John Joseph (ex singer of The Cro-Mags & author)

John Joseph is a musician, author, speaker, coach and Ironman athlete. He is best known for fronting the iconic punk band the Cro-Mags, and is currently the vocalist of Bloodclot. He has a new book coming out titled “Destroying Monsters” about dealing with addiction. We discuss John’s addiction and background, surviving a drive by shooting, selling weed to Dave Chapelle & Harrison Ford, doing the Joe Rogan Podcast, his relationship with Rich Roll, his thoughts on the government, living as a monk and so much more!

0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:13 - Living in Florida & Doing Ironmans
0:05:10 - Grinding & Breaking The Addiction Cycle
0:13:15 - Love of Music & Legacy of The Cro-Mags
0:18:10 - Record Companies Ripping Off & DIY
0:25:40 - Coaching Business, Monk Life & Discipline
0:28:35 - Angel Dust & TV Pilot Script
0:37:13 - Joe Rogan, Bill Gates & Pandemic
0:49:20 - Healthy Lifestyle & Higher Learning
0:53:20 - Caring for People & Government Corruption
1:00:15 - Punk Rock, Questioning Authority & Crime
1:05:00 - Karma For the U.S.
1:07:25 - Being Harassed and Cancellation Attempts
1:09:55 - Street Smarts
1:12:45 - Weed Business, Dave Chappelle & Harrison Ford
1:19:25 -  Rock Bottom & Addictive Traits
1:23:53 - Documentary 30 to Life & Speaking in Prisons
1:28:42 - Close Calls with Death
1:42:45 - Riff with Rich Roll
1:45:25 - Relationship with Brother
1:54:55 - Treatment for Covid & Controversy
2:04:20 - Dealing with Monsters Book & Goggins
2:08:37 - Outro

John Joseph website:
https://www.johnjosephdiscipline.com/

Chuck Shute website:
https://linktr.ee/chuck_shute

Transcript

John Joseph: 0:13

Hey, brother.

Chuck Shute: 0:14

Hey, John, how's it going

John Joseph: 0:16

about that sometimes out in the country takes a little longer for the internet.

Chuck Shute: 0:24

Oh, yeah, you're in Florida, right?

John Joseph: 0:27

I live out in like farm country now.

Chuck Shute: 0:30

Oh, really?

John Joseph: 0:31

Oh, it's home base. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 0:33

Can you so do you have a farm you girl

John Joseph: 0:36

flam, we're looking, you know, that's we're trying to what our goal is is self sufficiency, you know, eventually get get a place and grow our food and you know, we're right where all the natural springs are and really good wells. You know?

Chuck Shute: 0:57

Yeah, that seems to be kind of a trend for a lot of people, I'd like to get more self sufficient as well. I think some of it is learning some of these things that are important with health and you know how to, like the water and electricity, all that stuff would be nice to

John Joseph: 1:12

well, you know, the sun is crucial, you know, for like vitamin D and everything. So I've never been healthier since moving here two years ago, and training outside year round. And it's you know, spin Great. How many how many hours of sunlight you get a day? Ah, oh, you know, the sun comes up here around five o'clock. So, but, you know, usually in the wintertime, you know, the days are shorter, but, you know, you can't you know, I mean for my training and stuff, sometimes I have to ride in the heat. So it's a race in the heat. So I have to be out there. You know, but, I mean, I ran five today and it was at, you know, it was hot.

Chuck Shute: 2:06

So it's humid in Florida, right? Because

John Joseph: 2:11

you know, it's it's definitely swamp like here, you know?

Chuck Shute: 2:14

Right. So yeah, explain to my audience like you do these Iron Man's. These are crazy. 140 Miles swimming, biking and running.

John Joseph: 2:24

Don't forget the point six. It's 140. Sorry, sorry, one four yet. So it's a 2.4 mile swim and you get out of the water you bike 112 on your bike, and then you run at 26.2 mile marathon.

Chuck Shute: 2:41

When you get off the bike is the hardest part like getting started or is it like finishing? Or is there a point in the middle or is it just all suck?

John Joseph: 2:51

It's my said. It's, uh, you know, I enjoy it out there, man. You know, really, I've raced through some injuries and stuff. I've raced with a hernia for a year, so that's not okay. I mean, the last time before I got surgery, I did the Haines City Iron Man Down here, and I had to like, run most of the marathon push in my hernia and and that was not fun. And then yeah, yeah, I guess. Yeah. You know, it's just part of the whole makeup of what keeps me positive keeps me motivated. So, right.

Chuck Shute: 3:42

Yeah. Is there something a point that switched for you? Because I like being healthy. And I like the feeling like after I workout or go to the gym, but like, when I'm at the gym, I'm like, Oh, I hate this so much. Like, is there a point where it's switched for you where you actually enjoy working out? I

John Joseph: 3:57

enjoy working out it's part of it's part of what I do. I got 23 years clean and sober now. And I didn't I didn't do my first Ironman until I was 50. So So yeah, I mean, but I always been athletic. I mean, I boxed I you know, I got locked up as a kid. So I got into boxing when I was locked up to keep, you know, keep keep, keep my mind positive and focused. And then I was just always an athlete. I played, you know, all sports, basketball, baseball, football, and then got into bike racing. And marathoning and all that type stuff. I did marathons first before I switched to Ironman, and my first triathlon was a full course Ironman, I didn't do and I I've never done a sprint Olympic Half Ironman, nothing. I went right for the full distance. Ironman. Damn,

Chuck Shute: 5:08

yeah, you've had a crazy life. Like, listen, like looking back at all the things that you've done from your crazy childhood than, you know, singer in a punk band, you were a monk. I mean, you've done written books. And it's just like, I don't know if there's anything left on your bucket list to do. Yeah,

John Joseph: 5:23

I'm, I'm filming a movie this this year that I wrote a comedy and I just finished book number six. Destroying monsters. So that's all about addiction. And, yeah, just, you know, you're either going to keep busy doing negative shit, or you can keep busy doing positive stuff that's going to improve your life. I'm 62 this year, so I just keep grinding man, I don't even I don't even like I make a list every day. And you know, I coach, I coach clients in mindset and all different kinds of things. So

Chuck Shute: 6:10

you know, you

John Joseph: 6:12

it's one of the things I say is, you know, time is of the essence, you know, it's, it's, it's our most valuable commodity, and people just waste it and or wasted on negative things, and that don't help improve our lives. You know, like, I mean, that's the whole thing about addiction. I, you know, when I when I was I started taking pills and drinking at 12 years old by 14 and I was a heroin mule. Because I ran away from I grew up in abusive foster homes, I hit the streets, started in 76. And racking up cases, I ran away from St. John's Home for Boys. And the only people that looked out for me were the junkies of Rockaway Beach, but they were like, hey, you know, you can you can stay here but you got to fucking mule this harrowing for us, like you go to the lower Eastside Alphabet City and pick up these bundles of heroin for us. So I mean, my whole you know, thing with the drugs, that was my, you know, it was my entire life, my father was alcoholic tried to murder my mom. I mean, it was it. I mean, I just I just said, at some point, I'm gonna break the cycle, I just lost my brother to addiction, the end of 2022 in the middle of writing this book on addiction, and, you know, I just was like, I mean, when I was using, I was a fucking maniac, because I came out of out of a world that was like, unfortunately, if you looked at New York, in the 70s, and even the 80s, and up into the 90s, you couldn't be weak on the streets, man, they would take advantage of you, you know, and so, to be a 14 year old kid, you know, 1976, I was 14. And you just had to do what you had to do. And, you know, they got to the point, it was always like, I had periods of being clean, and then relapse, like, you know, I started dabbling with, with the cocaine in the Freebase in in 87. And then it just got full blown and 88 to 90 and I mean, I was I was just robbing fucking drug dealers and out of control and had drug gangs put KOLs his army pill on site, type situations, and it's just a violent world. You know, the world of drugs, is a violent world. And my teacher from India probably has said that if you take drugs and drink and do all that you will eventually die a violent life is just, you know, whether you're causing violence to yourself or someone else is doing, it's not going to lead to any place. Good. So that's the reason I, I know that and I wrote a chapter in this book destroying monsters called the razor's edge and that's that's how we walk every day on on that razor's edge if we're in recovery, and one slip could be fatal. You know, I lost my guitar player to blood clot. We did the record up in arms, we got a big fuck can record deal and he relapsed. And that was it man. One. It's going to be that time, you know, you don't know what is in these drugs that's out there now. So it's like,

Chuck Shute: 10:17

yeah, we're different now with the fentanyl and stuff that's like that's really

John Joseph: 10:21

everything. Some somebody I know his daughter just took a Percocet and fucking died because it was cut, it was laced with fucking fentanyl, they print, they got these pill mills that are just print, you know, they're just fucking it's just bullshit. And then they're putting fentanyl in there. And it's killing people. And, you know,

Chuck Shute: 10:42

how do we sell a clean, sober lifestyle to people, you know, because I understand why people do drugs because they work. It makes you feel good temporarily, but it's not in the long term. It's like you're saying the path is ends up in violence either to other people or to yourself? How can we sell especially to young kids? How do we sell a different path?

