#298: John Joseph on Destroying Monsters - Addiction, Redemption, and Hardcore Healing
Rip Esselstyn sits down with John Joseph—author, musician, and former frontman of the iconic hardcore punk band Cro-Mags—to explore a story of survival that defies belief.
John’s journey takes us far below rock bottom: addiction to crack cocaine, pills, and alcohol; a life of crime on the streets of New York; time spent in foster care and juvenile detention; and the devastating loss of loved ones to violence and substance abuse. But somehow, against all odds, John fought his way back—and now lives a life centered on service, discipline, and purpose.
Today, he’s a sober, plant-based IRONMAN triathlete, motivational speaker, and the author of the powerful new book Destroying Monsters.
John shares how the straight edge punk rock scene and the Hare Krishna movement helped transform his life, and how Destroying Monsters offers real tools for those battling their own demons.
He discusses:
His descent into addiction and the dark underworld of crime
How punk, spirituality, and service saved his life
The power of discipline and Positive Mental Attitude (PMA)
How his plant-based lifestyle fuels his endurance training
Why Destroying Monsters is more than a memoir—it’s a guide to transformation
Whether you’re facing your own struggles or simply need a dose of no-holds-barred inspiration, this conversation will light a fire under you.
Order Destroying Monsters exclusively from John’s website
Episode Resources
Watch the Episode on YouTube
Learn more about our 2025 Plantstrong Retreat in Black Mountain, NC - Nov 9-14, 2025
PLANTSTRONG Meal Planner - https://home.mealplanner.plantstrong.com/
To stock up on the best-tasting, most convenient, 100% PLANTSTRONG foods, including our all new chilis, check out all of our PLANTSTRONG products HERE
Give us a like on the PLANTSTRONG Facebook Page and check out what being PLANSTRONG is all about. We always keep it stocked full of new content and updates, tips for healthy living, and delicious recipes, and you can even catch me LIVE on there!
We’ve also got an Instagram! Check us out and share your favorite PLANTSTRONG products and why you love it! Don’t forget to tag us using #goplantstrong 🌱💪
Full Episode Transcription via AI Transcription Service
I'm Rip Esselstyn, and you're listening to the PLANTSTRONG Podcast.
[0:05] People don't often make change until they hit rock bottom. Well, for author and musician John Joseph, his life went well below rock bottom. Addiction to crack cocaine, pills and alcohol, a life of crime in New York, murder and the death of family members, homelessness. this, it's almost inconceivable that anyone could recover. But John Joseph did, and his new book, Destroying Monsters, will give you the tools to slay your own demons. We'll have his story right after this word from PLANTSTRONG.
[0:44] You know, every once in a while, we get an email to hello at plantstrong.com that just stops us in our tracks and reminds me and the team why we do this work. For example, Maddie from Chicago writes, I finally feel in control of my eating plan. Because of Plant Strong Foods, my pantry is stocked with quick meals that I can make in minutes. And my grocery shopping is just a quick breeze around the perimeter to pick up fresh produce. My partner and I spend less time cooking and more time enjoying the benefits of convenient, healthy meals. Maddie, thank you. Notes like this mean everything to me and the PlantStrong team because this is exactly what PlantStrong is all about. We are on a mission to make powerfully whole, plant-based favorites for real life. Foods that are convenient, clean, and built to help you live your strongest life. If you're ready to feel more in control of your eating and spend less time stressing in the kitchen, then it's time to stock that pantry and your life with real fuel. Check out our full assortment at planstrong.com. If you're not familiar with John Joseph, let me give you a little background.
[2:10] Thus known as the lead vocalist of the hardcore punk band Cro-Mags, he grew up in a troubled environment, spending time in foster care and juvenile detention as a youth before turning to music as an outlet. He was involved in crime and in the throes of massive addiction, but he credits the straight-edge punk rock scene and the Hare Krishna movement for turning his life around and providing a framework for recovery. If you ask John today, what does he center his life around? He'll say discipline, which is a far cry from the guy who was incarcerated for much of his younger life. Today, John is a sober and strictly plant-based motivational speaker, author, and accomplished Ironman triathlete, and he spends a great deal of his time in service to others. Now, don't get me wrong, he hasn't lost that New York punk rocker energy, but what he also has is heart, empathy, and massive amounts of compassion.
[3:19] That's what his new book, Destroying Monsters, is all about. Yes, you're going to hear about his undeniable, horrific upbringing, but the book is also a guidebook to help others destroy their own monsters with tools and methods that have helped John stay sober, active, and focused on his PMA, positive mental attitude. Please welcome my PLANTSTRONG brother, John Joseph.
[3:51] John Joseph, welcome to the PLANTSTRONG Podcast. Thank you, brother. Man, it's been a minute since I've been in Austin, huh? It's been a minute and a half. I think, I'm trying to think the last time that we saw each other. I know you were in Austin. You were playing at some bar. I got this phone call in the morning, and you're like, hey, come to the pool. I'm here with a really good friend. And it was Lance Armstrong. And I was like, I know, I know. But you know what? This is what I want to do today with you. I want to talk about. Well, let me back up for a sec. How many books have you written? Six, six books. I'm finishing up my seventh now, which is an updated version. I took the cookbook that I wrote, Hardcore Kitchen and Unfuck Your Health. Yeah. Yeah. And I combined it into one book now and I updated everything and a lot of new information, you know, and all the stuff that's going on, like the Ozempic and every, you know, these ways that people are trying to lose weight and, you know, just a lot of stuff. And I took out all the recipes with the fake meat and all that because I don't eat that anymore. And it just it got a.
[5:15] It's like, you know, unfuck your health 2.0, man. It's it got it got an update for what's, you know, going on in the world with all the obesity. And I address that issue. And, you know, it's yeah, I've been working on that for about a year. And then I got another book coming after that. So. Well, you are a voracious writer. Your first book, Evolution of a Cro-Magnon. Then you had I think it might have been Meat is for Pussies. Yes. Yes. The PMA, a lot of trouble.
[5:50] The PMA effect. Everything is a gift. Obviously, hard. The hardcore kitchen. Yeah. But the one I want to talk about today with the PLANTSTRONG audience is this one destroying monsters.
John's Harrowing Upbringing
[6:04] And, you know, you basically say walking through hell, battling addiction and finding recovery. And and I I've read this over the last several weeks and it is it's a it's incredible i can't believe how you just kind of you really like bear it all for the audience and the first half it's broken up into two two parts the first half is your journey so many different stories that are in there and the second half is kind of uh it's all about tools and the mindset to fight uh which i which i love so what i'd love to do is tell me like tell the audience you grew up in kind of a a tough environment at home then you have we were putting it mildly but then you were placed in foster care which was just as bad if not worse than what was going on at home and then you were in and out of juvenile detention so when when how old were you when you were.
