassettes and I told somebody about him and it was just like here's the money thank you on one shot I'm like I can get tons of these what are you talking about he's like dude as many as you can give me I'll take him so I'm like yeah I just I know this guy know that guy you know he everybody's got him so I just start buying I'm buying I'm buying them next thing you know like just I'm selling him here selling them there I would get like 100 150 tens within 20 minutes are going $1,500 in your pocket you're ready to go out for tonight like you got your paycheck, $1,500 from the union. You just made $1,500 in 20, 30 minutes from selling pills.

It's a good weekend, you know? Right. And I'm a young punk. I'm, you know, 23, 24. You know, I don't have any responsibilities. I mean, I have my kids, but I don't, like, I don't know about, but I was never taught to buy a house. I was never taught to invest.

So I'm just living hand to mouth. Yeah. So I'm like, I got three grand in my pocket. Let's go have a good time. It was stupid, but whatever. so I remember that started to get a little carried away and I remember one time I was I was at we have what do we have here like a wind dixie you have win dixie yeah we have in yeah okay so like wind dixie is shop right up north so I hop out of a car I shop right and I and I had a 7-5 in my hand and I hadn't take anything in a long time right so I popped a 7-5 and by the time I hit the door I was just like holy shit like this hit me sideways like I'm feeling really good and I didn't realize how dark I was I didn't realize how

depressed I was I didn't realize how angry I was because I was always like a like a comical type of person always trying to have a good time but I never realized how like just all the shit that I got taught as a kid was in there so all of a sudden I felt the mask on that and I'm just thinking to myself like that feels pretty good you know like I'm not sitting here thinking about all this bullshit. I'm not sitting here stressed out. Like, I just have this good, euphoric feeling. And I remember I came down and I was, I felt like a total scumbag because I knew it was, I knew it was wrong. And it was gross, you know. So I was like, well, fuck it. I'll go back up, you know, I pop another one. And I go from selling probably, I don't know, like maybe $2,000 a

week worth of pills to, you know, I don't know, maybe $1,500 a week and taking like $500 a week. You know, I would say it was more of, I was still having fun and didn't realize I had a habit yet, you know. So that goes on for a while and I start to feel like a piece of garbage. So I'm like, let me, let me stop. Let me stop. So I go back to the gym. I sign up for the gym. And this guy, he was a professional bodybuilder.

And he just happened to, he was, he was at a low point in his life and he was selling gym memberships. And so we're talking. He's like, yeah, you know, he's cool. We're chopping it up, building a little bit of rapport. he signs me for the gym. He's like, hey, man. And I had gotten clean. I stopped around and I had been out of it. And he's like, you fucking out pills at all? And I'm just like, yeah, a little bit. Why? He's like, dude, I get all these rocket sets, man. He goes, I get thousands of them. And I'm like, well, let me see. You know, so he tosses me a little

blue rocket set and I, and I pop it. And it was just, you know, it was right back in action. You know, he's like, man, I get you anything you want. So I go from selling like, you know. A couple thousand a week. Yeah. To like endless. Like, I, I, I don't even know because I was such a fuck up. I didn't keep track. So now you're buying them, you're getting them, buying him from him, but in selling them? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You went right back into it.

Okay. Yeah, as many as you wanted. I mean, I don't know where he got it from. I don't care, but he, you know, he would get freezer bags full of them. It's funny how many bodybuilders who are like, you know, taking steroids will also take opiates because it allows them to work out even harder. Their pain threshold is it drops dramatically. I'm telling you, bro.

When I first got into it, lifting and taking pills. you'd be a beat. Like you're covered in sweat. Your veins are sticking out of your face. You're feeling good. You're feeling euphoric. And, you know, you feel good from lifting weights anyway. And the combination of that and test, the combination of that and any type of steroid. Oh, yeah. Your gains are amazing. It's crazy. It's crazy. And, you know, you feel like a tank. You know, you're feeling like better than you've ever felt in your life. You know, I go to the gym and I think, like, I'm going to clean myself up. And the guy at the gym's got him. So I call my boy, Austin out in California, and he's still running with this gym. Like, he's still, like, he's kind of like the guy out there now. Come to find out, he had, uh, so he had a system worked out with, like, DuPont, not DuPont, uh, well, it was a Sackler family. And who was the distributor, uh, like all the percissettes and hydrocodone and all that shit, like, whatever company made them. Is it, or made them?

Well, that was the, oh, you're talking about, um, Purdue. Purdue. I don't know why I kept saying DuPont. So. Purdue and Purdue and. Right close. As you say, DuPont is a, they make a petroleum product, right? Okay, I think so.

Yeah, like paint, right? Something like that. I don't know. Lots of petroleum. They have tons of different ones, yeah. Yeah. So he had something worked out where they would pay the cards off at the warehouse and the guards would look the other way.

They'd go in and take cases of them. And they'd bring them back to that gym. And I remember right before I left, they were selling steroids a lot. And that's when that whole shit happened with Barry Bonds and all them. Now, you know, that guy. So he worked in the, so he's getting boxes of, of product and walking him right out. His people are, yeah.

Okay. And he's doctor shopping. And this was before, like you really can't doctor shop anymore because if you're a doctor, you write me a script and then I go to this doctor, he's going to know you wrote. Yeah, yeah. That was in the, whatever, in the 2000s. After the pill mill in Florida blew up, they came out with, well, at least in every, I think in most states, but in Florida, they came up with a system.

I forget the name of it. So if he writes a script, he goes in there and he says, I wrote Matthew. you Cox a script for this much. And then if you go to a next other doctor, before he writes a script, he goes in and goes, whoa, wait a minute now. Two weeks ago, you just got a script. Right.

So before that happened. Yeah, you could go to as many doctors as you could find. Dude, as long as you went to different pharmacies. All day long. And he was, and they were doing the warehouse shit. So, um,

it's kind of all tied together. So after I moved, my stepdad linked up with my best friend Hawson and they're doing and selling drugs together. And like, this is my this is my mom's husband right he he's like he gets wind of my buddy austin kind of running the show now and he's like uh and hosson's like well come to the gym you can buy whatever you want so you just walk up to the counter hey check in i'm gonna go

work out hey let me get uh 50 oxies and and whatever okay here you go boom boom right on the counter and then it was going on forever did you make you buy a gym membership you have to sign it you have to get a gym membership first like we got to make this look legit so come in my office we're gonna yeah yeah yeah i mean we're still a company here We have integrity. So, yeah, but they were selling it right over to counterman before they got shut down. And the owner of the gym, him and his son, him and his son were the ones pretty much running the show. The owner was quiet.

The son was more like the face. And my best friend, Hauston, was his partner. And they pretty much would just, you know, run amok. And then here comes my stepdad and my mom at this point. They're running up a tab 10, 15. thousand dollars in percocet's Xanax oxy cotton to the point where they became friends with the guy who owned the gym paid them off they got clean a couple years later she gets she falls back off ends up another tab for like 14 grand and uh the guys like look i'm just going to call it even go get

help right to my mom um but my buddy hossin he's still doing his thing and then uh he told me one time i said um I was on the phone with him. He goes, look, I'm, I said, look, I'm not feeling so hot. I said, I'm starting to, you know, getting an addiction here. And he was like, well, I can help you with that? He's like, can you get any salma? I said, there's nothing around. I said, I sold everything. I didn't keep anything. And I can't get anything for another two weeks? And he's like, can you get any salma? I'm like, yeah. He goes, take seven salma. And I have no clue at some. It's a drug that helps you supposedly, what, get off of opiates, doesn't it? I have no

clue. Yeah, it's like, um, what is the other thing they, they call it. They do now where they, Suboxin. Suboxin. Yeah. It's like Suboxone. It's supposed to be a non-habit of forming, you know, non-habit of forming a, uh, uh, version of like an opium. So it kind of tricks you into it, but it's easier, supposedly easier to get off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he tells me. I think. I could be wrong. Yeah. You'll tell me, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah. You'll, you'll hear it in the comments. Yeah, they'll be a moron. Idiot. Stick with fraud.