John Joseph: 11:03

Well, you know, my teacher came out with expressing and it's to achieve a higher taste. You can't artificially give up the lower taste in life, you know, and then there's so many things that that is reference to, which is drugs and alcohol. So the nature of the soul is to enjoy, but when you try to enjoy through some artificial means, you know, say intoxication, it's, it's temporary. So, you know, I get on, like, I get on a runner's high man, today, I ran five miles I was, you know, if I go out on my bike, you know, four or five hours on the bike, or I'm sitting here writing or anything, you know, people are selling themselves short. Because the whole, the real thing is that the things that are worth of real value in life take time to achieve, but we live in a microwave society where everybody wants to pop a pill or, you know, I'm going to be happy by doing this or I'm going to be famous by you know, putting, you know, I got a tick tock video I got this I got that it's it's temporary man. I mean, everything in this material world is temporary. But this way we're heading now is even more temporary and empty and void and just full of shit. It's, you know, and then you know, whatever I'm born in 62, you could say, oh, Boomer, whatever the fuck but I'm out there outperforming 20 year olds, and I'm out and I'm out. Over. I'm out producing 20 years old 20 year olds. So what's changed? It's the mentality that's changed. You know, it's it's in Sanskrit there's a word called Sahaja means one who takes things cheaply. Like I'm sitting here, I'm a musician since 1981. I never sat there worried about fame or money or anything that I was doing in this world. I did music because I enjoyed it. We slept in fucking, we slept in a fucking squat. When I was starting with the kromaggs a burnt out building I had to take showers outside in the middle of winter at a fire hydrant, no windows, no electricity. Gang members coming in trying to fucking steal take the building from us for the the slumlords back then to speculators, you know, they would sing gangs in to get us out of the buildings that we were squatting in, because then they could take the building and, you know, renovate it and make millions of dollars. So they, but you know, they didn't understand the people that lived in my building were more violent than the drug than the drug than the gang members. So that should work. But it's just, you know, and then I'm going on my bike to be a bike messenger for eight to 10 hours a day in New York City, no matter what the weather was to pay for rehearsals for the kromaggs and pay for recordings for the kromaggs and going on tour and a brokedown van and fucking sleeping on people's floors and having fucking club promoters rip us off and worried if we made enough money to get gas to the next fucking town. These These people have no idea the austerity that was performed for the love of the art. And it's the same thing. You know, now for me with writing or whatever else I don't sit there thinking, I'm gonna write a hit book I'm gonna write a hit movie. I'm just you know, the Gita says the Bhagavad Gita says we have a right to the work we don't have a right to the result of the work so people are people you know, they're they're more motivated by the wrong things right? You should be motivated because you love what you're doing. You know, and that, sadly is becoming lost. And that's why in 30 years you're never going to see these bands around again anymore. These fucking bands are all fly by night. I just I saw Zeppelin in 77 I saw Black Sabbath though who all those bands and I can still put that record on and it means something it's it's holds up it stands the test of time. Where the fuck is blink 182 any of these bands gonna be all this pop punk? Crap, Emo where's that? You know, or any of these? I mean, look, whatever the insanity was that went on in the kromaggs, you could still put that record on, and it holds up and stands the test of time, the age of quarrel, because for whatever the reason was, all of us were were in there 100% And doing it and living it. And that's why and even the Bad Brains record the raw cassette that they have the raw sessions, their first album that they did, I was there for the recording of that. I was I was living with those guys. And they're the ones that got me to go plant based in AD one and all the rest of this and get off the drugs for a period of time and get you know, HR was the first person to put a microphone in my hand. So like I was there to see how intense it was and how they were just sold out to the art itself. Nobody cared about paydays and all this shit back then that everybody's just consumed with fame and all this bullshit. It's like, nobody gave a fuck about that. You know, it was it was we did what we did because we loved the act of playing music itself, you know?

Chuck Shute: 17:18

But isn't there like a level where you I mean, you have to be it has to there has to be some sort of audience otherwise like what it's almost a selfish if you're just playing it for yourself, right?

John Joseph: 17:27

Oh, yeah, there's an audience. But guess what? The audience can smell the lie. The audience could smell when you're a sellout. The audience knows when it's true. That's why when we started coming up, fucking Metallica was coming to see us. Fucking Lemmy from Motorhead said we were the only band that opened up for him on tour that he came out and watched every single night of the tour because you never knew what the fuck was going to happen. We made our bones out there in them fucking small clubs. So yeah, but it and nobody would give us the time of day in the beginning that's the way it always is. And then they turn around and say I knew you guys were going to be you know, then they fucking exploit you like what happened to us? We got fucking ripped off by the manager in the record company profile records robbed the fuck out of every band. kromaggs Run DMC, smooth the hustle every fucking Motorhead all these bands got robbed by these record company. You know they owed fucking who knows how many fucking hundreds of millions of dollars they owed and they filed chapter chapter 11 And whatever the fuck and then sell the catalog and then turn around years later buy it back and they're putting out records out these people are fucking slimeballs.

Chuck Shute: 18:52

Wow, I didn't know about that. You

John Joseph: 18:54

don't even notice shit that goes on with this industry, man. And now look, they got everybody putting their shit on iTunes and all this shit you get all these fucking downloads, fucking 30 billion downloads and where you get 10 grand they're just robbing artists non stop. That's why my whole philosophy with the books now and even this movie that I'm doing I'm arranging a team we're gonna start shooting you know it's DIY man I got big time friends in the fucking film business that one you know that won Academy Awards and do big movies in there like just fucking do as much as you can on your own. My friend told me you know did on Monty le did a guide to recognizing your saints. He does movies with Pacino and everybody and he goes yo, the film business is 100 times worse than the than the movie then then the fucking music business. He said DIY man do as much as you can on your own. You know and that's that's where I'm at. That's, that's I'm going to start shooting some seeds. And you know who's in the movie? What's it about? I don't even know yet we didn't it's a punk rock comedy but you know I'm that's the next thing we're doing now I just finished writing it so we're gonna you know cast and I got I'm talking to a few directors and stuff like that so, but we all have that same mentality FUCK THE FUCK THE industry man. It's the artists come first that's the problem all these agents and all these promoters and all these fucking labels thought that they were the fucking day whether they will the reason everybody no no it's the artists if the artists don't make art you ain't got shit to steal buddy so that's what I tell these everybody always asked me what would I say to up and coming bands now and it's like fucking watch what you sign man because now they're like they're taking everything from artists and there's no more record business like now you have to go out on tour to make money and now they're taking merchandise percentages and fucking gig money from bands and it's just they're just pimping you out like you're like you're a fucking hall when they're just your pimp spit slapping you and taking your money at the end of the tour. Yeah, it's pretty wild. Do it yourself you build up and you build up your movie and you build up your writing or whatever it is you do and you do as much as you can on your own man and then you have some leverage

Chuck Shute: 21:35

right because it's scary that venues are taking a cut of the merch that's like a newer venues

John Joseph: 21:40

already do that. Have the labels are taking up. The labels are taking you taking merch money too.