[7:07] Placed in foster care? Um, I was about seven. It had like in 69, my mother, you know, I got, I didn't even find out till I was in my forties. I was, you know, conceived out of a rape, you know, my father broke in, he was an animal and, um, beat my mom the whole time. Uh, you know, It was like, you know, the guy was from Ireland, so it was one kid after another and just, you know, a professional boxer. Yeah. Really not a good person. You know, I was able to contact, you know, social media is wild because I didn't know a lot about him. And my cousin is Kelly reached out to me. And she's like, hey, I'm I'm your I'm your cousin. Like you're my dad was your dad's brother. And I live in Long Beach, Long Island. I'm like, get out of here. I'm getting I'm on my bike right now. I'm riding out there. You know, it's like 30 miles. I was on a training ride and I was like, I would love to meet you. And then she filled me in on the details of his alcohol and drug addiction and what, you know, that whole side of the family was dealing with. with.
[8:29] They were given hard liquor by the time they could reach up their hand to the bar. My grandfather on that side died at 50 from cirrhosis of the liver. It just ran in the family. And then my father wanted to be a gangster more than he wanted to be a boxer and just started like.
[8:49] Collecting uh money for mafia mob types and uh you know just a bag man not like i said not a good person but he took it out on my mom and she had nervous breakdowns and couldn't do couldn't take care of three kids he would just break in and beat the crap out of her and take all her money and her food and and uh so it got to be too much and uh my mom was put on drugs they put my mom on on uh um, amphetamines and barbiturates at the same time. And she just spun out. And then one day the landlady, um, found us out in the snow in our underwear and, uh, called child protection services. My mom, the place was filthy. We were on the run constantly from him. And then they just took us away. They put us, so they put me and my younger brother in, in the angel guardian orphanage in, Iowa and then they put my grandmother took my brother for a little while, my grandmother and grandfather but then they couldn't deal with them so then we went to this foster home in Brooklyn, Sheepshead Bay, the Sheridans and then the mom got cancer so then we got separated and they put us in like a foster home from hell in Long Island with these people that were just complete deranged.
[10:17] Like anything you could imagine that would happen the abuse to kids we went through it and then my brother's foster home that he was in my older brother that got closed down he was only taking like girls from vietnam and he was molesting them so they found out about it, so like yeah i would say i was like seven or eight and then i was in that foster home in deer park.
[10:43] And we were there for five years and then they shut the house. I mean, it was just crazy, you know, just dealing with all that. And that led to me as a way to deal with all of everything I was going through. I started drinking and doing drugs at 12 years old, you know, so. Well, you know what? One of the things that I found really interesting just to level set here for a sec, John, is you have in the book, you have some stats in the United States around drugs and alcohol use.
[11:13] Um, it's over 80% of abuse, children that suffer sexual and physical abuse end up becoming addicts. Yeah. And that's like, you know, that's why I never judge anybody that's an addict. Cause you don't know what their backstory is. And you know, yeah, we went through it and all three of us had addiction problems. So, yeah. but you say that 23 million americans are either have a are addicted to drug or alcohol drugs or alcohol and then i think you say 138 million report using drugs or alcohol before the age of 12 which i found like wow that's yeah i pulled those stats up from like cdc and other webs other government websites and yeah so like yeah yeah so i think where where where i'm going with this is the addiction is it is so ubiquitous right amongst our society you have you have been you know through the ranks of addiction to hell and back and you've come out very much scathed but you're
The Impact of Addiction
[12:25] a lot and you're given like nobody's business. You, you, you dedicate this book to your brother, Frank. Yeah. Um, and Frank is no longer with us. What, what happened to Frank? Um.
[12:41] You know, I started writing the book because of what I had to deal with with him and then what we came out of. But Frank was a veteran, Navy veteran, and they did surgeries on him. And I mean, he always had alcohol and drug problems coming out of the military. But then I think they had to operate on him and they gave him Mercer. And then as a result of the it was the untreatable kind. So it just started eating away at his bones and they just gave him oxycontins like like a pez dispenser yeah and i mean it just goes back a long way because the day before 9-11, i had to do an intervention on him and uh i got a call in staten island.
[13:31] And it was my friend the morrison family who always looked out joey and uh amy and the mom, and she called me up she's like your brother's in my attic and if you don't come get him he's going to be dead in a week so i get on the ferry out to staten island i'm like i didn't even recognize him he looked so bad he was you know drugs alcohol everything you name it bad food so i just said you know i'm not even discussing with you get your stuff let's go and he had the ferry over from Staten Island to lower Manhattan. There was the Twin Towers. And I booked in St. Thomas, I booked a rehab bed for him with Joey Morrison, one of the Morrisons. Like Alex, God rest his soul, he passed away. They loved my brother. My brother was like, they took him as, You know A fifth You know child The mother such a sweet lady And um.
[14:40] Yeah, so he was supposed to leave on September 11th, 2001. Well, September 11th rolls around. He had a night flight. I was getting ready to go on a bike ride, training ride, and get the news. A small plane hit the World Trade Center, right? I turn it on. I'm like, that ain't a small plane. I'm up to my roof because I live, whatever, a couple of miles from ground zero, and my roof was up. You could see straight through. And I'm like, there's this gaping hole. And then the second plane hits. And, you know, and I couldn't get him out of New York for, I don't know, it was like weeks. So he spent the weeks detoxing in my house, which was like reliving every past traumatic situation that we went through. I mean, it was like to be dealing with 9-11 and what was happening in the city, my brother in my house, going through that, it was surreal. It was just like, wow. And he just continued, you know, his wife, his girlfriend at the time died in his arms of an overdose.
[15:55] I got the call from that, you know, and it was constant. I put him in the VA on 23rd Street and First Avenue. And I called up the next day to I, you know, to a day later, hey, you know, I'm going to bring my brother some stuff. He had nothing. So they're like, oh, he left this morning. And he went right back to the house.
[16:19] And basically, you know, I said, you got to get out of there, you know, like, why did you leave this? You know, so it just kept any he ate the worst food, you know, too. So that was the other thing on top of the booze and the drugs. He was also eating, you know, the most terrible food you could imagine, you know, all for those like street vendor trucks. You know, we used to joke like he eats breakfast, lunch and dinner off of Mohammed's mystery meat truck. You know, you know, the kebabs and all that crap. And so we had a lot of health issues because of that. And then he just suffered a major stroke and never recovered from that. And then basically drank and drugged himself to death. His heart stopped and there for a few days before anybody found him. So that was, you know, it was and I had already been writing the book. You know, I was already penning this and just like because I really felt I had a lot to offer people that, you know, are going through addiction just to never give up. and the methods that I used.
[17:32] And then I was here and, you know, my friend stopped by. He was traveling and he was like, yo, I'm like an hour away from your house, man. Like, you know, this guy, Richie Scam, and he's a musician guy.
[17:49] And he's like, yeah, I said, come by. So we're sitting out in the backyard and he's in recovery himself. So he was like, what's going on with your brother, Frank? And I was like, oh, man, it's not good. And I was like, I'm expecting to get that call, you know, any day. And I swear to God, I'm sitting here. He's sitting here. There's a table in between us and my phone is on the table.
