The Bryce Crawford Podcast - The Dave Blunts Interview (EP 80)

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

In this podcast, Bryce talks to Dave Blunts about his career, health, and where he stands with Christanity.

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. I'm Bryce, and today I got a very special guest going on. My friends from back at home, they were telling me like, Bryce, you got to get this guy on the podcast, got to have a conversation with him. It's Mr. Dave Bluntz. Dave, how are you doing today? I'm feeling good, man. I'm feeling great.

Let's go, bro. Thanks for coming on, man. I really appreciate you. I'm super stoked to just like dive into your story. I know you make rap music. Yes, sir. And I'm from a small country town, so I never really grew up on rap. So I'm excited to dive into your story, how you got into it.

to it and learn more about you as a human. You said you were from Iowa, right? Yes, sir. Born of raised, and you said you just moved out here in June? I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Okay. But I was raised in Iowa. And what was it like growing up in Iowa?

Um, I mean, there's not really a whole lot going on out there, you know, but I was, I grew up, you know, very impoverished, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And you went to high school after high school. What did it look like going after high school? What was your decision making?

When did you start making music? Was that before you graduated or after you graduated? Well, I actually, I didn't graduate. I dropped out of my senior year. Okay. Once every year except my senior because I didn't have enough credits to graduate. Oh, wow. And so after I dropped to high school, I just started hanging around the wrong people,

doing the wrong things out of, I guess I was looking for guidance. Uh-huh. You know, I didn't really grow up with a dad or even a father figure. So I looked up to, you know, some of my older friends in guidance. And fortunately, they were leading me down the wrong path. So, yeah, after that, I just realized that that's not what I wanted for my life. And I started, you know, I got a job and I started working. Where'd you work?

Oh, man. I had, I was working at like a call center. I hated that job. A call center? Yeah. Like you were taking calls on the phone? Like what kind of calls? So I worked for like a pharmaceutical company.

Okay. And I needed like old people will call me to refill their prescriptions. Gotcha, gotcha. Now you can do it on the website. So if they're calling me, it's because they have a problem. Gotcha. So yeah, oftentimes I'll have to break, you know, break the news to elderly people that they couldn't afford their medication. So that was like really stressful, weighing down.

on me a lot. For sure, for sure. So yeah. And then I quit that job and started focusing on music full time. Okay. I was 18 when that happened. Okay. I want to take a step back really quick. You said something really interesting. I want to kind of dive into. You said you grew up without a father figure in your life. How long, how long did you, when was your father absent? When did that start? And how hard was that growing up? So my dad passed away when I was about eight years old. And just that whole thing was a really traumatic experience because at the time I was living in a shelter and it was around Christmas time when he died so you know I know Christmas isn't about presents as an adult you know when you're a little kid you know you're 8 years old it's like no Christmas presents and my dad died dang what's

going on here you know and so and just the funeral was really uh like traumatizing to me you know I was like my first realization of what death really was, you know? Yeah. And, um, yeah. So what was that like? I mean, I feel like eight years old and like you lose your dad at Christmas time. And then as you're going on life, me from eight years old until now, especially, let's even forget now, just like the crucial teenage years.

Like your body's changing, you're growing, you get middle school, high school, people start gossiping, opinions matter, things like that. how was that weighing on your shoulders trying to navigate life and not having like that father figure to like pour wisdom into you and encourage you and love you how did that affect your perception of love or maybe even your perception of yourself how did you see yourself when you were growing up in middle school and high school uh i was very um i was i was i was very depressed around those those years um but you know i'm a very you know funny person and so i was like i had a lot of the pain with, you know, with being funny and stuff like that. I was a class clown. Constantly getting kicked out for disrupting the class for constantly joking. And, you know, I would, in high school, it was even worse. Like, I would have, like, I didn't, I didn't, I just had fun in high school.

I didn't care about class work or any of that. Yeah. So. Dang, man. Yeah. Yeah, that's hard. What do you think your definition of love is? Because it's hard, like, growing up without a father,

figure, you know, at a young age, losing your father, and then being in a position where you're hurting inside and no one knows, you know, so what, what is your definition of love? Well, the thing is, I've always been open with my feelings, so people would know, you know what I'm saying? And I guess it was just the answers that people were giving me to, you know, I'm telling them that I'm hurting and just the answers that they're giving me is not really helping me. Yeah. Because I didn't really understand my feelings at the time. and I'd say I was, I was, like, really severely depressed all the way up until I was probably, I want to say, like, 19, and I kind of got out of that depression. After I stopped, like, after I stopped smoking weed is when I got out of that depression, and that's when I got really closer with God, you know?