I know my drugs. Yeah. So he's like, take seven salma and eat a Snickers. This is the idiocracy that we partake in. Like, you know, the fat from the Snickers will break up the salma and then you wash it down with a red bowl and it'll give you a real smooth buzz. I'm like, a buzz off seven pills. Are you sure that's not like a little more than a buzz? Okay, but I'll do it.

So I eat four. Because you're a professional. Yeah, because I know what I'm doing. Clearly. You're basing this in your vast knowledge of selling gym memberships. and stealing out of a warehouse. Exactly. Yeah.

I mean, he's damn near a doctor. So he's telling me what to do. And I remember I was in my, I was still in the union at the time. I was in an end dump. Anybody that I'm still friends with who watches this is going to be like, oh, I knew it. So I'm in an end dump working for Charlie Hess. It's this huge, you know what a tonka truck is?

Yeah. It's similar to that. We're hauling dirt from point A to point B, building cells for landfills. and uh so i'm like man i feel like shit so i was like i actually do have some salma i just never take them because i i thought they were lame you know so he said no no take seven of them so i was like well let me start out with four so i popped four and uh i can't remember if i had the snickers either way not that it matters that would have changed everything yeah yeah yeah yeah you know the problem was but you didn't need the snickers did you that's what it was told you yeah idiots

I take the four psalma and I chew them because I'm a drug addict. You know, you can't even, you know, I don't even wash them down. I just chew them because they hit you quicker. And, uh, dude, I had like a seizure in my end dump. I was like leaning back like, it was bad. It lasted for like 10, 15 minutes. Thank God it was break time. Nobody noticed, you know?

And I wake up and I'm just like, everybody's standing next to my truck talking. I'm like, what the fuck just happened? So I call him up. I said, bro, seven? I just took four and almost died. like, they tries to give me some bullshit excuse. He's like, oh, well, you know, again with the... Did you have a peanut?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, a peanut snickers? Seriously. That's the problem. I meant Mickey Way. Yes. I said, I said Hershey's. What it was Snickers.

Of course you had a seizure. Obviously. I never said that. Yeah. That was pretty much a gist of it. But, uh, so yeah. Yeah, that's, that's pretty accurate. Um, but yeah, so long story short, he,

being the doctor that he was accidentally died doing that he's he goes to take a band i call i call his phone one day and i'm like who fucks this guy at you know and i hit him up his old lady answers the phone i was like where's hosson at she's like uh hawson died last night i was like what she's like yeah he took a bunch of solma and died in the tub i'm like what about snickers did he eat the he told me not the did you find any candy wrappers in there were three sticker spark candy wrappers next to him we don't know what's happening it wasn't the solma he's probably had another allergy is what it was so yeah so he died he was the last of our little crew that died and uh so but you know it is what it is um but yeah then i then my life started

falling apart for some reason um so i go from it seemed like you're making all the right i know dude it was setting up for the future and everything um so i have a question with the tattoos were you getting tattoos the whole time so what's funny is uh this one right here, I was wasted when I got this and I fell asleep in the chair. And the guy's like, what the fuck you, dude? Like, I've never had someone legitimately snore while I was giving them a tattoo. I was like, oh, I just hit a blunt in the car. Meanwhile, I'm like 400 milligrams of meth. I got a tattoo? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where the fuck are I? No, so, uh, I learned real quick that A, I was a severe drug addict. B, I was a all around piece of shit. And C, you can't

sustain. Um, I'll give you a prime example. I milked out my 401k one time, right? And I was like, I'm going to take this $8,000 and I'm going to go buy X amount of oxy cotton, and I'm going to flip them. And I could put the money right back, get a couple for myself, nobody's the wiser. So roughly a week later, I have no oxy cotton, no money, and I'm sick as a dog. You know, but it was just, it was shit like that all the time. So then I realized it was completely unsustainable. Well, wait, I still have another question. Yeah. So were you getting tattoos at that? this time? Is that all the tattoos are, these are happening? And what is this one? It says M for

L. It's a joke between my son and I, Mick for Life for McKelby's. A Mick is like a derogatory term for an Irish person. I know. I know what the Mick is. And you got it tattooed on your, okay. Got to make those good decisions, bro. I'm saying, is this a recent decision? You got to make yourself employable. I have no choice but to be an entrepreneur now, Matt. I was going to say, you're not get a job at the bank. No. Actually, you probably could now. You'll go to get money out of the bank and the chick's got like a neck tattoo. And you're like, fuck. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Tom Pierce. Oh, listen, when I got out of prison, it was like five years ago. I mean, it's like people have blue hair. Oh, yeah. Like, they're blue hair. They got, you know, you got 18 year old girls with

neck tattoos and it's like, what is happening? Like, this is insanity. I see kids. Like, I'm 43 and I have this. Okay, whatever. But I also know how to make money now. I get to that. Yeah, yeah. Legally, no, legally, but I know how to make money, so I'm at the point. I'm going to have a little fun. I'm going to make money. I'm going to have a good time. I'm going to enjoy myself.

But, dude, I see 21-year-old kids, like, their gang set across. Or what's that chick? I don't know if you, Creshawn. I don't even know her name, but that rapper Blueface, his girlfriend, you know who I'm talking about? His girlfriend, she has a huge tattoo of his face on the side of her face. I'm like, what the hell are you doing? Boziac dated a chick. that got his initial tattooed on her face.

I was, what are you doing? What are you doing? And he's like, she wanted it. Like, you should talk some sense into her. Seriously. And then they broke up. Two weeks later, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like six months later, they're talking on the phone.

And he's like, oh, you see anybody? She's like, no, believe it or not, it's kind of hard to date people when you got your ex-boyfriend's initials. What do you know? Initials tattooed on your face. I have a, I have a solution. You go on Tinder, right? And you find someone with those initials. Yeah, exactly.

There you go. You know, I mean, it's a no-brainer. Or you can just not get a face that to. No, but so yeah, I was at a point in life where I was just like, man, I'm a piece of shit. So I didn't want to do it, but I went to a methadone clinic. And this was, this was gross. Like, I remember standing in line and you have never, I know you, I know you were at a pretty low point when you went to prison. Trust me.

Yeah, it's not a good day. No, it's not a good day. It's not like, you're like, whoa, finally going to get some rest. Yeah. Stand in line at a methadone clinic with the people you went to high school with. Oh, my God. That's rough. I remember looking behind me, my barber was like five people back.

He goes and walks back to his car. I was like, I already saw you, bro. We're here for the same thing. We're both pieces of shit. No, but yeah, it was a tough day. So I go in there. And of course, I wasn't an addict. I was there because, you know, I mean, whatever.

And I get my counselor. And she's like, you know, you're going to be here for the rest of your life, right? And I don't like that type of shit. I don't like control. I don't like being dependent on anything. So I was like, no, I'm just, I'm just going to get myself better and get out of here. And she's like, well, that's not really how it works. Like, you're going to set your dose.

And then if you still feel like you need to use, you're going to increase your dose. And then that's where it's going to stay. And it's similar to Suboxin, but it's a lot more like it gets in your bones. Like, it's so hard to quit. Like, you have to have, you have to really, really want to quit. She says, well, what you don't realize is 2% of people can beat opiates. and you're not one of them. And I'm like, who do you?

You don't tell me if I'm one. I tell you if I'm one of them. You know what I mean? So I said, well, granted, for the first couple months I was there, they let you set your dose. So like an average dose would be like 70, 70 milligrams. But, you know, I'm cool as a cucumber. And I got to impress everybody. So I got to keep going up and up and up because, you know, why do it if you're not going to do it big?

So I'm like, well, I want to get, I want to go more. I want to go more. I'm up to like 300 milligrams a day. And for anybody who knows methadone knows, that's a high dose. And I'm also snorting Xanax and shit like that. So I haven't learned my lesson at all. And I'm driving like that. Ride my motorcycle.

Actually wiped out of my motorcycle doing this shit. But so I'm setting my dose. I just keep going higher and higher. And then it starts to catch up with me. Like I lose my job in the union. Families falling apart. You know, lose my crib. Like it's bad.