[18:15] And I see my brother e-calling and something just told me, like, this is the call. And I picked up the phone and he goes, did you hear? And I was like, Frank died, right? And he goes, yeah. I knew. I knew. It was like, you're just like, you know, losing a sibling, man. You just like, you just knew it. And my friend said, oh, man, I'm going to leave you to deal with this. I'll let you have your space. So he left. I had my grieving and I wrote the second chapter I dedicated to, you know, just my brother's entire life. I couldn't get a flight anywhere because it was later in the day.
The Journey of Recovery
[19:01] So I just I had to process that grief some any way I could. So I just wrote the second chapter, which was going to come later.
[19:10] It was a later chapter and then i just wrote all all night into the next morning yeah well you know what what what runs through the book john is your undying love for your brother and how you at every turn were there for him and trying to give him your hand and help him up but as we all know you know you can only help somebody so much yeah they don't want to change yeah and you know i i I like, you know, even through my addictions and my big relapse from 88 to 90, I was smoking free bass and then crack. And the first time I smoked free bass, the guy had robbed like, you know, the Cuban cartel people in Miami. And after being up for two days, they came with AR 15s and opened up on the house while we were sleeping. So I should have taken the.
[20:06] You know caution right there and been like all right i'm headed to a bad place but i was around bad people so if you're around people that are doing bad stuff you're gonna do bad stuff you know that goes for dietarily as well and uh yeah i attribute the only reason coming back like even even through all of that i maintain my plant-based diet you know right i'd wake up after the third day and be like, yo, let's get some wheatgrass juice. And these dudes I'm with are like, dude, you don't need to be in a juice bar. You need to be in Bellevue. Like what I just saw you do. Right. Well, tell me this. So you mentioned free basin there. Is there any drug that you have not done or experimented with in your life? I did everything, man. Like I did heroin and luckily I didn't like it. Like some people have a violent reaction. Like I, I lost girl, my girlfriends to it. Like, you know, friends OD'd my last guitar player. Uh, uh, Todd youth, my friend OD'd on heroin. Now the fentanyl is in everything. So like you could sniff a bump of Coke and die, you know, it's just, you're playing Russian roulette. But thankfully my, I had a violent reaction. I shot dope when I was like 13. Like I was on the streets.
[21:30] I first started running away in like 76 and all that. And then 77. No, I was 14. And I was, you know, drug trafficking with these heroin dealers in Rockaway, these two junkies. And, you know, I shot heroin and I was like, I got violently sick and I just didn't like it. I was more into the hallucinogenics. I didn't even do the cocaine The cocaine came later I was into pills Placidils, 2-and-all I was just a garbage bale for every drug You could possibly imagine And um.
[22:06] Speed, everything, man. What about a lot of alcohol in there? Yeah. Oh, man. Alcohol like crazy, you know?
[22:16] Yeah. A lot of Jack Daniels, whiskey, like just beer. Right. You know? What about pot? Yeah. I was a pothead. Pothead. And dust, angel dust. I was selling dust. For that's what got me that's what got me busted finally and sent upstate and got locked up i was selling dust so you were locked up uh what was this in uh what prison or what yeah yeah i got put in spotford which is like worse than rikers island that was in the south bronx for 18 and under yeah and um mike tyson was in there like you hear the stories about spotford and i was the only white dude in the whole place I had a target on me and these Irish cops from Queens drove me there and they were like telling me like you better put you know you better hurt the first black or Puerto Rican Spanish guy that messes with you and I was like I'm not racist man I don't roll like that they're like they laughed and they're like you're about to see a very difficult lesson the last white kid got stabbed to death or whatever in Spofford so you've been straight now or you've been clean 23 years 24 years 24 years that's absolutely incredible and I want to talk about.
[23:46] I want to go through some stuff like, but let's talk about how you've been able to be clean for 24 years, because that sounds like a pretty amazing feat and you're going strong.
[23:58] So this year, I am in number 15. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you, you know, you talk about in the book, you have all these different strategies that you have to kind of, I think, keep the beasts at bay, right? To continue to destroy these monsters. And so let me just throw out a topic, and then if you could talk a little bit about it. So let's start with physical health. Absolutely. So, like, is that why you got into triathlons?
[24:35] Well, you know, I was always a good athlete. I boxed when I was locked up. I worked out. They always told you in jail, you got to get your weight up. And that means, like, you better be hitting the weights and all that. And then the guy told me to work your program, right? So I went through the Scared Straight program, right? They sent us to Rawway, Fishkill Maximum Security. And the life is grouped. They're never getting out. They committed multiple murders. They try to help the youth to not make the same mistakes. So I talk about this in the book. And the guy said to me, what's your program? I was like, what do you mean? He's like, what are you doing to better yourself while you're locked up? You know, stay away from the knuckleheads. They're not going nowhere. Most of these people you're around, they're going to end up reoffending and get incarcerated for life, you know, of one bad mistake. So I was always I, you know, I also like.
[25:34] I joined the military after lockup, and I was still an addict, and I was selling drugs. I had a drug business in Norfolk while I was in the Navy, and I got caught. I was looking at felony drug charges. I sold to undercover cops in Norfolk at this punk bar called the King's Head Inn. I got set up. So I had level one narcotics, and they were talking like eight to ten years in Leavenworth. You know and i'm like i ain't doing that time so um i split so the only job that i could get, right when i got out where i didn't have to because that's how they catch you you use your social security number i never used my social security number so i got a job as a bike messenger.
[26:22] And i was at the same company with nelson vales who won the olympic gold medal in 84 and i'm riding on a girl's bike like just doing whatever he's like you know if you get a real bike you could be making serious money and they gave you a check cashing card with any name you said, so i was like edward leon forte or whatever like you know and then you go to their bank and with the check and the cat check cashing card this is in the early 80s and you could just get your money right no no taxes no nothing i'm not i'm not so my first racing bike was in the chickey modulus with the with the biopace crank yeah yeah the egg-shaped crank that they tried to bring back but yeah so then i started making like you know i was getting in shape and then he's like yo you should come and do the crit ride at night in central park and then all those guys George Hinkerby I met.
[27:23] Because he was friends with the Cuevas family, who I bought the bike from. Andres Paco Francisco from Spain, Frame Builders. So then I slowly started getting into the crit rides at night and riding with Mike McCarthy and Frankie Lopez and all these like beast athletes. And I'm keeping up with them because I'm riding, you know, 40, 50 miles every day with a freaking backpack. And then I had a and then I was I worked for one of the big weed delivery services, for the Pope of Pot where you would dial 1-800-WANT-POT and I would I would do all the deliveries all over the city so I'm like you know riding crazy miles every day yeah I saw the Iron Man and um with my own my late uncle uh Rocco D'Angelo and he was a cyclist from Italy I used to go biking with him.