You know, that's wild, actually, you say it, because I feel like a lot of people smoke weed to escape the depression. But you're saying, like, right, you're saying, like, you're saying, like, actually. when I was smoking weed it made it worse uh yeah you know and actually I've always had a relationship with God you know growing up in the church and all of that um but I got really close with God when I had nobody you know yeah so I would just talk to him you know just have conversations with God and really just pray all the time um my full name is Davion blessing and uh I was I'm the only person in my family with that last name everybody else has a different last name.

I don't know the story exactly, but I know that during my birth, there was some complications. I almost didn't make it. So that's why my mom named me that. Wow. So I've always felt blessed. There was always situations that I feel as if I shouldn't have

got out of that situation alive. Sure. And the only way I can explain it is I'm blessed, you know, loved by God. And, yeah. Dang, man. I feel like that's a that's really powerful really encouraging thanks for your honesty man yeah so what does like I know you said you struggle with depression anxiety you start rapping and things like that and

I want to dive more and do a little bit of your story the things I know bits and pieces hear more from you and learn more about that um so when did when did god just become an ideal to you like have you said you were always going to church when you were growing up what did that look like I uh I grew up in the church and it's unfortunate for me you know just to be honest every um every church that I've went to, unfortunately, there's been, like, nefarious things going on in the congregation. Sure. But I've never let that stop me from believing in God. You know what I'm saying?

Or, like, because I realize, let's say that you're giving money to the church. Yeah. And the pastor is spending it on things that shouldn't be spending it on. Sure. He's not cashing in my blessings and I'm going to get from this. You know what I'm saying? No, I get. I understand what you're saying.

So it's like, you know, you still go to church and you still give, because. that's what you're supposed to do, you know what I'm saying? No matter if the pastor is, you know, doing nefarious things with the money. Sure. So, yeah, every church that I've been to, there's always been, like I said, nefarious things going on in the congregation, which has been unfortunate. And, but I still, that never stopped me from believing in God and, you know, truly, um, knowing that he's real and knowing that Jesus Christ died from. my sins. Yeah. So right now, like, like if you, God forbid right now, if you died and you were standing before the pearly white gates, and God says, Dave, why should I let you in? What would you,

what would you say to God? Um, I'm gonna be honest. I don't know. I feel like that's a raw, real answer. I don't know. I mean, I think that's real. Because I feel like when I talk to people and even myself sometimes, you know, because we live in a world that's so transactional. love. It's like, oh, if you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back. But it's like, I only love you if you do something for me. And Jesus is teaches us the total opposite. He's like, actually love everyone, despite whether they scratch your back or not. And, you know, when I talk to a lot of people, they always, I always hear like, well, it's because I was a good person or because I was doing this stuff. And for me personally, like, I struggled with depression and anxiety for years.

So when I was in middle school and going into high school, it was just like a hidden battle. Kind of what you were saying, you know how you're saying you covered up your depression and anxiety with comedy trying to make people laugh. I try to cover up mine with people pleasing. So if we knew each other in high school, like I would be someone different to Dave than I would be to Josh, but I would do it because I was trying to get your approval

to make myself feel good. And then after I made myself feel good, I thought it would make me feel better about myself, the whole of my heart. And it just never did. But I found myself doing what the world teaches us to do, which is work for everybody's love and just work, work, work, work, work.

And to me, that's so draining, right? Because you never, you never fill that hole. Yeah. And so that's what I loved about Jesus. So when I was 17, I don't know if you know anything about my story, but I was going to take my life when I was 17 years old on Christmas Day because my depression and anxiety was getting really bad. And I thought it was the only way to make the pain go away.

And so I went to Waffle House for my last meal and I had a supernatural encounter with Jesus where Jesus stopped me from taking my life. And so in that moment, I cried out to Jesus. And I said, okay, Jesus, if you're real, take away my anxiety and depression. Because it feels incurable. it feels like a disease and I can't get rid of it. And I haven't had anxiety or depression since that day. It's been over four years.

And so that was my pursuit of Jesus. That's why I was like really interested in Jesus. But to circle back to the heaven thing, that's what I love about Jesus because I knew from trying to work to fix my broken heart, I never could. But with Jesus, it wasn't about what I could do for him, but it was about what he did for me. I mean, you say yourself, he died for our sins.

He died on the cross. And it's like, man, he was perfection. He died on the cross because I'm wicked and I'm sinful and I suck and I needed someone outside of myself to save me. And so I think that's my favorite encouraging thing about you. And I actually really wanted to encourage that to you, Dave, because I feel like we live in a world and we'll talk more about it. But we're like, people probably use you. They try to use you. They just want you for what you can offer them.

And then when you give them what they want, they leave you. No one cares about your heart, man. But I want to tell you right now, you don't got to work for my love. You don't got to work for Jesus' love, man. That's true. We do things because we love him, bro. So I want to encourage you with that. But I want to talk about a couple things that I was learning about you when I was reading on the internet and kind of hear your perspective and share what that did to your heart and things like that.