It's typical junkie shit. And I'm like, I was just having fun like a year ago. Like I went from looking down on people who used opiates to being in a methadone clinic and can't leave. Like if there's a nor-eastern and we get snowed in, I'm sick. Like, I'll die. That's how addicted I am. So I remember I go down there and I said, I said, look, I want to get off. She's like, oh, you can't, you know, you can't get off.

I said, no, I want to wean myself off. I want to get clean. How long will it take? She's like, at your dose, a year? I was like, no, I want to be done like a month. Oh, it's it can't happen. I said, all right, so what if I stop paying you? Because it's X amount of dollars a day.

She's like, oh, well, then we'll fetox you. And then all of a sudden, it's okay to do that. You know, like, if you stop paying us, we'll get you out of here real quick. By law, we can take you down X amount of milligrams a day until you're at zero. And I think they do it over like 30 days. So I said, well, that's what I'll do then. And she's like, oh, you know. So they get me down to zero.

the last day I go in there and I had like a bunch of take home bottles, empty bottles. And I remember I had them in a shop right bag and I go to hand them to the other lady and she's like, what's all this? I said, well, today's my last day. And she goes, what do you mean? I said, I'm not going to go here anymore. I'm clean. I'm getting clean. I'll never

forget. She goes, okay. She kind of like laughs at me. She goes, I'll see you. You'll be back. Yeah. See you in two weeks. Yeah. So I was like, bitch, I'll never see you again. You know what I mean? so I spent the next 30 days white knuckling it smoking like an ounce of weed a day well not an ounce of weed a day but I was smoking like four or five blunts a day just to like you know help me go to bed because I knew I never had a problem with smoking weed I never had a problem with drinking it really wasn't my thing you know I would I would wake up smoke a blunt around lunchtime start drinking granted I was on unemployment so I didn't have a job so I could just do whatever the I wanted that was another issue like it's time to get your shit together night time I'd pop a couple ambient and I just did that for like 30 days and then once once I

started feeling better I stopped doing that as well because I didn't have a problem with that you know I knew I could get rid of that I never felt like an addict but physically if you take opiates for five days you're physically addicted to it right you know when you're done you're done like me me personally like if I get to a point where I've had enough of something dude I don't care what it is I'm done like I acted like an asshole I'm done around did you ever see the movie The Good Thief with Nick Nolte? Probably. He's a great movie, bro.

He's in France. And it's a scam movie. It's about a con. He's a professional con artist. But he's in France. And he's on, you know, he's on. Yeah. And he's about, they're about to pull off this big scam.

And he's like, okay, I got to get clean. Right. He handcuffs himself to the bed. And he has a conversation with this chick and this, and a friend of his. And he's like, no matter what. What? Don't cuff me. You feed me like I'm pissing and shitting in the bucket.

You know, do not. I'll beg you, plead for you, plead with you, everything. Do not let me out. And he stays in there for, I don't know what it is, four days, five days. I mean, he's sweating. He's screaming. He's trying to get away. So gross.

Begging, promising them anything. And then, of course, five days later, he, you know, it's been five days. They're like, can we unlock? He's like, yeah, I'm good. Unlocks it. But it's, he knows he's like, I'm going to be in, it's going to be agony. Right. I don't know if there's five.

days, three days, seven days. I don't know what it was, but whatever, you just see him. Yeah, it was, it was like horrific. But he knew it. Oh, yeah. He had to get these people to promise him. Yeah, don't. Yeah. I'm a werewolf. Like, I don't care what I say. Right. You know what I mean? Methodone's a little different. Hey, you guys, I hate to interrupt the video, but I wanted to let you guys know that we're posting an extra hour every single week on Patreon of exclusive content revolving around the different interviews that we do. It's only $10 a month for that exclusive content. So please check it out.

Thank you. Back to the video. Essentially, you know, as an opium poppy, you can almost make the argument that it's all natural, almost. I mean, it's not something I would fuck with, but which is funny because, like, guys like me, we look down on hibon users, but we were using opiate. Like, we're using oxycodone and everything else,

and it's like, oh, you fucking do a scumbaggotten. Like, I do oxycodon, you know. But, yeah. So you can kick in like a week if you're, if you're, you know, a tough guy, you know. And then mentally it takes maybe two, three weeks to get your brain back because it drains your serotonin. Like, I mean, you are depressed like I'm because you're, when you're on opiates of any sort, you're so happy. You know, everything's good. Every day, no big deal.

The second you get off that shit, you are just down. It took me like three months to come back to reality. I actually had to do mushrooms. I did mushrooms to help me out because someone told me that. it resets everything. So I eat a handful of mushrooms, and I got to tell you, the next day, I was almost back to normal. So what were you like, microdosing?

Maybe a little bit more than microdosing. I met a guy at the gym who's got, like, PTSD. Oh, dude, it works phenomenal for it. And he does, he microdoses. Oh, yeah, yeah. He was like, it's the only thing that helps me. It's all natural, psilocybin. There's plenty of case studies.

I mean, it's not bullshit. It's not hippie talk anymore. Yeah. Like, they're finding out that it has a real place in modern medicine. And I didn't know that. I was just fucking, you know what I mean? Someone told me, again, believe in some idiot. We were going to OzFest and I was at work and I was like, fuck, man, I'm hurting, dude.

This guy's like, I got something for you, bro. He pulls out a rubber made tote, probably like five pounds of mushrooms. Like, how much you want? Like, well, there's me and four other people. I guess I'll take a couple handfuls, you know? Right. But yeah, I mean, the next day I was feeling a lot better. Then I kind of just never looked back.

but um so yeah with the methadone it just seems to get into your skeleton i mean it's just so hard to get out of you it's tough it really is um but i just you know i wanted to get clean and you know i wanted to do i wanted to change my life i wanted to be you know i knew who i was i was taught you know i was taught toxicity i was taught addiction i was taught extremism that's not your fault. But when you stay in it, that's your fault. You know, if you're taught to be ABC, they become an adult and you start realizing this isn't normal. Right. But I'm going to stick with it. Right. That's when it's your problem. Yeah. That's when it's your fault. And that's where I was. So I was like, you know, I'm just going to get clean and I'm going to change my life. And that's

exactly what I did. You know, it wasn't easy at all. How old were you now? And how old were you at when I got clean off a methadone? Yeah. In general. I'm assuming it's all after the methadone. That was it, right? No, I still broke the law. Oh, I was still a piece of shit. I'm saying, I'm trying for drugs as far as drugs are going to, or shaping up. Yeah, I was 28 when I started getting it together. Oh, okay. You know, I made the decision when I was 28.

And then, then it was like a progress after that. You know, I started getting into personal development, reading a lot of Napoleon Hill, Wallace Waddles, just anything I can get my hands on, really. Just anything that I felt was like brain food, I would just devour it. I watched the movie The Secret, which is kind of, you know, silly. But I watched it like, that was my introduction, really. I remember going to We were mocking the secret the other day Dude, it's so good

He'd never heard of the Colby had not, right? You hadn't heard of the secret, right? Is it like yellow and red? Yeah, yeah, the book, the book is... I saw it like a TikTok about it, is it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's pretty cringe.

But there was a couple nuggets I got me and my buddy, it's funny you say about the tattoos because I was like getting the tattoos also to kind of like preoccupy myself which I still get tattoos but um my buddy who I was getting tattoos with he's like you got to check out the secret Bobby we call him Staten Island Chris he's like this little mobster anything remember iPod touches like anytime you'd go to his house like his uncle just dropped off like a box full of him that fell

off a truck yeah you know what I mean he's like Bobby you want an iPod touch I'm like I'm all right you sure I got five of them uh but he's like Bobby you got to check out the secret I'm like what are you talking about Chris it's it's like magic you got to watch it and uh but You know, I watched it, and it had a couple nuggets in there. One of the things that I held down to, too, is so, I hate to even say this. People are going to see this. But the gratuity rock. Okay, no.

So, like one, I was in prison when this came out, and I read maybe the first two chapters of the book and said, this is, the book's horrible. I can't read this. It's, it's redundant. It is, it is so elementary. It's just, it's. So I never saw the movie. It's borderline idiocry, honestly.

And it's just, it's repetitive. And it's like, the movie was a little bit better because there's this guy in there. There's two guys that I kind of resonated with. They're both older guys. But Bob Proctor, who's passed away, and Jack Canfield. He wrote chicken noodle soup for the soul. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's pretty cool guy.