[28:18] And I saw that race. It was on Why World of Sports in the early 80s. And it was the Iron War race that I saw. And I was like, I just was, it was so emotional to see what everybody was going through. And then I was like, I want to do that race one day, man. And so then when I hit 50, I was like, as a way to kind of challenge myself and help myself stay clean and everything and stay motivated and especially the discipline that's involved with training i did my first iron man uh at 50 years old the new york city iron man and my band the chrome eggs played philly the night before to 3 000 people sold out you know what those shows are like yes people jumping all over you on the stage and somebody goes.
[29:08] I said, you know, somebody backstage asked me if I'm going to take it easy tonight because I got an Ironman tomorrow. Absolutely effing not. We just broke into chaos. So I went back to New York and it's August whatever 11th. It's 95 degrees soaking humidity. And my brother drove me back from Philly and I caught literally the last ferry to the swim start. And it was the pro ferry with all the pros on it and there and i'm like hey you want some vega i got some vegan stuff they're like who the hell let this guy on this boat they're all in the zen mode with the headphones like they all want to win the race and i'm like this newbie first timer like you know nervous energy like trying to talk to all them they're like somebody comes over they're Like, yeah, why don't you go over there and just leave everybody alone?
[30:05] I finished racing, I don't know, 13 hours with no sleep, and I had a stress fracture in my foot. And I just kept going from there, you know. I just was like, I got the bug, man, you know. And it's a lifestyle. You got to be so dialed in with your diet and your physical training and, you know, being in the gym and doing. And I have a coach, Samantha Murphy, from, you know, she's been coaching me, I think, since that Chattanooga race I did that was on that Iron Mind thing. And, you know, it's. So, yeah, yeah. So the physical health, I mean, you've taken, to me, you've taken that to the whole nother level. And you've been going strong with it. So you started the Ironmans. The first one was 2012. Do you have anything planned this year? Yeah, I was supposed to just do Texas. But, you know, two weeks ago, I'm running on these roads and I run on these back roads. I live in Florida now. So and I've been running on this road for three years. Right.
[31:22] And nobody goes on these roads except for the people that have the farms there right, and these people get this malinois which if you know what a belgian malinois is that's the attack dogs that the special forces use in the police departments yeah so monday i'm there, and i'm running along and the dog is like running down the day.
[31:48] And then I know what these dogs are capable of. They can climb trees. They're like, they call them fur missiles.
The Role of Physical Health
[31:56] And it puts his paws up on the fence. And I'm like, oh, man, this dog.
[32:03] So then he just calmed down and I finished my run, whatever. And so then last Sunday, I'm doing the run and I'm like two and a half miles into it. There he goes again. Well, he runs down to the end of the fence line and the stupid owners had a gap between the gate that closes for the car to pull in and the fence to continue that was like this wide. So the dog comes running out across the road and tries to attack me and i had to dive over this fence and i had already strained the ligament in my knee um so as i i had to do a superman dive over the fence and smashed my knee on the fence and uh my meniscus i think i got like a little tear in it and I had to pick up a stick and just be like bashing it and then eventually the dog but bottom line I was supposed to do Texas um in honor of my brother um for Tunnel to Towers I was raising so that was uh April 26th so now I can't run I haven't been able to run at all so So I had to defer the race to Chattanooga, September 28th. And it's kind of weird because it's the day before my brother Frank's birthday.
[33:31] So I was doing the race in his honor anyway. But, yeah. And then, you know, I do Cozumel at the end of the year. I have a makeup race to do there because when they transported my bike, they cracked my DI2 box on the front derailleur. So I had a bike mechanical after the second loop of the bike and I had, you know, I had to I had to pull out of the race. Yeah. You know, yeah. You know, just I'm not I'm not a pro. I'm like, you know, yeah, I'm slow, you know, but it's it's a lifestyle to me. And it keeps you know, I'm writing. I'm working on a one man show right now about growing up in New York City. So I got a new these are all the songs for the new album I just was up in New York so I mean I got a ton of stuff going on so it's you know yeah so so uh I'm gonna let me let me let me change this a little bit because I I love the way you talk about how important certain things are in your life right now and how they kind of keep you keep you clean so you just mentioned it. So let me ask you this. Why do you write? I, you know, it's really strange. Like when I was a kid and I was locked up, I would write stories and then give them, you know, mail them to my mother.
[34:54] And the teacher, the writing teacher, when I was locked up, like first they did a medical, they had me on Thorazine. They're like, you know, they put me on drugs when I went to lock up because they're like, this dude has the capability of like killing someone. And I knew that that was a possibility because, you know, my mom always said my anger was way worse than my father's ever was. And I had the ability to, you know, I probably could have been a better boxer than him if I wanted to go that route. As a matter of fact, somebody seen me fight when I was 14 and wanted to, you know.
[35:31] But I started writing as a way to work through a lot of the stuff that I was.
[35:37] Dealing with when I was locked up. And then I started writing lyrics with the Cro-Mags in 81 and then my other band Blood Clot back then 44 years ago but now it's just like do you do you write every day yeah every day I do every day for how long since like you know no no I mean every day you write but I mean do you have a certain like do you write for an hour or just however long in the morning I just wherever the journey takes me you know like i'm i'm going over the recipes now i got through the whole book yeah so i'm going over and fine-tuning the recipes and all that but um yeah i just find like i have to if i have too many projects going on at the same time like i'm gonna put this to rest get this book done I try not to spread myself thin and I'm working I got um I gotta do I'm writing a 90-minute performance so you know Chaz Palminteri did a Bronx tale right and it was about him growing up in the Bronx with the mobsters and Robert De Niro came and saw him do the play and then it became a movie and I'm just telling my tale of where I grew up in Alphabet City in the Lower East Side and all the amazing people and musicians and the crime and the violence.
[37:02] But it was, you know, it was always running on a parallel track with.
[37:08] The music and the art and everything that saved my life yeah so you have to understand it's like you know the drugs are there and i'm seeing people die and fucking get a excuse my french but.
[37:23] Insanity the lower east side alphabet city they used to say if you go to avenue a you're adventurous be you're bold avenue c you're crazy avenue d you're dead and i was pulling in all the burnt-out buildings down there, writing lyrics and stories by candlelight. We had no windows. I was taking a shower, fire hydrant showers in the dead of winter, getting on my bike, like riding eight hours a day. Do you find, John, that, so you mentioned you had a lot more anger than even your father had. Have you been able to kind of squash that anger or deal with it? You still have a lot of anger that resides in them?
[38:07] Like, you know, I read The Four Agreements, right? Yeah. By Don Miguel Ruiz. As a matter of fact, it was 2000. It was my birthday present. My friend got me tickets to see him speak in New York, and it was life-changing, you know? And one of the things I deal with still to this day is, you know, just from my background, is taking things personally. It's one of the four agreements. Don't make assumptions. Always do your best. Don't take things personally and be impeccable with your word. The one that gets me is, like, when people try to test me and, like, you know, like, I just don't like bullies. I don't like people trying to push me around. And that's, I have an issue with that. Instead of really realizing it's their poison that they're putting out, I take, I still take things personally from time to time. But I've been able to, you know, work through a lot of the, you know, my memoir, Writing the Evolution of a Cro-Magnon was very, you know, it was very cleansing for me because nobody ever knew. They knew that I had a rough childhood, but they never knew to what degree. I never put any of that. And I would always come up to the abuse part and stop and have a breakdown and put the book down.
