September 25, 2025 • 19 mins
WBZ NewsRadio's Drew Moholland speaks with Darryl "DMC" McDaniels.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Royalty in the house. How are am a man? We're
rolling now? You got a lot going on, my friend,
we got a musical, but let's start there. Tell me
a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Rock Bottom is a music cool about a recovery, addiction
and sobriety. I was approached to participate by Simon Kirk,
one of the most incredible drummers and musicians in the
history of music. Free and Bad Company.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Going into the Rock and Roll Hall of.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Fame ring congratulations. I So he approached me because I'm
in sober now for twenty years.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So they're doing a music Tony V from here, comedian
from here, Woody G from here in a very good
friend who is also from here, Tom Hamilton of Errolsmith.
So we're doing this music coat destroy and eradicate the
(01:01):
stigma associated with addiction. So that's why I'm here in town.
We have an event tonight that it's gonna be a fundraiser,
but more of an announcement of what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
It's probably it's gonna be a very special area for you.
I mean your legacy in the city cemented working with Aerosmith, Yes,
and I mean talking about those days coming up because
you introduced so many different people, so many different generations
to hip hop right through.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
The collaboration with Aerosmith. We got introduced to Aerosmith not
only by radio in New York City growing up, but
in the early days of hip hop. We sampled, I
mean we stole, I mean sampled, we start, I mean sampled.
We would sample their music and make our own songs.
So that drum beating, that riff was something that we
(01:49):
grew up with. So once we started making records. Eighty
four was the first run DMC album. It's a tongue twister.
Walk this Way isn't the first rock record. The first
rock rap record is rock Box, which was on Run
DMC's self titled album Run DMC, which was the first
hip hop video on MTV. That was eighty four. Then
(02:11):
in eighty five we did an album called King of Rock.
The single was called I'm the King of Rock. It's
not Hard because I didn't want to be the King
of Rap. That was too low on my expectations of myself.
I wanted to be the King of Rock. So we
did that song eighty five, and then in eighty six
we was Gonna Steal, I mean, we was gonna sample
(02:32):
walk this way. But Rick Rubin, one of the greatest
producers ever, convinced us to do the record over the
way the band originally did it, and that never been
done before. Wow. But what was brilliant While me and
Run was learning the actual lyric, Like, we heard the record,
but we didn't know the lyrics, so we had to
(02:52):
let the record play because usually Jay just only won
it the first thirty seconds of the song, so we
can run our mouths. But while we would doing that,
Rick called Boston, Hey, my name is Rick Rubin, I
know you know who Run DMC is. We want to
do your record over? Do you want to do it?
And it was like, who is this? My name is
Rick Rubin, I know you know who Run DMC is.
(03:13):
We want to do your song over? You want to
do it? So Steve and Jon the rest of the
band was like, oh, that's a great idea. Wow. So
Rick put us together with them, and the beauty in
that was it wasn't just something that was for music,
It was for the world. Because when Steven Tyler took
that mike stand and knocked down the wall that was
(03:36):
separating us in the video, people all over the world Oh,
that didn't just happen in the video. Happened in the
world for real, and they brought people together and brought
the genres together. It created the whole idea of you
can do collaborations in any shape form of fashion, and
it was just a beautiful thing because that's what music does.
(03:57):
It brings people together.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I mean, yes, collaborate all over the map in twenty
twenty five. But did you hear some of your sound though, Like,
did you hear some of that? Like, oh, you know
what that Kid's no?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Everything rock and well, I ain't gonna put it on me.
Everything that rock and country is doing right now, even
a little bit of metal, it's because of what run
DMC and Eric Smith did. And that's just fact. Kid
Rock said, run DMC and Haerrow Smith had a baby
and I popped out corn Limp, Biscuit, Rage against the Machine,
(04:29):
Cypress Hill. It's all over the place now. So I
think what it did is, you know, rock and roll
and metal and even punk, we had this attitude. Hip
hop came along and said it was already a feeling
or an essence of who we are that existed in
all the music's already. It was just that run DMC
(04:49):
and Aerosmith gave all the permission to do it when
you wanted to do it. But we were already doing that.