But they're talking about a gratuity rock. And, you know, you find a rock or something that you like. And every time you touch it, you think of something you're thankful for. So I kind of took that with me. And it helped. It did help. And there's no magic. You have to do the work.

But it's just a little something. Yeah. But I was getting into a lot of that. shit. It helped greatly, but it's been a process. You know, I, I, I, so when I made the decision, my reality didn't catch up. You know, I was still doing shady shit. You know, I was still associated with a lot of people that I shouldn't have been. A lot of drug dealers in my life still, you know, a lot of, a lot of criminals, criminal element in my life. I moved to South Carolina, not long after that to just kind of get away from everybody and everything. And that was

when I turned. That's when I really starting to turn it around. I got a job down there that I kept for like 11 years, which is like the longest I ever kept a job. What was the job? I was working in a factory, but I was also doing construction on the side. I was doing my own shit where I was building like home bars and stuff like that, wine racks, home bars, flooring, any type of home remodeling. But I worked my factory job at the same time. You know what I mean? Like I was I was working for myself doing my own thing. Then I got my license. I started building decks. I put a three-story addition to the houses, but one other guy, everything by herself by hand. You know, I just taught myself, like, I would go into a job, and I guess this is when the old

chister came out of me, like, someone would be like, hey, can you do ABC? I'm like, of course I can. That's, I bet they're doing that since I, you know what I mean? I'm in the driveway watching YouTube, like, what the fuck I was supposed to do? What did I just sign up for? But she cut me a $12,000 check, so I couldn't say no, you know? And it's either sink or swim. Getting back to, uh, when I was in the seventh or the eighth grade and I got stuck on the, on the trip, I remember telling myself, I have two options. It was so bad the first day it happened. The day that I was smoking, weeding it all came back to me. I go home. I jump in a cold shower because I think that's going to make it go away. And I remember grabbing my head being like,

and in my mind, I was pulling my head apart. And in between the two pieces of my head, I could see these like iridescent color stretching. So then I'm all tripped out and I'm trying to push my head back together in the shower because I'm thinking I'm pulling it apart. That's how bad it was. And I remember thinking of myself, like, two months into it, I either have to find a gun and take care of a situation or will myself out of it. So I had no other choice because I wasn't going to go out like that. Like, I'm not, I'm not going to kill myself. So I had to will myself out of it. And it's almost impossible to overcome, like, a chemically induced situation because it's, it's a chemical that's altering my mind.

so I had no choice but to figure out a way to will myself out of it and I did so later on in life when I finally got my shit together and I'm thinking like you know I can either fail or find a way right because I was not supposed to be able to do that I was not supposed to be able to will myself out of that and I did so if I can do that I can take care of this you know what I mean I can get through this yeah this is nothing so that was that right there like it was is the most horrific thing I've ever been through. And, you know, I wouldn't change it for the world. You know what I mean? Like, it was just, it molded me. You know, it just molded me and gave me like a, just a will to live, you know, a will to overcome. I mean, that's pretty much, I would say, like, the foundation of who, and plus the abuse and everything like that, like, it definitely gave me a foundation that I, that I can stand on. You know, like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't I wouldn't change it for the world, you know. Well, what happened after the, like, the job?

You saw, why did you stop working the job? In the union? Yeah. I mean, no, I'm saying you said in third, you did a job for 13 years in South Carolina. Oh, because, um, so I just, like, I never wanted to be a nine to five guy. Like, I always pitching myself as an entrepreneur and. But you're working 95. Yeah, I know.

So that's why I just, I walked off the job one day. Right. After 11 years, like, uh, it was, I mean, did you feel like you had, because you built up the other business enough that you know you're going to be okay? No, no, no, no. Um, because that's kind of what happens. Like you, people will work a 40 hour regular job work, you know, put something together. And when it gets to a point where they're like, I can, I can get rid of this and this and just, you know, blow this, my, you know, whatever, my personal business. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dump that time into this and I know I can double or triple or quadruple it. Well, this,

that would be called the seamless transition. Yeah. And that's not what I did. Why would I do that? Right. That's nonsense. No, I got into an argument with one of my uppers. So I'd been there for a while, and I felt like I, I don't want to say I was in, everybody thinks this company could never go on without me. You know, everybody thinks that. And I'm not naive enough to think that. But I felt like I was somewhat of an integral part of the system.

And I had been there for a long time. And I'm watching guys make mistakes that have been there for eight years and they just walk them out of the front door. Like, fuck your family. Fuck your bills. You're out of here. And I'm just thinking to myself like, damn, like, they could do that to me. And then I had made a couple mistakes, a couple problems, a couple of

situations. The week that I left, I ran some bad product. And the guy, not my immediate higher up, but the one who kind of oversaw the place, he was like making like some slick comments about firing me. Like it was a joke. And I'm like, you know what? Like, if it's that funny, I'll go fund. Like, I'll make this work. Dude, I didn't have a job. I didn't have anything lined up. I'm like, I'm down to like $200 to my name. I had just paid all my business. I had just paid all my bills. Like, you know, we, I had been mismanaging my money because I got all this money coming in. And I found myself in a position where whatever happened this month, I was down to like 200 bucks. And, and my back was completely against the wall. And I'm just thinking

to myself, like, I need a sign. I need a sign. And all of a sudden the phone started ringing. Hey, can you come look at my, you know, I want to build an outside kitchen. And I get like two more phone calls. And I was like, that's a good enough sign. Yeah, I'm not coming back Monday. right you i'm out of here if it's that easy to fire me go you know see you and uh i tripled my income the first year in a pandemic um second year i little more than tripled it third i think i'm on year five right now which i'm transitioning out of construction all the way around it's just not what i wanted to do with my life i've been doing it since i was 13 um i just have a lot more to offer i'm very thankful that i can build a house i'm very thankful that if god god forbid everything goes

sideways, I could build a deck for 10 grand. Very thankful that I know how to make a legal dollar. But it's not what I want to do. I mean, you know, I'm 43. What are you transitioning in two? I'm going to take this full time. Like I remember the first time I got on the internet, right? But I wasn't, see, I was taught, my dad taught me, nobody can afford to buy a house. Nobody can go on vacation. Nobody's got that kind of money. Right. So my whole life, dude, I had like, you know, I was making 100 and something grand a year thinking I couldn't buy. a house. I could have bought two houses. You know what I mean? I could have. I had plenty of leverage. I had my credits was in the 700s. And in my head, I'm like, nobody can buy a house because

that's what I was taught. So like, I always knew what I wanted to be and what I wanted to do. But I just thought that I couldn't because that's what I was taught. You, you, you drop out of high school, you go get a shit job, you wait to die. That's it. That's life, you know? And that's a lie. You could do whatever the fuck you want. You could do whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want look at you you know what i mean you you got out with nothing nothing and and now i mean you're blowing up well colby's been carrying me colby's a real star to show yeah um no but like so i i was going to say it's it's it's like i mean in my opinion you know it's like setting a goal and just making small little incremental right kind of you know um movements towards that goal right you know

that to me but i see and That's the thing. I don't care how long it takes. I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. I already know how to make money. I'm still have jobs coming in. I'm still making money. I'm working tomorrow. I was able to take today off. I'm going tomorrow. I got plenty of work. But in the meantime, I can remember 1995 when I was out in California. I go over to my buddy's house. I had one friend who had money. He was like the rich kid, you know. And he lived up in Hillsborough, California. And his dad, you get a gallon of milk, you peel the top off. His dad invented that. So, yeah, a truckload of money. Right. Yeah. So he was like the first. Dude, it's crazy.

A little piece of plastic. A little, yeah, the little safety. Yeah. I'm like, well, you should see my dad's shotgun on a beer. So, yeah, I go to his house and he's telling me about it. And he's just, like, showing me all around and shit, this castle up on top of the mountain. You can see, you can see San Francisco. And he's like, check this out.

Naturally, we go on AOL. And he's like, you want to see some porn? You know? And I'm like, what the fuck is the internet? Like, what is this? And he's showing me what it is. And all of a sudden, I'm talking to girls in Australia, which were probably 50-year-old men, but, you know, I'm talking to people on the other side of the planet.