[39:29] And then I went to Robert McKee's seminar who teaches the story thing for writing. And he said something, he goes, it's not, it's not what happens to a character in whatever you're writing about. It's what the character does as a result of that. And that's, that like hit me. Cause I was like, yeah, it's not what happens to us because we all go through stuff in life. Everybody's journey is different, But it's what we do because of what happened. And I, you know, I was a monk for two years. I was a Krishna monk. Yeah. You in this book, you talk about discipline. Discipline trumps motivation. And I'd love for you to talk to people about your spiritual discipline and how grateful you are for that. And you obviously you practice it every day.
[40:28] That's my teacher led by example, humble, a servant of the people, you know? Yeah. But like, that's the word I learned when I was a monk was sadhana. Your sadhana is everything, your daily practice. So every day I get up before the sun, I, I, I do my devotions. I do, you know, it's a very big part of, uh, you know, I chant every day. And try to reach out and help people. And it's, you know, bhakti yoga is what it is. And Prabhupada brought it from India and it was about, you know.
[41:06] Being a being of service to other people you know people were of service to me and that's how.
[41:14] Even in my lowest points of my life when I was like an insane person.
[41:19] There was always people there to set me straight and give me that compassion that I needed so I just try to like pay that forward now no matter what it is like people write me and And I get letters and they're like, dude, I reached out to you like three years ago and you sent me this amazing email and I'm clean now for like, you know, four years. And so those are, you know, that's there's a lot of negativity that goes on with social media. But I find like it can also be used for very positive stuff, you know, every day. So, you know, like I just stay I stay disciplined because like, you know, there's days I'm not motivated. Right. And, you know, I'm a big follower of Goggins and all these people. And they're just like, man, discipline, discipline trumps everything because
Discipline and Daily Practices
[42:13] you may not be motivated to do something. And there are days I don't want to get out and ride 50, 60 miles or, you know, do whatever. But it's like it's the discipline that's, you know, because I said discipline creates the habits, habits, create the routines, the routines become who we are. And for me, the whole PLANTSTRONG thing is part of that because it's part of what I do. I don't you know, I don't want to eat the suffering of other living entities. You know, like I live down here.
[42:45] And when I go through High Springs, all back on those roads back there are all where they have the cows grazing and all the pigs and everything. And then you see them put in these trucks and they're on the main street getting ready to go to the slaughterhouse. And they're like, you just see the fear in their eyes, man. And I'll be on my bike and I'll just go up and start chanting and saying some mantras and prayers for them. Because I'm like your life is about to get snuffed out because somebody wants to eat that animal you know and it's just that's why I practice ahimsa you know like that whole Vedic um way of life and it's to do no harm you know like I don't want to you know Joe Khan made a great post the other day and it was about like you know oh this whole Maha movement now make American healthy and then they're talking about you know cooking stuff and beef tallow and all this stuff and i'm like you know the messaging is good but it's always the devil's in the details as i say and he pointed out the health aspects of doing all this yeah seed oils and you know hydrinated oils are bad but then you're going to turn around and support the torture of these animals.
[44:03] And you know i saw frederick weissman put out a movie called meat and everybody should look that up because he wasn't even a vegan or anything he was just showing you the process of everything and it starts with this horse in the field and you just see like the steam coming out of its nose because it's cold out and it pulls back and there's all these other horses and cowboys and then they round up these cows and they're freaking out and they put them in the truck and, I just didn't want, like I said back to cover on Meets with Pussies, I came from a world of violence. I saw somebody murdered right in front of me when I was 14 years old. I've been subjected to violence my whole life. And then when I stopped eating the animals, something clicked. And I was like, wow, man, like the Rastafarians told me about that in 1980 when I went to Jamaica. And I was smuggling on the ship. Mm hmm. And like they took me up into the hills. I heard about the.
[45:13] The Green Bay killings and stuff with the police and the Rastafarians, and they was like talking about Rastafari Prince of Peace and eating a diet, no oils, like all this stuff, man, and no eating of animals or fish or any of this. And I was like, you know, I was in the Navy. I was eating fricking burgers. But then a year, less than a year later, I meet this band called the Bad Brains and they're telling me the same thing. And they're these wild, just physical specimen, the singer, HR. And he's like, yeah, I eat the diet till diet, man. And I ate no animals Rasta. And I was like, what? And that's, and then like that case hit me and I ended up splitting and I went to work with them, and that's when I started the plant-based. I went raw. I met Victoria Skowinskas and Ann Wigmore, and I worked at –.
[46:10] Prana foods which was an expansion he was a devotee of uh of uh satcha satchitananda the uh the integral yoga institute so i got to go to yoga classes so it was like i went to see like anybody that was speaking shri chin moore no matter who it was if it was spiritual i was like soaking it up what yeah tell me walk me through so your time right now we're recording this it's about a little shy of noon Florida time but what have you what time did you wake up this morning and what did you eat and you know you know I was in Daytona Beach doing something yesterday so I got I got back late walk the dog uh you know usually I'm up 4 35 I do my uh my meditations, my chanting. I read some of the Vedas, some books, and then I start writing.
[47:13] When do you eat? It depends. If I have some serious physical activity that I have to get done right away. Usually, I don't eat late. That's the one thing. I always used to have a problem you know keeping the weight off and stuff like that because up in New York it's cold. So I try to do the intermittent fasting and, I got turned on to this stuff, Bondi Pure, which is, like, all superfoods, organic, plant-based. So I do a scoop of that in the morning, and that just gets me through whatever I have to do. But usually I'll eat around 9, 10 o'clock. So four hours after I wake up, I get everything done, and then I start moving on to the physical, you know.
[48:07] You know as well as i do like if you're carrying an extra five pounds around on the bike or whatever it's just no no you know yeah yeah you want to be lean and mean yeah man you you say john.
[48:22] Um in the second half of the book you've got all these great different uh tools and one of them that i love is that if you want to stay high forever you got to take the journey inside.
[48:35] That's it and man how i mean what would you say to somebody that wants to take that journey inside but hasn't mustered up the courage to go there well you know what there's two i always say to fear is an acronym it has two meanings forget everything and run or face everything and rise and usually we build these scenarios up in our mind of like a difficult task of how hard it's going to be and all this stuff and we create all of this fear-based whatever the hell and i'm just like you know what just get after it you know like i look at you know prabhapha said that man most of the ills of society if everybody turned inward instead of dealing with politics and all it's it's an endless minefield this whole political crap that's going on this candidate that candidate everybody's arguing over everything it's like take all of that energy and turn it turn it inward you know take all of that energy and do work on yourself i always say charity starts at home you're trying to be out here fixing everything else are you the i just try to be the best example of.