Chuck Shute: 21:47

Oh, are they telling you because the labels I don't know how they make any money? Because like you said, I mean, it's other than the downloads. Nobody's

John Joseph: 21:55

got some flick behind the fucking door deals going with. You know, these digital platforms, right? There's nobody songs and nobody's really buying records anymore. Nobody's really buying books anymore. It's just what

Chuck Shute: 22:14

if you get a song in a movie or commercial or video game? I feel like maybe that's how you can make money off recording.

John Joseph: 22:20

Yeah, well look what they did to us profile records. We did the beat with the producer of taxi driver, the movie Julia Phillips Close Encounters of the Third Kind and fucking bunch of movies. And she, you know, stay they saw us playing like we got to have the kromaggs in this movie. I talked about it in my book, The evolution of a CRO magnon, they didn't even have a script. When I went to go meet with them. I was like, well, what's the movie? We don't know. We just know we have to have you in the in the film. And then what did when then what profile records they wanted such a crazy amount of money to use one of our songs. It was an independent film, I don't even know I made like, they wanted a ridiculous amount of money. We couldn't even call ourselves the kromaggs in the movie. We had the call, they had to call us to iron skulls. And they wouldn't use we couldn't use the recorded song. We had to play live and so that's what you're hearing in the movie called the beat with John Savage and one of Kevin Dillon or whatever one of the Dylan brothers. And it's just you know, and this is after they're already robbing us you're already you know, you're already robbing us and then you're holding us back because you're trying to rob some indie indie film that you want so much money they like yeah, like it's like this is not a big budget film we're trying to we're trying to like hook your artist up and you know and shit like that. And this is this is just it's despicable. You know, what's going on? And

Chuck Shute: 24:14

are those deals that you signed with like profile and some of these other are they still in place? Are they have you restructured deals?

John Joseph: 24:21

You know what here's you want to hear something amazing. I've yet to receive one dime I've never received a royalty check from Egypt. Wow. Wow, our manager ripped us off. He so profile wanted us and he says well, if you want the band, you have to give me my own subsidiary label called Rock Hotel. So he puts us on Rock Hotel slash profile. So that's a conflict of interest. The manager supposed to fight the label to get the band paid if the lay if the manager is the label. And then he overcharged profile for the recordings he put us in into Debt, he pocketed money, he cross collateralized all about publishing and ripped us off. And it was him with the label never paid us. So I don't listen. I keep making music. I just put out a blood clot record last year. Another one called souls. I don't I just do music because I love music man I write because I like writing. I train because I like training. I do what I do what I enjoy.

Chuck Shute: 25:34

Yeah, I know you have enough to pay the bills and survival.

John Joseph: 25:37

I have a coaching business and all that and, you know, so it's very well, you know, I got clients from the everyday Joe to people that own$200 million dollar companies as you know my one clients building Robert Janeiro's sound, his new film studios in his story, I mean, I wow, I got clients, doctors or just athletes, all kinds of people. So I coaching mindset and you know, discipline and all that type stuff. And some people want help with their diet. Some people want help with the training some people want help with, you know, how do I get out of this rut, whatever, whatever it is, there's a way to fix it. And the number one way that's done is discipline. That's what I learned as a monk. You know, I was very austere. I lead a very austere life. When I was when I was a monk for two years. It was up to am every morning. Chanting, meditating, reading, studying doing martial arts. So you know, did you

Chuck Shute: 26:52

have to take a vow of silence when you were a monk?

John Joseph: 26:55

Like, we don't do that you got to different it's a different thing. Like,

Chuck Shute: 27:01

because I did this thing was like a 10 day thing. It's a thing. It's called the spa. And you learn this technique and you couldn't talk for 10 days. And it was so hard. I couldn't do it. The guy's like go you have monkey mind.

John Joseph: 27:13

You should always be although it's like what are you talking? Because some talk is like the croaking of the frog. It lets the snake know where to come to kill it. So there's a thing called Rojava which is nonsense talk. And that's what the airwaves are full of that shit. Right now, when I was coming up in punk rock we had we used to have these like amazing meetings, talking philosophy and discussing, like deep shit. And all that bad brain stuff came out of that the CRO mags, all the stuff, if you look at the lyrics that, you know, came out of all that it's of a higher nature. You know, just not like mundane. I mean, I'm just like, half this shit. I grew up in the 70s man listening to Motown and artists that actually fucking said something. Even like due to birth to hip hop, and I was working at all the clubs in New York, but that in the 80s and 90s. So I got to see a lot of cool shit being in the city, you know? Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 28:33

The way I did, yeah, I heard you tell the story. Were you at the when fear played on us? I

John Joseph: 28:38

was there. I was at that. When fear played Saturday Night Live and in 81 on Halloween. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it was. I was down in DC. I came out of lockup. And I caught another case, they got me for possession. You know, I even know when I was locked up. They took us to the scan straight program rollway and fuckin fishscale Max and all that to scare the shit out of you. But if you don't have a positive outlet, when you come out of there, you're just going right back to the same stuff you would do in which is what I did. I went right back out to where I was before somebody says, Hey, man, sell these drugs and I'll give you this much money I got I got I got a possession case. So it was like, got locked up or go join the military. And that's what I did. And

Chuck Shute: 29:40

how did you get you were in the Navy because I thought you couldn't have a criminal record if you joined

John Joseph: 29:45

but it was a che it was a juvenile record and recruiter was able to bury that and you know, I did well on the ASVAB which is the Military Entrance uh exam, right? But I was, you know, I had a lot of shit going on I was an addict. I mean, I went to boot camp high on Angel Dust, we sat at Fort Hamilton and I went in on the buddy program with my brother, who's also an addict. And he was locked up to and this guy's like yo de sel das like two blocks from here for Hamilton. And we're waiting to get on the military op lane to go to Great Lakes. So we went and bought like, I don't know, four or five bags that Dustin smoked it. I never even been on an airplane before. And there I am on an airplane going to bootcamp high on dust.

Chuck Shute: 30:44

Dust, I've never done that. Or I don't know if I've ever met anybody.

John Joseph: 30:47

Yeah, man. I mean, that's the final case that got me locked up. I was selling dust at Forest Park at the dome. Where a manufacturer that's the evil drug man, like, I wrote a TV pilot and they got me noticed by how he Tannenbaum who was Vince Gilligan's agent, they, you know, had a meeting with me,

Chuck Shute: 31:12

Vince Gilligan from Breaking Bad. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, his

