Transcript

(00:00:00 – 00:01:30) [Intro]

Intro (00:01:30) I am the experiment. You can write your own story. Not stop trying and don’t give into the fear.

Justin McMillen (00:02:00) What’s that thing on your neck?

Danny Beissel (00:02:03) This. This is a vocal trainer. It’s like back pressure.

Justin McMillen (00:02:09) Okay.

Danny Beissel (00:02:09) And it sharpens your vocals up. So I do it throughout the day and it sharpens my pitch and cleans… you know, your break up. It’s like smooths out your break.

Justin McMillen (00:02:24) Okay. Yeah. So it physically tones your vocal cords or something, or what?

Danny Beissel (00:02:29) Yeah. It’s like this whole… I don’t know, like a lot of the science of it. But you know, you have different degrees of it. Right. So I can make it a lot of pressure, or it’s like, you know, so that pressure is coming back and when you go… Your vocal folds. So that back pressure just tightens them and builds the muscle. Just makes them sharper.

Justin McMillen (00:02:49) Nice.

Danny Beissel (00:02:50) And if you’ve ever seen people with a straw and a glass of water doing all that, it’s the same idea.

Justin McMillen (00:03:04) It’s right. Like, I had no idea.

Danny Beissel (00:03:05) I love this thing. You know, I gotta, you know, it gets busy sometimes. And if you’re… I’d like to do my warm ups, you know, like 45 minutes before I go on stage. And there’s a big backstage.

Justin McMillen (00:03:22) Okay. Let’s go. Oh, wow.

Danny Beissel (00:03:24) It’s, I’ll sneak away with this, and I’ll just kind of ride it all day. And at least my vocal cords are always ready. I always like to do a warm up, like, you know, the basics. I got like 11, 12 minute warm up that I love, but this… I love this.

Justin McMillen (00:03:50) Have you always been like that? Did you always care for your voice in that way?

Danny Beissel (00:03:52) No. You know, I never… I never knew I was going to be a singer. So I never approached anything like that. I just kind of became it through an idea. Fast forward to getting signed, we got, in this one band called Foster Child, and we got signed. And before I went down to do the record, I wanted the guys, like, you know, maybe get some coaching on the voice, because it’s your first big record, you know? And I went to this guy, Steve Whiteman, from this band called Kix, in the 80s.

Justin McMillen (00:04:34) I don’t know if you remember Kix.

Danny Beissel (00:04:35) And, just warming up, literally, he had the tape… I had the tape recorder taping him warm up. I did, like, three sessions, and my voice exploded. It was free. That’s when I was like, oh, like I was using all the wrong muscles. So that zeroed in, and, you know, I always warmed up and thought about my voice. I didn’t know that, you know, your stomach is your vocal cords, if you think of it that way. Like what you put… you know, I mean, hey, you know, can’t eat that stuff before you sing.

Justin McMillen (00:05:09) Sure, sure.

Danny Beissel (00:05:11) If you want your voice… like cheese, I do like a three day rule now. But, you know. And then I was, you know, the drink just got me.

Justin McMillen (00:05:09) Every time the voice came second, the drink came first?

Danny Beissel (00:05:11) When did you… when did you start? Did you sing when you were a kid or… You know, I was always attracted to it. Just… I remember, like, God, I remember my mom used to tell me, I used to imitate Elvis at like three years old. And I literally remember, I was, not to say my age, but I was five, and I remember the TV being on, Elvis Presley. I literally remember that. And I remember having a lump in my throat.

Justin McMillen (00:05:52) I was like, that memory is crazy. How as a kid, what was I thinking? How often do you think that?

Danny Beissel (00:05:52) But, when I started singing, it was interesting. I was just roaming around my house. I think I was like, right out of high school, or in high school, like 11th or 12th grade. And it’s an interesting… songs that got me to actually project, like, literally start singing, to even hear my voice. And it was the House of the Rising Sun, from the Animals. Such a good song. It’s beautiful, like raspy voice. And my mom… one of who I’ve grown to absolutely love is the Platters, and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. It’s like, these ones are crooning and the other ones are, you know, raspy. So it was interesting, like both of those. I would say that was like the first thing that ever came out of my mouth in song, which was interesting.

Justin McMillen (00:06:12) You know, when it happened, where you’re like, whoa… I just, it felt so good. I didn’t know how it sounded.

Danny Beissel (00:06:30) It felt so okay to me. You know, obviously I’m singing it, but it was like I was like, wow. And, you know, that’s the something healing about it. There’s really something healing about it.

Justin McMillen (00:06:31) And you say it felt so good.

Danny Beissel (00:06:31) You mean, physically felt good and like emotionally, everything released? It’s probably a feeling I didn’t experience, you know. It was almost… it was very spiritual, but I didn’t know what the spiritual was, you know, at that point, like how I know about it now.

Justin McMillen (00:06:53) Right.

Danny Beissel (00:06:53) And, yeah, I just remember, like, I just remember walking, literally, like, I can see myself right now walking up the steps. Spring day, you know, whatever I was thinking. Where are you at, at this point? In Philly, in Philadelphia. And the house I grew up in.

Justin McMillen (00:07:16) Yeah. Okay. And, yeah, it was cool. How… so what about the house you grew up in? Tell me. Tell me about your family.

Danny Beissel (00:07:17) Well, we… we were… How many kids? There’s five of us. Oldest is Jimmy. Then it goes Joey and my sister Kathleen and Pat, and then me.

Justin McMillen (00:07:39) Okay, so you’re the baby.

Danny Beissel (00:07:39) The baby, the baby. And, so we come from a place called Kensington in Philadelphia, and, so my parents are from there. My mom’s parents are from Ireland, both of them. So my grandparents were off the boat.

Justin McMillen (00:08:00) So really? Yeah. Did you grow up around them?

Danny Beissel (00:08:00) Oh, yeah. Oh, that’s… Well, I didn’t have my… I lost my pop in ’73. So my grandfather was basically the man in my life that raised me up. So yeah, all those Irish stories and the brogue my mom used to have, we brogue.

Justin McMillen (00:08:20) Really? Yeah.

Danny Beissel (00:08:21) It was pretty, you know, kind of funny thinking back on it. So you’re 100% Irish?

Justin McMillen (00:08:38) No, my father was German. Your father was?

Danny Beissel (00:08:39) Yeah. So I’m German and Irish. He was full blown German. And, mom’s 100% Irish. You said you lost your father in ’70… ’73. I was around two. Yeah, he was a Philadelphia police officer. And he was coming home from work, I think. I think my mom said they were supposed to go to a shower or something like that, a baby shower, and he went out to see the game. There was a World Series happening, and he watched some of it, and on the way back home, a couple blocks from our house, he was killed by drunk kids drinking and driving.

Justin McMillen (00:09:17) How about that? And, yeah, ’73. How old was the older sibling at that time?

Danny Beissel (00:09:18) Jimmy… I was two, he was 11, 12. My oldest brother, Jim. Yeah, yeah. And they needed counseling, my older brothers, and, you know, this is in the 70s, like… no. But that’s five kids all under 12.

Justin McMillen (00:09:37) Yeah. Yeah. That must have been insane for mom.

Danny Beissel (00:09:38) I know, and you know, but she did it. My mom was, you know, like I said, everybody thinks their mom’s a superstar. But, you know, I look at what my mom went through and got us out, you know, because the neighborhoods… she always kept us out of the neighborhood somehow.

Justin McMillen (00:09:54) And, like, you got to raise five kids after that.

Danny Beissel (00:09:55) It’s like love of her life. Just got… So I assume, you know, it was a lonely household for a couple of years there. And, you know, when I try to think about those memories, you don’t remember much of it, but for you, there was just no dad.

Justin McMillen (00:10:17) Yeah. Yeah.

Danny Beissel (00:10:17) And she used to tell me, she used to come and pick me up, and he was on night shift or whatever. And, you know, there was a story she’d tell that actually put the lyrics in a song. He had this big leather cop jacket, and he would come home, and my mom would… don’t pick him up, the baby’s sleeping and all that.

Justin McMillen (00:10:35) And, and when he passed…

Danny Beissel (00:10:36) She said I was out of my crib, and I was at the closet, on the arm of the jacket. I was like, that really happened? She’s like, yeah. How about that. I was… powerful thing to say, you know? Yeah. And somehow, you know, it’s the power of music, when you write about it, there’s a healing aspect to it, you know, even though they didn’t really know my dad.

Justin McMillen (00:10:57) You know, I was so young.

Danny Beissel (00:10:57) But you’re two, so I’m sure you know something. There’s some kind of, you know, I feel like this thing that I… I’m not sure if it’s a dream, but I remember this guy coming in and everybody was all excited, so, you know, I don’t know if that was real or a dream. But at that point in your life, I think before six, it’s implicit memories.

Justin McMillen (00:11:15) Right. So they store, and you can’t recall them, but they build the framework of who you are.

Danny Beissel (00:11:16) Yeah. So yeah, 100%.

Justin McMillen (00:11:17) Yeah. So the sound of his voice and things that have been imprinted in you.

Danny Beissel (00:11:18) Yeah. You know, this is interesting. You know, so as you got older, you get to a certain age and it’s like, it’s a conversation that we don’t have a dad. Like, how does that go? Well, at that point, and then, you know, it was me, Pat, and Kate, my two older brothers, you know, my mom would always… you know, it was like he was like Santa Claus, you know, like, my mom would talk about this character, and, yeah, it was like that, you know, it really was. But the way, you know, it was beautiful, because, like, he must have been a really cool guy, because I’d meet older people later in life, and I… they would get emotional talking about him.

Justin McMillen (00:11:40) Like, it’s so nice to hear that, because I don’t know anything about the man.

Danny Beissel (00:11:41) And like, so she explained it in her way, and you know. Yeah, I’ll say that. Yeah.

Justin McMillen (00:12:03) That seems like it would have been a challenging thing for a mother with five kids under 12. That’s insane.

Danny Beissel (00:12:04) She was just so super strong. I mean, that’s what I mean. I don’t build them like that anymore. I mean, to go through that and keep us, you know, at any second… I mean, we could have got lost in one of those neighborhoods, and that’s it. I mean, look at Kensington now. It’s so awful. Look at that neighborhood I was born, and there’s like zombies on… you know, it’s like all these… it’s like riddled with heroin and fentanyl. It’s so sad. A lot of my cousins passing, that still live down there. A lot of friends I grew up with, end up down there. It’s a dangerous place.

Justin McMillen (00:12:50) What was your dad’s name?

Danny Beissel (00:12:51) Joe. Joseph.

Justin McMillen (00:12:52) Yeah, Joseph. And mom’s name?

Danny Beissel (00:12:53) Roseanne.

Justin McMillen (00:12:53) Roseanne? Yes. Joe and Ro.

Danny Beissel (00:12:54) Yeah, Joe and Ro. So, you said grandpa, grandma stepped in? Grandma. Yeah, yeah. Everywhere we lived, they were like right across the street every time we moved. Okay. So, like, you know, we moved, like, after Kensington, we moved to this place called West… for a couple years, and it started getting bad.

Justin McMillen (00:13:13) My mom somehow got us up to Frankford, and that’s basically the house I grew up in.

Danny Beissel (00:13:13) Okay. Yeah. How old were you then? We moved to Frankford, I was first grade, so I must have been around six. So ’77, I think I was about seven. Okay. Alright, because it was like first grade. Yeah. So that was like…

Justin McMillen (00:13:35) Yeah. And I love that place.

Danny Beissel (00:13:35) Got it. I still live there.

Justin McMillen (00:13:36) If I get… yeah. What’s the dynamic like in the house with all the kids and everything?

Danny Beissel (00:13:58) It was great. The one thing my family’s blessed with is how close we are. There’s never an argument that lasted more than five minutes. You know, older brothers, but, you know, the older brothers to me. But, you know, we’re so close now.

Justin McMillen (00:13:58) I’m sure, you know, I assume that’s probably like being through not having a pop, and what they had to go through.

Danny Beissel (00:13:59) Because they know, you know what I mean, I think my brother Jimmy actually saw the car and it was bad, you know. So, like, because there’s an accident in your neighborhood, you run to it, it’s not known it’s your father, but, but, you know, it was wild. My mom, after my dad, you know, she was raising five kids, so she had to go to nursing school and learn a trade. So, you know, we had to get it, so she did all that, became a nurse somehow, you know, and we’re running around the streets like crazy kids.

Justin McMillen (00:14:41) Was there a certain amount of reverence from you all, like respect and stuff, because she was so…

Danny Beissel (00:14:41) Yeah. Yeah, yeah, 100%. I mean, we were still crazy kids, but we had, you know, her mom was everything. We never lost that. Like, we always wanted her to have a great life, and, you know, how do we do that and stuff like that. So, but I don’t know how she did it, but she did it.

Justin McMillen (00:15:00) She was great. She was a badass.

Danny Beissel (00:15:01) That sounds… that sounds like that. I remember when you first told me about your childhood, I think I was talking to you and your brother, you and your brother, and you were mentioning that to me, and I just thought, like, this is… it’s so amazing how you both are such incredible people.

Justin McMillen (00:15:26) And it’s… thanks, as always. Yeah, yeah.

Danny Beissel (00:15:27) And most people that have a lot of substance to them have been through… they don’t have traditional families. Yeah. And sometimes it takes, you know, takes going through something like that to know. You know, sometimes I hear siblings arguing, I’m like… it freaks me out. When someone’s like, I even talked to my sibling for ten…

Justin McMillen (00:15:47) And I get it. I’m not judging it at all. I’m just telling you, like, it’s like, wow, that’s crazy. I didn’t know that existed, you know?