And I remember just being like, this is the gateway. Like, this is what I can do this. But I had that thought system, that, you know, that thought pattern of, no, you can't, you've got to go to construction. So now I'm finally at a point in my life where I've learned how to do a seamless transition. I've learned how to, you know, set up, you know, have something on the back burner where I'm cooking on the front burner and then slowly switch them. So, like I said, I told you that, you know, the thing that I'm working on. And I'd like to have it up and run in the next three months.

And if I could transition out of that by the first of the year, I'll be happy. What is it? The podcast. Okay. Well, you didn't mention that, by the way. This whole thing where you were talking, you said, you know, the thing, you never, right? Am I right? Why don't want to be like a shameless plug on here?

No, it's fun. Yeah, no, I didn't want to be like, you know, like, you know, hey, you know, come check me out. Yeah, no. No, well, it's, it's, you know, it's, um, I, so right now, as I told you, there's nothing on my channels. I just, I just secured the names. It's the Florida man podcast, and it's all things Florida. It's all things like, you know, crime, um, uh, paranormal, you know, pothead shit. Yeah.

Bigfoot, ghosts, you know, crime. I, yeah, you got to interview, um, I got a buddy named, uh, Chris. I've interviewed him two or three times. times. Oh, I've seen hilarious. Oh, dude, I love. Yeah, I love him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, yeah, he's, he's, anyway, but yeah, the Florida man's great. I was gonna say that everybody's always like, I have, I go, man, aren't you worried about, like running out of content? No. Serious? Dude, just go, just go on Florida news. Like, you'll see, like the shit, the headlines that are on there, like. Oh, it's insane. Like, and look, they're letting guys out of jail like thousands every day. Left and right. This is not going to, I'm not running out of content. I promise you. Exactly. I have an idea. I have an idea. idea. In the event that I hit a dry spell, I know several bail bondsmen. I'm like, hey, just come over and tell me. I saw your episode too, by the way. You know, the only worst thing about her was it wasn't until she kind of got here that I realized she'd only been doing it for a few years. And she was already great, right? What if, you know, I was thinking, what's she

going to be like? The story she's going to have in 10 years? Oh, bro. Like, I'll better, I'll better her son, too, because he does it. He's going to be, he's going to, like, and you're right, the bail bondsman people are the way to go. It's an endless, it's a treasure trove. I was a bondsman. I went and got my license for a little while. When Dog, the Bounty Hunter came out, I was like, I could do that. So I go get my license and I get a job in Tom's River.

Surprisingly enough, I had no criminal record. They approved me. And, dude, the people that came through there. It's like, hey, man, I got a, you know, my buddy's across the street. I just got out. He's got a 15,000. Okay, I need 1,500 bucks. And I got 500 and I got some Xanax.

Or I got 500. I got my bracelet or my Rolex or whatever. I'm just like, it's not my company. I can't just trade Xanax for him. Right. But how much for the Xanax? No, but yeah, the shit you see, it's pretty, pretty wild. I mean, just the last kid, the last kid that I bailed out, he had an aggravated assault. Granted, I don't consider myself like this seasoned bondsman. It was something I was trying to do in my 20s just because I thought it was cool. I think I did it for a year on the side. This kid I bailed out of jail, He was on like, nowadays, if you go to county and you're addicted to drugs, they'll give you, like, methadone, Suboxin.

But when I was doing it, bro, you sat in that tank and you poured sweat. Right. And you puked. You know, and he was on all kinds of mood stabilizers. And this kid, he was half my size. And he gave me the creeps. Like he was on like some pretty serious antipsychotics. And they hadn't been given them to him.

And I was trying to do his paperwork. And this kid was just like, yeah, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, he wouldn't make eye contact with me. He wouldn't tell me his name. His mom had to come in to do the paperwork. Like, he was good, like he was, you know, this kid was pretty sketchy. I don't know. I don't even know whatever happened to him because I didn't stay in the business. But, um, pretty dicey business, to say the least. But that's what I'm going to do if, you know, if I run out of, uh, content, I'm just going to, you know, I got a couple guys that moved down here from Jersey that are full-time bondsmen and I'm just going to hit them up and be like, hey, man, come tell me some stories. right you know how old your son now i have a 24 year old son okay i have a daughter just got married another daughter who's an emt 14 year old daughter nine-year-old son two grandkids wow yeah yeah started young um uh so what where are you living right now in fort st lucy port st lucy yeah for about a year now um okay that's uh that's uh that's class down by uh okachev right it's close to okay it's like 45 five minutes east of ok chobie we're uh you know we're like jensen stewart um verro beach yeah so we're

like one town west of i think jensen okay yeah they're pretty nice community uh real family oriented i'm a miami guy i love miami but like we have kids so we didn't want to go you know well there's probably a good pool of uh of people to interview uh from miami oh that's probably going to be a great that's my goal is that you know so from miami oh yeah dude drug traffickers anybody so I don't want to tip my, I don't want to show my hand too much, but you know who Barry Seal is, right? Yeah. Okay, so, um, is he still, oh, no, he's not still alive. No, Barry Seal's dead, but someone that he worked with, I'm personally friends with his daughter,

and I got to keep it close. He's super, super tight because he's afraid to, he's still living in fear. Right. It's the guy that I'm talking about. His daughter said, I'll let you interview me from a daughter's perspective of what I saw my dad go through. Right. But he's probably not going to talk to you.

And if he does, it's going to be real short. Well, I got a bunch of smugglers. Oh, really? Yeah, we've done at least two in the last month, well, a month and a half, two months. Like one was a pilot and one is. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, dude, that was good. That older guy, the bald guy?

Yeah, well, one was bald. No, actually, they were both bald. One just, one was bald and one was bald and had a beard. That was a pilot, right? The pilot was, was it? Oh, yeah. Well, one did the cars from here to Ohio with a gray beard. with the great beer

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, and the other guy was the pilot. And the other guy was all-balled pilot. Pilot, right? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. He was pretty good. Yeah, yeah, I enjoyed that one. Yeah, we used Barry Seal as a thumbnail, or Tom Cruise.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had a bunch of good, um, a bunch of good stories. Yeah, dude, I met her by chance at a bar, too. We were at the Square Grupper. You know what a Square Grupper is? Yeah. Okay, so we were at the Square Grupper in, in Fort Pierce, and I went over there

look at a job and uh i'm just shooting the shit and this this lady you know she's just like talking and then we start chit-chat and she's like starts telling me her story because she's got a couple drinks in her and she says her dad's name and i was like wait why i said that's a very familiar name and she's like she starts breaking it down i was like holy shit i said let me get your number i said would you be willing to talk to me she's like yeah absolutely so you know i mean i'm gonna i'm gonna go for that um and like you said there's no shortage of crime there's no shortage of criminals. Yeah, yeah.

I remember when a friend of mine was robbed for a pound of weed, and I hate to say we because I was just there, but I didn't partake in this one. This actually bothered me. Quote unquote, we were out for blood, just whoever was involved. And we're in front of my house playing spades one day. And a couple of people pulled up that were allegedly involved with it. And they didn't know that... People were saying they were involved.

So they came up to play and smoke and we're like, oh, let's go in the house and smoke. And I remember we going to the house and we're like, hey, you know, uh, someone so said that you were involved with blah, blah, blah, you know, with, you know, what was taken. No, I wasn't. And just, I mean, the, the beating they threw this guy was just, it was that type of shit all the time. Like, I mean, this guy got off the ground and his face was rearranged. Like, he looked different.

We saw him a couple years later. He looked different. I actually told him to stop. I was like, all right, enough. You're going to kill the guy. You know, and he's, I don't even know if he had a part of it. You know what I mean? Right.