John Joseph: 31:16

agent read my shit. Because I was signed with ICM for for the book meetings for pussies. And the agent there? Who was the literary agent? Dan Kirshen says, Hey, you got anything written? Because like, you know, I got connections in the film TV to bomb and I say, Yeah, I do. So I had written this pilot about the angel does train and the cop that took it down. And then I mean, how we read that and was like, Y'all, we want to have a meeting with you. So yeah, he represented me. But it was the insanity of that drug world. And initially, I started writing just about my experiences. And you know, the crew that I had this guy computer he was whipping up on top of Houdini's grave, like just a fucking madman. And then this guy, disco Mike, who was mobbed up was like to protection and he was drugging and raping kids in the park. He ended up getting killed by the mob. They killed him brutally. Like I don't even know if I could say it, but they shoved the baseball bat you know, to death. You know, for what he was doing to kids. He did that to some made man's nephew. Oh, the drug kids, you know, he you know, and then raped them. Oh, like just growing up in that whole situation. But I ended up writing in about this cop John wild man wild. And basically, you know, I'm lucky to have friends. How I do because I wrote the thing about the drug crew. And then I'm read very good friends with Patty Jenkins who did monster she won the Academy Award. That movie was Charlize to roll. Yeah, that's a good movie. And yeah, so she's punk rock as hell. Oh, she got us from the New York DC punk rock scene. And the thing was, she was I let her read the script. And she goes, you're missing a very important subplot. Like, who were the cops that were trying to take you guys down? And then I was like, wow. So my friend. was the head of the sergeant's in the seven five in Brooklyn. I don't know if you saw that documentary. to seven, five. No, is it good? Oh my god. It's about the most corrupt cop in the history of the New York City Police Department. So he was trying to I said I need to find somebody who was involved in the dust train, you know, one of the cops. So he looked for me, his name is Bill Hall, Sergeant Bill Hall, very good friend of mine that you know, used to come to the kromagg shows. He's like, Yo, I'm gonna ask around. So he like literally asked around for like four months. He's like, bro, I can't find anybody. None of the old timers, nothing. So one day, he's walking in Long Island and going into the thing and this. He's wearing the seven five shield sweatshirt. And this older guy goes, amen. You want a job? He's like, Yeah, so they start talking. Turns out this cop was in that precinct, right? Which I think was the 1050 in Queens out there that and my friend Bill Hall goes hey, you know my buddies legit. He's when he's got an agent in Hollywood and all this stuff. He's putting this TV thing together, do you know anybody that was involved with trying to take down the Angel Dust trade in the 70s. And John wild man wild smiles and goes, I was the head of the task force to take it down. And then I said, My friend told me and I was blown away. And I was like, Yo, you think this guy will meet me? He's like, puking, Hey, call him up. He's like, hey, come out to Long Island, we'll meet in a diner. I'm sitting there with my friend who's the cop. That's John wild man wild, right that I filled up three notebooks of stories that I ended up using for the pilot. And when I sent it to how we, and his assistant was there in the room, and I see him in Hollywood, and he's like, he's prepping me. He's like, Yo, I just want you to, I just want you to know, like, this is a big fucking deal, the way he flipped out on your script. And, you know, so how he comes in, he's like, hey, you know, we start talking, he goes, Man, you talk about a page turner, I couldn't, I couldn't put the fucking thing down. And he goes, usually, I read three pages, and I'm like, trash. It goes in the reject pile. He told me it was going to be a hard sell, because it was period. So I mean, he sent it around to everybody. And I still have a relationship, you know, with them. And they got acquired by CAA. So we'll see what happens. You know, like I said, I love writing. So I don't, I just keep the content going. But it's just great to have a lot of friends in my camp that I can bounce ideas off of, and let read my scripts and all that give me I mean, if Patti didn't give me that advice, I don't think it would have got the response that it did. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 37:10

you have some crazy friendships. Explain to me how you know Joe Rogan, because you did his podcast, he wrote a

John Joseph: 37:19

very good friends with Bryan Callen, who did the fighter in the kid. Yeah, Brian was instrumental in getting me on to the podcast. And you know, we just became kind of, you know, friends and stuff like that. I mean, he, you know, whatever, he got me into, like, the fights and all that the UFC, and then during the whole fucking shit show that just went down in the last few years, you know, I was like, sending him stuff from New York, like, here's what's happening now. So. Wow. I mean, I have I have a lot of respect for him, because he risked a lot to let every side of the whole thing speak when everything's being censored. And you're not getting to hear from all sides, then that's not. That's not science. That's, that's, that's propaganda. And that's what people were subjected to. And I like, and then they came out trying to destroy him. Yeah, I mean, I suffered a similar, similar thing, except I didn't have $120 million deal on the table. But, you know, there's bands that wouldn't even risk losing a$10,000 show guarantee or selling a few shitty T shirts, because they didn't want to speak up to what the fuck was going on. So I mean, I just have respect for him in that in that regard. And

Chuck Shute: 38:55

it seems like he's a lot of people feel like are kind of coming around to his side of things.

John Joseph: 39:01

Well, his side is the side of truth. You know, like, what are you going to say? You know, every time he says something, it's like, and the thing I like about him too, is he admits when he got something wrong, that's the problem with everything now is like, people were wrong, and they don't want to come and say, Hey, I got it wrong. They're just fucking ignoring the whole situation right now when they tried to destroy anybody that had a difference of opinion. And that's because they were told to do that. And, you know, for instance, I'll tell you one example, at the beginning of 2020 when that pandemic hit, Joe said on the podcast, there's nobody that's getting hit harder right now than Bill Gates. You know, and he's given so much money in philanthropy and done all this work. I said, bro, That dude is not who you think he is. He's not he's a fake philanthropist. Everything he invests everything and gives money is things he's invested in, that's gonna pay him a return, then the bill and then now he just openly fucking slanders and speaks the truth about the guy what he's doing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have enriched themselves off of all the shit that they're doing.

Chuck Shute: 40:28

While they're buying he's buying up a bunch of farmland which is very

John Joseph: 40:32

nice that biggest farm private farmland owner in America is pushing GMO crops like just he wants to shoot dust into the atmosphere to me, you know, all this. Like,

Chuck Shute: 40:44

it almost sounds like conspiracy but it's It Ain't No

John Joseph: 40:48

it ain't no conspiracy. He's telling you. I mean, this is a guy that stood up and said there's too many people on the planet and then he wants to save everybody on the planet. I mean, I don't want to really delve into the whole shit I've made you know, I have a friend who owned the rest or owned the restaurant in LA I wrote books calling out the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and all the shit they've done and their program and what you know Vandana Shiva what she uncovered about him with his farming practices in in India and and his sowing how

Chuck Shute: 41:28

know about the farming practices in India. What happened there? Yeah, go

John Joseph: 41:32

go, Look, go look up what he's done over there, Vandana Shiva, if you just Google Vandana Shiva, she tells all the shit about how he's involved with Monsanto and what they're doing to the farmers over there, why the farmers are drinking pesticides to kill themselves, and because like they they're in debt, and the only way they can get out of debt for their families is the the insurance money that they get after they're dead. And that's the whole thing. G and I've been saying this for years, this whole space of GMO food is not to make more food for the world. It's to take control of the food supply. Everything Bill Gates does is about control. Look what he did during the whole shit. He invested $55 million and and multiplied his investment by 10. He made over$500 million on the COVID shots. The day he dumps his stock, he goes on TV and admits they didn't work and we have to do a better job next time. And here's the thing. He was able to come on TV with no credentials scientifically or medically and tell people I quote people think they have a choice whether or not to take it, you don't have a choice. Like that's because the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are the largest donators to NPR. They give all this money to the network's this guy, so

Chuck Shute: 43:13

fund a lot of the studies that say Oh, this does this?

John Joseph: 43:17

Of course he does. But look at the vaccine injuries and deaths that he's caused experimenting on people in Africa in India, sterilization, deaths, all this stuff. Look at Fauci. Anybody, if you read the bill, the Fauci book, I need to read that I download you sure because Bill Gates is right in there. And the same thing that Fauci did during the AIDS crisis. He used the same playbook during COVID. And I knew what he did because I was in New York, and AZT is is what killed most of the AIDS patients. And he also which he was invested in, he also blocked therapeutics. If you look at the movie Dallas Buyers Club, he's the one they're talking about in the fucking movie that was blocking the fucking therapeutic drugs that was saving fucking lives. That's Fauci. That's the NIH. And now look what just happened. They fire after denying that they were behind the research that cause COVID in Wuhan, now, they just submitted it.

Chuck Shute: 44:24

I know that was the gain of functions for eyes. It's

John Joseph: 44:27

deception, and all I knew was punk rock 101 question authority. Everybody forgot that. Yeah. So fear, they pumped the fucking gas pedal on the fear. And I didn't give a fuck. But one day, I was like, running around New York and the streets with desolate, and I'm like, yo, all right. What is all this? And I started getting my answers. When I was talking to people working in AI hospitals and my friends were in ICU and they're like, the ICU is as busy as it normally is. It isn't overcrowded. And I went in and filmed on the cover, like fucking shot footage. There is no ambulances running, non stop going up and down the avenues. They had an excuse for everything man, it was tyranny and everything they did from the lock downs, the masks, there was no science behind six feet saves lives. They just admitted that. That's right. It's all they pumped the fear. And, like, I just I wasn't falling for it. And thank God. I told everybody don't take them fucking things. And then look what look what's happening now. They're all cause mortality rates are up almost 40% in certain age groups, and I think it's 18 to 44 over the last three years.