Danny Beissel (00:15:48) So you guys are all close? Yeah. Extremely close. Yeah. You support each other? Yeah. That’s amazing. Always talking, you know. Always… everybody’s home. So that’s my dad. It’s fun.

Justin McMillen (00:16:11) I remember that. After I got so… so, you said you were running around the streets. Did you get in trouble, or were you…

Danny Beissel (00:16:12) Yeah. Well, yeah. So we, you know, we didn’t… you know, I look back on it now, and it’s like I felt so worthless, you know, like I wasn’t, you know, it was… It’s kind of funny to look back now, because you’re just looking for some kind of, you know, appeasement, like some… okay, so, so we were running around with kids from one neighborhood, and it wasn’t the greatest neighborhood, and there was always, you know, drinking, and, you know, my poor mother, she… but, you know, she’s trying to go be a nurse, and I’m running around the street. I mean, seventh grade, to give you perspective. And I’m not proud of this, it’s just kind of like, I think about this now, and remember, like, when I was in it, I thought that was normal. I would leave my house, go across the boulevard, as we call it, one neighborhood, meet my buddy, and he already picked up a bag, crank, or meth. Take it to this guy under this railroad tunnel. He would shoot it up and give us the rest, the seventh grade split it though, and smoke a joint, so that didn’t last long. So I don’t know if the Great Spirit stepped in there, but what happened was, we were in the neighborhood one time. I was telling you about this earlier, why we got put in that school. And, it was always drinking and trying to get money for quarts. I mean, like, yeah, I thought that was a normal ten year old kid trying to get… which some places it is, might be like in Philly, like at that time too. That might just be like life, you know.

Justin McMillen (00:17:35) Yeah.

Danny Beissel (00:17:36) Minutes. That’s all it was. Because, you know, you got a blue collar town, like drinking was everywhere.

Justin McMillen (00:17:35) I don’t care if it’s a baby shower or a wedding, whatever it was, there was a lot to drink there. Right.

Danny Beissel (00:17:36) You know, and I get it. You know, it’s just a shame that, you know, a couple of people get the affliction in it, and it takes you. But, yeah, the one time we were playing video games, and this one kid, you know, we know him. He was from the neighborhood, and, we all ran out, and, you know, mind you, we’re like, I don’t know, ten at this time, or 11. And we’re grabbing him, give us some change. Like, literally, I would obviously… it’s a long time ago, would be honest about it. And we’re like pinching his arm. Get him, get him, you know. And so whatever happened, we went home later that night, the cops come flying around. We’re like all running, you know, with the… being chased by the cops. And, and then fast forward a couple months, my mom’s like, there’s a warrant for you and Pat’s arrest.

Justin McMillen (00:18:41) What are you talking about?

Danny Beissel (00:18:42) So my mom takes us in, we go to the 15th, and, yeah, they put us in a cell, and this kid’s saying that we… So what happened was, we got caught in the system. If you ever hear that. Yeah. We had no money, we had nothing, and we couldn’t get a lawyer.

Justin McMillen (00:18:59) And it was cops… no, your dad though?

Danny Beissel (00:18:59) Yeah, dad. But there’s… when you’re in the system, and now you’re talking prosecutors and the other side too. Yeah. So my mom’s saying, yeah, my husband’s a cop, what’s going on? So then I got to… they take us to the roundhouse, which is awful. It was scary. They were trying to put us away. So, Jane, maybe 12, 13, she was like 13. I was, I was in seventh, eighth grade.

Justin McMillen (00:19:20) What was this story? What did the kids say?

Danny Beissel (00:19:20) So I guess they forgot about it. And I guess he’s saying, like, the family, and the cop, and his dad called the cops on us. I guess they think… they think we were hitting them with needles. Even as a 13 year old kid, I’m like, well, can you take his blood and…

Justin McMillen (00:19:36) Like, what are you talking about? Hitting him with needles?

Danny Beissel (00:19:50) Like, say… yeah, like, because we were pinching him, is what it was. So that was like… I’m not even kidding, was that crazy? But they got hold of it. Now they’re trying to… so there’s prosecutors trying to get points, do it or something. My poor mother’s taken off work.

Justin McMillen (00:19:51) I mean, like, the court, we got to go to it. It was so crazy.

Danny Beissel (00:20:07) But that’s being caught in the system, I know what that is because I was in it, and they were trying to put us in Saint Gabe’s, which you don’t want to go to, but it was… it’s a juvenile delinquent center.

Justin McMillen (00:20:07) And that would, you know, you get in that system, it’s a… it’s not good.

Danny Beissel (00:20:08) Right. And we didn’t belong there. We didn’t do anything. So meanwhile, my mom, she hears about this school called Milton Hershey in Pennsylvania, and it’s for fatherless children. So she enrolls us. You try to get in, we get accepted. So the next court date, this is like the fourth time, like we’re ready to get put in Saint Gabe’s. She told the public attorney, and he put it into… and the judge heard of the school and dismissed everything, but was checking on us to make sure we go.

Justin McMillen (00:20:50) And so… yeah, so then we go in, mom actually wanted to send you there, or was it…

Danny Beissel (00:20:50) She was just trying to figure out a way around the court. She was trying to figure a way, we had no other options left. That was… I always say that’s like my dad stepping in there, because, you know. A kid from the streets, and all of a sudden I get dropped off at this place, and they separated me and Pat, because he went to ninth grade, which is senior division. It’s called Intermediate Division.

Justin McMillen (00:21:26) Who… you know, sure, there I was with my brother my whole life. How far, how far away… just to give an idea for the audience, like, are you talking about, like, is it a few hours away, or is this like from where I grew up?

Danny Beissel (00:21:27) Yeah, it’s about 2.5 hours away. It’s out of Philly, you go up in the…

Justin McMillen (00:21:46) Do you remember what it felt like when you were driving out there? Like, what the… yeah?

Danny Beissel (00:21:46) Yeah, it was crazy. The driving out was one thing. The big thing was when I finally got dropped off, and that was something I wasn’t expecting. Like, my, you know, my poor mother had to say goodbye, and I’m like, no, son, I’m in this house. And I’m like… so I go up in the room, I lay down, and they make me come down to dinner, and I just lost it. That’s all I remember. I couldn’t even hold myself together, and just… I was just, like, uncontrollably…

Justin McMillen (00:22:04) That was crazy. What’s, uh, what’s this place? Is it run by, like, is it a church thing?

Danny Beissel (00:22:04) No, no, it’s, it was very kind of Quaker, but, so the Hershey, you know, Hershey chocolate. Yeah. So he couldn’t have any kids, Milton Hershey, and he left the money for kids.

Justin McMillen (00:22:21) Fatherless children.

Danny Beissel (00:22:22) What… it started, and it was a boys home. Now it’s coed, or it was coed. It’s totally different now. Do you know what it is now? I think it’s like you have to pay to go there. It’s like this amazing school. But I was there in ’85, ’86, ’87. I got out, and the funny thing about it was, you know, I couldn’t talk for a couple… It was, I was so… it was wild. You know, people were like, walk by and get hit. It was crazy. I was like, so out of it. So the culture, the climate of the kids there is like, these are bad kids. They were bad. There were just a lot of lost kids, and a lot of fatherless kids. And in retrospect, the school was amazing. I mean, it’s like, you know, Division One, you know, it’s an amazing school. But when you’re in it at that point, it was like wild. But, you know, I just remember this one guy saying, look, man, you’re here, you got to get involved. And then I joined wrestling, and then by accident, you’re having fun, you know what I mean? Like, oh, you forget. But then I joined wrestling so I can see Pat, because that’s how I could see Pat, because he would come into practice, and we’d just get to meet, and, you know, he’d give me a hug for a minute.

Justin McMillen (00:23:40) Never bring you guys together before then, just to help make you feel better, or…

Danny Beissel (00:23:41) No, really, they kept us separate for that reason. So it was punitive. It felt like you were being punished. Yeah. It felt, you know… listen, it could have been a lot worse, and my young mind just didn’t think that way, though. You know, like I was just like, get me out of here. Come on, mom, get us out. My poor mother. Get us out. But, you know, and then the next year, I was in 10th grade, I was in ninth, and we got to live with each other like we were roommates in the same house. So that was a total game changer. It’s a lot better. I mean, we still wanted out, but…

Justin McMillen (00:23:56) You guys go home in the summer.

Danny Beissel (00:24:16) Was this year. Yeah, yeah. They let you home in the summer a little bit, like, I think it was like a month. You can go home and come back. But when we got, so when we get up to ninth grade, that’s when I really knew I was off the streets, because they have cows and farms.

Justin McMillen (00:24:34) Now milking cows.

Danny Beissel (00:24:34) It was crazy. But again, accidentally, you’re like, you can’t help that you’re learning this cool thing. Like, you know, as soon as you stop thinking, that’s what the guy meant about getting involved. And yeah, I was, you know, I have to clean the cows, make sure it doesn’t have mastitis, and put the socks on, it goes in the milk house.

Justin McMillen (00:24:55) And you know, I was learning how to… this is like a farm or something?

Danny Beissel (00:24:55) Yeah, yeah, it’s all cows. And then you have to clean the pasture. That was always fun.

Justin McMillen (00:24:55) Yeah, think cow shit.

Danny Beissel (00:25:17) Yeah. Were the calf pens, that was the worst. Oh my God. But it was cool. I mean, it was calves being born. I mean, like, if you look at it, you know, it was a heck of an experience, and it saved my life 100%. Saved my life going there, as much as I wanted out. If I was home, I’d be dead. Have the kids I grew up at, Odin, and that’s where I was going, you know. My brother could only save me as much as he could, but I was running for escape. I see that now, you know, like, I didn’t even care what… you were all for me to get, yeah, give me, you know, glue.

Justin McMillen (00:25:34) You know, I mean, at that age?

Danny Beissel (00:25:57) I mean, no, it was around drinking and that glue came, and that was gnarly. I took a lot of guys out. Guys huffing, huffing glue, literally, the meaning, green into glue, they called it Ty-wall. You get five bucks for, like, a pint, and you get a rag and people just go…

Justin McMillen (00:26:17) Oh, so horrible.

Danny Beissel (00:26:17) But that’s what I mean, like when I look at that school experience, it’s, I look at it a lot differently now.

Justin McMillen (00:26:17) Yeah, it sounds like it. I mean, it seems like what started out was probably horrific as a little kid. This is tough, as you are, and is like on the street, as you are. It’s still like, I’m not home anymore, and I don’t have…

Danny Beissel (00:26:39) Yeah, mom, and I don’t have my siblings. And it was just shock. Yeah. It was just like, wait a minute, what? Because even now, even not having much and being poor and stuff like that, it was like, I mean, you know, now there’s poor, we were that, you know. I mean, we had, there was a, you know, I believe in the system of like, government assistance because when it was used…

Justin McMillen (00:27:04) Right. It works.

Danny Beissel (00:27:04) Sure saves lives. Yeah, absolutely. And I’m a product of that. And my mom got a job. She got off. And, you know, that’s how it works. But, like, you know, it was just the shock of it, like, even growing up and being… while you still came home and had that love of family, and you had your, you know, your mom and your bro, and, you know, even my older brothers were running around, but like, you just, it was your place. You always had that home. And then I have this new home, and it was like 15 kids in one house.

Justin McMillen (00:27:26) Did you get close with any of them?

Danny Beissel (00:27:41) No, no, no, no, not eighth grade. I was too, it was too, I was too weird. I was like, it was so strange to me the whole time. When it got a little better, but when I got, uh, prepared, it was, you know…

Justin McMillen (00:27:41) Yeah. I mean, you’re cool, but some of them, I… you know, I don’t talk to anybody.

Danny Beissel (00:28:00) I would love to talk to somebody that, from that school, because there’s that immediate connection.

Justin McMillen (00:28:00) That… yeah, wait, you weren’t there? Oh my God, you’re just all for like a three hour drive.

Danny Beissel (00:28:00) You get, like, maybe there’s some sort of an alumni thing? There is. I know when we got out, one of the guys was actually dating my sister, so they were in our life a little bit. And you know, Pat met with somebody, and you hear of somebody there. It’s kind of funny.

Justin McMillen (00:28:00) But, did you, as you said, you wrestled?

Danny Beissel (00:28:16) Yeah. Yeah, I did it for that, all the way through, just one season, just my eighth grade, and then I stopped there after that.

Justin McMillen (00:28:16) What kind of stuff were you into in school?

Danny Beissel (00:28:32) Just getting through it, really. I mean, it’s funny, because when I moved to ninth grade, all of a sudden I was getting honors. It was crazy. Like, I started to just… shame, because I think back, maybe if I just… because I got out in one week, and I did ninth grade through 10th grade, I was back in Philly, and that was Pat’s 11th grade.

Justin McMillen (00:28:32) Okay. So and I always wonder, what if I did the whole thing? Like, what would my life look like?

Danny Beissel (00:28:57) Is it such a great school? I mean, like, it’s an amazing school. And but, you know, I didn’t really get into much when I got in there. I mean, there’s always, you know, you get to come home. So you had a wake up at six, go, if you were on milk house or if you were on barn duty, and you have to get up and milk cows for an hour, come back and get a shower, repurpose, and go to school, and you just couldn’t get that smell off. It was so crazy. So, like, then you had to come home and you had to milk cows. There was like always something to do. You know, you play basketball, but Pat was in the sports. Pat was playing like football.

Justin McMillen (00:29:30) Okay.

Danny Beissel (00:29:48) I just, I just didn’t get in any sports. I probably should have, bet, you know, that. So that was my ninth grade year. And after that, we were out of there.

Justin McMillen (00:29:48) Okay. Yeah. You remember, it was a shock to come back and go to school in Philly again.