So it was just, the 80s was a weird, well, this was in the 90s, but like, Jersey's a cold place figuratively and, you know, and physically. Right. It's just a very dark, just everybody likes to be from Jersey, but everybody likes to leave Jersey. You know what I mean? Like, it's just a very, uh, very unhappy place. People are miserable. Every time I go back up there, it's just the same energy, you know. So, like, my story is more of.

just being taught violence, being taught toxicity, being taught addiction and extremism, but you can unlearn all that. There's no, you know, there's no like, this is you, this is your template. You, you, you decide that. Right. You build that. You know what I mean? I'm not going to go back to that. I'm not going to live like that. I'm not going to partake in that. I was taught that, but like we said before, you know, I choose to change that. You know what I mean? I got a question. Yeah. Probably a lot of people watch this probably have some type of similarity, whether it's the drugs or like the hard upbringing.

Like what's like tactical advice you give to them? Or like, what was it for you that like helped you change your mindset? Oh, I have the perfect answer for that. I used to say my dad never taught me anything, but then one day I realized that he taught me everything because he taught me what I never wanted to be. You know, looking at this guy, you know, growing up with, you know, mismatch couches that they got out of the garbage. No cable, no phone, you know, no, no decorate, no home decor, just a shell of a house, barely any heat, you know, beer cans everywhere. I don't want to be this. So figure out what you want to be and be that. Don't let it seep in. Don't let it seep in. Don't let it change. Longbendy Twizzlers candy keeps the fun going. Keep the fun. I'm going.

Twizzlers, keep the fun going. Change you, stand firm, and the second you're able to get out of there, get out of there. Because the longer, I know guys that are trying to change, they decide to change in their 40s, but that route is deep. You know, you've got to get out as quick as possible.

The second you're old enough to get out of that environment, get out of that environment. Because the longer you stay, the deeper the root gets. And it gets so tough to cut out. I mean, I was like 28 when I made the decision. to change and it's it's still a struggle I still have my default settings that I wrestle with you know it's it's not easy it's not easy to I mean look you've changed your life

tremendously but I'm sure there's always that default setting like well I can always go back to the point you know it's a constant struggle yeah it's you know yeah it's a you know a couple change in the numbers here and I can I mean you just have to you got it you got to decide who you want to be and you got to you got to fight you got to fight to keep it I mean your, in my opinion, your mind is essentially like the worst battleground you could ever be in. If you were raised like that. I mean, some people were raised in a good environment and they, I don't know, I guess had love or whatever. I guess, you know, I've heard of that.

I mean, I don't know how difficult that can be, but, you know, for the most part, people are miserable. How many people do you know are doing what they love to do? How many people? Not a lot. A majority of people hate their life. So they take it out on their kids. their kids are raised to be negative and miserable and do drugs and hate their life.

And it just keeps going on and on and on. So, I mean, you have got to figure out what you want to be in life. I'll give you a prime example. I started a pest control company. I consider myself an entrepreneur. Started a pest control company. Hated it. Didn't last.

Bought a tanning salon. You know, that was kind of fun because there's hot chicks walking in and out all day. But I had to be there 80 hours a week. And I was still working my factory job. didn't last, you know, started a construction company. I love the fact that, well, I've done online marketing. Something else I can't think of right now, but I know I had something else going on. But the construction company, the remodeling, I love that I can do it, but I'm not happy at all.

So the longer you stay in an environment where you're not happy, you know, the longer you're going to be miserable, you've got to figure out what it is you truly want to do. someone said to me one time what can you do for free if money wasn't an if money wasn't an object what would you do for free what would you do for free and i and it was always shit like this yeah it was always shit like this i love entertainment i love networking i love talking with people i love meeting people um that's the uh the the gary v thing is uh you know you know to try and turn your side hustle yeah you know the thing you like to do that makes you money you know into your full-time gig right so that's this like like like being in prison, all your bills are paid, you can, and there's stuff to do. You can watch movies,

they got a movie room, you can go to horticulture class, you can read, you can, you can be on different softball team, you can be on the flag football. That's better than some people's life out here. Right, but you add it all up, like there's tons of stuff to do, but what, what I tended to do was walk the track and sit down and talk about what got you here. Talk about guys' stories. Right. Like, well, what are you, how are you doing this? What kind of crime were you doing? How did that involve with it? You didn't just start. doing that. Like, how did you, oh, well, you know, my brother, you know, and you'd walk the track and hear their whole story. To me, that was better than, like, I would rather do that with

somebody who had a good story, then go watch, you know, then go watch Wolf of Wall Street. Right. You know, I would rather watch, walk around with that guy because it's, it's an interactive version. And it's therapeutic for them. Right. Like, you're getting to help somebody. Like, people, oh, I don't like talking until you get them talking and then they won't shut the fuck up, they want to tell you their whole life story. It's therapeutic for them. It's good for you. I mean, I, you know, I feel you on that. But the goal is to, to, you know, the goal is to, to shoot the, to shoot the shit with somebody and figure out how to make that. So out here, how do I make that pay? How do I make that pay, how do I make that become, you know,

that your side hustle or the thing that you like to do? How do you make that end up making you money? Yeah. And then that would be YouTube. Right. You know, like I didn't know that when I got out. I didn't know that's how it was going to work. Yeah. Yeah. But it was like, you set that gold, start moving towards it and this is what developed out of it. I couldn't I told you this was what I was going to develop. I thought I was going to be, I thought I was going to be doing, try and get something hooked up with like a big production company that would help me make documentaries or help me maybe do a podcast, but a heavily edited podcast with interviews.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that, that just never materialized, materialized, what am I trying to say? Materialized. So let me ask you this. Now that you've taken it this route, essentially independent, are you glad you took this or would you have rather taking the more commercial route? No, I like this.

The worst part of this job, like this is the best part to me. Yeah. The worst part is scheduling. Yeah. You know, talking to people, scheduling with people. You know, you talk to some people,

they, they, some people, you have to hold their hand the whole way through. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then what? And then what, yeah. What about this? Well, what about, what about? Well, what about, no, no, I don't mean talking.

I mean, talking about getting them on the phone. And it becomes, you know, you have to do, like, everything to get them there. And then you have to, they're constantly contacted you the whole time. And then you've got the guys that are, those people that are self-motivated that tend to own their own businesses, they're the ones that are like, okay, cool, I'll be there at 10 o'clock on the 25th. And, like, literally, you don't hear from it for like three weeks. And then a couple days beforehand, I'm like, I hope this guy's going to show up. And I'm like, hey, bro, what's going? And it's like, yeah, man, I'm getting on the plane tomorrow.

I got it. Okay. And then it's like, hey, looking forward to, bro, I'll be there. Yeah, yeah. It was like they know. I understand what you're thinking. I won't be there because you haven't heard of me. I'm going to be there.

Yeah, I was here. I actually shot over here. I think I was here. I shot over here like two hours ago because I kind of had a general idea where you live. So I just like, you know, we're hanging out. Well, I don't really know the area at well, but I went over by plan of fitness. I was just shooting the shit for a little bit. But yeah, man, I didn't know because you do more like pretty, what's the word I'm looking for?

like, sexy crimes, like, you know, like pilots who were smuggling and shit. And I'm like this hooligan, you know, who's just been like doing... But you know what channels blow up? The guys that blow up are the guys that do the prison content. I just can't do it because I didn't have that experience in prison. I wasn't in a pen. Right. And there's no...

You know, I've seen it. Like, I've been right next to a guy when he got hit by a lock. I mean, literally, it was the belt. And the lock was went right by my head within inches and hit the guy. The guy that was standing in front of me was like... like his head is right here that noise is so gross isn't it well and then he he hit him the guy fell down tried to stand up he hit him again and again and again and then the guy took off running so and then he's laying there and then he tried to walk out the gate with the guard sitting there the gate as he's

walking by the guards like whoa wait a minute closes the gate hits the deuses yeah you know um but yeah I mean so I mean I've seen guys get stabbed I've seen I've seen that but I was never a part of it right so I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I was a shock collar I'm not going to talk about how I was in a knife fight. I'm not going to talk about how I had a problem with a guy I should meet me on the yard. I'm not going to do that. And honestly, it's like, I don't want to deal with that. Like, I have no interest in violence. I have no interest in, I'm interested in unique crimes. You've got a unique crime. Something that's a little different. Right. It's like, that's interesting to me. How did you come up to, how did you figure out how to rob

the bank? You know, like how did that materialize? And what steps did you take towards it? Or, you know, did somebody come to you and say, hey, look, my girlfriend works at the bank. It's been robbed four times. Here's how they're getting away. She said, you guys come in, they give them the money. Wow, like that starts to become like, okay, well, how did that? So this is what happened. Yeah, and then we hit this one and we hit this one and we hit, you know, I'm interested in that.