Chuck Shute: 45:57

Yeah, well, and also you've also preached a healthier lifestyle. Yeah, I mean, eating processed not only just vegan, but I mean, at least that people could not

John Joseph: 46:08

fucking vegan. I don't eat those people. I know. They eat shit food. I don't you know, right. Technically, I've been doing the shit that way longer than any of them are. Most of them are alive 43 years. Because

Chuck Shute: 46:26

some of those vegan food is like the Bill Gates sandwich or whatever.

John Joseph: 46:30

That's why I'm telling you about my friend with the restaurant in LA he got involved in the impossible bullshit GMO crap. And then he's like, please stop dissing Bill Gates online. I was like, bro, I'm sorry. I'm speaking the truth about this person. Just because you're in business. He don't even talk to me anymore. And then you know do the whole shit. I got called a conspiracy theorist because I didn't want to take that shit. And but you know, here's the thing. If it was about health, why were they giving out junk food to coerce people to take the shots? Why didn't they give out healthy organic food to the farmer's markets in gym passes and passes for yoga classes and

Chuck Shute: 47:15

they shut down the gyms here. Down the gyms in New York, they shut down. They

John Joseph: 47:20

shut down everything they wanted to shut down health food stores,

Chuck Shute: 47:24

they shut down the beaches, I think in like, they shut you couldn't

John Joseph: 47:27

go on the beach in New York. I went I fucking did whatever I wanted. As a matter of fact, in like May of 2020 I posted a video of me out riding out to Rockaway Beach. Nobody on the road. And people will like you putting people in danger of fuck you and all this shit. I mean, they want everybody to stay home, put on the TV and live in fear and only accept what they told you was the truth. But I went around to all the hospitals and started filming. I didn't know you did that. i Yeah, well, they took it down and they threatened to take remove my YouTube channel. Oh, shit. Yep. And I said, Where's the crisis? I said, I have a friend that works upstairs. He's one of the head nurses in the ICU. The ICU beds are just as full as they ever were. They're not overcrowded. You know, it's New York City. There's not all these people. Here's here's the emergency room. Where's the people? Where's the sick people? But the bottom line is, it was the people over 80 years old and those with obese with three or more preexisting conditions who were affected the worse during COVID. So what do they do? They forced nursing homes in New York to take in COVID patients uomo otherwise he was going to take their funding from the state. And then they gave people junk food, all this crap food to go take the things. So how are you promoting health? That's not health?

Chuck Shute: 49:12

No, I agree. And now it's people are still I mean, the chronic disease is killing people regardless of COVID or whatever. The chronic disease is still killing people and nobody talks about VDS

John Joseph: 49:23

is the new plague. And it's completely preventable. Go on Forks Over Knives. It tells you how to reverse type two diabetes through diet and lifestyle. This is a diet and lifestyle disease. 50% of American adults are obese right now.

Chuck Shute: 49:41

That's scary.

John Joseph: 49:42

That's one out of two people in this country are obese to children or I think 35% obesity levels in children. That's really sad. Children on drugs for high cholesterol that are like nine years old now.

Chuck Shute: 50:01

Yeah, don't you think all this stuff is related? Like, people don't have a purpose, they're not fulfilling their lives. And they're just trying to get that dopamine fix whether it's with drugs or junk food or tick tock or whatever

John Joseph: 50:15

they are, well, that's what it comes back to is like our conversation started. It comes back to having that higher taste in life. But that doesn't come cheap, right meditation and all these, all these things that we do in our life spiritually, that will enrich our lives. So that we develop a taste. We're enjoying on a different platform than having to take some drug or do or eat a bunch of junk food and then like, get the rush and then you passed out somewhere drooling on yourself. You know, we used to always say that people got snore siege brains you shit when, when we might me and my buddy Shawn foul. And, you know, he was a former professional cyclist and a lot of I would always ride with him training for the Ironman because he was a beast, I would just try to stay on his wheel. But every time in New York City, we'd be going somewhere at seven, eight o'clock. And the people behind the cars they just had like, five eggs and bacon and fucking sausages and pancakes. And it's just like, it just slows your mental facilities down and then they're like, you know, almost wanting you Oh, we called it. You know, snore sins were like memory commercial. When the dog was like sausages, sausages.

Chuck Shute: 51:42

No, I have to google that one. That's fine. So

John Joseph: 51:44

oak better Oh, like pet snack commercial. But yeah, if people are just you think, George Paul, and he said they want to be wants to paint they want the people just healthy enough to run the machines?

Chuck Shute: 52:01

Ah, yeah. I mean, you because you think I had this guy that used to work for the government. And I was challenging him on some of the stuff with the schools in the end of the kid lunches. Like, at the very least, we should make the school lunches like super healthy. And also why can't I know we can't do prayer in school. But could we teach meditation in school? Is that controversial? Oh, but you can teach everything

John Joseph: 52:21

else right now. You could teach children about all this crazy SEC shit. I mean, it's insane that no business children and second and third grade have no business being taught that kind of shit. School is about learning, you know, your ABCs and all this stuff and learning how to be a child. So I that's a whole nother podcast to me. But you know, I just look at it like we're in deep shit, man, we're in deep shit. We're getting, you know, this country's in deep shed, his country's in deep, deep, deep shit. Because the value insists the values in society are going in the toilet. Right? How do

Chuck Shute: 53:12

we how do we turn things around because I know that you come from a place of you. You're like me, you care about people you want. I mean, you're doing pretty good for yourself. But you care about other people that are struggling. I've given

John Joseph: 53:24

so much money to charity and done fundraisers to help I've been involved with feeding the homeless in New York since 82. I built a yoga center with my own money with my own two hands financed, they kept it open for 10 years that gave free classes and free food and just it was a place of community I put my money where my mouth is man and go to own have a fucking mansion with the money I spent there. But like, you know, I think it you know, the they're taking the rights away from the parents right now. Just if you look what's going on? The government is raising these people's kids. Yeah, you're raising them the way they want to raise them. And this government is fucking off the rails these days, man.

Chuck Shute: 54:25

It's It sure seems that way. I mean, it seems like the fucking rails

John Joseph: 54:30

they, you know, I mean, the wars and just I posted up war pigs yesterday by Black Sabbath. And I'm like, you know, it's those lyrics have never been more relevant. We got money. We're involved in all these wars and given hundreds of billions of dollars all over the place. And they've yet to give more than $700 to our citizens in Lahaina that got wiped out by those fires, which to begin with, but They also I was watching Rogan, and he was talking with Terrence Howard lately, which was a pretty fucking wild podcast and he gave Ukraine 7 billion extra dollars. Right? That sounds about only what it costs 5 billion to rip to repair every rebuild every single house that got destroyed in lineup. That's it. That's it. And what did they give the citizens of America $700 They got 10s and billions of dollars to give. And now look, I just read this whole thing about how the Social Security's sparking running out and getting wiped out. And they're giving your grandma my mom for that matter who gets a Social Security check that she paid into her whole life. People that are bringing their elderly people into this country now, just recently, in the last few years are getting more money than our people in America that paid into Social Security and the VA and everything. They're they're screwing the vets, my brother had to get a medication. And they wouldn't give them the they said oh no, the doctor, they sent them to an outside doctor. They said you need this medication. The VA comes back and says Now we're not paying for that. They also he's my brother is 75% disability from the VA and the VA from being in the Navy. Right? So they in November, they said we're not covering any part of your rent anymore. Right? He had to go with his caseworker and fight for months. And he only gave him one year more. Right is the guy that got hurt defending the fucking country. My brother, they wouldn't give him the they wanted to give him some knockoff cheap version. He looks at the side effects, lymphoma and all this other shit off the cheap off the cheaper drug. And that's what's going on. It's America. So it's Americans last. And I'm not some flagwaving whatever the fuck I like. Listen, I love this country. I love the people that live in this country. It's the government's that it's the government that's gotta go and it's both sides of the aisle. I got accused of being a Trump supporter all their shit. I never voted for that dude. As a matter of fact, he's the one that initially rolled out operation warp speed. Without the proper proper clinical trials, they rolled that shit out and the guy he put in charge said you don't have a choice. We will come into your house Americans don't we will inject you by force if we have to the person that he put in charge. It was some Spanish general or whatever the fuck that was in the army. So it's to me it's the WWE. Is this the best two people that we have on this fucking country at a 300? And what's one, how many people 327 million people, Trump and Biden are the best two options that we have. I mean, that's why I don't I don't get involved in all this shit and his voting and all this bullshit. My whole thing is you have you have to focus on what you can fix. That's what I say. Right? So