Danny Beissel (00:30:10) It was interesting. That’s where the big change came in. Because remember, back in the day, like a summer was like five of our years now. You know, it was just… you know, when I think back on my childhood, I was like, I was years. I was like, it was like two years, if that, maybe one. So just being away for that little bit, about two and a half years, I came back and everything was different. I went with my old friends one time and it was just wasn’t there. It was like half of them were there. Some of them were in bad shape. And then we get in the high school, and I started getting high school friends, and now, you know, meet girls, going to keg parties, keg for… and, so just being away from it was life saving, because that road I was… because we, you know, we were going to Catholic school, we got kicked out. I mean, we were in bad shape. I was… he was ready to quit school. It was like he was like done. So it’s interesting when things come along like that. At the time it was the most, the world was over, but really the world was just beginning. Yeah.

Justin McMillen (00:30:45) You know what I mean? Like, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t go to that school, and that’s a fact. It probably, like you said, it probably saved your life 100%.

Danny Beissel (00:31:07) And I feel that in my bones. It’s like, because I know I was running to the drugs, and now I look at it like I was trying to escape. I needed that, I wanted to feel something, you know what I mean? Like, now it’s clear to me. But back then it wasn’t.

Justin McMillen (00:31:07) So you finished high school. Different crew at that point, right? You’re not going crazy?

Danny Beissel (00:31:27) No, just, you know, just drinking and partying, and, you know, your typical East Coast high school stuff. You know, it was every weekend was a keg party. You know, I should have… I should have been. Yeah, yeah, it was most high school stuff.

Justin McMillen (00:31:27) Yeah.

Danny Beissel (00:31:46) Bell Mountain, where you’d go, there’s always a spot. Yeah, BR Home Park. It’s like this park we’d go to, or, you know, there’s like three spots. The cops were on the… this one, this is a crazy game we play.

Justin McMillen (00:31:46) Yeah. Then it was fun.

Danny Beissel (00:32:06) You know, I wasn’t alcoholic drinking then. Maybe I was, but I wasn’t, like, it was just different. 00;29;57;01 - 00;30;16;07 Justin McMillen You know, you’re in your late teens, your 20s. It was like in the late, late 80s, early 90s. Yeah. So I graduate high school ’90.

Justin McMillen (00:31:46) Okay. So, what a cool time to be going to high school, right?

Danny Beissel (00:31:46) Yeah, it was great. 80s rad. No phones, no nothing. I met, funny man, the ass end of like the best.

Justin McMillen (00:31:47) Yeah, we really did, because it was before all that. No internet. I think about it a lot. Just how we were really at this tail end of something really special. I don’t think we realized it. And, you know, it’s funny, we were so much more connected then. And we think we’re more connected now because you can just ring somebody.

Danny Beissel (00:32:06) That’s not the case, because we were just in tune in a different way then. Because we weren’t dumb owners of them. And I can just pick that, you know what I mean? And that’s real. And it’s like, hey, what’s going on. And one person calls a house and like somehow 200 people show up. How that happened. We didn’t have cell phones. It was just ways of doing things. And there was a different connection to a lot. I feel like the world’s a lot colder now because of this whole internet thing. And, you know, I might be wrong, but I just feel it. It’s like someone will text me a conversation, and I’m like, this is a ten second phone call. And there’s no… you can’t, there’s no, it’s just like someone’s texting you. I can text you an address or this time, or, hey man, you want to do this? I’m sure, but. And, so that’s why it’s so important to not get lost in that, I guess, you know. Rich… our friend Rich Gurman says rewild. Yeah, I’m 100% on board with that. I think it’s interesting how… but I think it’s interesting is like, we get these powerful tools that we could use in a good way, and then instead of like having discipline around it, we just wish they were gone, you know? Like the phone’s a powerful thing. Like, it’s amazing if we could have it and use it and not let it make us socially sick, you know. Well, then we come to my theory on the universe, which everything is complete balance. That phone can be as good as it can be as bad. Yeah, I feel that goes with everything. The pendulum, you know, how good the phone can be, it could be used for that much bad. And it’s kind of like, that’s where it comes down to the individual, right? Like, what are we doing here? Why are we here? So I don’t know. Well, you know, I think I’ll go with that last thing, where we’re only here… if you think we’re here more, you know, I’m paraphrasing this quote terribly, but to witness and play and create, and you’re thinking too much or something like that. So beautiful, like, we’re here to just witness and play and create, like. But it’s, that’s kind of where I’m at, you know. And it’s like, it’s decided, you know, I get it, you got to, you know, pay bills, and you got to pay rent, and there’s things, but those things are there. It’s up. It’s really up to us, which I found out. And that’s what, you know, I always tell people, I’m on a massive spiritual journey and I am. And that’s a big part of it, finding that balance. Finding my place and finding peace.

Justin McMillen (00:34:38) Yeah, I think there’s an unwinding of, or you have to sort of separate, just that we all have a drive to move forward, but that’s like, it’s biological.

Danny Beissel (00:35:03) Right. So, we’re always going to crave and want more, because that’s how we didn’t die. Like, that’s how our species continued, because we’re always looking for food. And so there’s always going to be a calling for more. But we can get, when we start to think that’s the meaning of life, is when we get in trouble.

Justin McMillen (00:35:03) Yeah. Because that’s really biological. That keeps the meat vehicle alive and running.

Danny Beissel (00:35:21) You have to do that. We were always looking for food, and that was how we did before. So now that calling still exists, to like, want more, want more. And that’s again how we didn’t die of famine and starvation.

Justin McMillen (00:35:41) Right. Yeah. And sex. Right. Like, these impulses, procreate.

Danny Beissel (00:35:42) Yeah. They’re flesh. Separate from that is like, what’s the meaning of us being consciousness in our bodies right now? That’s a different conversation. It’s a deep one, and it’s real. And it’s not talked about enough, to be quite honest with you. You know, I go down so many rabbit holes on ancient civilizations and stuff. And I always feel like they were prepared for death, you know, and like, we keep it, we put it in a back room and we fear it. And I’m not saying I don’t. I’m saying, you know, I’m open to learn more of the direction of it. Like, it’s kind of like, the ancient civilization stuff’s cool. It’s my mind blowing, I love it. I go down it because it’s so interesting. I don’t know, I’m just like, the pyramids, man. You have any theories about how they… made those things? Well, yeah, you know, but Graham Hancock, I love his theories. And I think, as Graham said… I’m quoting people here, in the same way, Graham Hancock would say we’re a species with amnesia, which I believe. I think before the Younger Dryas… The Younger Dryas is the great flood. It’s like this cataclysmic storm that Graham talks about, before that was an intelligent civilization that looked at things differently. And this is just me thinking, I think the pyramids… I don’t think there was millions of slaves moving those stones. I think they used harmonics. I think they used sound. I definitely think that because it’s proven that you can move things like that. We just didn’t untap specifically how they do it. But in the hieroglyphs, you would see them holding these certain things, and yeah, there’s that one that looks like a light bulb. So I think… and everybody’s like, what about technology? I was like, maybe they saw how technology is going to destroy us and didn’t go that way. Maybe they were higher intelligent that way. Also, maybe they used universal math, I don’t know. But it’s interesting. And I think there’s so much we don’t know. Maybe they grew up like, hey, it’s time for your meditation, as opposed to this other class. Maybe they were so in tune to think there’s a whole other thing that we don’t know. I mean, that’s just, you know, it’s just, again, it’s opinion. And I don’t really know.

Justin McMillen (00:38:06) But what’s so interesting about it, Danny, is that all over the world there’s these large structures like this. And so clearly, unless they were either all talking to each other, or there was just some way that everybody knew how to do this.

Danny Beissel (00:38:26) But there’s so much evidence at the same time. Yeah, it’s a trip. Halls are a pyramid. Very similar. It’s insane. But then, then they get into the Anunnaki. And that’s a whole other story, that maybe there was giants building them, you know.

Justin McMillen (00:38:26) That, you know what? I was going to say that, I thought of that theory too, because from the Book of Enoch, you know, and that’s coming out, that that was actual scripture.

Danny Beissel (00:38:49) Would you know, if you’re still in the Ethiopian Bible, and if you know these watchers, wherever that was, angels, whatever, could have been having sex, and then the Nephilim would come out, which were giants, which is like proven, they found big bones, you know. So maybe the theory is a bunch of giants build the pyramids. I buy that more than… they’re just like, just like, two giants, you could probably pick up one of those. It’s great, it’s so good. I have to say, I was like, this is great. I get lost in it. I love watching that.

Justin McMillen (00:39:15) I… there’s another theory I heard around how they built some, that was interesting too, which was, there was a whole movie about it where they had ground up granite into sand, and then they had these big lenses, and they were using sunlight, and they were melting it into place. So all they were doing was creating forms for each block, and then they poured molten granite in.

Danny Beissel (00:39:46) I never heard that, and I love that, that would make sense. And it would make sense why the seams are so perfect. Well, if you look at Puma Punku, those seams look like there’s no mortar in the middle, and it looks like they were just, like you said, poured in there.

Justin McMillen (00:40:08) I mean, that’s great, I’ve never heard of that. Yeah, so I think the problem with it is that if you melt granite it turns into obsidian. But there’s some dude, I think he’s in Germany, that figured out how to add a compound to it that makes it not turn into obsidian. And that seems to me, that seems like the most likely.

Danny Beissel (00:40:28) Yeah, but the sound stuff’s interesting too, because they’re doing stuff with that now, with harmonics and levitation, and there’s a bunch of things there. And, you know, just like someone was explaining it, and I was on board with it. I was like, I can see that, if you had the right thing to make that happen, to guide them. But, you know, getting back to why we’re here, it’s kind of like, I think, I was just thinking this, like, that’s the question. I just want to make sure I’m living life right. Like, that was the prior intelligence, you know, before the Younger Dryas, like, because I really feel when you tap into the right meditation, I mean, I know this because I did it. If I wake up and do 20 minutes of meditation and do a couple other things, like, my day is completely different. Why is it so hard for me to do that? It’s like this other side’s pulling at me. So I believe we can learn things through meditation, like tapping into, you know, the library of the universe, so to speak. Again, this is, I’m just like on this journey, and I think, I’m just, I want to know if I’m living life right. Like, what’s that mean. And it’s kind of like, should I… is meditation preparing for the other side, maybe? I mean, like, if you read the Kabbalah, and they’re like… this one got me, they talk about the all and the laws of the universe. Right. And then you say the universe is the meditation of the all. I was like, right, you know, so think about that. What do you think that means?

Justin McMillen (00:42:10) Well, I think it comes down to manifestation. Like, you know, there’s nothing in this room that wasn’t thought. So that’s a form of manifestation.

Danny Beissel (00:42:36) Correct. And it’s kind of like, is the… you know, to go into like, is the all witnessing life to us manifesting. And, you know, I mean, it gets into that, and I’m… that’s fun to read and listen to. But I don’t know what I think right now. I’ve been… you could ask Heather about it, I’ve been really obsessing over this subject at this point. And I’m super interested in, like, how things are alive, which sounds weird, but looking at trees and people. I was actually talking to a friend of mine about this, he’s like a quantum physicist, brilliant guy, and just how all organic matter is decomposing, right? Everything’s coming apart. But for some reason, life is pulling things back into order, right? Like, if you take life away from anything, it just decomposes. Like even humans, right? Life comes in, and it’s growing, and it’s trying to stay in order. And then the information starts to get messed up, and then it starts to decompose and goes back into the dirt. But there’s this life, it’s coming up through it. And so it’s like this force. And if you think of the world that way, and you look around… Pat, Pat, sorry, because your brother’s name, Danny… if you look around that way, and you see trees, everything, it’s like, you see it everywhere. It’s just life. I see it in people’s eyes, like, well, it’s… Yeah. That’s beautiful. I love that, we need to talk more about that later.

Justin McMillen (00:43:45) And it’s about now. I mean, I love that, I love the way that you’re looking at that, because I look at like, you know, go as far as to thank my avocado tree for avocados, because everything, everything vibrates, therefore everything has consciousness. Well, everything’s getting pulled into order. And that’s amazing, because nothing else… things without life just decompose, and they become like… even the universe is expanding. It’s becoming more chaotic, right? That’s the law of entropy. It’s just things are unwinding. Life is pulling things…

Danny Beissel (00:44:08) Yeah. And so then I’m like, okay, well, what is the life thing, and what is consciousness.

Justin McMillen (00:44:28) And that’s really where it… so Alan Watts also talks… like, if we were to sort of choose this journey, like, remember that we chose this, like we were born into this, we grew into these humans, like we took, sort of took up our home inside these bodies. Now we can look at everything, we’re walking around and we’re experiencing the world. And maybe the whole point is just like, we get to be here, to witness, and, like, a period of time, past here. And it’s like, so the adventure, it’s like the good and the bad, all of it, it’s all part of it.

Danny Beissel (00:44:55) And then, you know, I used to… one of my favorite books is Siddhartha, from Hermann Hesse. It’s the best book ever. It’s like one of my top three. I think it’s my number one. Like that, because it was the one book I read that, it was like the first book I really read. I mean, I don’t read much books back then, you know, just trying to get out of the neighborhood at that point. And, my brother Pat had it, packed into the… he was into that kind of reading, those books first. And I remember I put it down and I sat there for like ten minutes, like, whoa. And it just, something resonated, like, like in the beginning of that, they’re telling them what’s good, and this is your Brahman. But he didn’t truly know. So we had to go out and experience. And come full circle. And, you know, I’m not saying that’s my life, but, you know, it’s everyone’s life. I think that’s the circle of life, whatever that means, whether it’s trying to make it off the streets of Philadelphia, or trying to figure stuff out in Newport Beach. There’s no… everybody’s like, oh, I had it worse. It doesn’t matter. Everybody’s got their own heavy. That’s all they know. Whether you’re a trillionaire or you don’t have nothing, you could feel the same pain, you know? And that’s the hard thing to wrap your head around. And once you do, though, it’s more understanding to people, like, you know what I mean by that, right? Like, everybody’s got their own thing. And it’s the biggest thing to them, whether they’re well-to-do or not, well-to-do, or whatever it is, it’s very real. And I think that’s, you know, maybe that’s that simple.