You know, when you think about hip hop and rapping,
you know Billy Joe Weed and start the fine segregation
and we're gration now. He was rapping. Rick and J
Jamster J rest in Peace. They said, don't sing the
(05:10):
song like Stephen sung it, rapping like rundium seaweed. But
Jay was like, listen to his boss. He's flowing see
saw swinging with the boys. He was technically rapping too.
So all of these things were already there in music.
It's just that this run dymn CE and Erosmith kept collaboration,
allowed black people and white people to do it, and
(05:31):
white people and black people to do The Beastie Boys
was a punk rock group. Rick Rubin was a producer
in the DJ and while we was doing the Raisin
The The Raisin Hell album with Adidas and Peter Pipe
and walked his way, Rick goes, you think these three
white Jeweish punk rock kids from New York City could
make a hip hop album. Jamster J was like, why not?
(05:54):
Two weeks later, licensed that el was born, so we
were already doing it. But when people saw Rundium and
Aerosmith together, it does what music always dos, because it
knocks down that there's no such thing as a generation gap.
It's a cooperation, conversation of participation gap. But when we
(06:14):
come together, no matther race, creed, color or genre music,
when we come together and work together and create together,
good things.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Happen, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So that's why I'm still standing here from here in
Boston where it all began, you know what I'm saying.
So you know, in what we did for Aerosmith, Aerosmith
did for me too, because my rock and roll dreams
came true. I was a little kid growing up in Queens,
New York. And this is funny, you know my mother
(06:46):
and Farvest music was James Brown, Aretha Franklin, L. Green,
soul music, Afros and Dashiki's. I was a little kid.
All I cared about was comic books, comic books in
Godzilla movies in the nineteen thirties, horror films, Frankenstein, Wolfman.
But when I started hearing rock and folk rock and
Jim Crochey, excuse me, Joni Mitchell, Harry Chapin and all
(07:08):
of these music, and the rock music appealed to me
because the drums and the guitarizars, guy, I was like
superheroes to me. So I had this little dream. I
wanted to be Freddie Mercury, but I had a problem.
I couldn't sing, and I don't got a band. But
this genre, this culture called hip hop, gave me permission
to have my rock and roll dreams come true. And
not only did it have my rock and roll dreams
(07:30):
come true, it allowed me to actually work with the
rock guys that I was idolizing and hearing these records.
I'm doing something with Simon Kirk a free right now
for a good purpose, for sobriety and recovery. I work
with Aerosmith. I got songs with Patriarchs in Black, a
(07:50):
metal group. My new song coming out January twentieth. It
is me and Sebastian Bach together on vocals, Travis Barker
on Mick Mars from Motley Crue on guitar, and Duff
McKagan on bass. Damn. So I'm sitting in these rooms
and hanging around them. Can't believe my dream's cage.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
You got to pinch yourself sometimes, all because of music,
Damn man, DMC in the house here up there, you go,
turn it down the lights.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I love it. We went dark here. That's cool.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You don't even need to It's fine.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I do want to ask you.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I talk to a lot of musicians right and some
of them in the prime of their career right now,
and I know that a lot of them are having
some of those same battles that that you had. It's
not always the most publicized thing in the world. What's
what's your advice to? Uh, it doesn't have to be
a musician, any adult, but anybody, anybody going through it.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
First of all, everybody's going through something, some mental health issue, addiction, depression.
See I was I'm DMC from the hip hop group
Run DMC, who walked his way in his Adidas to
tell the world how tricky, tricky, tricky life could be.