[49:57] You know, Prabhupada said, example is better than precept. So Acharya means one who leads by example. That's what he was. He slept on the floor. He had no possessions. He would cook an entire feast and feed everybody and do the dishes before he even took a grain of rice. He had no bank account, no nothing. Just they're serving people nonstop. He said nobody should go hungry within a 10 mile radius of the temple. So i'm like he said to me that that set the standard that you know that's setting the bar high and i'm like instead of all this arguing over all of this mundane crap turn that turn the lens inward and see what's inside of you and fix that and that's what i always say to focus on what you can fix.
[50:53] Everybody's focused on things that they have no control over. You know what I have control over? I can get up early today. I can exercise. I can meditate. I can pray. I can stay clean. I can stay sober. I can eat amazing food. You know, I can help or feed somebody else. I can, you know, there's so many things that we do have control over. And instead of arguing over all this stuff that's you know beyond our control yeah you know work with what you got where you're at you know that's that's part of it you know you're uh one of the things you're doing now is you're you're coaching kids if i'm not mistaken um and you're helping yeah i coach um well i coach kids i have a coaching business right so it's mindset and all that but there's parents that come and they you know their kids sit in on it I don't even charge them I'm like you know just have them sit in on the coaching session we'll do an hour yeah oh and then you know I've worked with you know teenagers and stuff like that because like a lot of the parents are like yo like read this dude's story like you know you have it easy compared to what this guy had to go through and there's people that have had it harder than me so it's always we have to build a community and stop freaking you know like.
[52:21] It's just there's so much division, man. And it's like if you really want to upset the establishment, unite and come together. To me, I'm like, that's what they don't want. Their philosophy since time immemorial is divide and conquer. That's so like that's why I love the bad brains in HR. You always talked about unity. Right. Bob Marley talked about unity. yeah one love one love and everything else those messages and you know bringing people together even Malcolm X after he went to Mecca and he was like you know I was coming being taught this very racist doctrine from the nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad and then I went to Mecca and I saw people of all different colors and just worshiping God together and you know that's really what it's about you know and um you you mentioned that that gratitude is super important how do you suggest that people develop gratitude you know my friend that uh he passed away i work me and erica used to take care of him a lot this guy kevin mcquade and he did time in prison he was on the papers man he was robbing banks and doing all kinds of stuff and an alcoholic and.
[53:47] He uh he got out of prison and they took out his intestines he had cancer he was just like and i would see him like passed out on a bench you know peeing himself and like, And I just started bringing him food. And I'm like, you know, he was a fan of the Cro-Mags. And I would just bring him a meal, you know. I'd find out where he was and bring him food.
[54:13] And then one day I walked into Angelica Kitchen in New York. And he was like, yo, I've been clean six months. And I'm like, I didn't even recognize him. Yeah. Oh. And he said something to me very, very important. And he said, yo, Johnny, any day above the dirt is a good day. You got to give thanks for that. And he passed away. He relapsed and fell down the subway stairs drunk one day and went into a coma. And he passed away. But, you know, that always stuck with me. Like people always would say that to me. You know any day you're here take advantage of it because the truth is all of us have that appointment with death you know for bhagavad-gita for one who was born death is certain yeah shanaka pandan who was a great philosopher in india said they asked what is the greatest thing and he said the greatest thing is that we've seen everybody before us die but somehow or another, we think that we will cheat death.
[55:21] And it's not going to happen. But the thing is, is like, live your life with purpose while you're still here. Go after those things. Nothing's unattainable. Impossible is a word in a fool's dictionary. Everybody told me I'd never get a book deal. I'd never get an album out. I'd never do this. I'd never finish an Ironman. Ironman was my first triathlon. I never even did a sprint. I went right for the... My coach Orion Mims was in the bike store. He's like a brother, African-American boxer, just crushing everybody, doing 10-hour Ironmans and.
[55:59] And, you know, these jocks were like, oh, I don't think you should try to do an Ironman. And Orion goes to him, shut up. What this guy's been through an Ironman is a walk in the park. And he's my coach. But it's just like, you know, just go after it, man. You never know what you can accomplish until you take the action to do it. And that's what it's all about, you know. According to your beliefs, what do you think happens to us when we die? Well, for the soul is never birth, nor death, nor having once been, does he ever cease to exist. He's not slain when the body's slain. The consciousness, according to Bhagavad Gita, and I've even talked to people who had near-death experiences and all this stuff. Yeah. And the consciousness lives on, right? So it's just like every seven years medically, we have an entirely new body. Every cell in the body changes, right? Every seven years. So where is your child body right now when you were 10 years old what happened to that body that body's gone but we're still here the consciousness is still here observing everything but that body is gone but we're still the same person and we say my mind my intelligence my arm my leg right so who is the possessor of those things and then when you look at a body in the.
[57:25] You know, in the if you go to the wake, they're like, oh, Bobby left us. Bobby's still right there. So, you know, who was Bobby? The consciousness. And that's why I said whatever consciousness that you you attain at the time of death to that state, you'll you'll begin in your next life. So it's this gradual progression. I don't agree with this whole. You got one shot or you're going to burn into hell eternally. I'm not down with that. If God is all merciful, why, if you led one bad life, would you be doomed to eternity forever? That's not that's not all merciful to me. So really what it is, is about living this life to the fullest, trying to advance your consciousness. Don't don't cause harm to others. Live every moment to the fullest. Don't take intoxication. Now, if you're taking drugs, man, fentanyl is in everything. It's in ecstasy. This guy I know did a bump of coke and laid in a coma and died because it had fentanyl in it. You're playing Russian roulette with your life. That's why my message is, man, you don't need alcohol. It destroys muscle tissue. It ages you. I mean, I'm doing pretty good, man.
[58:44] I have my six-pack coming in at 63 years old this year. You got me by a couple of months. Yeah, yeah. But you know what it is. It's about putting... Listen, you're either going to put the work in to do positive stuff, which is going to produce positive results in your life, or you're going to do negative things and have a negative result.
The Importance of Service
[59:07] So I look at it this way. I'm trying to live my life so that when I take my last breath in this particular body...
[59:17] You know, Prabhupada said, every day is a test. The final exam is death.
[59:24] What are you going to think of at the time of death? If you think of God, you'll go, like he said, if you meditate and chant Hare Krishna, you're going to go to be with Krishna, you know, in the spiritual world or whatever. But I just, and you know what, somebody's like, well, how do you know there's an after? Well you know what even if there isn't i'm living my life beautifully man and if this is all there is i'm taking full advantage of it homie you just keep going and doing your blow and telling your war stories in the bars back when i was a kid you know it's like yeah what's the loss of demolition you know you're out there you're you're you're you're living a clean life i'm able you know i'm able to i swam two and a half miles in the pool the other day you know i'm able to ride like you know yeah it's it's a beautiful thing you know and making all this like beautiful food at my house which there's no restaurants here so we cook all the time at the house and thank you for all that PLANTSTRONG oh my god all of you the box you sent me of the chili and just all that It's tough, man. It's like next level. My point. You for going organic on everything.