Justin McMillen (00:46:33) Yes. You know, and that’s why I’m so grateful for the sobriety I have, because I truly see that now, like, the whiskey was my God, I made that my spirit.

Danny Beissel (00:47:01) Spirit. That’s interesting. It’s called spirits. Yeah. And I made it that, that was it. That was my… I was running to it and it backfired, and I almost killed myself. And it’s like, and now, like, I’m going to true, you know, I keep saying spiritual journey, I don’t know what else to say, but that’s pretty much what it feels.

Justin McMillen (00:47:22) It’s like you’re making me see something right now. I think when you talk about it, it’s your God. There was, I heard, you know, Russell Brand, so I was listening to him, and he was talking about vaping and nicotine, and he was saying how, you know, he would find himself driving, you know, after 10:00, trying to find a vape shop that was open to, you know, and he was like, you know, nicotine. And it was like, and then I realized it was my God. And I was like, that’s interesting. He goes, because anything in your life that controls you, when you don’t want to do something, but you have to go do it, that’s your God. That’s what you’re making your… and so if you start looking at your life through that lens, and you realize that if you don’t put God in your life at some point, like a power greater than yourself, that’s not something that’s destroying you. It seems like we’re always going to be looking for something. You could kind of see, like, what?

Danny Beissel (00:48:16) Yeah. What? Your goddess, like, you said it better than me. No, but that’s, I don’t know, he said that, but that’s very true. And it’s interesting. It’s like I always felt that, man, I always had this. I always think in visions. And I always had this vision of a wire from me to the universe that was, like, disconnected. It was such a specific vision. And, I always think, you know, the great spirit works in the realm of thought. So I always think of thoughts. You know, I try to follow that thread, like, why did I have that thought? Like, an intuitive thought. They’re just something pure. I just think of, like, that vision popped in my head, and I was like, wow, that’s a very specific thing. Like, what does that mean, a broken wire? Like, I saw it going to space, and, you know, just, like, pictured it. And I’m like, wow, so to me that was telling me I’m so disconnected. No, no, no, no, I’m on a good path now. I’m not there, and I’m okay not being there. I’m a work in progress. And at least I’m a work in progress, you know, not working the other way, but, you know, some, like the pendulum, three later days, and I have three days I got to get through. And I’m learning, finally learning to get on the path of living one day at a time, like, you know, you got to do your stuff. But like, really staying within the day, just like, wow, what a day, you know? And it’s such, the more I have peaceful, good days like that, and the fear is not there. The anxiety, wherever that comes from, from childhood or whatever, you know, that’s something. That’s the work you have to do. I have to do, like the one day at a time.

Justin McMillen (00:50:08) I mean, that’s also about, one day at a time is, it’s like an amazing tool to avoid relapse, right? And to get through craving. It’s like, I just have to get through today.

Danny Beissel (00:50:09) So that’s beautiful. But then secondarily, if you truly live that way, you become someone who is in the moment.

Justin McMillen (00:50:09) Oh yeah, Krishnamurti. Like, to live the moment.

Danny Beissel (00:50:41) Like, like, you know, I’ll have moments on stage sometimes, and I call them… I call it real time. And, you know, I’ve been singing for a long time, and it’s only been a few, but that’s where it almost feels like I go. I turn in slow motion, and I’m just like, in this. That’s the place. That’s the enlightenment place. That’s the ether, man. And I’m just, and I call it real time because I think that is real time. I think we live so much in front of real time that it looks slow motion. I’m just, that’s being truly in the moment. And it’s the… it was the… it’s the best feeling ever, and I can’t explain why.

Justin McMillen (00:51:03) So what does that mean? We’re meant to live in the moment? And it’s kind of like we need to slow down a little bit. Why is it like we go to the beach, we go to a mountain, and it’s like you just feel so good, and like everything’s okay, if I go on a hike.

Danny Beissel (00:51:23) I’m like, well, you know, it’s that we’re in tune with nature again. We’re just like, we’re where we’re supposed to be. The vastness of, especially this coast, this coast is unbelievable, right? I can just look out and… I mean, you know, this was a very special place for me. Laguna Beach, not to jump ahead, but I’m kind of jumping around. But this is perfect.

Justin McMillen (00:51:45) Yeah, yeah, this is exactly. Okay, cool.

Danny Beissel (00:52:09) Yeah. And there’s no coincidence I ended up here. There’s no way. You know, it’s like I needed to hear from a lot of things. My mom, I swear, I got sober… this is Laguna Beach, I mean, and, you know, I needed that, you know, palm trees and oceans. I was just going, but I needed that. There was something about it, like, and I love where I come from, and I love my friends, and I miss them, but it’s just, everybody, you know, I had to get out of… “wood, I knew people, places and things,” they call it. And, because I really was sick, and I didn’t want to be that guy. And I couldn’t get out of it. It was horrible. You know, I put my family through here four years ago. I moved here in ’22.

Justin McMillen (00:52:34) Okay. So you come out here to get sober. Where was it?

Danny Beissel (00:52:59) No, I was coming out here, Corona del Mar, because I was coming out here for years, but I was going to Newport for music and stuff like that. Then after the pandemic, I came out to Corona del Mar for my friend Charlie. He was passed. Now he was… tell me about this. Charity called Angel Force that I worked for, and my friend, and we… she had this big house we were staying, and what they do is for veterans, suicide. So the music’s a big component, because that information is very heavy. So the events would end with music. So I was coming out, and we’re working on that stuff, and I was still drinking, still in between. You know, it wasn’t like, when I say drinking, it means, like, I was in between. I get two, three sober months, and I binge it. It was, it’s such an awful life. And then whatever happened, I had this moment in Las Vegas for work. I was out there for a gig, and I call it a God moment, and it saved my life. I mean, I went out there early, and it was so intense. I was blacked out for five hours in a casino. I don’t remember any of it. And I remember waking up, and the clarity I had for about three seconds. It was like the real me came out and was like, what are you doing? And from that moment on, January 14th, my mom’s birthday, which is kind of funny, I never looked back. I knew I had another drink in me, but I knew I didn’t have another recovery in me. I knew it in my bones. It was two roads, clear as day. And, went home back to Philly. Was going to cancel my flights for gigs and everything. And I met this guy Dave, became my sponsor in Philly. He said, well, you know, don’t cancel your gigs, get your money, man. Just call him every day. Because airports was my biggest trigger. Yeah, yeah, brutal. I would lie, if someone was dropped me, I’d literally lie on it. Almost two hours, my flight was two hours early. That’s how sick I was, to go sit in an airport and drink for two hours before I… but that’s it. That’s what it is, man. It’s, listen, if you know this, God and the devil exist, that’s a devil’s tool, is alcoholism. We tell you, man, it’s an addiction, that masquerade is so nuts that you ended up in Laguna Beach too. Oh, so fast forward to that. So one day, after that, I was, I was like, I’m getting sober, that’s it. I was, it was a Sunday, and it was a Saturday, and I’m looking up a Sunday morning meeting, and I have this app, and it goes to the closest one. So I’m right in front of the… it’s like, can you make a right now? It was on the beach. It was in Heisler Park. Still go to the meeting every Sunday morning at 10 a.m. And I went down there, and I was like, and then, that’s how I found North Laguna. And I was like, what is this place, meeting on this beautiful bluff. And Heisler there, and it was a game changer. Then, you know, I always try to get Pat to like, move out, you know, like we’ve been talking about moving to California since, you know, ’92, just took a little bit of time. And he would never do anything with me because I wasn’t sober. And I don’t blame him, you know. So he saw that my sobriety was real. And so, you know, he moved out with me. I mean, that was talk about manifestation, because I was on such a high frequency when you get that early sobriety, and I’m in Laguna Beach, and that’s when you manifest, when you’re at frequencies the same as, as if you have it. And that’s what I believe anyway. And also in this apartment came up with it, I couldn’t tell you how, like, everything just wanted to do, do, do, do, do. The next thing I know, I’m in Laguna Beach. It was a rough first year, because my mom was sick, and we didn’t know anybody.

Justin McMillen (00:56:31) Yeah. Not really.

Danny Beissel (00:56:48) But, you know, now we know all you guys, and it’s, I mean, what a beautiful life. Peaceful, chill town, you know, it’s great.

Justin McMillen (00:56:48) Yeah, yeah, it’s its own special little magic spot in the world for sure.

Danny Beissel (00:57:12) But, I’m so grateful. Like, I’m just this person, just grateful for every day I got, because I almost didn’t, you know? And it’s kind of like, to be in Laguna Beach and have those days, like…

Justin McMillen (00:57:12) That’s why I’m, like, so worried about finance, my career? I’m like, yeah, let’s just enjoy this day, because you’re here, and you got cool stuff in the future, and just, let’s, you know.

Danny Beissel (00:57:32) And that’s what made me learn, because I was a little anxiety ridden the first year about, you know, it’s a big thing to take on. All of a sudden you’re living in California, you know, change my license, that I never did. It was like, whoa. So, it was a big move, but it was the right move. It was definitely the right move for me and Pat.

Justin McMillen (00:57:32) Yeah. And Pat?

Danny Beissel (00:57:50) Yeah. He’s doing well.

Justin McMillen (00:57:51) Yeah. And you got where you guys are. So you’ve been touching on music this whole conversation a little bit. We talked about acting in theater too. How did that all… how did you, from Philly, like, how did your musical career sort of launch?

Danny Beissel (00:57:51) And then that’s interesting, it’s very interesting. So after high school, you know, ’90, I graduate, so ’91, ’92, flopping around the house. You know, I was landscaping, and I always had a job since I was ten. I always had a job. And, you know, beer money, just me and my buddy, actually, he’s my brother-in-law now, guy Bopper. And we were just, you know, you’re just living life after high school, a couple of years. And I remember I was always into the old movies. I loved James Dean, I loved James Dean, and I knew about, you know, I rented the tapes, VCR tapes of all movies. Rebel Without a Cause, that you see, is probably my favorite. That’s his first one too. And, about the actor studio, and Brando went there, and all this stuff, and, you know, me and Pat were in the living room, my mom’s like, hey, I found this thing. Pat still got the article, and it was an acting class, and the guy said, actor studio, which was like, when we heard that, we’re like, hey, where James Dean, you know, you’re a kid. And, lo and behold, we found gold with this guy Sidney K. He was… I mean, he met James Dean. He was Sanford Meisner’s assistant in the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Like, he was an assistant to Meisner when Diane Keaton was a student. Annie Hall, Diane Hall was… your real name is. And God rest her soul, I was… I heard she lived in Laguna for a little bit. She lived in my house.

Justin McMillen (00:59:26) That was… oh, my God, are you kidding me? Sleep in her old bedroom.

Danny Beissel (00:59:42) What’s… oh my God, that’s so cool. It’s cool, wow, what a story. And I always wanted to meet her, to be like, hey, Cindy, you know, I thought it’d be a cool thing. Obviously, I love Diane Keaton. I think she’s amazing. She’s a total legend. It was funny when I first moved there.

Justin McMillen (00:59:42) That’s so cool. I didn’t know that.

Danny Beissel (01:00:04) And, like, try to take pictures, I’m like, yeah, we’re not that important, that’s not us. Yeah, but what was a big deal for Rick and Laura, who lived on the place right for them, because it were really close to there.

Justin McMillen (01:00:04) Oh wow. Yeah. It was hard. What a loss. What a beautiful soul.

Danny Beissel (01:00:23) Well, anyways.

Justin McMillen (01:00:23) So, this is crazy. So people who don’t know, like, I know a little bit about this guy Constantine Stanislavski from Russia. Bunch of people go over and learn from them. They all come back. So you take it from there.

Danny Beissel (01:00:23) And then Meisner, Adler, Strasberg. We have some time, right? All right. So, you know, acting before Brando, they say, what do you say, what do you know, you know, it was all that back and forth until Brando brought true emotion. But that comes from, I mean, Brando’s talent, obviously. So Stanislavski had this idea, he used to like watch his family, like, what is really living truthfully under imaginary circumstances really look like. How come the depth an actor can penetrate his innermost feelings, and reveal those feelings through the action of the play? How do we get there without losing ourselves? Which was, think about that, that’s amazing. So from that idea created the Group Theatre. So in New York, there were literally camps, summer camps that would start at the Group Theatre. It was like Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, the Bobby Lewis, Harold Clurman… little, I think that’s you, just in the big ones that… yeah, well, that’s the ones. Right. So from that, they would be doing plays, and Clifford Odets, who was actually my teacher’s mentor, Clifford Odets was the writer of the Group Theatre, that was called… 01;00;11;05 - 01;00;31;03 Danny B And they would be put on plays and stuff like that. So, you know, fast forward, Sanford Meisner started the neighborhood… a lot of them had arguments on how to do it. And what I know, I’m sure there’s deeper stuff, but what I know from just what I know is, like, Strasberg was more sense memory. The Actor Studio, which is, and I use both in my class, because my teacher had all these people, you know, like that Meisner and Strasberg combination is good.

Justin McMillen (01:02:01) Yeah. Well, you learn to play off the other.