The first thing I wanted to talk about, I think there was a clip I saw on the internet of you talking about a past your girlfriend recently and you went through a rough relationship. Can you tell me a little bit about what happened and how that affected your heart? Well, I got to ask you which one? I think it was the most recent one, right? It was a clip with Neon. You were talking about how this girl, I think she cheated on you and things like that. Well, it wasn't necessarily cheating, but, yeah. So I performed on stage at Juice World Day, and she was on stage with me.

You know, we went viral and stuff. And then, you know, we were just, she was just, you know, telling people that she didn't, like in screenshots that she only used me to go on stage and at the time you know the screenshots was going viral and I was asking her like what's going on with this and she was just like it's fake it's not real I didn't do that and I'm like I had to just I was asking people I'm like how easy is it to fake screenshots yeah and like it is easy it is easy and then the screenshots didn't necessarily look real because they like blocked her name out of it but she could still see her picture so I believed her and then turns out that was true and then yeah i just found out she was doing other things

as well so yeah yeah i had to end that and how'd that affect your heart man i mean like let's scratch the viral stuff let's scratch like the the like public image of it like how did it affect you how to make you feel i was hurt i mean i was hurt you know i was somebody who i thought really cared about me because, you know, constantly told me that they did and I thought showed me that they did, but yeah, that was unfortunate. It hurt. But especially hurt because it was like the second time

something like that has happened. Wow. Back to back. Like literally, I met her like a month, like not even a month, like literally a day after this other situation than I was in. Wow. Yeah.

And does that make you feel like you have trust issues with people now? Yeah. And just like hard to know who really cares about Dave for Dave and not what they can get from you. For sure. Yeah. I feel like that's something that, you know, as I'm now a celebrity that I'm going to have to deal with for the rest of my life, unfortunately. But, well, not necessarily I'm going to have to deal with because, you know, if you give it all to God, and then you don't have to worry about anything. And that's why he wants us to come to him for anything small or big.

Yeah. Because, you know, we won't have to. He'll handle it for us. Yeah, sure. So that's just what I've got to work on is going to him. Sure. What do you think are those things that, because we're all human, everyone has things that they struggle with surrendering to God.

What are some things that you have a hard time giving up to God or some things that you struggle with personally that you just, like, need help from God for? Well, like you said, you know, trust, I guess, yeah, I got severe trust issues, you know. Yeah. So that's something right there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, dude, there's a scripture in Luke 8 where Jesus is getting in the boat with the disciples

and he says, hey, we're going to go to the other side of this body water. They get in the water, Jesus takes a nap, and the craziest storm comes on this boat. and the disciples think that they're going to die and Jesus is still asleep so they go wake him up and they're like dude what the heck's going on and Jesus calms the storm and he looks at them he says why do you have a little faith and I always looked at that passage and I was like dang it's such a weird passage it's like why they were going to die and all this other stuff but they're on the boat with Jesus you know what I'm saying for real yeah that's why yeah I'm here where you guys have a little faith you know and he was talking to them because he's like he told them at the very beginning before they got on the boat that they were would go to the other side. He said, we're going to go over there. And it doesn't matter with the storms and trials come. It's like, I'm God, I'm a promise keeper. It's what Jesus is saying to them. And that just came to mind on my heart. Like, no, I want to encourage you, man. Like, in a world where like people sway in the wind like a reed, like people are so crazy. Like, Jesus was crucified because people misjudged his character. People were claiming that he was blaspheming. The same guys

that crucified him on the cross a week before they were praising him and calling him the Messiah. and Lang Palm leaves down on his feet and those same things. And I just want to encourage you, man, like, and Jesus sees you, loves you. And he thinks that Dave is valuable, not because Dave has a lot of followers on the internet. Jesus doesn't think Dave's valuable because he can get something from you. Jesus thinks you're valuable because he's made you in his image and you're his son. And he just loves you for who you are. And I think that's a beautiful thing.

And so when we know that Jesus loves us for who we are and no matter what junk we've done and that there is forgiveness. He's already offered us forgiveness, and we thank him for forgiveness. And then that lifestyle of turning it, Jesus looks like, becoming more like him and leaving things in the dirt, you know? All that junk in the past. What do you think it means to be a Christian?

I don't necessarily have whatever the right answer would be, but to me what being a Christian means is to, I don't know. I guess it's kind of hard. Just a couple different ways you can answer that he could say like it's not necessarily about religion. It's about your own personal relationship with God. You know, there's an answer.