Chuck Shute: 58:31

I'm saying I feel like it goes deeper than the politicians and the government. Like I feel like we got to no one's coming to save us. Right? It's like, right, try to be self sufficient. And then once we get self sufficient ourselves, and we try to help other people become more sufficient focus

John Joseph: 58:45

on what you can fix. You can fix your mindset you can fix your health. All of these things that you could do. Yeah, right. Why don't Why are you trying to fix all this other shit? That's never it's never gonna get fixed. Like no, this country's been hijacked look what they're doing around the world to anybody that's not bowing down to the who or the WTF they're fucking whacking them right now. They just tried to kill the president of Slovakia. Because he wouldn't sign on to the WH o treaty. He didn't go for any of the w the W E F bullshit that they've tried to do. And they fucking just tried to assassinate them. We're dealing with like, I'm telling you, man, you don't even know the people as an I don't even know who to you know, you got your players. That's your Klaus Schwab's and all these people but the real ones you're never even gonna ever

Chuck Shute: 59:43

hear about a man. Oh, really? You think there's some that are behind me and there's

John Joseph: 59:47

people behind the curtains that's doing crazy shit, but I can't sit there be consumed with that. Like Brian. I have to you know, I know what I'm able to fix myself. Okay. Hey, I got up this morning before sunrise, I'm able to meditate. I'm able to write, I'm able to work out I'm able to eat good. I'm able to help other people. I'm able to do all this stuff that's in my control. I never gave up control to them during 2028 on I said fuck you. You're not telling you want to talk Rage Against the Machine. Fuck you. I won't do what you tell me. That's was my philosophy.

Chuck Shute: 1:00:29

Except they kind of did do they were like, Yeah, I'm

John Joseph: 1:00:32

fucking punk rock scene. I've been known to punk rock shows. I saw the Ramones in 77 I was going to Max's fucking CBS all this shit. Punk Rock then hardcore. It was supposed to be this movement of like, Yo, you know, did you know all these bands, there's no justice. There's just us. And you know, smashed the system and all this shit. And then when it came time, everybody was hardcore until it came time to do hardcore shit. Right? That's, that's what happened. I have not changed. I you know, all these people call me a Trump supporter. I never voted in my fucking life. I never voted for a single politician in my life. I never supported a single politician in my life. If I'm gonna say anybody now who's actually any of those motherfuckers and they're not even they just they just asked Robert Kennedy Jr. Out of the debates. He's the only one that's really saying something that I'm like, This guy fucking make sense. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 1:01:41

that's kind of interesting because I thought if you got 15% of the votes that you could beat you could

John Joseph: 1:01:46

demand it's the body system man. It's fucking rigged. I can then you know they could just do whatever they want. You know, they create their WWE bad guy villain you know and everybody's just listening to the news and

Chuck Shute: 1:02:05

yeah, well that's why I said I think we if we just as a people if we come together, and they don't want

John Joseph: 1:02:10

that, I know but they don't want me to come together. They want the chairs fighting over every little fucking issue. Look who's funding all of these local funds all of the chaos it's the same people that George George Soros back to campaigns of all of these prosecutors DEA is in jujitsu. We're just letting criminals back out onto the street. New York City if you got caught years ago, with a handgun that was illegal you did a year is called a bullet. You got a year. They gave you a bullet in Rikers Island. You did one year for every bullet in that gun, you got a year upstate, now you could shoot somebody robbed them and you getting a desktop, you get a desk appearance ticket. And 100 And I mean, it's just it's just insane what's going on. They're attacking police there. Do you know it's you have people that's coming into this country attacking police officers and criminals that you know, and I'm gonna tell you straight up my friend was the was the sergeant Bill Hall, he was involved in the gun confiscation Task Force, which they defunded the police and took it away. Now you got little 12 year olds running around with Tec nine shooting people in New York City. The guns are out of control. And guess these were all liberal policies, right? Oh, defund the police. That's real smart. That's real smart, that's going to that's going to that's really going to serve the people. But guess who wants those units, the anti crime units to come back to poor people that's in it's in the projects that are being affected by these political decisions that are being made right now look what's happening the funding because I'm involved with organizations that work with poor people in the city of New York and I'm seeing it everywhere. Now they're saying Yo, how are we getting pushed to the back of the line and these people that's coming in the country are getting like free rent and free medical and and debit cards and all this other shit? How will we get and and and they're saying there's no money for for services for the poor people black and brown people in in in in the cities, the oil their shirts getting cut all the BA shirts getting cut to pay for all this shit that's going on these wars and all this other stuff. We need to get somebody in there who's like, and I don't I just don't see it happening man. I hate I you know, I try to I try to be positive even all that but I just know we're headed for a serious downfall of this whole planet because you can't go around doing all this stuff and expect that there's not going to be karma for it all the shit this country has been doing you know, look what we did in the Middle East during Iraq overall live, right? Oh, and look what General Wesley Clark after 911 He was in the Pentagon watched a video General Wesley Clark hitting in and some high official in the Pentagon goes, Hey, you know, like, did you hear we're going to war against Iraq. He's like, why are we going to war against Iraq? He didn't have nothing to do with it. Well, we don't know what else to do. Not only that, there's a list of seven other countries that will go in after well, guess who the last country on that we've taken out every single other country? Guess who the last country on that list? Is? I ran? Hmm,

Chuck Shute: 1:06:10

they just killed or just died? I don't know how.

John Joseph: 1:06:16

Yeah, you know, dude.

Chuck Shute: 1:06:20

It's there's some crazy. Listen,

John Joseph: 1:06:23

man, everybody. Stop fucking turning them TVs off, and start, stop looking out and start looking in. That's the solution. You want to know how to help these kids. Get them off all this crap, this food that's poisoning their minds and all of this crap coming from these phones and all this shit. They're just I just watched these kids when I'm in New York. And I'm like, they just sit there. They don't even they just like they're all absorbed in the phones and they don't even know how to have a conversation with people. That's why you see these people online they come out their face, like being disrespectful when I'm like, yo, Pat. Like, you bear in mind your P's and Q's because, you know, I come from a different world. And I had one that was popping off nonstop bullshit on me. And then last summer, I ran into a monster spring I ran into him on the street in New York and he put his head down and tried to walk by me that didn't ask

Chuck Shute: 1:07:36

you right who was this was like a fan of some dude

John Joseph: 1:07:39

that's been like popping, you know shit on me out this scumbag anti Vaxxer all this bullshit conspiracy theory Fuck him. I mean, it went to the point where they will call where they were writing emails in to my clients and telling them I'm fucked up and having me canceled off of like speaking perform speaking gigs and all kinds of Schiff and tell him my label to drop me telling distributors don't carry my records or books. I mean, dude, it's insane. What these people did

Chuck Shute: 1:08:15

the work that they

John Joseph: 1:08:18

did to a certain degree, but I don't care. I like Yo, you know, you know what I told them? You tried to cancel me online motherfucker. I had people try to Cancel Cancel me in real life on the streets in New York. Which means taking your fucking life you think? I mean, I don't care because I'm not in it for all this bullshit, right? There's always going to be things you got to deal with in this world. But you know, this guy was roaring like a lion. And when I rolled up on him on the street, I had just come from the gym. I put my bag down, I'd say Hey, I am Oh, man. Come on, you know as like, Bro. Words and fucking consequences, bro. When you try to stop somebody from being able to pay their rent and their bills and fucking put food on the table, that's the type of violence and that's what you're, you're you were involved in that against me. I said why don't you say anything that you were saying online right now while I'm in front of you. And he walked when he walked away like the church, my mouse? Because that's I you know, listen, I come from that. You're respectful to people because if you were disrespectful to people in the world where I came up, you'd be killed very quickly. You add fucking murder is most of the people that I ran the streets with murdered people or gotten murdered or 10 fucking life sentences.