Danny Beissel (01:02:33) Exactly. I get notes out of all of it, but my teacher was definitely, I find, a healthier way, because it was like, you know, I did a sense memory when I was in class, an improvisation about my father, and I was coming in as the person that was the driver that killed him. And my objective was to tell them, you got to leave town, you got to go now, or else, or whatever. And that was heavy. And I can see why, because I had to go back and think about real life stuff and then shake it off and come in the room, you know. So I tried that, and it does stick with you. Strasberg messed people up. I don’t know if you ought to be… I mean, you know, Pacino, that’s Strasberg, if you can hang in there with him, I think he was dynamite. But I think he could have probably messed a couple people up. But Meisner was more like real life with imagination, which I… that’s how I write music now, because everything I learned in acting, I just went like that. I never studied music. I know nothing about it. So it was a very interesting take on music now, because I’m using acting notes. So anyway, that’s the idea of what they call method acting and all that. So Pat and I went down to the class, and after the first class I was blown away, because, you know, you gotta remember this. This class was more than just an acting class to me. It was almost one of the most important things in ninth grade life. It gave us a compass, that talk to girls or nothing like that. And now you’re doing these improvisations where he’s like, an ounce of behavior’s worth a pound of words, less is more, like, what? Like, shut up and listen. You know what I mean? And it’s like, so you’re going into these improvisations, and if you say something, why you say it, in you, you have to work off the other person. So what’s that doing? I’m listening, I’m relating, and I’m reacting. And it’s all based in the truth. Method acting is based on how close can you get to the truth without losing yourself. And that’s what, that’s what… you know, I still call that acting, I guess. My first love. I’m a singer now, but I could talk about it forever. It’s such a beautiful art form. When it’s done like that. You know what I mean? Like some of those performances, like Daniel Day-Lewis, or, you know, some of the old Brando. Any of the brilliant actors out today. And it’s like, we have this thing in us as humans that I believe is where we know the truth. Like when you see a performance that touches you, you know it. Yeah. And you know, I know when someone’s indicating, doing a little acting. But I looked at it more as, my brother had a really good definition for it. Like, we didn’t go to learn acting, we learned we were being taught how to be relaxed, to create, and to react, not to act. It was interesting, you know, if you look at it, Montgomery Clift would always say, I’m not an actor, I’m a reactor, which is an interesting thing if you think about it.

Justin McMillen (01:05:24) What does that mean? It means you’re not thinking in your head, you’re reacting.

Danny Beissel (01:05:41) Well, you got an independent activity.

Justin McMillen (01:05:41) Anyway, I gotta tell you, this is, you have no idea how much this stuff resonates with me. So I use Meisner in my work here. I’ve sat for hours just doing repetition exercises where you’re like, you have blue eyes, I have blue eyes, so, yeah. The whole… but learning, I teach attunement here, in a personal attunement, which is, do you know that term? No? Human is like, feeling being felt. So it’s like sonar. So I ping you, as I teach, I literally teach in this class, in this room over there. Like, if I give you some sort of a stimulus, right, like right now we’re just looking at each other’s eyes, right, and then try to find there… so you gave me a smile. I’m really… So, so you feel being felt. So meaning that somebody feeling being felt is like, if I ping you a sonar, and I see a reaction, and I can feel that reaction, and then it now starts this circle, right?

Danny Beissel (01:06:20) So ping pong game of the impulse.

Justin McMillen (01:06:43) Yes, exactly. Yeah, so there’s a bunch of, there’s actually areas of the brain that are dedicated to that, that if they’re removed, you can’t do it anymore.

Danny Beissel (01:06:43) Right. It’s very… yeah. And so we teach about it through neuro, interpersonal neurobiology, is what we teach here. But it’s so crazy, because I’ve sat in classes, I did all this stuff in college, and so much of it is so relevant to human interaction and experience that people don’t know. That’s the other thing about acting. And they’re like, oh jeez, you’re on a stage dancing, they have no idea. You’re thinking about super objectives, and what’s your inner monologue, what’s driving somebody. But I got more out of life than I did out of doing any kind of acting on it. I completely did.

Justin McMillen (01:07:07) Yeah, I mean, it’s brilliant. It’s like, and you know, that’s the other thing, if you really, I’ll do this in a conversation. If someone’s like losing themselves at me, I’ll be like, but it’s a real simple thing. Just like you said, you’re angry, watch the reaction, because it’s truthful. And it’s, because half the time people are just yelling up here at each other. Right. And the rules here, let’s say you just take the time to play the moment and stop and say, you’re upset. You know, like the word game, it’s how powerful.

Danny Beissel (01:07:50) Yes. And it’s like you said, it’s kind of funny that there’s so much more to human life getting through a day. And you put that on screen. It’s brilliant.

Justin McMillen (01:08:10) Yeah. You know, if you ever… you know how people look at babies and they make faces at, and then they go, oh, and they laugh, and they laugh back, and the baby… that action is literally, the brain from 18 to 24 months is developing the attunement part of the brain. And that’s when the baby realizes they’re not alone, because they can’t talk yet. So when they see, they’re like, oh, mom made a face, I made a face back, and the mom made a face again. Now the baby’s like, wait a minute, there’s a world outside of that, that’s cool that I can get down with it. And I know that the internal part of me is visible in the external, and it starts to connect us to others. This is why it’s really important to look at children in the face when they’re young. If you don’t do that, you can mess them up.

Danny Beissel (01:08:41) But yeah, I think about this stuff all the time. So it’s powerful stuff, man. And it’s like, and I remember my teacher saying that we’re dealing with, you know, because you’re dealing with… the thing about that class was, I didn’t know it was part of, I wanted to go there, I wanted to go so deep. Like, a lot of people don’t like to go there. I was like, run it, how do I get there, I want to get to go right. And I remember doing the improv about my father, and, how you do improv, you have an objective, and you walk out of the room, and you give the other guy an independent activity, whatever. There’s another objective, so when I walked out, I didn’t realize when it came back, there was, he was an alcoholic, he made him an alcoholic, and there were bottles on the stage. And when I saw the bottles, this is how in tune my teacher was, it didn’t throw me out, but I grabbed them, and I broke down as if they were my father. The bottles, and I remember, it was heavy. I wasn’t losing myself, I was still, you know, acting or whatever, but it was real. And then the problem got, people were, I was facing, you know, my teacher’s like, well, this is how important it is to work off the other person. I stopped working off him and started working off myself.

Justin McMillen (01:10:21) Yeah, I was like, that’s the Meisner part of that, that’s the Meisner part, you can’t, you still, the other person’s there, so more like this, because he affects everything I do. I mean, it would have passed as a really beautiful emotional scene, wow, because it was real. But how do we make it better? You went in when you should have been, were you still working off, still going to work off the other person? So just like that, that idea, I mean, that was a big life-changing thing for Pat and I, I mean, huge. I think you just took Strasberg and Meisner and you just showed how two things were happening at the same time, because the Strasberg thing is getting so caught up in it. Right? I heard stories, they used to keep people awake for a couple of days just so they were emotionally raw, you know? I mean, there was one, I knew a director who cast a kid in a play who had actually killed his own mother, like when he was a child. There was some crazy thing where he killed his mother, and he ended up out of jail. And people found out later that he was cast in this play because he had done that. And he was playing a kid who was going to kill his mother.

Danny Beissel (01:11:24) Is that Elia Kazan?

Justin McMillen (01:11:42) Maybe. No, he’s notorious for what he did as a director. I mean, putting James Dean and the other guy in the same house, in the editing.

Danny Beissel (01:11:42) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. But Strasberg, I mean, I think a lot of that, at least my opinion of it, is super self-absorbed, whereas Meisner was like…

Justin McMillen (01:11:42) So you went on and you had this beautiful moment that Strasberg would have loved. Your teacher had a combination of both.

Danny Beissel (01:12:02) And so, exactly. Good. But the Meisner side of that, that’s, you’re exactly right. It’s kind of cool. It’s like you tapped in, and I agree with it, he’s right. Like, as far as, you know, it’s good you had an emotional breakthrough there, whatever that was. But we’re on a scene here, and you got to deal with the other person. And he’s right, and I know it. And it was like, it doesn’t sting at that point, because I was in there for a while. It’s just like, it’s always a note, there’s always a note, there’s always a note. And I love that.

Justin McMillen (01:12:22) There’s always… but so you go through that, you spent how long did you spend… so you sort of…

Danny Beissel (01:12:40) I started that around ’93.

Justin McMillen (01:12:40) And you did that for years, or?

Danny Beissel (01:12:40) Yeah, yeah, I was in there till about, God, I was in there, it’s almost ’99, ’98, or… no, no. Pat left and went to New York, ’90, ’95, ’96, ’97, ’98, I think around ’98, ’99 we were doing plays. And yeah, I was doing like a couple little things, Fringe Fest in Philly, and we did… but this one, our first acting thing was at this prison called the Fairmount Prison. Famous prison, it’s closed down, but it’s, I mean, it’s haunted, like Al Capone. It’s crazy history. You gotta talk to Pat about that, he had the haunted experience. It was really cool. We did a scene in there, in the actual cells. Me and Pat were playing like two inmates, and we walk out, and he’s like, am I… Objective is to tell him that he’s gonna rat on him, and he… yeah, it’s all good, he turns around, slicing my throat, and there’s all these people there walking through, like they did a tour through. So I was doing a bunch of stuff like that, and I did an independent film in Philly. Dave, Dave Hammer. What’s his name? David Kim. His father was a Philadelphia Flyer. Dave the Hammer, on the Broad Street Bullies. It’s not in my brain right now. So anyway, he did this film called Conspiracies, and I did music for it, actually won a jury prize for the music, which was kind of rad. And then I did, another scene, I did, my buddy Joe Yakovenko had this movie up in New York, so I shot a scene with him in Brooklyn, which was cool. And then, I was trying out for stuff, and then one day, me and Pat, I was sitting there, and I was watching this old footage from the Milton Berle Show of Elvis Presley, which I think is one of the greatest performances ever on TV. When he did Hound Dog, like that slows it down, which he just did that on the spot, by the way, when he slows it down at the end.

Justin McMillen (01:14:32) I didn’t know that.

Danny Beissel (01:14:54) Yeah, it’s pretty cool, the band talks about it, they had no idea, but they’re right there, you know. And I remember just watching that, and something just went click, and I was, I was always an Elvis fan. And I said, no one does the young Elvis, it’s always the dressed up white suit Elvis. And I had short hair at the time, like pompadour it up, I’m doing everything to have James Dean hair, I guess. And so there grew that idea, and I couldn’t get this idea out of my… I didn’t know music, man. I had a guitar, my older cousin would teach me some chords, you know, I knew a little bit. And then I just, I remember going in, I just had this idea, I was like, I want that, I need to get that upright bass, that guy on the, you know, that style guitar, that sound, that rockabilly sound. But I couldn’t, I didn’t know music. So I went up, I learned like 30 Elvis songs, or 25 songs, can’t remember what it was, picking the chords out, rewinding the tape. That’s why I’ll never forget those songs, because it’s not like pulling up a computer, it’s right there. I had to play by ear. Yeah, yeah, I’d write the lyrics down. And I had to figure the chords out. It was pretty interesting.

Justin McMillen (01:15:57) So you’re gifted with… you have to, I guess, naturally…

Danny Beissel (01:16:12) I don’t know, but I was picking it out, and I knew some chords and stuff like that, but there were some more intricate ones that I was picking out by sound, but that’s fine. I mean, that’s a cool thing to do, I guess. And then my first show was at, like, the corner bar across the street, not far from my house. The bar’s history is kind of interesting, but I don’t want to get into all that. And it’s funny, talking about how we were earlier, about the cell phones and stuff like that, it was one phone call down the neighborhood, and it was just, everybody, you know, remember this? It’s like word of mouth, was it? We had no pagers, we had no… and that was my first gig. So I did it solo, just me, and I’m playing some bars in Philly, dude, where, you know, these guys want to come over, do some shots, do a couple lines, and listen to what they probably weren’t expecting, with some young kid up there. Yeah, ain’t nothing but… and, but, you know, I believed it so much that… but eventually people are like, wow. And I finally got to the point at this buddy I went to high school with, Pat was playing snare with me. It was just me and acoustic and Pat on snare, of course.

Justin McMillen (01:16:59) It’s so good.