You can also say it's about believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins. Yeah. And accepting them. So yeah, I don't really know one way to answer that. No, sure. I totally understand. I think all my life I thought,

being a Christian was trying so hard to follow the rules. And if I don't follow the rules, I'm a bad person. Because you were talking about how hypocrisy, like a bunch of hypocrites, kind of defined, you didn't let it define who God was, but it was a lot of the Christianity that you were around. Dude, same with me. And it gave me a bad taste in my mouth about God. And they were the same people that were like, Bryce, if you don't do this with your life, you're a bad Christian, but you have to do this.

And then I would see them doing the total opposite of what they were telling me to do. And I was like, this is awful. And so I agree with you. I think that my perspective of Christianity changed from being like a cage of rules to being a relationship with Jesus. Because, for example, like, we listen to our family when we're young and we're kids, not because we have to, but because we love our family and we love them and we want to listen to them. And I think with Jesus, it's, I don't obey his commandments because I have to,

because I'm trying to earn his love. I already love him, so I follow him because I love him, and I change my actions to align with him. I think that's super powerful. Where are you at with God personally right now? What does your relationship look like lately and just... Well, at the beginning of last year,

my relationship with God was really strong. I had truly had balance in my life. I would wake up every day, and I work on music. and then after that I'd play the game with my friends and then after that me and my friends would do Bible study I was like the leader of like a Bible study group that I had created with my friends

Jesse was in there as well sick and yeah we'd read the Bible every night and then it was crazy because I was working on music heavy and there was no type of sign that I was going to blow up at all I was getting like 40 views max on my music. But when I quit my job when I was 18, I fully delved my life into music. That was my whole life.

Yeah. Nothing but that. Sure. So I didn't have balance in my life, and I needed balance. And when I realized that, that's when I started getting closer to God and started reading the Bible. Now, the story that I read in the Bible was right back. before I blew up was

it was Paul's journey. I can't remember the exact scripture number, but it was his whole crazy journey that he went on. You know, he was thrown in jail and, you know, at first he was like a person that didn't believe in God. You know, I'm getting it right, it's Paul, right?

Yeah, he was, yeah. Yeah. And then he had that encounter with Jesus and then, you know, he went to the other side. Yeah, he became a Christian. Yeah, and he, just me and Jesse was reading about the crazy journey went on and while we were reading it I was like

hey man you know when I blow up and these record labels fly me out you got to come with me it's going to be a Paul-esque journey and he was like yeah I'm right there with you now I'm saying this as a joke you know what I'm saying like I said 40 views max on my songs

we get done reading the story two weeks later my music blows up and how did that happen how did it blow up like what happened did do video go viral or Yeah, I had a couple different snippets of songs that were going viral, and I dropped like an album, and that went viral as well. Gotcha. So, yeah, there's record labels calling me, trying to fly me out, and all that stuff, and then I ended up signing a deal and moving out here, and then I asked Jesse.

I was like, and this was like, I asked him in the beginning of the year, I'm like, hey, man, like, like, I think like at the same time that I asked him about you know flying out with me to the labels I said hey man you quit your job and move out there with me and he was like yeah well and I'm like all right and so when it actually was time I'm like bro I need you here with me yeah and he quit his job and he moved out here with me dang that's awesome bro and so um do you feel like so that was a moment where it blew up everything was going good and And then, so do you feel like that, okay, so you said, sorry, you said that your relationship with Jesus was strong, everything blew up. What about now?

Where do you feel like you're out with Jesus right now? If I'm honest, unfortunately, it's not as strong as it was before. I tried to continue doing the Bible study, but I don't really do the Bible study anymore. and yeah I don't really have the balance in my life that I did before and unfortunately that's what we all fall into sometimes when we want something from God you know on the journey to get it we're all with them we're reading our Bible every day we're praying and then when we get that thing we sometimes forget about it right that's not good and you feel like that may be like maybe that the rap and the fame and everything all happened and at once could have been a muzzle at some point or maybe had blinded your faith a little bit.

Is that where you're kind of saying? I would say yes. Yeah. Yes. And it just got hard. Yeah, bro, I totally understand. I think it's a real human thing. That's hard. Do you feel like a lot of pressure? In what way? Like just from people to be someone,

to make people happy, do you feel that pressure? Because everything kind of came out of what came at once like just an overflow of people looking at you yeah yeah yeah yeah man um dude thanks for your honesty dude i really appreciate that i want i want to shift into a little bit of your rap music um because i know you rap and stuff like that do you rap out of personal experience and things that are happening in your life that are really true yes sir so everything every song that you write is like personal experience struggle raw you're writing from a place of like this is really who i am and this is really who i am and this is

stuff I'm dealing with. A good portion. Some of it is just a word I'm looking for. Like a metaphor or just something that sounds good? Just something that sounds good, yeah. But a good portion of it, I'd say about 80% of it is you know, real stuff. And then there's other songs where I'm just saying

goofy stuff. Yeah. So there's this one lyric I heard. You said that you pop percassette like Tylenol. Was that like like more of a joke or was that more of like a real thing that you struggle with? Um, I don't do perks anymore, but. Amen.