But I'm also I was an alcoholic suicide of metaphysical
(08:58):
spiritual wreck even though I was DMC. So I'm no
different from the doctor, the lawyer, the teacher, the ups man,
the plumber, you know what I'm saying. And it was
a point in my life where I woke up one
morning I was completely depressed, and I didn't know why.
And you know, I looked at my life, you know,
(09:18):
walk this way, Adida's MTV first to go, Go First,
to go Platinum First. On the cover Rolling Stone went
this hip hop thing. I'm Daryl McDaniels. Why do I
not feel like I want to live anymore? So I
started with depression and suicidal thoughts. And then when I
got to the point where if I die tomorrow, people
know the 'run dmc story. There's records and videos, but
(09:38):
I want you to know Daryl. So I wanted to
write a book. So I call my mother up. Looking back,
I should have said, Mom, I'm depressed, I'm suicidal. But
you know how stigma is. I gotta be a man.
I can't let nobody know that I'm weak, vulnerables, confused
and scared. But when you let the world know your weak, vulnerable, confused,
weak and scared, that's when your power comes. But I
(09:59):
didn't know at that time, so I called my mother up.
I should have said, Mom, I'm thinking of killing myself.
That's why I want to write this book so I
can let you all know what I was thinking. But
I called my mom's up and I go, mom My,
birthdays May thirty first, nineteen sixty four. Just for the book,
to make it more interesting for the reader, I need
to know three things. How much did I weigh when
I was born? She told me what time I was born,
(10:20):
She told me what hospital. She told me, hung up
the phone. Now my alcoholic suicide and metaphysical spiritual records,
thinking of killing itself. She calls back an hour later
with my father, Hey, Daryl, we have something else to
tell you. And I'm like, okay, So I thought they
was gonna go, well, when you was born, there was
a power outage in the hospital and we gave birth
(10:41):
to you about candlelight something, you know, a story like that.
They have been with this. I'm suicidal, I'm alcoholic, I'm depressed.
They go, we have something else to tell you, and
I go, what you was a month old when we
brought you home, and you're adopted, but we love you bye.
Oh my goodness. I'm found enough that I was adopted
at age thirty five. Wow, I found out I was
a foy bad where I was at when it wasn't
(11:03):
until now I bring that up to the advice is
no matter how bad it gets, no matter what you're
going through We rightfully think I'm the only person going
through this. I don't care. I mean in nineteen twenties,
they thought that, in the eighteen hundreds and the sixteen
and ere even in twenty twenty five, next year, twenty
things on na think that. But it wasn't until I
(11:24):
met another adoptee who made me realize, oh, I'm not
the only adopted person in this world. I knew I
wasn't alone. Then I started thinking I might not be
the only depressed person in this world. I might not
be the only alcoholic person in this world. Might not
only be the suicide of person in this world. So
the traumatic revelation of me finding out that I was
adopted filled an empty void in me. I'm Daryl McDaniels,
(11:47):
run DMC first of Go Go, first of Go Platinum,
first with Thedida Sneaker deal. But I'm also an alcoholic
and I'm adopted. Once I said, there's nothing to be
ashamed of having something wrong with you, because everybody's going
through something. That traumatic revelation was the thing that said,
you know what, let me go to rehab and get clean,
(12:08):
because life isn't that bad. These are just labels it
doesn't define my situation, doesn't define who I am. I'm
still the mighty King of rock walking this way and
my dealers with Aerosmith to tell the world it's tricky, tricky, tricky. Huh.
So when I went to rehab to better myself, I
found the most gangster thing you know in hip hop
(12:28):
eBoy trying to be gangster. I found the most gangst
thing anybody could do. I found this thing called therapy.
And therapy allowed me to be mad, sad, glad, angry
at whatever emotion and stuff was in my life, and
I had no reason to be ashamed about it. Two
of my greatest rhymes is this, If you removed guilt
(12:50):
and shame from the situation, you remove the pain of
going through it. Don't be ashamed of being on meth.