Danny Beissel (01:17:15) Exactly. It was wild. So I finally started getting where I wanted to get, and I got my buddy Bo Souder, I went to high school with him, and he’s playing drums, and, you know, was like a guitar player. And me, I didn’t know I needed a bass player, I just didn’t know, I was becoming a musician. So a good friend of mine, named Conrad Kush, was a bass player I went to high school with, and I called him up. I’m like, hey man, I’m looking for… and he’s like, you know what, I think I got a guy. So we got this guy, Dave, and this kid was like a musical prodigy, I mean, he played upright, I was like, I got it, and I got Bo was on drums, and I found this guy Mike on guitar, and it was, I finally got the equation. And so there’s this place in Philly I played, called, it used to be called Jacob’s, and it was kind of a famous place, it was like Philly’s version of CBGB’s in New York, like Pearl Jam, you know, old Nirvana, they all came through this bar. So I started playing there, and that’s when I had the act that I wanted. I had, you know, I’m wearing like a black button up, or a white blazer with black pants, with black and white shoes, and doing Elvis, I’m doing the legwork, but my objective was not to imitate him. But you gotta remember, I was in acting class, so my objective was to find out what it was. What is it in Elvis that people, you know, besides being magnetic, and, great looking man and all that, and I was going through it as, figuring out the character, as it was so interesting how I went into it. And through that I found my own voice. But my opinion of what Elvis… is that thing is he’s truly, truly humble. He’s really, it’s humility. He’s so humble, and that’s the last thing you would think, it’s interesting. But the more I dug in, and the way it is, and, laughs at themselves, you know, I was like, wow, it just drove people crazy just being humble, but not acting humble. Literally, he was, because he came from nothing, again on that. You know, sometimes that makes you be a certain way, I guess. Trying to think of what Elvis song I could play, do… can you play In the Ghetto? Is that hard, on… I mean, I know, but let me think. And the Snowflake, on a cold, cold… I can’t remember the words. You play whatever you feel, but that’s a beautiful song, I love that song. My sister and I used to listen to that song when we first moved here. I’ve pretty much… I can’t think of an Elvis song that I didn’t play, really. I mean, I’m sure there is, but the funny part about it, when I started, that was like ’95, and swing came in, right? Remember swing came in for like two days, real quick? And I was doing rockabilly, so I was doing Stray Cats. I had, remind me to tell you something about them. Okay. Yeah, I gotcha. And, so my bass player and drummer just swung it, and we started breaking attendance records at this place. I never expected it, I was like, what’s going on, all of a sudden, it’s like, oh, here it is, we’re going. Every Monday night we played, and that’s when it all started. It was pretty cool, man. So I haven’t played this song in a long time, but this is one of the most special songs. It’s actually from the movie Jailhouse Rock. And just something about the song always moved me, was the way I sang it, the simplicity of it. It’s called Young and Beautiful. Okay, let’s see if I remember. [Danny B performs an acoustic snippet of “Young and Beautiful” (Jailhouse Rock, Elvis Presley) — lyrics not reproduced here per copyright.] [Song continues, same track.]

Justin McMillen (01:22:33) Nice, pretty song.

Danny Beissel (01:23:28) No, it’s cool.

Justin McMillen (01:23:28) Then you got to… so this is, this is how you got your start, playing Elvis?

Danny Beissel (01:23:28) Yeah.

Justin McMillen (01:23:28) And that song’s just… so Elvis taught you music?

Danny Beissel (01:23:29) He did. Yeah, yeah. Elvis has been a really big part of my life in some very interesting ways. That, I didn’t know there was something exploding in me. Like, I have to get this out, and I didn’t know how to get it out, and I got it out through learning it, being young Elvis, or whatever it was. You know, Danny Bissell’s Elvis, I call it the Elvis Experience. And I took that to Graceland, played Graceland, took it as far as I could possibly take it. It’s crazy, by the time I played Graceland.

Justin McMillen (01:23:49) Yourself, an Elvis impersonator, or, you know?

Danny Beissel (01:24:13) No, no, no, I wasn’t aiming to be an impersonator. I did things that he did, and I kind of made it my own, like that shaking and all that, you gotta make it your own. And I’ll give due respect to impersonators. I saw some fabulous impersonators, it just wasn’t what I was going for. I was going more of like, trying to find, like… well, I found myself through it, so subconsciously, that’s what I was trying to do, because all of a sudden I had, like, a voice that was mine.

Justin McMillen (01:24:13) That makes so much sense. Yeah, I could see it. Like, you’re putting on a character, and it sort of gives you permission to…

Danny Beissel (01:24:30) Yes, I was, and believe him, I didn’t, I didn’t know what I was doing up there. Who the hell am I to be up here? But I can be Elvis Presley up there.

Justin McMillen (01:24:45) Yeah, that totally makes sense. So when did you move from that? When did you start writing your own stuff?

Danny Beissel (01:24:45) Well, through, at the end of that, I actually, it was kind of interesting, because as I said before, I used acting a lot. So I mentioned before about Clifford Odets. So I always had a book of his plays. We would do scenes, you know, Pat and I, or whoever, guys in class. And one of his… I used to write, when I started writing, I wasn’t a writer, so I would take a title of a play. One of the first songs I wrote was Awake and Sing, which is a Clifford Odets play, not about the play, but I was like, awake and sing, wow, what a statement. It’s biblical, “awake and sing, ye who dwell in the dust,” it’s actually in the Bible, I found that out later. And I started writing, and I was like, oh my God, I wrote a song, I was like, craziest thing. And it’s still one of my most beloved songs. And it’s funny how it worked, like the verse, first cut, I could record it today and it would be good. And so through that, and, you know, I was a little… and then you start partying a little harder. It’s funny, when I first did the shows, the Elvis experience, I wouldn’t even… there wasn’t even a thought, because one thing I learned in Sydney’s acting class was, don’t ever disrespect the stage. It’s like it’s that church, form of church or whatever you’d say, and to be drunk, you know, no. I always remember that. And I never really drank when I first started, because I didn’t need it. This was new, it was this thing I was so excited about. And then you keep doing it and you’re like… You know, I took it to Graceland. At this point I got long hair, I looked more like a blond Jim Morrison. I’m singing the Elvis Experience now, we’re doing some Zeppelin in it. So I didn’t know where to go. And then I actually met this guy, Brian Quinn, and when I met him, we just hit it off.

Justin McMillen (01:26:34) But you knew each other from playing the same clubs?

Danny Beissel (01:26:55) He had this band in Philly that was really one of the biggest bands, called Octane and stuff like that. And, I don’t know, when I met him, we started playing together, and he had, like, some songs you start writing, and he knew this guy Kevin, Kevin Miller, he’s been in the band, he actually is back in the band Fuel. He was the drummer for Fuel. So they must have done a show, so he left Fuel, and he’s like, hey man, let’s go up, he wants to create a band. I told him, I got the guys, you know, Danny’s a singer, blah blah blah. And we went up there, and then we had this band, Foster Child. Now, welcome to the original arena. I was so green, I think I was still, like, shaking on stage. No idea, this is the original band, bro, what are you doing, Elvis? Keep that leg in check. And that was a growing experience. A lot of it was stressful, because I was so green, and I didn’t want to be the guy that didn’t know, but I just didn’t know, man. It’s like, it’s okay not knowing, I wasn’t… that was working my, but that’s part of my journey, I gotta look at that as a pivotal part of my journey now, not then. I was like, I had a good… but, and then fast forward, I mean, we were show me fanatic. I’ll show you success, kind of thing. Like, we were up there three, four days, I mean, we were just like in it, because I mean, we’re right, and, like, we’d leave rehearsal, me and Brian go home and write four songs, come back, and it worked. I mean, it was crazy. And Kevin had some decent contacts still, and we got signed by Jeff Hansen, which was Silent Majority Group, out of Florida. He used to manage Creed, the band Creed. And then we got signed again, like sister up, to Warner Brothers, ILG in New York. I was rad, I was like, I’m in New York City signing this, this is great, and that was beautiful. It was a great experience. We made a great record. It was a four piece hard rock band with, you know, whiskey drinking. You know, I read all that stuff, and, you know, that’s when the alcoholism started rearing its ugly head, blackouts and uncontrollable, don’t drink, but I have to drink. And it was a great band, we toured, did like two tours, was a great album, and around 2010… so Foster Child started, I met Brian 2000, 2003, was, I’d say about 2005, Foster Child started, and we closed the book on it. We had to leave the label. It was a lot of things happened, and it’s a long story. We came out with this band, and half my band joined that band, and it’s a nightmare. But, the fact that I was able to do that and sing that kind of music, I don’t think I can sing that high anymore. It was like rock, like, you know, Guns N’ Roses, Cult kind of rock. So I’m so glad I could do that, and there’s a record out there. Foster Child, it’s called Independence Day, if you want to check it out. And around 2010, it was very hard, but we folded it. Brian walked away, and, interestingly enough, I got sober the first time, well, 2007, with Foster Child, we had an opportunity to open up for this all-star jam, which was Skunk Baxter, Barry Goudreau, and Fran Sheehan. They used to be in the band Boston, original members, and, which is the band I play for now. But the drummer they had was Kenny Aronoff, and Chris Chaney from Jane’s Addiction was on bass.

Justin McMillen (01:30:17) That’s right, I did Jane’s, I remember that.

Danny Beissel (01:30:38) So we opened up for them, and because they didn’t have a singer to sing that high stuff, I had the opportunity, jumping up and doing a Boston song, a Skunk Baxter Doobie Brothers song, and a Jane’s Addiction song, because Chris was on the gig. So that’s the first time I met those guys.

Justin McMillen (01:30:38) Nice.

Danny Beissel (01:30:58) So fast forward, we had signed in 2008, we go on the road, blah blah blah, things fall apart, you know, rock band story. Your typical rock band story. And so that’s when I was just trying to figure some stuff out, and then Facebook, and then Bill Johnson, who manages the American Band all-star band, and it’s called American Pie, wasn’t called that then, Bill and I came up with the name, and that is the weirdest thing. I’m like, what is this Facebook stuff? And I look his name up right away, like, hey man. And I was, I was turning 40, I was like 39. He’s like, out of nowhere, you’ll be in Florida. 01;30;02;25 - 01;30;18;11 Danny B And I’m like, yeah, because I was going to see my mom in February, and my birthday is February 23rd. So I wanted to just get out of Philly. I was still beat up from the whole leaving the label thing. And I just put down the bottle for a little bit and I was like, yeah. And at work, he’s like, well, come on down, the bands together, and we want you to come up and sing a couple songs. So I went down there, got over there. It was funny because it was on my birthday, get over to Florida, and Pat’s with me, and we go down and rehearse, and during the one rehearsal they’re like, can you go to Utah next week? I was like, absolutely. And they started, they went out, and that was just like acoustic jammers, me and Skunk and Barry and Frannie. So we did a couple Boston, couple Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan stuff. It was for this charity. And then it just kept happening. And then the next gig, I was the lead singer of the band. I was like, wow, you know, I did a sweat lodge, and maybe that came from that, you know. Because in a sweat lodge, if every day, it’s all about being grateful. It’s why I love them. I felt the spirit when I used to do those. And I was like, lead singer of the band, before I passed the prayer stick. Because, you know, you shouldn’t wish for things for yourself in there, it’s all about being grateful, but, just being funny. And that happened, and it was beautiful. I was like, the singer of this. I mean, I never saw that coming. These guys are like major rock stars, you know. So, and I was sober, and it was beautiful. And that’s why it happened, because I was there, I wasn’t over there in some bar or anything like that.

Justin McMillen (01:33:00) Did I just go on a rant? I can’t remember where, you know, you’re explaining that, just how you got your musical progression over time.

Danny Beissel (01:33:23) So, yeah. So you’re playing with this, and the new band is called the American Vinyl. American…

Justin McMillen (01:33:23) Experience? Or was it the American Vinyl…

Danny Beissel (01:33:46) No, just American Born. Well, the American Vinyl All-Star Band, and before that… yeah, the prior was the Elvis Experience and Foster Child.

Justin McMillen (01:33:46) Gotcha.

Danny Beissel (01:33:46) I think there was a band in there for like two weeks called The Last Days, or something like that. It was fun, you know, God rest their souls, a couple of those guys are gone now, man.

Justin McMillen (01:33:46) But at this point, are you like, okay, I’m going to be a musician?

Danny Beissel (01:34:04) Yeah. At this point I’m like, you know, I’m obviously in this band, American Vinyl. It’s just amazing, and I was happy doing that. I was kind of doing some other gigs in Philly too, just to make money during the week, because with Vinyl, we weren’t playing all the time. It was like, once every other month, or a couple times every other month, whatever it was. The gigs were, because it was actually a new band. And, so yeah, that all happened. And then one time in 2013, Bill said, we have this guy he knows, Charlie… Charlie Colin, who used to be in the band Train, gave him a call about this thing in Anaheim. And it’s funny how, like, I’m constantly around, like, getting better through sobriety. This thing was for Justice for Vets. If you ever heard of that, it’s a beautiful organization that, like, instead of throwing a guy in the clink that had been through a couple tours or something, they give them the option, get sober. I talked to some of these guys, and I so believed in it. And we actually did a song with Carly Simon for them, “Calling All Angels.” And I met Charlie, and that’s where my life changed again. So it was funny, because I met… 9 a.m., we’re doing, you got to imagine this, it’s the Anaheim Convention Center. I guess there’s like 5,000, I don’t even know how many people are there. And it’s packed, and it’s 9:30. It was 9 a.m. and we’re backstage. And that’s when I met Charlie, who became my songwriting partner, one of my dearest friends. And we’re basically dressed the same, and we just hit it off right off the bat. So now we go on stage, Skunk, Charlie, me, and Barry, and we’re doing “Calling All Angels” for the event. And I’m looking in the audience, and I’m literally looking at Denise Richards, Joaquin Phoenix, and Martin Sheen. I’m like… and the funny thing is, for some reason, the bigger the crowd, the bigger the situation, the more calm I get. I couldn’t believe it. I was just like, this is just taking in that moment of complete silence. And then it was just funny. So that was a beautiful moment. We did the song, and then I met Charlie, and that journey of meeting him started, which leads to Feather Bone, the band. And, yeah, we started writing. He moved to Florida, we were living in Florida together with Billy, the manager, at this big house. And, you know, we were writing music, then we wanted to do the song “Calling All Angels,” so we went up to Martha’s Vineyard, did that. Carly, you know, Carly Simon, and her daughter Sally were there, and Skunk was there. Meeting Carly Simon was unbelievable. It was like meeting an angel. She was so, it was amazing. Her daughter Sally, Charlie and I met before that. And she was just one of the most… that’s James Taylor and Carly’s daughter. And then we came up with the concept, for “Calling All Angels,” Sally, because me and Sally sing it, and Charlie plays, he did his song, and Skunk does pedal steel. It’s a really beautiful version. You can actually, if you go on YouTube and look up “Calling All Angels” from the American Vinyl All-Star Band, it’s a really beautiful version, and it’s slower, it’s perfect for a movie.