At the time, that's something that I went through. Yeah. Yeah. And that was like a little bit last year going through a hard time maybe or just. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think I read somewhere, because I want to learn more about this perp that you got on your, that you got on your shirt here and stuff like that. Perp and Lean. I've never heard of it. What exactly is that? Like what, what is Lean or Perp? I've never really heard of that before. It's a drug, but it's like a drink. It's like a drink? Yeah.

What's in it? Like, what, is it like an alcohol? No, it's like, it's like cough syrup. So, yeah. It's cough syrup. Yeah. What is the purpose of like drinking lean? Why would someone, I'm just curious.

I've never heard of this before. Why does someone drink lean? Get high. Get high? Okay. Oh, so it's like, oh, I see what you're saying. The cough syrup and it gets you high, things like that. Yeah.

And is that, and that's something that you drink a lot and that's something that that you do a lot. Is that correct? Is that I read somewhere, you drink lean and stuff like that? Yeah. And, and I know that, like when you were going through, so you performed at the Juice World thing and things like that, you were really close friends to Juice World, right? No, I never met Juice World. You never met Juice World. Oh, so you were just performing at his tribute.

Yeah. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. So do you feel like that, um, that the lean. and maybe at one point, like we said, the perkins sets like Tylenol, things like that, all that stuff, was that more of an escape for you because you were going through a hard time? Do you still feel like that you turned to lean per se

as like an escape to try to maybe numb feelings or feel better or things like that? Well, it started off. It was just, you know, fun, you know, just started off as fun. But then when I moved out here, you know, I was, I was around it a lot more than I was when I was back home. Yeah.

So, yeah, I guess it's kind of like an escape. Yeah. Because when I, before I moved to L.A., the reason I asked, before I moved to L.A., I worked in Florida on boats, and I had a co-worker, and his name was Mitch, and he was like 36 years old. And I was like 18 at the time. And every day, he was doing every drug in the book, like coming to work, doing. doing it at work, drinking all the time. And he was just numb in his pain.

And even though there was a double the age difference between me and my 18, he's 36, we were like best friends. We got along so well. And he would call me all the time. And even when I moved out here, he would call me all the time. And just he would talk to me about how he was just going through, how he was just always going through something. But he was using, you know, whether it was cocaine or alcohol

or something like that, some sort of drugs to numb the pain. Well, in early in 2020, I was going back to Florida to visit my friend Mitch and I was calling him and he wasn't answering the phone and he struggled to pay his phone bill sometimes so I just thought that he forgot to pay his phone bill. So I was calling his friends and stuff like that and I found out that he had gotten a bad bag of cocaine

and he had overdosed and passed away. And me personally, like I've never drank alcohol before. I've never done drugs. I was always like really scared and because of experiences I grew up with, I chose to stay away from that personally. So I don't know what it feels like to even be high or drink alcohol.

I don't know that at all. But for having a close friend like Mitch and watching him try to escape his problems and things like that, it gave me a really big heart for people that try to find an escape and stuff like that. And so, and I think I read something earlier that you, like, at the end of 2024,

you were throwing away your purple track suit and you were going to like give up what was all that about like it had a correlation with lean like giving up lean or something is that right i never said i was going to stop that oh okay that i was going to you know focus on uh my health journey and bettering my health and uh i actually you know i would always carry around this track suit and at one of my shows i just took off the jacket and threw it in the crowd and that was really just the symbolism of me uh you know shedding, I guess, some of the old things that were holding me back and, you know, stay focusing on like my health journey. Yeah.

As you can see, I have the purple suit again. Yeah. The reason why I have the purple suit again is because I just felt like some sort of like separation anxiety from the suit. You know, I would wear this. I would wear this every day. everywhere I go and I just

kind of got used to it. And then because I didn't have it, I was you know, there was a, I was about last week where, you know, not even last week, just the beginning of 20205,

I was just having a lot of back and forths with people and it was going viral and it was in the media. And I was lashing out a lot because of, the situation that I was going through with the, you know, the heartbreak. It wasn't really more sadness.

It was more anger. Yeah. That somebody would do that and embarrass me publicly. Yeah. Like that. And then also because of the suit. Yeah. You know, I was, I was angry because I didn't, I didn't have my suit.