[1:00:47] Well, we're not everything, but we're almost everything. Yeah. A lot of it. Yeah. Taste of it and everything. I was like, wow, man, you're really killing it. Thanks, JJ. So tell me this for anybody that that wants to follow you, that wants to purchase the book and or, you know, any of your books. Where can they go if they want you to coach them? How do they get involved with your coaching program? JohnJosephDiscipline.com JohnJosephDiscipline.com Yeah, and it's...
[1:01:20] I didn't put this book on Amazon just because, like, you know, I've had the other books on there. And, you know, Jeff Bezos just he takes so much of an author's money. I'm just like, yeah, you know, and I also wanted to be like, you know, with this type of book, a lot of people bought the book that was sending it to other people or they're struggling themselves. So I wanted to be able to put a little like inscription in there to motivate them. So like you did for me. What does it say to my brother rip god bless you and the family yeah so um you know it's it's kind of a hands-on i don't know what's going to happen with the next book i'm you know, i'll be looking maybe for a publisher i think um but we'll see because you know The publishing world is freaky right now, too. It takes a dive. I find the audio books do really well because I read them myself. And people are like, no, it's like these bands are like, bro, we listened to Evolution for 17 hours. Nobody said nothing. It was sick. Oh, my God. That must have taken you three weeks to record that. Oh, my God.
[1:02:41] I gotta finish up the edits On this now too I did the audio book of that Oh my gosh It's like I try to just finish one thing at a time So I'm getting this book done, Getting these albums done It's a one man show I got two races coming up later in the year Yeah You're staying busy I'm a work in progress man You know it's like.
[1:03:09] That's, you know, well, we all you get out of something, whatever you put into it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, as we close out here, John, I think, you know, you have all these mantras. And the one that I love that I think is that's very applicable in my life is mood follows action. You know who said that? Rich Roll. Did he? Did he? Yeah. Yeah. It's like mood follows action, not the other way around, you know? Just like you may not feel like doing something, but, you know, I've had that many times with running especially. The bike, I don't – it's always the running that's like my Achilles now, you know? I'm like, oh. Well, especially as we get a little older too, you know?
[1:04:03] It pounds you, man. And I'll be out five miles into the run sweating and the endorphins going. And I'm like, how the hell was I ever thinking about flaking on this right now? I just feel amazing. And that's what I always try to use to motivate me, I guess, is like trying to reminisce on how I feel, you know, when I do the work. And like Steven Pressfield said, when you resist against something and give in to the resistance, that's when we start all the mental suffering, because every little thing that you resist against, it's thought that you give in and be straightening out your office. You know, you keep it's going to manifest into bigger things in your life, you know.
[1:04:56] And it's true. It's as simple as making your bed in the morning, man, and, you know, putting your stuff away, whatever. Like, it's just like, you know. You know, I look around just at your office right now and what I love, and it's number one on your list of 10 things for people to, I think, to kind of help them out is get organized. Yeah. Right? And look at that, man. Yeah. I love it. I got pictures of Prabhupada back there that's my, little something I'm writing I got another board over here for the one man show and yeah you know, Prabhupada always said you can tell a person's consciousness by the way they keep their space, so like I'm already all over the place with everything like you know like I'll be talking about something and then just change look at that car.
[1:05:59] I just find the more focused I can be and have my workplace, clean and organized and you know it helps me a lot well i gotta tell you the first time that i met you i think was in 2000 it might have been 2000 and i i don't know it was that shortly after i wrote the ng2 diet you'd met gene stone at that ice cream store yeah yeah yeah yeah, you brought me a bag of of new york city cat ball caps t-shirts firefighter you know gear you were incredible but i remember thinking this guy has got more energy than any human being i've ever met in my life period imagine if i still if i drank coffee i'd be bouncing all over the walls but it seems like you've mellowed some over the last 15 years yeah you know it's uh it's still you know gets kicked up a notch occasionally, you know. You're right. I try to be more Zen-like, Zinja-like, you know. That's a cool shirt. That's definitely a cool shirt. That's my boy's CBD company, man. So I've been taking CBD for inflammation and pain. Yeah. So, yeah, man, it definitely works. It's all organic and, you know. But, yeah, just. Well listen JJ.
[1:07:26] Destroying Monsters Anybody that's out there that Wants not only an amazing read But wants tools for helping You with whatever it is Eating Gambling drugs Alcohol, What else JJ I just saw last night Like the gambling stuff I knew one friend of mine in New York He was addicted to scratch off I would go in his car and he'd have like a pile of... I'm like, dude, what is this? He's like... He had an addiction to scratch off and he's spending thousands of dollars and then last night,
Compassion and Understanding
[1:08:07] There was a thing on CBS I just caught, and it was all about online gambling. And we could be, let's get addicted to the things that are good in life. You know, you're not going to live in a void.
[1:08:25] You're either going to do good stuff or bad stuff. So I'm done doing the bad stuff. And, you know, and that's why, you know, I find the diet, you know. Really helps me a lot, you know, just, it's, it's part of my routine, you know, it's like, pray, eat good, you know, the whole nine yards, physical activity, help others, it's, yeah, it's part of the whole journey, and I don't, I don't want to cause suffering to other living entities just because I want to eat, you know, a part of their body or whatever, it's like, it's totally unnecessary, I love your dad, I always quote him and quote you and, and uh quote a lot of the people that have been doing this brendan brazier yesterday was his birthday and he was like you know thrive was like one he was like one of the first dudes like he was credit he deserves because a lot of people came along but is like a pioneer in this whole he introduced me to rich role yeah yeah yeah what you know as we close out here you are a huge believer in in giving back service what's what's the last thing you did um in an act of service because i know you go to new york you defeat the whole.
[1:09:50] I go out on the line and feed people man it's like, you meet the most amazing people and i always say don't judge somebody just because they're having a tough time or they're homeless at the at the at the moment you know it's like everybody has a story of what brought them to the streets you know I always I told that story in the PMA effect one of my books and I said yeah you know this guy would come to the food and he would never talk to anybody and I you know I just started sitting down with him eating with him you know in Tompkins Square Park. And, you know, it turns out, like, he was a big shot Wall Street broker and making, like, high six figures a year, the condo in Battery Park City, the summer house upstate, you know, the house in the Hamptons. He had everything. And then his wife and children were killed by a drunk driver.
[1:10:50] And he just lost his will to do anything. He stopped going to work. He started drinking He lost his apartment He lost his job The guy was living under the FDR, man In boxes and stuff Like, And, like, it's wild because I wrote about after talking to him for a while, and then he would help us set up. I'd just try to engage him, you know. And I was like, yo, what? And he told me, like, you know, what had happened. And I was like, then he just disappeared. And I was like, man, I hope this dude didn't do something. And then he showed up one day in a suit, all cleaned up. I'm like, yo, like, I didn't, I don't remember his name. And he was like, you know, I went to the Manhattan bridge and I was going to jump off.