Don't be ashamed of being abused, ashamed of being an
alcohol all like, no, we all been. There's a million
people like you. You are not alone. And in therapy
I learned this, unless you admit how you feel, whether
(13:12):
good or badge you never heal. And what I mean
by that is if I come out here in front
of the world and I couldn't take on the world today, Hey,
we love you. I feel like I could battle the
line yayyy. But the minute you go, I'm depressed. Get
away from me with her a minute you go. There's
nothing wrong with somebody saying they're suicidal. They feel like that,
and what I mean by that, Let's find out what's
(13:32):
making them feel that way, so they ain't gotta feel
that no more. I can't tell you if it's a
hundred degrees outside, don't feel hot, but I can give
you a cool drink in ac if it's ten below,
I can't tell you don't feel cold, but I can
bring you inside, give you some heat and a cup
of hot chocolate. I can't tell you not to feel
that toothache, but I can say go to the dentist.
(13:55):
Second grade one, excuse me, Miss Peterson noticed that Daryl
McDaniels squinting to see the black ball. When my mother
came to pick me up. She wasn't ashamed to say,
Daryl Squinton are thinking the glasses? To this day, I
still wear glasses and got contacting right now.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
And you remember your teacher's name.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I remember. I was like, what's wrong with me? But
she said, no, he needs help to see. So we
all need help. The advice is this, no matter what
it is that you're going through, do not be ashamed
to ask for help. You're not wage, you're not psychle.
It's no different from having a back ache and gotta
go to the Cairo practice. It's no different from having
(14:34):
a toothfake and gotta go to the dentist. So, no
matter what it is, alcoholism, depression, emotions, past trauma. Because
we all are superheroes. I have a comic book company
called DMC. It's Daryl makes comics and then this universe.
I'm a super I'm not a rapper. I'm a superhero
and I'm running around bat in the bag. When you
look at all our superheroes, we're so busy looking at
(14:56):
how physically and mystically and magically powered they are. But
don't you know most all superheroes come from traumatic situations. Superman,
see we got problems. Superman lost this whole world. Yeah sure,
and came here and what happened to me. I'm a
comic book kid, is exactly like the superheroes I used
(15:18):
to audolize. My mother and father's like Daryl, we have
something to tell you. You're adopted and you're the King of
Rugget Clark, sit down. It's something we want to tell you.
Where your parents. But you're from another world and you
have power in it. You find your power in your weakness,
in your Oh that's a that's a song. In your
darkest hour, you find your power. Spider Man was raised
(15:40):
by aunt May, lost his parents Batman. Batman saw his
more than father murdered in front of him, but it
gave him a purpose. So do not be ashamed of
what you're going through. When I was in rehab, I'm
in there with alcoholics, drug addicts, gambling, sex addicts, and erexis.
All different situations but all same thing. And at the
(16:01):
end of the day we go off to our little
separate groups to deal with our you know, personal circumstances.
But at the end of the day we all come back.
Were all able to sit in the room and find
the similarities in our struggles. But also we can find
the simularities that are in the differences of our struggles
(16:21):
that will give us the strength to change the life.
And the important thing about mental health issues and addiction
and trauma and stuff like that, the most powerful thing
that we can do is what we do here. With music, Drew,
we need to talk about it. If we have conversation
about it, we have transformation. Now I'm sober, I get
(16:44):
out of rehab, I tell people I'm in therapy and
stuff like that, and by me ke, you know, hip
hop's about keeping it real. No, dmc man, what's up
with you? Well, I'm an alcoholic suicide and metaphysical record
found out that he was adopted at age thirty five,
and then for me it didn't and them once I
got jam Master Jay gets shot and killed. Then my
father died, son of Byfrid, brother of al Banna's. My
(17:07):
mother runs my pal. It's McDaniels, not McDonald's. These rhymes
are darrels. Those Burghers are Ronald's. I ran down my
family tree, my mother, my father, my brother, and me.