I love my suit, man. I love the suit too. It fits you, man. It's like you. Yeah. I feel like I wouldn't know you. you unless you had the purple suit yeah exactly so and what is that what does the purple suit even symbolize um purple just the color uh yeah what is per like so when you say perp you just mean like

the color purple or is perp something else purple is the color of lean oh oh it is the color of lean oh so that's like the whole correlation like perp and lean because you're that's kind of stuff yeah oh okay oh okay got you that makes so much sense dude i'm still out of the loop i don't know any of this stuff. It's so, it's so interesting to learn. Yeah. So when I, I had the boys in the lab cooked me up another suit because this is, this is one of one. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, I sold these, but they sold out. Wow. So there's no more left. The distributor is in China. They got a whole thing going on. So I was like, can we please get me another one? I don't feel right without it. Yeah. And the boys cook me up another suit. That's cool, man. So, ever since I've put

it back on, I haven't been lashing out on people, you know, because it was, I guess you can say lashing out, but there was a lot of people who were saying things about me. Yeah. And then I was responding. Yeah. Now, in my responses, I didn't have to go as far as I did. You know what I'm saying? So I didn't, it was just, you know, it just means something I struggle with is when somebody says something to me, I got to say something back. No, I understand. I understand. So, And do you feel like, do you feel like that the suit gives you superpowers kind of? Because I feel like you're saying like you didn't feel right without the suit. You feel like it's got some powers?

Or like, what do you think about the suit? Well, no, I don't believe it as superpowers, you know. It just, it makes me feel good. Yeah. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel like, you know, it just makes me feel like me. You know, it's my thing. This is something that I created.

Yeah. And, uh, like you made the suit. You customated it. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. You know, I didn't like hand stitch it. Right. Right. Right. Right. So. And so, you know, it's purple, color of lean. Lean and purple is kind of like your whole thing. So when you look in the mirror, do you feel like you identify like your identity is in the suit and in, and in the lane basically? Because that's kind of like who you are. That's your persona. Like when you look in the mirror, who is Dave Bluntz when Dave Bluntz looks in the mirror? Um, well, do I think that, I am lean, no I don't think that I'm lean

No no no I don't mean like that I mean like when you look in the mirror Do you see your identity as Like oh the way you view yourself Do you feel like you aren't yourself Unless you have the lean and have the suit No I'm definitely Myself without the lean and without the suit

But um You know I just I just like it You know I just I like the suit Yeah It's nice. It's comfortable. And yeah, I really feel like that was part of the reason why I was lashing out is because not only that, here's the reason why I feel like I was lashing out.

A lot of people was telling me that they wanted me to take the suit off, that they wanted me to change what I was wearing. Come on, man. You've been wearing this for months. Take it off. So that was me kind of like listening to what other people said and not being myself. Yeah. You know, the whole reason why I have a number.

money to buy other clothes the reason why I don't is because when I moved out here I didn't yeah I didn't have enough money to buy other clothes and uh or I did but when I first came out here to visit I didn't have enough money to buy other clothes because I was just I got flown out from a label yeah before I signed I didn't have any money so I thought I was only going to stay here for two days I packed the track suit which at the time it was It wasn't the purple one. It was black and gray. Gotcha.

And I packed my tracksuit and I packed one other outfit. I got sick while I was out here and I threw up all over the other outfit. Oh, dang. And I was staying in the hotel, didn't have anywhere to wash it. So I just had the track suit. And I ended up staying out here for like a week. Yeah. And then so, yeah, I just wore the track suit for that week.

And then that week I shot a couple of music videos. And when those music videos came out, they're like, oh, he's wearing the track suit in every video. So that kind of just let on It was like a staple. Yeah. Yeah. And so then when I moved out here, I didn't want to carry all my clothes and stuff on the plane.

So once again, I came out here with one track suit and one other outfit. Yeah. And yeah, it took, I was just going to have my mom shipped my other clothes to me. But I was like, you know what, I'm going to keep wearing this because a lot of times when I was in school, I would have to I would have like three outfits and I'd wear the same thing like every week.

Yeah. I would get made fun of for that. Yeah. You know? And this time, you know, it's the same thing again. I only have one outfit, but I'm still going up in music.

You know, my career is still going up. And I have people that look up to me. So I want to show them, it doesn't matter what clothes you have on. It doesn't matter what you look like. You know, you can be over. You can be skinny. You can wear the same clothes every day.

You can wear the same track suit with Walmart house shoes. And you can still be successful. Yeah. So that's why I wear the suit. Gotcha. And people were trying to tell me, oh, bro, you got to change it up now. That was me listening to what people wanted me to do instead of what I wanted to do. That's why I was lashing out because I'm like, bro, I'm not even myself.

Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So it went from black and gray to black and purple, purple being the color lean. lean so why do you i know i know you said you drink lean but why do you drink lean what's what's it like what motivates you to drink lean you just like the high or the escape or why does dave drink lean the escape i'd say yeah the escape um and uh yeah escape you think you wouldn't drink lean

if you felt like that you didn't have to escape from feelings reality hard times and things like that. What do you mean? Well, you said that when you drink lean for the escape. Yes. And you're trying to escape something, right? Whether it's a hard time feeling, things like that. So do you feel like that if you weren't trying to escape anything, you wouldn't drink

lean or maybe turn to another substance or things like that because you wouldn't need the escape? Uh, yeah. And I'm a very self-aware person. Mm-hmm. I know that I don't need lean. I mean, if I really really, want to escape open up my Bible that's how you escape you know you give everything to Jesus

Christ and you know he takes all of the anxiety and all the depression he takes it all the way um however like I said I just moving out here and just everything just my relationship with God is not been where it should be so yeah and you know this is a very fast-paced lifestyle so yeah LA moves so fast out here man it's like Especially if you're an artist, you're around a bunch of drugs, a bunch of things. So when you're, you know, and rappers are nocturnal. You know, we're up at all night and we sleep during the day. Yeah.

So when you're at these studio sessions at two and three in the morning and, you know, you're around other rappers and they want to offer you things and drugs, you know, you, you partake in them and then when you partake in them you develop a habit. Yeah. And I was already not as close as God as I was before. And when you're not close with God, that's when the devil will attack.

You know what I'm saying? Because he knows that you're, you don't have that armor up. You don't have the armor of God around you anymore. So, yeah. Always throwing temptation in our face. Yeah, I love to see. story in Matthew 4 where Jesus himself, he's in the desert and he's fasting and he's being tempted

by the devil. And the very first thing he tells Satan is what he tells us to do. He quotes scripture to Satan and says, man shall not live by bread alone. And he's doing the very thing he's telling us to do. He says, don't live by bread alone. Like quoting scripture helps where you're saying like one of those armor pieces in the armor of God is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. It's our weapon against that temptation. And I want to be. be able to relate to you because I know I said I've never you know drank substances before done substances but when I was younger I was really I felt really love sick I was on this quest for love I had this broken heart and really wanted to feel love and when I was in the fifth grade I actually

got exploited to pornography and so what do you mean about that some when I was on the beach someone showed me pornography when I was really young like when I was super young just out of nowhere on the beach some random guys showed it to me and because of that I developed this addiction to pornography because I was looking for love and I thought that that was love in reality. But then when I had that encounter with Jesus and Waffle House years later, Jesus, he became my definition of love. Whereas porn for me, before I was a Christian, was an escape, was me trying to find love. When I became a Christian, I was like, oh man, I don't have to go to these things to escape

because it was like every time I went to that thing, it never worked, but it was the only thing that I knew to go to kind of. Does that make sense? Yeah. And so it kind of like makes me relate to where you were like, I used to smoke weed, but I stopped because it made it worse. It made my depression worse. And I think that that's the challenge for like anything in life,

whether there be a substance, something like porn, pride, anything. Anytime that we partake in sin, it's just because like we're going out. We're trying to fix it ourselves. You know what I mean? We're trying to strong man it. Do you think that you'll ever put the lean down? You think you'll ever put the cup down? Yeah.

Yeah. I think I will. Heck yeah. Yeah. That's super cool. I think I will. You know, I don't do it as much as I used to. You know, so I'm trying to wean myself off of it.

Yeah. Yeah, I think I will sooner rather than later. Yeah. But there is something that you said. You said you were a love sick. I'd say that's probably something that I'm going through right now as well. In what way? I don't really want things

the things that I want aren't materialistic I don't really care about classic rapper things like chain or a car or anything like that so the things that I want are things that you can't really buy you know love and

like stability and stuff like that so yeah which is why like I've just been like in 2024 I was probably in three relationships

because you were looking for love yeah dang right back to back to back and now I'm just kind of like this the state that I'm in now I'm just you know I'm a rapper so that is being thrown at me in several different directions speeds, all that.

So, yeah. If I'm honest, you know, I'm being honest. Now I'm just trying to, now I'm still looking for love, but now it's more casual. Like, I'm just, yeah, it's more casual. I'm trying to, I'm just picking through things in the closing to me. Yeah. I, man, thank you for saying that.

I really want to encourage you because for someone like yourself, when you, you know, you mentioned the very beginning that you lost your dad at a very young age. Yeah. And just like having that father's love and not having it there can be very hard. And I know you've heard this. No, you know this you grew up in church, man,

but I just want to encourage you, bro. Like, there's a father who loves you and it sees you, and you don't have to pay for his love because he paid it for you with his life. Yeah. And I think that's powerful for someone who knows what it's like to lose a father,

to literally lose your father and know the reality of death, to know that Jesus Christ took on one of the scariest things known to man because in our physical body it's hard to comprehend death and he did it for you and that's so beautiful.