Justin McMillen (01:37:13) And then she’s like, well, I took my mom, she’s going to come down.

Danny Beissel (01:37:29) So she just… I don’t think she walks, and it just floated right down the room. And she was so beautiful, her energy was just so spectacular. And so she’s going to ad-lib a part at the end, like literally make something up on this song, and it’s already a hit song. And she’s asking for ideas, and we’re all writing stuff down. This is like… and she just delivers this thing that’s unbelievable. Like watching Carly Simon write in real time, it was unbelievable. And the chorus of that song, it’s Carly sitting here, it’s me, Sally, and Charlie, and we’re all locked arms, like, Carly, and we’re all just like this, singing the chorus to get the harmonies. And Skunk was there, and we just keep doing these, like, keep going, and grabs the mic, he’s like, give me a bunch of those. And that’s the chorus, while I was sitting on the couch. No lie, man, like I had her arm in Sally’s arm. I was like, I didn’t know you could record like this. This is like God’s in the room. It was so beautiful, so loving, and just, how Carly and her family are, they’re such beautiful souls, you know? And it was just like this ball of love. And for Skunk to capture that, it was brilliant. And that was definitely, I’d say, top five experiences of my life, like that. You know, just being around the history. And because I’m always like a sponge, I always just listen, you know, it was pretty wild, hearing her and Skunk talk, and Skunk explaining what we’re doing with the song, like, you and Mick Jagger, like, wait a minute. Like, they all know each other. So it was like, oh, crazy. It was really beautiful, man. And I know, when those moments happen, I’ve been in this band for 14 years, 12, 13 years, something like that, and I get on stage and I’m still like, wow. That’s a gift. Like, I’m still wowed by who I’m on stage with, and it’s all love, and I know it’s going to be this high energy thing that comes out. It’s beautiful. I’m very grateful for that. That was a heck of an experience, man.

Justin McMillen (01:39:39) So fast forward, Charlie, I guess we’re talking about music now, so let’s keep going. You and Charlie start, right?

Danny Beissel (01:39:58) And a good friend of Charlie’s, John Elliott, I remember being in his backyard, and Charlie wasn’t there, he was in the same boat, we lost him, he’s gone now, God rest his soul, he wasn’t there. So I’m playing the backyard party by myself, and John’s like, my buddy’s like, what are these songs, man? I was like, a couple more, mine. So he’s like, we start talking about getting a record. And then, so I went back to Philly, and I was living in Vegas, my ex-fiancée, and then I made it back to Philly. And I remember I get this phone call, he’s like, well, Charlie… So Scott was in Train too, he was the drummer, so he left now too, he was living in Nashville and going to the Blackbird Academy, which is like, Blackbird, so huge, studio in Nashville, one of the most famous, John McBride owns it, Martina’s husband. And he’s like, so whatever we did, let’s go do it there. And I was like, this is amazing. So that’s another one of those Cali experiences, being with those two guys, Charlie and Scott. Just watching those guys work together, that was the most beautiful experience of my life recording. There was something very special, and the whole place was buzzing, and we went down with like 3 or 4 songs, and it was going so good. I mean, these things came through like campfire songs that you get, and Charlie and Scott putting their touches on them. And, you know, now that’s the Feather Bone record, that’s out there now. And it was going so good, our friend John was like, do you have more songs?

Justin McMillen (01:41:28) Right?

Danny Beissel (01:41:48) Yeah. So we stayed down, and we made a nine song album, ten songs, being a cover, “Stay With Me” from Rod Stewart, and yeah, that came out of nowhere. But that’s how it was. And so I said, Feather Bone. So I have a tattoo of a feather right there. So I went into a session at the Blackbird studio, and I had a t-shirt, it was like it showed your ribs, but they were feathers. So Scott, the drummer, who produced the album, also Scott Underwood, he would always mess with us. He calls Charlie Starchild, and he kept calling me Featherbarn, and it just didn’t hit me. And then he texted it, and I’m looking at it, I’m like, Feather Bone, am I? Until I saw it, I was like, I love that name. I was like, that name has got to be something. There’s a record of the band, and now it’s the band, that’s how, born from feathers. And it represents the first Feather Bone record perfectly. If you listen to that record, it’s on vinyl, and we placed the songs where it’s like a journey. What’s so important to me is to have it. Like how I used to come home back in the day and put on a record when I was a kid, because we had record players, and just get lost in that, and then getting up and flipping it, and then this other journey. So, it took a while, I mean, John Elliott, we’re going back and forth on like what song, where we go to place it. But I love how it is right now. So now I got Feather Bone, and I’m still in American Vinyl, and playing for Angel Force Band, and I love all three, man.

Justin McMillen (01:43:16) You’re just playing… how often do you play?

Danny Beissel (01:43:40) As much as I can. I want to play more, but, you know, I’m new out here, it’s a lot. I’m trying to get Feather Bone where we can start getting on the road and tour, you know, it’s your original music, so that’s number one. American Vinyl is such a special band for me, we don’t play all the time, we just do big events here and there. Angel Force, we do some. We’re not playing… we play Mozambique every other, every third Wednesday. So it’s kind of like, when I first came out here, I was trying to be on like… and now I’m like, if I’m supposed to be, I feel like, dude, if I’m supposed to be here, I’m going to be here. If I’m not, the waves are going to take me somewhere else. And I have to surrender to that. And since I did that, somehow there’s rent, somehow I got food, somehow I’m drinking good coffee in the morning and hanging out with guys like you on the most beautiful coast I’ve ever been on.

Justin McMillen (01:44:15) That’s right. And it’s like, don’t question it, just enjoy it.

Danny Beissel (01:44:38) Yeah, for sure. And whatever comes, comes, for sure, do what you have, because it could be gone tomorrow. That’s the thing we all forget.

Justin McMillen (01:44:38) Yeah, that’s the thing we all forget. You want to play one of your original songs?

Danny Beissel (01:44:56) Sure. Yeah.

Justin McMillen (01:44:56) What are you feeling?

Danny Beissel (01:44:56) I don’t know, well, we could do “Younger Dryas.” I wrote a song about that storm. So I don’t even know if I did this, I did this live a couple times. So this is called… so, the storm, the storm is Younger, like, Younger Dryas is a flower. There’s something about the bloom that’s got to do with why they call it that, the Ice Age flower or something. That’s actually interesting, you should check that out, we’ll talk about that later. But I wanted to call it Young Dryas, almost sounds like a person, like, Younger Dryas, what’s up, man? And I like to play a little bit with it, not making it, in case I get in trouble for saying Younger Dryas in a song, I don’t think I can, but I like Younger Dryas better. So this is just kind of explaining this, the storm, really. And I guess the way I looked at it is, we’re here again. It’s coming again. That’s my imagination, like the storm’s real. That’s what I mean, it’s like how I approached acting, the storm’s real, it happened, and now my imagination’s saying, what’s going on, it’s coming back again. So, anyway. [Danny B performs his original song “Younger Dryas” on acoustic guitar in full.]

Justin McMillen (02:01:27) That was cool. Who’s going to… this is Graham Hancock and… what’s his name?

Danny Beissel (02:01:27) Yeah. We’ll get, that is a thing making its own little… you know, it’s funny you say that, because I was going to get that bundled up, I’m working with Steve DeSantis on it. Steve drums for the Angel Force band. He’s got a heck of a career, Stevie D, man, amazing, amazing drummer, amazing person. And I’ve been recording with him, and that’s one of the songs that were done, I had like three of the songs prior to Feather Bone. I’ve been working with Stevie, so that’s a special song to me. It’s called though the guitar, it’s beautiful. It just feels like it’s been around for a long time.

Justin McMillen (01:51:49) Interesting. And it doesn’t feel like a new song. It feels… and I’m not saying I’ve heard it before, but, you know, when you hear a song and it’s like, this has been here for a while.

Danny Beissel (01:52:08) Well, it’s kind of like, you can’t imagine a time where it didn’t exist. It’s funny because the band, you know, the intro part and the chorus, the verse was like something, it was almost like, I came up with it and I would warm up with it. And it was whatever it did, and my fingers were moving, and I’m still learning the guitar a bunch of years later, and then all of a sudden I start voicing it, and the A major reminds me like a Yardbirds song, and then in the shapes or something like that. Yeah, it’s not that… but I remember thinking, wow, these words, they fit, I didn’t think they would fit, because I start naming, and of course it’s named Younger Dryas or whatever, and somehow it worked. It’s a play on words, it’s really cool. Like, Younger Dryas, definitely. And they used to call it, so the second word, “Young Terror that falls from the sky,” that’s what it was called in ancient days, or as ancient as they could write it. But yeah, that’s the thing about it, change is the only reality. Like, at one point, when I was writing my first song, “Awake and Sing,” I’m like, that’s all I need to do is finish this song, and I just want one song, and it’s funny how, after Younger Dryas, I couldn’t think of doing anything else but diving into this song, and I love it. It’s really love, it’s not even out yet, but, that’s the beauty of life, you just gotta keep it up every day. It’s funny, sometimes you don’t even want to deal with the day, you know, it’s like when someone you love passes, and you’re like, why does life keep going on? Why does everybody keep living life? You know, don’t they know?

Justin McMillen (01:54:03) It’s like, I know, exactly. That always trips me out, you think about the absence of that person.

Danny Beissel (01:54:03) Like, didn’t time… like when my mom passed, it was like, didn’t time stop for everybody? I never… it’s like, but you know, that’s just how I think about how many people have left, not just the people we know, but they had this snapshot of time here on earth. And then they were gone, and the world just kept spinning. And it’s going to do that after we’re gone. There’ll be more lives and more people. Death is not the end of life, it’s part of it. And I think we forget that sometimes. I often ask myself, am I living in fear? Like, why, I’m trying to find out. And it’s not that at all. I’m interested, and it’s not even being interested, or fear of the unknown. Like I said earlier, is there another way that we’re not seeing, is there… could I get closer to the source through a deep meditation? I mean, ayahuasca is one thing, and that was a beautiful experience, one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve ever had. But it made me… wait a minute, more curious. Is that we’re going to see when we cross over, that we’re… it was pretty interesting that. And I’m not saying everybody run out and do ayahuasca or anything, but it’s kind of like we need to start tapping inward to know outward. You know, I have this weird feeling like there’s the answer, all the answers we seek are in this library, in the universe we can tap into. I believe that, I have an instinct of that. I don’t know how to get there. I think I was kind of close to it.

Justin McMillen (01:55:36) I’m sorry, let me give you a book.

Danny Beissel (01:55:55) Okay, love books.

Justin McMillen (01:55:55) My Big TOE, theory of everything, tree… really, it’s from a physicist from NASA, and, oh, I love to read that. He talks about how, he’s super interesting, he worked with the… he worked at, let’s see, the Stanford School of… I’m going to scroll this up. No, this is on the tip of my mind. He was part of a government funded program to do remote viewing, and he was a huge part of it. It’s all been released through the Freedom of Information Act. But basically, he says that consciousness, that we can tap into the intuitive, and everything that we could ever want to know, we have access to the entirety of all knowledge.

Danny Beissel (01:56:48) I completely believe that.

Justin McMillen (01:56:48) And he says that’s where we sort of came from. And he’s like, it’s not leaving your body, that’s not what remote viewing is. It’s like flipping a switch in the brain, or in the mind, that allows you to change the channel, and you just have access to this other thing. And that’s where things like, when you said, where did that idea come from? That stuff comes from there. It’s why it’s so important to be open, in tune, because we’re getting information all the time.

Danny Beissel (01:57:07) And I wasn’t receiving it when I was out there partying, you know, and it’s like that’s vital information. You can’t get it, it’s like it separates, it puts a wall up, it’s too broken, too much flesh.

Justin McMillen (01:57:24) Right. Yeah, it’s operating in a completely different area, like we were talking about in the beginning, this driving forward thing, like we’re in this body, and the body’s got all these mechanisms that keep it alive. And when you’re partying, all you’re doing is feeding that system, your dopaminergic system, and you’re just continuing to feed that. Once you stop doing that, then you can start to listen to the other side, which is the soul that lives in the body.

Danny Beissel (01:57:42) Right, you start… yeah, you can start to be aware, and then you realize that it’s all connected, and everything is one, and that we’ve already been here. And it is, and that’s why when you get to… I’m not going to go as far as, everything’s possible at this point, what do we really know? And you get into like, Billy Carson, who I love, listening to, he’s from Florida, brilliant guy. He’s all into the Anunnaki, and he thinks, which could be… I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but I don’t know. It’s kind of like, are we being dumbed down, is the question, like, they’ll go so far as to talk about the fluoride calcifying our pineal gland, or third eye. And it’s kind of interesting, and sometimes I just think about, just think about what’s going on, especially now, it’s very loud in the world. People are just doing this, and, is anybody looking up anymore? Like, I remember coming out here, every single night… This is a very interesting thing, and it’s all flow, there’s no coincidences, you’re tapping into the source, and you’re in the flow of it. Is it a coincidence, every time before at nighttime, I look up, and I see Orion, who I call the young Elvis, because if you really look at Orion’s belt, I’ll show you. No, I mean, look, everybody, what are you talking about, look, it’s like him, that’s the belt. It’s right off to my right, why do I keep looking at that moment? It’s kind of like, romantic, like a lagoon, I didn’t realize how much light pollution where I came from, I guess the city. And I’m like, oh my God, hey old friends, there’s the stars. And I think there’s so much to that, that’s all we had at one point. Why is everything to do with the constellation, every megalith, everything has something to do with the solstice, true north, whatever it is. That’s not an accident, the way you’re going to figure it out, Danny. Well, I hope in the end we figure, here’s all the answers to the questions. The level of curiosity that you have is so cool because I get it. I think people are obsessing over this subject now, we’re getting bored of being distracted.