[1:11:46] And in my mind's eye, my, I saw my children and they didn't want me to do it. And he said from that point on, he collapsed on the bridge and just broke down sobbing. And then he went to rehab and got help. and, you know, came out of it. And anybody, you know, I've been through it too. You know, we don't know what people are going through and that's where compassion really comes in. Don't judge somebody. Like I've seen the most incredible changes take place in people when some compassion was directed their way, you know. And, you know, we're living in a world now where it's like it's cool to be a jerk. You know you say stuff online against somebody and you think like oh you know but you don't know what it's doing to people like this guy i know is his daughter committed suicide because a bunch of bullies just kept being mean to her because of her weight yeah and it's like you don't know what you're doing to people just you know don't be a jerk you know and and show some compassion Toward people and You know, JJ did you ever, Did you ever Think about killing yourself.
[1:13:10] You know I never sat there With suicidal thoughts like I'm gonna do this Mm-hmm.
[1:13:20] But there was times I had guns and was like, you know, when I was a crackhead and I said this, I was robbing some of the most dangerous drug dealers. And I remember I hit, I started out in California and I was dating this model. She parents lived in Santa Monica on Pacific Coast Highway in a mansion. And, you know, it started out this amazing like I was already an addict. By the time a year finished, we were in a friggin crack hotel in Compton.
[1:14:04] And I just remember and I wrote about it in the book, like. I wish one of these drug deals would just kill me and end my misery. Yeah, I don't know why I never thought like. I'm going to take my life. But I was taking my life at a slow death. That's what my brother did to himself. Addiction is a slow death. There's not going to be any good outcome from it. And I knew that I was going to be killed or kill somebody or do something stupid. And there was one where I really hit rock bottom and I was crawling around on the floor in this crack hotel in Compton looking for little rocks in the filthy carpet. And I was just the worst addict you could, but I was violent too. And that was something I had to consider every day was like, if these drug dealers catch me, they're going to kill me. You know, I robbed this Colombian cartel member in New York and threw him out of my car at 50 miles an hour after beating him in the head with a pipe. Like, I was a wild dude.
[1:15:20] I mean, I was, my addiction had me doing, you know, 500 pushups a day. And, like, and I trained in martial arts. So it was always, like, I always knew, like, okay, you get the first.
[1:15:35] I wasn't just, like, take your best shot. No, that's not the way I learned. The way I learned was strike first and make it count. And that's how I was. And I knew for a fact I was, like, somebody's going to kill me. And I wish it would happen. But thank God, you know, I'm here to tell I'm here to tell the story and more importantly, to encourage others that no matter what you're going through,
The Path to Healing
[1:16:01] you could get out of it, man. You just have to, you know, you have your one day people in the day one people. Right. One day people are like, one day I'm going to get clean. One day I'll stop eating crap food. One day I'll go to the gym. That day never comes The day one people say Today's the day And I had to say today's the day And I didn't go to rehab I had to walk past all the dealers In Alphabet City going Yo what's up my man Yo your credit's good And they're sitting there smoking rocks I had to walk I had to kick addiction in the belly of the beast, I couldn't I had warrants still You know like I had Federal warrants for 15 years I couldn't go to a freaking I couldn't go to a hospital I couldn't go to nothing The minute they start checking me out That's it, And I was doing all this wild stuff While I was a fugitive That's the other wild stuff Is like.
[1:17:04] Well, if I would have got caught doing any of that on top of splitting, I mean, the statute of limitations ran out on the drug case. It was seven years, but being AWOL never goes away. And if they catch you, it's a lot worse.
[1:17:21] So after seven years, you're you're good. They can't press charges on you. No, the drug case, like it's a seven, seven year statute of limitations on the drug case in Norfolk. Yeah yeah so like that went away but what they charged me with was being uh AWOL oh I got you I had to deal with the government stuff and then I got a lawyer and uh yeah they were like this kid was messed up his enlistment everything was just like this is what he went they gave it ended up giving me an honorable discharge and even offered me all my medical benefits from the VA I didn't take it. I'm like, I'm not going to be a drain on the system. I didn't complete my contract with the military, but I was an addict when I went in. The day that I went to boot camp, me and my brother smoked four bags of angel dust. I went to boot camp high on dust. I'd never been on a plane before. And they had us go to Fort Hamilton and get on a military flight to take us to the airport. And I never even been on a plane in 1980. I went from like lock up to boot camp.
[1:18:36] JJ, I could talk to you for eight hours. So, so here's, here's what I love. And you say this in the book, if this book just helps one person, one person, it's been worth it. And I can guarantee you, you've helped lots and lots of people. Yeah. Everybody has bookshelves full of books. It's not what's in those books. It's do we apply it to our life and change? When I read a book, I write things down. Like I read I read this recently, right? The 12 week year. Our goal setting and breaking things down so every book that i i read i try to it's not how many books we read it's how many books that we apply the knowledge to yeah because otherwise it's useless if you say oh i read all these books but you don't do what's in the book what's the value of that it's knowledge that's that's applied to your life that's where we see the change right So when I read stuff from you And you know The engine 2 And everything else I was like oh okay I'm going to apply this stuff You know It's um.
[1:19:55] It's what we apply. And that's what I say. If you do what's in this book or you do what's in the PMA effect, right? Any of these books, you're going to come out better because of it. You know, I'm spilling my guts in these books because that's, you know, that's what my writing teacher, Robert McKee, said. I don't have his book handy. He said, always write the truth. Always write the truth don't hold back let you know and um well you certainly did in destroying monsters and uh i'm so glad that you were able to destroy your monsters and be with us today and uh jj still doing it you sure are so i look forward to the next time that you and i get to give each other a big old squeeze. In the meantime.
[1:20:54] You keep it real the way nobody else does. Hey, man. You too, bro. Can you give me a PLANTSTRONG fist bump on the way out? Boom. Boom. JJ, until next time. Yes, brother. God bless. Thank you, Britt. Thank you. Destroying Monsters is available now exclusively on John's website, johnjosephdiscipline.com. If you or someone you love is suffering from addiction, his book may be a source of hope and light in a very dark time. I'll be sure to put a link in today's show notes to make it super easy to order. Thank you, John, for unapologetically being you.
[1:21:41] You are a one of a kind and I love you for it. Until next week, thanks so much for listening and always, always keep it PLANTSTRONG.
[1:21:53] The PLANTSTRONG podcast team includes Carrie Barrett, Laurie Kortowich, and Ami Mackey. If you like what you hear, do us a favor and share the show with your friends and loved ones. You can always leave a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And while you're there, make sure to hit that follow button so that you never miss an episode. As always, this and every episode is dedicated to my parents, Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. And Anne Crile Esselstyn. Thanks so much for listening.