Like I think about it like this, Dave, if you and I were crossing the street and a car ran a red light and it was about to hit you, but I shoved you out of the way and the car hit me and I died. Dude, we've known each other for less than an hour and you would leave that situation going,

dang, Bryce really loves me. Yeah. Because I laid my life down for you. I just want to encourage you so much, man. Like, I love you so much, dude. I appreciate your honesty. Like, we can't get anywhere in life unless we're not only honest with ourselves, but honest with other people and honest where we're at in our lives

because we can't grow as human beings and grow in the Lord if we can't even be honest about where we're at. Transparency leads to transformation. I think that's super important. I really appreciate that about you, dude. You're just such an honest down-to-earth guy. I really appreciate that about you. Man, thanks, man.

One of my favorite people I've talked. to bro I can't lie um last thing I want to talk to you about I just want to check in on you I saw I think I believe it was at the juice world show you were on oxygen and your health how is your health right now how are you doing um you know I'm doing pretty good right now you know I'm doing pretty good um you know um I'm uh on like a health journey to like lose weight and just live a healthier lifestyle right now um but yeah the the juice world day thing that was pretty crazy had an oxygen tank and everything. That was pretty crazy.

I actually drove from L.A. to Chicago. It was 30 hours. Whoa. That was insane. They had the oxygen tank with me the whole time. And there's still people that think that was like a publicity stunt. It wasn't. I was in the hospital right before I went to Juicero Day.

And I found out about the Juicero Day thing before I went to the hospital. I went to the doctor, you know, just to make sure. everything was okay. I'm like, ah, you probably need to go to the hospital. So I was in there, and then it came time for me to go to start driving for the juice road day, and I'm like, is there, like, I can't be in here. There's no way I'm going to miss out on this opportunity. And they're like, well, you're on oxygen.

And I'm like, is there any way that I can go? There's like, well, if you take the oxygen with you, you can go. I'm like, all right, let's do it. Dang. Was that scary for you? Like, do you feel like? No, no. Not the oxygen, but like, or the situation.

I just mean like the health issue, was that scary at all? Or was that like more of a routine thing? No, it wasn't a routine thing. It became my routine. But it's not like a routine thing. Yeah, I've been in the hospital a lot. So when I'm in there, I usually just bring my studio equipment with me and I'll be recording in there and I'll be chilling while I'm going to be back. You recorded the hospital?

Yeah, yeah. How many songs have you recorded in the hospital? I say in a day I can record six songs. Dude, you can record six songs in the hospital? Yeah, yeah. All I'd use my laptop, my little interface, and my microphone. No way. That's insane, dude.

Well, it's obvious that you're passionate about music. It's obvious that you care about people. You're a really kind guy, and I appreciate you. I just appreciate your honesty. I think you're awesome, bro. I really love talking with you. I'm super glad that you live nearby because I feel like I got a new friend and someone to come hang out.

and I just really appreciate you. What do you need prayer for, Dave? This year I feel like you've communicated that towards the middle and end of 2024 that it was harder in your faith journey to keep up in your faith and things like that. We'll pray for that. Once you need prayer for, you need prayer for your health? You need prayer for... Just to get closer to God because he'll handle all that.

Yeah. Yeah. You care if I pray for you before we end out? I would love to just pray for not only just your relationship with God, but also like even with the I'm just so passionate about this particularly because I try to find my value and escape and so many other things in Jesus just that this 2025 God would show you that you can solely rely on him and you don't need things like lean or things and I know that like I that I don't need it yeah you know but it's it's one of the fleshly wants right you know it's like that battle in

the flesh it's like your spirit knows I don't need it but your flesh sure yeah let's pray for that. Let's pray that God gives you the strength to overcome that. Yeah, Jesus, thank you so much for my brother, Dave. God, thank you for a great conversation. Thank you for just allowing us honesty and transparency. God, we just ask for more humility in our lives. God, that you give us strength and that you speak to both Dave and I. God, we just ask for you to draw near to Dave. God, we thank you that he just loves you and that he desires you and he wants more of you, Jesus. Would you speak to him not only in dreams and visions, God, but would you give Dave a fresh hunger to pick his Bible back up more often? And to speak to to him through the scriptures. God, would you give him strength not only to lean in more of you,

but actually to overcome things that the sinful desires because our sin, it feels so good to our flesh, God, but not only him but me, God, like the things that I struggle with, would you just give not only Dave, but me strength to overcome our flesh in times where our flesh feel so strong? And your word says, where the flesh is weak, your spirit is willing, God, would your spirit give us strength to overcome these? God, thank you for a great conversation. Thank you for Dave. God, I love you so much. You love Dave. I love Dave so much. God bless him in Jesus' name. Amen.

Dave, bro, I appreciate you so much. You're a beast. I appreciate you. Thanks for coming on. No problem. Guys, thank you so much for watching this episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. Like, subscribe. Keep tuning in.

Guys, Dave, thanks so much for coming. Dave Blunts. Appreciate you guys. Love y'all. See you guys on the next episode.