Justin McMillen (02:00:09) Yeah, you’re right.

Danny Beissel (02:00:30) And listen, I believe in the balance of, you know, good. I truly believe in the best. And I believe the only thing I know, as a man, that I witness, that I keep seeing come up in everything, that’s, you know, the Kybalion, hot and cold, the same thing, just different degrees of the same thing. The old line, there’s a fine line between love and hate, because it’s the same thing. It’s just aimed differently. And, like, as The Kybalion says, the way to stay on the high frequency, you almost fake it till you make it, which is like… a simple thing would be like driving, and someone cuts you off, and you go, here, or is it like, oh man, he’s probably having a really bad day, and you just stay on the high frequency, man. You just stay on it, which is hard, because life shows up. But you know what I find, going toward it and doing the work I’m doing, meetings, and talking to you guys, I mean, you guys are brilliant. Just the crowd that we have is beautiful. That, and to be around people trying to be the best version of themselves, is something I’ve been searching for for a long time, my whole life. 02;00;20;13 - 02;00;50;02 Danny B And, I feel like I found it, really, you know, the beginning of it anyway. It’s pretty special. It really is. And, I don’t know why I’m like that, and old fear and anxiety, I’m sure everybody has a certain amount of it, but my objective now is, if there’s a way to get rid of that, then I want that. That’s the way to get rid of what, the fear and anxiety. Wherever the fear is, I know where it’s from. I can look at it from, how can’t you have that as a kid, you feel that, all that stuff, and I’m not… it was my brother Pat would always say, not being a victim.

Justin McMillen (02:02:20) Oh, gotcha.

Danny Beissel (02:02:38) Victim or a soldier, not in the sense of like, soldier, soldier, but like, getting it, you know, stand up, get out, don’t live in victimhood. And as an alcoholic, that’s all I lived in, is victimhood.

Justin McMillen (02:02:38) Justifies everything. And you’re a slave.

Danny Beissel (02:02:56) Your slave, then you’re an absolute slave to, and that’s your spirit or your God. But it’s a fun journey, man. And I know it’s right, because the more I do it, and more things happen, the better I feel. I have some days in Laguna where I’m almost crying, I’m so elated. I’m just like, am I feeling true happiness right now? And some days I’m like, oh, it’s all going to end.

Justin McMillen (02:03:20) Yeah, those, I think those are part of the gifts of sobriety. And I think, totally, you’re going to probably be tested a lot. I think you’re on the edge of something shifting, is my gut.

Danny Beissel (02:03:20) It’s not, I feel that, man. I feel there’s a breakthrough on my journey coming, because everything’s like this right now, and it’s with me. It’s always darkest before dawn, in a sense.

Justin McMillen (02:03:44) And, you know, it’s exciting. It feels like you’re on the edge of a massive shift, and I’m excited to see what happens. And I want to make sure you pass all the tests along the way.

Danny Beissel (02:04:12) I’m doing my best. I know I get up, but, I know I could wake up and do that every morning, like I say I want to. It’s just me against me, right? But I got it, I won’t stress out about it. I’m a work in progress.

Justin McMillen (02:04:12) Am I working towards the light? Then just relax, man.

Danny Beissel (02:04:29) Yeah, yeah, a couple bumps come this way.

Justin McMillen (02:04:29) It’s real life. You’re dealing with life on life’s terms.

Danny Beissel (02:04:29) So you still got to do that. But there’s ways to not get lost in it, you know what I mean? It’s like, that’s cool. It’s like you’re becoming… I feel like I’m finally, after all those years of being lost in it, all of it, I’m finally becoming this person I was meant to be. Now, exactly when I’m supposed to. There’s nothing I would change in my journey, because it wouldn’t be my journey, I wouldn’t be the man I am today. It’s just life, it’s coming at all of us.

Justin McMillen (02:04:50) Yeah, that’s true, that’s true. And what are you working on now? You mentioned a movie, is there…

Danny Beissel (02:05:08) Yeah, yeah, my buddy Todd Shepard, he’s on IMDb and all that stuff, he did some cool movies, worked with some really great actors, some big names and stuff like that. So I remember meeting him at an Angel Force event, ironically, and he was a good friend with my buddy Charlie. That’s all I knew of him first, my buddy Charlie Colin, and we just start talking, and he’s like… the guy’s a director, and I’m like, hey, I’m an actor, you know what I mean? It’s almost like an improv, right, I’m dying to tell him, but I can’t just say, he’s got to pull it out of me. That’s how much that’s in my head every day. Covid. But then we start talking, he’s like, wow, he didn’t forget it. And then he reached out about this movie. He said, you’d be perfect. He came to see us at Sundance, this one, I was playing with, and he told me after the show, he said, you’d be a cowboy. And I was like, yeah, the great cowboy Americana. So he’s got this movie coming out, it’s called Goat Rodeo. I don’t think he’s released it or anything yet, in the press or anything like that. So, you know, obviously the first thing I ever did was study acting, so I’d love to do something with that again. And it sounds like a beautiful role, it’d be shot in Utah. I didn’t get the script or anything yet, just, what did he say, I’m not going to paraphrase it because I’ll mess it up. And he hasn’t announced it yet, but I’m really looking forward to it. And I’m ready. He told me about the character, stiletto knife. What a character to get to play, a cool part like that. Is it set a long time ago? That’s the thing, I think he’s going to have some remnants of today in it, in an interesting way. He said, I don’t know if that’s going to be through music, but it’s an old, a town, a cowboy town. So I’m really excited about that, when it comes. We’ve been talking about it for a couple years now, but I think it’s coming up close. And we had a meeting at Sundance. I was just at Sundance Film Festival with Feather Bone, we released a single called Lighthouse, and we had to play it, and I think it got a commercial. So that was cool. What a beautiful Sundance trip. And then one night, Todd hit me up, and I met with some of the other cast, and we had a great night. And we’re talking about the movie, and it’s just a process you got to wait for, and he’s working on a couple other films and stuff like that.

Justin McMillen (02:07:58) Nice.

Danny Beissel (02:08:15) Yeah, so, but as a guy in the program, if it happens, great, if it doesn’t, okay, I have to walk the red road, the Native Americans call it the Red Road.

Justin McMillen (02:08:15) I got to walk the red road.

Danny Beissel (02:08:31) But, like I said to my brother Pat, just being that night with the cast, we had this great meeting, and some guys blowing glass, and we all got to have us do it, the place was closed, and it was just us.

Justin McMillen (02:08:31) It was…

Danny Beissel (02:08:47) I was like, why did this happen? That was the coolest night of my life. Just talking about the movie, but it’s in motion, so I’m really excited for it.

Justin McMillen (02:08:47) Good, so we have to recap on this later. Well, hopefully I’ll be able to pin you down.

Danny Beissel (02:08:47) Yeah, it happened.

Justin McMillen (02:09:04) You’ll probably be, hey man, the red carpet at that point.

Danny Beissel (02:09:04) You know, if that’s part of it, it would be great, I would love to do that. If it’s not, if it’s just being a part of a beautiful thing like that, I’d just be happy, you know? Again, I’m just happy to be alive.

Justin McMillen (02:09:04) It sounds like a weird thing to say, but when you get close to it, it’s not. Like, I had a heart issue in 2019, because of substance, alcohol, cocaine. And do you feel grateful every day?

Danny Beissel (02:09:30) Every day. I didn’t deal…

Justin McMillen (02:09:30) How do you do that? So people that are listening to this, how do you do that?

Danny Beissel (02:09:30) Well, the first thing I do is I wake up, I still get up and reassure myself, like, oh my God, am I late for something, and I’m like, wait a minute, dude. So I’ll wake up, and I’ll just sit there, lay in bed. I don’t put a foot on the floor until I’m smiling. That’s just the truth. I’ll even throw meditation on, and I just think back, and I’m just like, how close I came. And, you know, death is death, we’re all going there. But I didn’t want to go there like that, not like that, because then it’s rinse and repeat, I feel like. I just wasn’t, and, you know, it was scary. It was like, at one moment when they came in, I went to an urgent care, it was bad. I’m a binge drinker, so I was sober for months, all healthy, and then I just come in, bottles of vodka, and I’m playing music, not taking care of myself, not sleeping, not drinking water. I was dehydrated, and you add the drugs to it, and, yeah, I was actually playing when it happened, it was crazy. It was crazy, a heart attack, from the substance, to my main vein, so if I went out, went out that night, the doctor told me it was one minute, and I almost did. It’s funny because that didn’t even sober me up. It’s a very alcoholic thing, you don’t want to deal with it. So it took me, like, two more years, if I’m lucky, that I got it, because… but yeah, the sober version of myself, I remember waking up in the middle of the night, like, oh, I’m dealing with that now, the heart attack, because you almost died, you’re going to deal with that. That’s what I feel. I mean, getting older doesn’t bother me, I love it. I’m just like, you know, this could have been a different story, you know? And I’m not, like, a victim about it, I’m a learned man about it. Like, wow, that was close. And I have so much more empathy for people out there that didn’t get it. I was like, it’s a miracle I got it. So lucky, so lucky. I’m just a grateful human being, I’m like, wow, okay, that’s in Laguna Beach, being able to shake some molecules and sing some vibration, and people accept that. If you just… my elementary, my acting teacher, Sidney, I never forget his note. And it goes, forever, that which grows simpler always grows better. If the thing is, things get too complex, immediately simplify it, like, oh my God, I got to get this gig, oh my God, that person wants me here, I just think, whoa man, put that over here, and be like, I’m breathing, I can look at my door. I’m looking at an ocean, okay, let’s simplify it, and let’s just start taking things one, that’s what I’m learning to do now, like that idea.

Justin McMillen (02:12:21) Yeah, let’s… I think I’ve quoted this on the show before, but there’s an Einstein quote, he says, if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. In my work, communication is really important. And even just not just with people we work with that are trying to get sober, but even in the business end of things, everybody makes things complicated. You hear it all day long. And the simplest ideas get completely complicated. And so the goal is to always simplify them to the point of just their bare bones. Because they’re always getting more complicated. Anyway, the story on the road, it’ll take care of itself, you don’t have to add to it.

Danny Beissel (02:13:06) Yeah, yeah. You know, kind of, do you think, getting into this and that, you know, you’re someone who inspires me, and you do amazing things. Really, and, so it was, I was very grateful, I mean, you asked me to be here.

Justin McMillen (02:13:28) Do you feel like sometimes being… and this doesn’t mean anything of being above it, this is just real life stuff, like sometimes, being on the spot, I wake up, like, how am I, how do I be better? I’m so locked into, oh my God, did I upset someone, do I have to make an amend, like, through the program that teaches that, but just besides that, just trying to be like, how close can I walk to this, how I’m supposed to walk through this earth. And a lot of times I’ll be in a situation, and I’ll hear, just like, at a bar or something, if I’m hanging out with a friend, grabbing dinner or something, oh, talking about these minute problems, and it’s like, oh my God, there’s little things, like, oh, that bit said that to me, jealousy and rage and things that I’ve been running from.

Danny Beissel (02:14:31) It’s kind of interesting to me, like, I find myself, and, you know, you just kind of go with it. Do you find that, like, I can’t engage in that conversation? And it’s not that I’m better or anything like that, and trust me, I don’t think that. I just think, when you lock in on this work of a spiritual journey, I start to realize the things I used to think were so… not meaningless, because nothing’s meaningless. But just looking in the wrong direction, looking linear, not looking that way.

Justin McMillen (02:15:03) Yeah, I’ll tell you what, I’m going to start this, it’s going to sound like it doesn’t make sense, but I think hopefully it does. Being sober is horrible. Okay, everybody else is doing something you’re not, you can’t drink, you can’t escape. There’s no place to run, there’s no place to hide, and it’s very hard, it’s hard every day, it’s hard, okay, that’s the burden, right? The other side of it is, when we don’t do that, we get to see things other people don’t see, we get to feel things other people don’t feel. We get to notice things other people don’t notice. And at the end of the day, I would so much rather prefer all the crappy parts of this to have this. So to answer your question, yes, I sit in places and I’m like, man, you’re tripping about that thing, it could be anything. It could be like, I just heard about somebody I care about who died yesterday, or, I’m focused every single day, trying to keep my head in, like, a plane to where I’m not even messing with all the little things that create issues in life. But I think what helps me, because you can easily get into this… Like, you’re better than, for not thinking that way. The truth is, not thinking that way is actually our burden. We don’t have the luxury, we don’t get to think that way. If somebody gets to a point where they’re thinking, I’m better than these people, maybe it’s a better life.

Danny Beissel (02:16:53) But actually I signed up for this, and it’s hard.

Justin McMillen (02:16:53) Yeah, and that was a great way to put it.

Danny Beissel (02:16:53) And I think, like the whole, you know, where I’m at and the journey I’m on, I could never even possibly truly think that I was better, just the work I’m doing on myself. It’s just, because I was that. And there’s nothing… I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, it wasn’t for me. I was obviously not okay in that, because I almost drank myself to death in that. And, you know, I remember, I think I told you this before, Alan Watts had one, we keep talking about him. Yeah, thanks for all the good stuff. And this hit me like a dart, when I was doing one of my morning things, and I always throw them on, and he gave a definition of addiction, and he said, a spiritual crisis masquerading as a chemical dependency. And I was like, whoa.

Justin McMillen (02:17:30) Oh, yeah.

Danny Beissel (02:17:51) Yeah, it was beautiful. I was like, that’s great. And I started to think of it, and I’m like, a spiritual crisis, and I’m like… “I am the experiment. You can write your own story. Not stop trying and don’t give into the fear.”