That's unique. Or a Ponzi scheme or, you know, things like that are, you know, the doctor shopping ones are semi-interesting to me, mostly because, mostly because it was. you had to figure out, well, it depends. You had to figure out how to get the pills, how to get that, you know, and then that when they start hitting multiple ones, it's like, how do you take this, what most people, maybe they're selling a few pills and you kind of McDonald's it. You turn it into like an industry.

Next thing, you know, somebody else is making, you know, a thousand dollars selling their pills. And somebody else turns around and says, you know, how can I make, how can I start selling $100,000 at least? And they quit their job and they go full force. You're like, oh, my God, you're all in. You've got with Johnny Mitchell, right? I've had him on the podcast. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

On his, yeah. Yeah. So he just had one of the brothers, the brother that got released from. Chris, uh, Chris George. He was actually supposed to be here Friday. No shit. Last Friday. And he canceled.

We're supposed to reschedule. Um, and Derek Nolan, the guy that ran the, the, um, American pain for him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is also supposed to come. Dude, that guy has no remorse. Like I, I watched him on Johnny Mitchell. He's like, well, they needed it. So I get it.

I was like, well, it's like, it's medicine. Did he get into the fact that he, they all got tattoos on their, they all got tattoos. So while the investigations going on, they're all making these promises that we're going to trial. We're not going to, nobody's going to flip. And they all got tattoos of a rat with a noose around it hanging from. I did hear that, but I don't think I saw it on Johnny Mitchell's thing. I think it was on the, I think, was that on the documentary? I don't know.

I don't know. I didn't watch the documentary. I wrote a book. I wrote a Derek Nolan's story. I wrote a story called Payne. And he has one on it, I think on his calf. And the other one, guys, maybe they got it on their, I don't know where they got, but they all, like, got one.

It's like, and of course, they all ended up cooperating. No, no snitch in here. No, you'd be a fool not dude. They're all going to get life sentences. I mean, cooperating. They're still getting 10 and 15 minutes. Right, right, right. You go to trial.

You never get now. Everybody's tough until you get, until you're looking at a double-digit sentence. It's like, you know, shit. How close were we? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was a work friend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I barely knew the guy.

Oh, I feel you, man. Listen. But no, the reason I asked that about, like, what route you would rather take is because, you know, like I've had, you know, like a goal or a destination in mind. And it's like, especially several instances in my business now where I'm like, this is my break. This is how I'm getting it. This is going to be the one. And it crumbles before my eyes.

And then I take another route that I never expected. and it's just money on top of money, on top of money. You know, 10 grand here, 12 grand there. You know what I mean? And it's just like, well, damn, I didn't expect that, but I would never take the route that I wanted to go. Yeah. Like, if I had, if I knew A and B, I was hell bent on A and it just crumbled like sand,

you know, like your situation, you're like, you know, I planned on being like with this production company, this and that. But, you know, instead I'm going up by myself. I've had that, by the way, I've had that deal fall apart multiple times where it's like, I'm, this is exactly what I want. This is exactly laid out. This is how much money. It's going to be.

break. This is going to be amazing. COVID hits. Right. Right. Right. Right. I had this whole thing set up. We've actually done the, we did all the work. I've been interviewed. We told the story. I actually did it twice. And then suddenly I said the wrong thing and they were a bunch of liberals from California. I saw you talk about that the day of the day. Oh yeah. Yeah. Right. Why? Because I said, I believe in some of the stuff that Andrew Tate says. Right. Right. Which, listen, listen to what he's saying. It's obviously comical. He's adding the comedy edge to it so you can digest. it, like, you know, remember Mary Poppins, a spoonful of sugar, makes the medicine go down?

Right. He's making it funny so you, so he gets your attention. Right. But what he's saying is true. Yeah. It's shock value. He's saying, like, it's, the delivery sucks, but it's shock value. He's trying to get eyeballs.

He did get eyeballs. If you look at his stuff now, he's toned it back so much. Big time. That it's now it's palatable to everybody turned off now. It's palatable, but it's probably too late for most of them. Right. But for you to sit here and say, oh, you, you believe what he says. wait a minute, he says, get up early, work out, be a man, get a job, provide for your family.

That sounds pretty racist, man. I know. I mean, my God, you misogynistic pig. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What, you know, but he does say this one thing, like a man should be able to have as many wives as he wants. Like, I disagree with that. You know, you get, to me. Well, he's Muslim, isn't he?

Right, but I have Christian values. Yeah, right, right, right. So that's different. We differ there, but I'm okay with differing there because I believe these things. Yeah, I'm almost certain you could have a concubine in the old. Testament, though. I mean, I'm going to look into it. Yeah, I'm going to, you know, obviously, I'm going to be an old testament guy from now on. Yeah. I don't think I would be that, I don't think I would be an Old Testament guy for long. Once my wife found out, I think I'd pretty, she'd pretty much

you'd become one of those, one of the eunuchs, so they chop your cock off. Yeah. Yeah. And then she slipped my body into the, into the, um, Everglades and let the alligators eat me. Oh, yeah. That's funny. Actually, you, so if I'm not mistaken, you had her as a guest, right? Jess, I did have her. Back in the day. And she was the one talking about her aunt. Yeah. And I had to, I recently took it down.

Oh, okay. She was furious because she promises, she's not going to do it, but she promises she's going to redo the whole thing again. She actually was on Ian Bick. She did on Ian Bick. It did pretty well. I could have swore. I saw her.

I thought it was yours, but she was talking about owning like her and her boyfriend were like owning like a tour guide or something like that yeah her and her ex-husband they ran it she was a hog hunting tour guide that was your show right yeah okay six years or it may have been ian bick she mean i wasn't i wasn't i yeah he's yeah i would remember if it was him because i just started watching him a couple months ago he's pretty good too um but yeah it was definitely yours but yeah that that was a pretty good episode too man it was you know when i hear stories like that the similarities it's like you know granted i was being fed blackberry brandy and and let me tell you something else if you're fishing on a hot day and you're thirsty and your dad tosses you a beer,

you're more thirsty after the beer. There's nothing thirst quenching about a bud, you know, when you're seven years old. But like, I remember, you know, being fed Blackberry Brandy, Budweiser, weed, cigarettes. And I thought that was bad. But then when I hear like a story where this, you know, because I have a teenage daughter, where this lady's feeding this teenage girl, I mean, Crystal Meth, right? Yeah. I'm like, are you out of your mind?

Oh, listen, the whole, the whole. I don't want to say the whole family, because my wife's father, I just love him to death. I think he's great. Other than that, there isn't, I haven't met one redemptive quality in any of her relatives that are currently, and they're all currently on something. They're in and out of jail. Yeah. Her sister, her sister has changed her entire life. So her sister's great.

But her sister's also in a, you know, the problem is, you get yourself into a tough position. But you make all those mistakes when you're younger. Right. And now you're in a bad. spot and you clean yourself up, but you're now you're dealing with, you're now living the right, a, an honorable life, but you're still, you're still in a position that you created when you were, when you were dealing with addiction. And it's, it's horrific. And it's like, you know, so now you're just struggling to survive. And it's like, I see these people. And I, I,

some of them I feel bad for and some of them is just like, well, it's actually called seed time and harvest. And I notice, um, nothing is spiritual on you, but I firmly believe that, the universe was designed on cycles. There's a cycle of planting and then there's a cycle of harvest. And like when I was in my addiction and my criminal years, I planted a lot of seeds. You know what I mean? A lot of negative seeds that after I got straight,

the harvest came. Right. You know what I'm saying? It's like, well, shit, I didn't, I ain't been around in years, but all of a sudden I got someone knocking on the door with a file. You know what I mean? And it's like, you know what I mean?