So now I find out that I'm adopted. But then
the man who was put here on earth to be
my father he dies. So imagine where I was at.
But the fact that I was in therapy, I was
(17:28):
able to sit there and talk about it and not
be ashamed of it. And then by realizing everything is okay,
my sobriety, my rehab, my therapy, having fun as dmc
walking this way with Arrowsmith and encouraged me to know,
you know what, I'm gonna go find my birth mother.
And I was able to go find my birth mother.
(17:50):
And when I found her, she said, oh my god,
I know you're dying to know why I gave you up.
And I'm a shoot, lady, that's a misstatement. And she said,
I gave you up to give you a chance, which
made me look at all around DMC stuff. She gave
it was her duty to get me here, but it
was my mother and father's duty to get me here.
With jujuw in my mind keeping it real about my situation.
(18:14):
You know I'm going through something. I'm weak, I'm vulnerable,
I'm scared. Is the thing that gave me the power
to save my life. And anybody going to something, go
tackle your problem. And it's not about you. It's bigger
than you. You go to you. Why did y'all get right?
Why should I be alive? Why should I do? People
want to know it's not because you play the guitars
(18:35):
now because you're gonna be rich and famous. Your story
of struggle, see I make songs, but your story of
struggle just by talking about it. The reason why you
gotta go get clean, or you gotta go to therapy
to talk about your trauma. You gotta go to therapy
to talk about your abuses. Your story will save people's lives,
not minds. I make cool records, but you, being who
(18:57):
you are, go take care of yourself so you can
take care of your world.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I want a message, man, DLL McDaniels, thank you so
much for your time. Man, what a legend in the house.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
I'm glad you got through it all because you got
so much more to give here.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Obviously.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I'm Drew Mallin in the WBZ newsroom.
Royalty in the house. How are am a man? We're
rolling now? You got a lot going on, my friend,
we got a musical, but let's start there. Tell me
a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Rock Bottom is a music cool about a recovery, addiction
and sobriety. I was approached to participate by Simon Kirk,
one of the most incredible drummers and musicians in the
history of music. Free and Bad Company.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Going into the Rock and Roll Hall of.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Fame ring congratulations. I So he approached me because I'm
in sober now for twenty years.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So they're doing a music Tony V from here, comedian
from here, Woody G from here in a very good
friend who is also from here, Tom Hamilton of Errolsmith.
So we're doing this music coat destroy and eradicate the
(01:01):
stigma associated with addiction. So that's why I'm here in town.
We have an event tonight that it's gonna be a fundraiser,
but more of an announcement of what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
It's probably it's gonna be a very special area for you.
I mean your legacy in the city cemented working with Aerosmith, Yes,
and I mean talking about those days coming up because
you introduced so many different people, so many different generations
to hip hop right through.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
The collaboration with Aerosmith. We got introduced to Aerosmith not
only by radio in New York City growing up, but
in the early days of hip hop. We sampled, I
mean we stole, I mean sampled, we start, I mean sampled.
We would sample their music and make our own songs.
So that drum beating, that riff was something that we
(01:49):
grew up with. So once we started making records. Eighty
four was the first run DMC album. It's a tongue twister.
Walk this Way isn't the first rock record. The first
rock rap record is rock Box, which was on Run
DMC's self titled album Run DMC, which was the first
hip hop video on MTV. That was eighty four. Then
(02:11):
in eighty five we did an album called King of Rock.
The single was called I'm the King of Rock. It's
not Hard because I didn't want to be the King
of Rap. That was too low on my expectations of myself.
I wanted to be the King of Rock. So we
did that song eighty five, and then in eighty six
we was Gonna Steal, I mean, we was gonna sample
(02:32):
walk this way. But Rick Rubin, one of the greatest
producers ever, convinced us to do the record over the
way the band originally did it, and that never been
done before. Wow. But what was brilliant While me and
Run was learning the actual lyric, Like, we heard the record,
but we didn't know the lyrics, so we had to
(02:52):
let the record play because usually Jay just only won
it the first thirty seconds of the song, so we
can run our mouths. But while we would doing that,
Rick called Boston, Hey, my name is Rick Rubin, I
know you know who Run DMC is. We want to
do your record over? Do you want to do it?