Chuck Shute: 1:09:49

Did you ever get close to anyone ever put a gun to your head or anything? Are

John Joseph: 1:09:53

you fucking kidding me? I got shot and in Forest Park I got I had fucking people try to rob mean, I don't know, probably a fucking dozen times. Wow. With guns it didn't, you know, but the thing is I had a certain amount of street awareness that if somebody, you know, if you're you know if you're standing back, that's a different story but I know I, I always tell the story I was where I went to go set up the drums for Earl at the new grill club. This was like 82 and the new grill Club was on like, 12th Street or something. And I came from the studio and I was like smoking all this weed I was and it was raining out, right? So I'm walking on 10th Street, and I'm stoned and it's pouring rain. 20 I'm 20 years old, but I was already you know, I'm training my whole life food in this street shit. Like I never flip out when there's like, and I'm walking down the street and these two dudes are standing at the top of his stew. And I was just like, I didn't pay it much mine. So I'm walking and then one comes down the stew and fucking pulls out a 44 Magnum and puts it to my head. And I was so high I was like, I just like he started going through my pockets. And it took me like probably 1015 seconds to be like, This motherfucker is trying to rob me. So, you know, he thought that no reaction was like me being shut up. But it was just that I was so fucking high. I just smoked like, I don't know how many splits. So then I was just like, he's looking down going through my pockets and took his eye off me so I just blocked the fucking gun way. And I grabbed him and spoke and smashed his head into a car out boy comes his boy comes to the steps with a fucking machete. And I walk in tries to chop my fucking head off when I got out of the way and then I just took the fuck off and ran. I mean, I've had so many

Chuck Shute: 1:12:29

New York was crazy in the early 80s

John Joseph: 1:12:31

Oh my God, it was the wild wild west man and then I'm involved in the drug world doing that shit man. I remember didn't

Chuck Shute: 1:12:38

You didn't used to tell me the story about you delivered weed to Dave Chappelle? Oh,

John Joseph: 1:12:43

yeah. Well, I had a weed business. I had a weed delivery business but it was all like it was private clients, right. So my client was Matt hein. He worked for Tristar he was a publicist at Tristar so I guess he had they were scouting Dave Chappelle or whatever. And Matt says to me, Hey, man, can you deliver at the Boston comedy club I'm seeing this you know, comedian over here. It's gonna be fucking huge, right? So I get over to the Boston Comedy Club. And it's fucking Dave Chappelle on stage. He wanted to buy weed from me and I used to ride in all the, like the professional bike gear. That's why when he did half baked when you see the guy that delivered the weed to him. I'm like, but that was me kind of cuz I used to ride and I would take the water bottle, which was black. I wouldn't carry a backpack because the cops they looked for that, like you carry in a bag. I just looked like I was out riding the bike. But I had two water bottles and in each water bottle I had these bags of fucking like two and a half grams of hydro and I had like 30 of them in each water bottle so I would deliver those 60 and then go back and re up. I delivered to fucking Harrison Ford's bizarre like, why Harrison Ford's people got into Yeah, fucking all these models and Ford I cannot picture am i But this guy smoked weed. Harrison Ford in Hawaii, where he lived was like my friend was taking pictures of him. He goes, Hey, you want to smoke some weed? And he breaks out some shit. And my friend was took two hits. And he's like, Yo, oh man, this is fucking garbage. He's like, try this. And he gives Harrison Ford some of the weed that I sold. He's like, Where'd you get this? He's like this dude in New York. He's like, so then like whenever Harrison was in New York, that photographer will call me and be like, yeah, Harrison. I never met him. Dave Chappelle I delivered to and then Dave Chappelle boo. A whopping like a year and went from nobody to like he lived in this on Second Avenue. There's this building of like, multimillion dollar condos that are like four apartments that are like duplexes. And the next time I delivered to him, like he called me again and I was like, he was he was living now I was like, Wow, man, you doing good. And then half baked, came out. And I delivered him there a few times. And I was always the same shit like a tent, you know, an eight to $10,000 racing bike, all the pro shit. With the shit in the water bottles, no backpack?

Chuck Shute: 1:15:40

Did you ever get caught with a water bottle? That's a pretty good try. I

John Joseph: 1:15:43

never got caught. I never I never got caught. And so they just started pulling anybody over on a bike. And then I had my friends drive me. And somebody did some stupid shit one night. And that's what got me caught, you know, so. And then they thought I had much they thought I was because there was services that will. My friend gave me Johnny, God bless him. He passed away from Lou Gehrig's disease with like, think 2018. He wrote, he wrote a comedy called weedy, which was about one of the first delivery services. But I worked for the pope a pot, which was the initial first delivery service. And if you Google the pope apart and bring that dude up, his name was Mickey. He wore a big Pope hat. And like he had his number was one time. And the phone banks that took the calls from the clients was across the street from the tombs, which was like all the courts downtown on Center Street. And then you would go to this comic book shop on Ninth Avenue and 14th and pick up your weed. What I worked for him, and he had this like, my friends robbed him in the 80s because he had this church to realize fantasy, I think it was on 10th Street. And he would hold mass in a pope outfit. And the communion that he gave out was a hit of MDMA. And my friend went in and robbed him. I won't mention the guy's name he doesn't want me to but he robbed them with a big fucking hunting knife and took a jar of the pills. And Mickey the pope called the cops and undercover officers knew my friend and they're like, these two cops to Crankbrothers they're famous. And I know them because I practiced with Brian Van Cleef, the black dragon a little bit and, and they were both his students. And that's how I knew them and they just knew, I remember one of them. Like this guy, big black dude was just fucking these cops up in Tompkins Square Park and they're trying to put the cuffs on him. And this guy's like, he had some he was a good boxer, and he was fucking bang, bang, bang, knocking these fucking cops out. When pulls up in the anti Crime Unit jumps out, puts the guy in a fucking arm lock Because Ron Van Cleef taught it Jitsu, and puts the fucking dude down. One hand holds him takes out the cuffs. Here, hands him to the fucking uniformed cops. But those cops grabbed my friend and they're like, Yo, give us back the pills. And they got the pills and gave them back to the Pope because MDMA was legal back then. Oh, okay. Weird. That's how but crazy stories that you can't even make this type of shit up man like the drug shit that like this book. I mean, it's like the drug like the drug stories in there. And you know what I say is it seems so glamorous. You're in New York you going all the best clubs you got or whatever girls this that it's all bullshit. Because that party's gonna come crashing down eventually. Yeah, I just and that's what happens, you know, right.

Chuck Shute: 1:19:29

I just had this rapper on from Seattle. And he was talking about how the and you know, people that he's like, you build this thing up in your mind. Like, it's always this wild and crazy time when you do drugs. But he said a lot of times it's actually really predictable. You know, what's gonna happen when you use drugs? And he said, but you know, if you don't use drugs, and something good can happen. It's kind of like a flip switch. Although it does some pretty crazy when you were to go into the drug phase in New York and the 80s

John Joseph: 1:19:54

Yeah, I mean, dude, imagine like as violent as New York was back then and I'm running around On, like all the insane stories you heard about the crack trade and on our ship, I started dabbling in that in 87 all the way to fucking 90. And by the time I finished with that 88 to 90 was just full blown chaos. And I ended up just blocking people trying wanting to kill, like out to kill me. And I ended up like, we had this whole run on the West Coast and I was fucking It was crazy. And then I ended up in a in a crack house in Alphabet City, and is to just, you know, came up behind me and fucking smashed my head and with a fucking two by four and took everything I had. And that was it. Man. I was like I just started climbing out from there was a rock bottom. I was below the rocks at that point, dude, that people talking about rock bottom, I'm like, you can go lower than rock bottom. I was I was I had nothing. I was sitting in Tampa square popped my head split the fuck open. burned every bridge. And I just started with fucking crying and being like, I got, you know, I gotta get out of this man.