That was years ago, and it's like, I don't really want to talk about that one, but it's an IRS situation that I actually just wrapped up and I would rather not piss them off anymore. But, you know, it's like, you know, you plant these seeds and whether it be good or bad, that shit's going to sprout. You know, so, yeah, when you were in your addiction, you, you, you, you fell this shit up, you got your license suspended, you got warrants, you lost your kids, which thank God, none of that ever had, well, I had my license suspended dozens of times. But thank God, you know, I kept my family together. Um, but then you're clean. And it's like, well, now I owe the Department of

Motor Vehicle $10,000. And I have a warrant in this state. And I, I, I, I, I, I moved to this state and I have to go back to New Jersey. And really, do you want to just call them and say, no, no, I was going through a bad time. I'm all better now. I'm a good person. Yeah. I should, you should, you should let all that go because I'm, I'm on the right path now. They're not, they're unsympathetic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's when you got to, you just got to tell them how racist they are. And, you know, is this because I'm white? Yeah.

Call them homophobic. They're like, oh, oh, sir, sir. Sir? Excuse me? Did you miss gender me? It's ma'am. Now, I'm going to need you to go ahead and take that warrant off. No, but yeah, I mean, seed time and harvest, you plant the seed, you get the harvest.

And unfortunately, like, especially with women, when, you know, when they get themselves in a certain position where they lose their kids and, you know, that's, that's got to be tough, man. You know, I know a lot, I know quite a few women who have went down a pretty rough road with like prostitution to support their habit, you know, never getting their kids back, you know, end up with STDs, warrants that they still haven't straightened out. Now they're on Suboxin and, you know, everybody knows what they've been a part of. So it's, and I'm talking about beautiful, beautiful women, beautiful women who have went down the road.

And you look at them now where they're reaping their harvest and you look at them 10 years ago. And it was like, we were just having fun. Now I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. You know what I mean? Like it's just, and there's no, there's no redeeming, you know? It's tough, man. it really is that's why you know when you said before about like any any type of advice like get out as quick as you can like if you're if you're if you're up realize what you're fucked up

i always use this analogy right if you have a car that's rusty and you paint over it it looks good right but in six months the rust comes back through you got to get down to the rush you got to sand it off you got to get down to the metal then prime then paint and then you're good clear coat you're good but if you paint over problems and you try to just you know like you just resurface i have these addiction issues but i'm going to quit getting high, well, not for long, or you're going to have, you know, some other issue, or you're going to have overwhelming anxiety or this or that or whatever the case may be. You've got to get back and face it. So that's like with me, with, you know, I laugh it off. Like, the shit that I

went through, like my mom kicking me out of a car in the middle of the ghetto when I was six years old taken off, you know, it's, it's not funny, but it's kind of funny. Like, I'm a six year old kid knocking on someone's door three in the morning. Granted, I would never, you know, it's not funny, but like I'm okay. I'm alive. What choice do I have? Right. But you want me to break down and cry every time I talk, tell us all right. Most of, not that I don't cry at half my stories, but I do, you know, but most of it I just have to kind of laugh off. Yeah. What are you going to do? Right. Sit around open, you know, next thing you know, you're on antidepressants and then, you know, then you find out, oh, that's what I love people take these antidepressants, right?

six months later, if you've ever taken this antidepressant, consult your physician. All right. You mean the same physician that gave me the fucking antidepressant? No, thank you. Class action lawsuit. Yeah. That's the same guy that poisoned me. I'm good.

I'll just deal with it. So I didn't know if you were going to use mine because, like, it wasn't salacious. You know what I mean? Like, I'm just, mine's like more of like a everyday story of redemption. So I didn't know if like, or just growth and prosperity. So I didn't know if it was like sexy enough. You know what I mean? But I was like, shit, I'll give it a try.

You know what I mean? Like, I'm just like an everyday guy. I feel like, for the most part, I'm like what an average American goes through. You know, like, I mean, maybe not the Joe Dirt routine. I disagree, but okay. But I mean, I mean, more of like, you know, just raised in toxicity and poverty and shit like that, you know, and it's so easy to get caught into addiction. I mean, I'm not like an addiction specialist.

You know, I don't want to be an addiction. I've helped people get clean, but I don't want to be like, I just wanted to have fun. Like, I just want to, like, just do what I want to do, have fun. Like, like I said, me. well I was actually pretty f*** up when I did this but one night I was I was uh this was in South Carolina this is actually pretty funny I was in South Carolina and um we were having had a big piece of property and we're having like this big ass bonfire and I'm like I don't drink often but like when I do I like to tie it in you know what I mean like I definitely tie one on

so we're out there drinking bourbon and shit having a good time it's like two in the morning and my kids are out there and they're older like at the time I think my son was 21 he was just home from the Air Force. My daughter was like 19, whatever. So they're like, did you guys hear about the Bull Street asylum? And my ears perk up. I'm like, what is that? You know? And they're like, it's an insane asylum in Columbia, South Carolina, which I always got to kick out of the fact that you ran scams in Columbia. But, because that's essentially where I lived. Right. Right outside of Columbia. So they're like, it's an insane asylum abandoned in South Carolina. And you got to break into it. but it's not just an asylum.

It's almost like a, like a village. Like the workers lived there. They had their houses. They had a church. They had the main facility. Right. Morg, the whole deal. And I'm like, well, what's that about?

You know? And they're like, well, you got to break into it. So I got, I used to breed bullies, like pit bulls. So I was like, let's grab Rocco. I'm hammered. I'm like, this is a great idea. I'm down. And I'm expecting my wife to be like, shut the fuck up.

You're not going anywhere. Right. My wife's like, yeah, I'm going to go to bed. You guys go have fun. I'm like, yeah, talk me out of this. You know what I mean? Like, you know, fucking talk some sense into me. Tell these kids I'm not allowed to go.

So she goes in the house. I'm like, all right, I grabbed the dog. One of the kids are driving. We load up, like, five, you know, their friends, the kids, me. I got the dog. We break into this place like two in the morning. There's cops. We're like, this is how responsible I am.

Like, I'm with my kids doing a B&E. But it's fun. It's, you know, we're being sick. Everybody does this. Everybody's doing it. Right. um just don't get caught me like so so we break in and we're like going to the top floor um i'm looking for the morgue i actually have a picture i sent it to you where they used to do

like uh ice baths like i'm in the tub i got a bandana on my face of course i have like a bible a bag of salt in case like any ghosts come i can hit them with the salt you know what i mean like we're just being stupid you know what i mean but i get in this ice bath and i lay back and i take a picture it's it's iris but um my kids are like i can't keep hearing somebody following us. I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's a demon. We found all the satanic shit where people were doing seances. So I'm joking around and the dog's growling. Like the whole scene is set. So we come, we come outside and we're about to go break into the church and here comes Lexington or Richland County sheriff come flying up. And when he comes flying

up, it's like three in the morning. He turns his lights on and sure his shit, two just black silhouettes stand up out of the bushes and start running. So I don't know who to it was, but it was like these two people were following us the whole time through the whole building. And I'm like, I'm all tuned in. So I don't know. The dog's growling. I'm ignoring everything. And someone burnt the place down a few months later. But it got so hot. There's a steel bellhouse, a massive steel bellhouse if like liquefied and poured into the building. They rebuilt it all now. It's why anyone would rent an apartment that used to be an insane asylum is beyond me, but it used to be in a sane asylum. They turned them to condos.

I think it would be kind of cool, right? Yeah, if you like getting possessed, I mean, but that's the, that's the type of shit I want to, that I'm going to be focusing on. Like, you know, Florida man, weird shit, you know, paranormal, just, we're like Danny Jones type silly shit. You know what I mean? I think it'll be fun. Yeah. So, but we're good. All right, I'm wrapping it up. Yeah, man. Oh, thanks for having me, brother. Thank you. Yeah. All right. No, you're not going anywhere. Come here. Okay. Hold on a second. All right. All right. Ready? Well, wait. Okay. So, all right. Hey, you guys, we're going to go ahead and we're going to put, what's the name of the links? The channel? The Florida Man podcast. Florida Man podcast. We're going to put the link in the description. Please check it out. Also, hit the subscribe button. Hit the bell so you get notified videos like this. Also, please join my Patreon. We're going to be putting exclusive content about this interview on Patreon. It's $10 a month. Please check it out. Thank you very much. See ya.