Chuck Shute: 1:21:28

This is the memory of that. Is that kind of what keeps you motivated to stay clean now?

John Joseph: 1:21:34

Yeah, I mean, I just know where it's, you know, I know, I know what that leads to, you know, like, in yoga, it says that the senses are controlled by the mind and the mind is driven by the intelligence. So when the mind tries to come up with all this crazy shit, the intelligence needs to kick in and say, Hey, remember what happened last time. I mean, I'll tell you an example. It was like right before the pandemic, I was on tour with kromaggs. And some dude was like in such in such cells like kilos and shit, he's all hooked up. And my mind was like, Yo, if I go and rob that, dude, I'll be able to free bass for like, six months. And I had the lie. I couldn't even believe that my mind put that thought out there. You know, and I had to be like, the intelligence has to say, hey, like, remember what happened before with all that? And it always starts out a party you don't you know, I was going to like I said, the bass club, the VIP wound sparking getting the best Coke, whatever the fuck and it's all taken

Chuck Shute: 1:22:48

doesn't go away, though. The temptation is still there's still a piece of you that's like tempted by that. So you know,

John Joseph: 1:22:54

you're in recovery. That's why I say it's walking through hell. battling addiction and finding recovery. I mean, recovery. There's always going to be a part of me, that's an addict. I'm just not letting that part of me take control of my life. I still have addictive traits. As somebody said, yeah, you used to do drugs. Now you're addicted to training. And I'm like, so what? Why would you fucking care? That's a good thing. Look at all the good work. I've been able to do to help others like, I mean, I've I go and for a while before the pandemic, I was speaking at prisons and all this shit in high schools and you know, these kids listen, because I'm like, yo, when I started telling my story of where I came from, they don't want some psychiatrist or whatever, that ain't been through shit telling them how it is. They don't know. Just like I did this documentary 30 to life. And we work it's the guy that did what the health Kip into sin.

Chuck Shute: 1:24:00

And is that the way this 30 to life? I've heard you talk about because

John Joseph: 1:24:04

what happened? I'll tell you about it in a second. But me and Paul de Gelder worked on it. We took it to kip, he worked on it. So basically, we worked with this Amity house in LA it's like a work release program. Everybody in the thing did over 20 years in some of the hottest prisons San Quentin Pelican Bay. I mean these guys were shot call as they wouldn't fucking real deal. They did. One guy did 40 years in like the worst fucking he was there for the San Quentin riots everything. And we put them through this whole process of purification. But you know how the thing was. Initially, the first day we went in, everybody sat in a big semi circle, right like this. Then the people involved was sitting here, so everybody said their little piece If you could just see these fucking hardened motherfuckers would just like yeah, whatever. But when I spoke, and I'm like, yo, here's my trip. This is where I came from. abused in foster homes on the streets, lockups, drugs, Insanity, people being murdered around me. I know I could have went down that same path, but I had to choose. You saw like a little like, that might have been on some shit. He could have been one to us. I could have been one of those guys because everybody told me even in lockup you're gonna spend your life in prison. I had that ability. And I'm not bragging about it. I'm just saying I had such a rage within me from what was done to me as a child. That and then you feel that with drugs and alcohol, you're a fucking time bomb waiting to go off. That's why I got the time bomb on my hand. That's what they told me in lockup. I had to see a shrink. They put try to put me on they put me on Thorazine for a while I was like, because I just started banging people out like I didn't take no shit and I would brutally like the first person that fucked with me and Spofford in the Bronx I fucking I just beat him senseless with a fucking chair over his head and then went knocked his friend out. Like, and they put me in like some isolation fucking unit. But I always had my mother was like, You got to temper your father. And I always knew that scared me man I knew. And I wrote about it in the book, because it's very personal journey. And I was like, it terrified me that I knew that I was capable of snapping and actually murdering somebody. And I knew I had to be you know, like I said everything that was harbored inside of me from what was done to me as a child and then all and then you fueling all of that and then the violence just that existed on the streets in New York. And then you fueling all of that shit with you know, the match that lights the gasoline is to drugs and alcohol, because then you're not making the proper decisions in your life because the decision making process is sparking a screwed with these drugs and alcohol. And even when I was locked up, and I went to Broadway and I went to FishKill Max, you know, rollway was in Jersey, and then FishKill was in like a little bit north upstate New York. You know how many of those motherfuckers said it's what I did in that moment of being high that has me here for the rest of my life. Because it was the lifers group they would never getting out. They got life in prison. It was the lifers group were the ones that was talking to us. And I was like, I knew that I had that ability to murder somebody like and I said that if any of these drug dealers would have resisted. I always got the upper hand on him. But there was one situation. And I talked about it in the book that I almost got murdered. We got this Columbian in the car, and anybody that knows New York in the 80s on 18th, and Eighth Avenue, the Colombians were all over that you could buy 10 kilos on the street. So this dude, who always posed himself, he called himself crazy Dave Cuban. The first time I ever smoked Freebase was with him in Florida. And if you saw cocaine, cowboys, right, that documentary, yeah, his brother took to whatever kilos I mean, he just came in with a bag like this a blow and asked me if I ever free based I said no, I was slipping at the time. This was like 8887 So we just thought freebasing I'm I'm fucking up for two days and then it just got crazy where like, I just started grabbing people and taking the pipe from them and they were like, Yo, disguise we gotta get the fuck out of here. And the do crazy Dave says all you could sleep in my brother's room, right? So have, here's the first time I ever Freebase any I was like on the carpet looking for rocks and he's like, Yo, take these values and go to sleep. So I was like, in that stage, where it's in between like sleep and being awake, I was up for two days. My fucking hearts popping out of my chest. I stopped feeling the the barbituates kick in. Breathing slowing down. Still right before the sunrise. I'm like in the dudes. waterbed. You know, he had the whole fucking drug deal a room with the black mirror glass and the fucking waterbed. And I'm like, nodding off and then I hear outside of his window, a car pull up on the lawn. I hear two doors open, I hear the bolts of two aof routines, click right into the room where I was BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE BYE. But then they start doing the fucking Bedich I rolled off on the floor the bed explodes the water bed the glass is everywhere. They did a walk around the house. And this particular house had brick three feet to this to the fucking the it was brick and then sheet rock and wood or whatever the fuck outs particle board whatever the fuck they built the houses with anybody if that house would not have had that brick, everybody would have been fucking dead. And they did a walk around the house emptied out both clips get back in the car and pulled off. That was my first time smoking Freebase. I found out he had robbed fucking the cartels, the Cuban cartel for drugs. And that was without telling us where we got that blow from. And that was my first experience. And this was the guy I was running with this guy fucking crazy Dave Cuban days and shake your wine. Oh, that they know you know, always posing like these these crazy motherfucker. So then he's like, Yo, this is peanuts, man. We got we need a big score because I was the maniac. I was still doing 500 Push ups and puking. You know, just I was the crackhead that was fit and could fight. So he would be like, Yo, we got to hit the spot on Pitt Street and I drive in my girl's car and he weighed over there. I walk up and be like, Yo, you got Jumbos, as soon as he went to pull that shit out, boom, boom, boom, boom can take his shit. So I was doing these strong armed robberies, they were like, Yo, we're gonna kill that surfer looking motherfucker when we catch him. Right? There's a KOLs pocket Belkin $500 though, whatever. So then he's like, Yo, Johnny, the my girl at the time was this big family was this big