And it was like, who is this? My name is
Rick Rubin, I know you know who Run DMC is.
(03:13):
We want to do your song over? You want to
do it? So Steve and Jon the rest of the
band was like, oh, that's a great idea. Wow. So
Rick put us together with them, and the beauty in
that was it wasn't just something that was for music,
It was for the world. Because when Steven Tyler took
that mike stand and knocked down the wall that was
(03:36):
separating us in the video, people all over the world Oh,
that didn't just happen in the video. Happened in the
world for real, and they brought people together and brought
the genres together. It created the whole idea of you
can do collaborations in any shape form of fashion, and
it was just a beautiful thing because that's what music does.
(03:57):
It brings people together.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I mean, yes, collaborate all over the map in twenty
twenty five. But did you hear some of your sound though, Like,
did you hear some of that? Like, oh, you know
what that Kid's no?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Everything rock and well, I ain't gonna put it on me.
Everything that rock and country is doing right now, even
a little bit of metal, it's because of what run
DMC and Eric Smith did. And that's just fact. Kid
Rock said, run DMC and Haerrow Smith had a baby
and I popped out corn Limp, Biscuit, Rage against the Machine,
(04:29):
Cypress Hill. It's all over the place now. So I
think what it did is, you know, rock and roll
and metal and even punk, we had this attitude. Hip
hop came along and said it was already a feeling
or an essence of who we are that existed in
all the music's already. It was just that run DMC
(04:49):
and Aerosmith gave all the permission to do it when
you wanted to do it. But we were already doing that.
You know, when you think about hip hop and rapping,
you know Billy Joe Weed and start the fine segregation
and we're gration now. He was rapping. Rick and J
Jamster J rest in Peace. They said, don't sing the
(05:10):
song like Stephen sung it, rapping like rundium seaweed. But
Jay was like, listen to his boss. He's flowing see
saw swinging with the boys. He was technically rapping too.
So all of these things were already there in music.
It's just that this run dymn CE and Erosmith kept collaboration,
allowed black people and white people to do it, and
(05:31):
white people and black people to do The Beastie Boys
was a punk rock group. Rick Rubin was a producer
in the DJ and while we was doing the Raisin
The The Raisin Hell album with Adidas and Peter Pipe
and walked his way, Rick goes, you think these three
white Jeweish punk rock kids from New York City could
make a hip hop album. Jamster J was like, why not?
(05:54):
Two weeks later, licensed that el was born, so we
were already doing it. But when people saw Rundium and
Aerosmith together, it does what music always dos, because it
knocks down that there's no such thing as a generation gap.
It's a cooperation, conversation of participation gap. But when we
(06:14):
come together, no matther race, creed, color or genre music,
when we come together and work together and create together,
good things.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Happen, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So that's why I'm still standing here from here in
Boston where it all began, you know what I'm saying.
So you know, in what we did for Aerosmith, Aerosmith
did for me too, because my rock and roll dreams
came true. I was a little kid growing up in Queens,
New York. And this is funny, you know my mother
(06:46):
and Farvest music was James Brown, Aretha Franklin, L. Green,
soul music, Afros and Dashiki's. I was a little kid.
All I cared about was comic books, comic books in
Godzilla movies in the nineteen thirties, horror films, Frankenstein, Wolfman.
But when I started hearing rock and folk rock and
Jim Crochey, excuse me, Joni Mitchell, Harry Chapin and all
(07:08):
of these music, and the rock music appealed to me
because the drums and the guitarizars, guy, I was like
superheroes to me. So I had this little dream. I
wanted to be Freddie Mercury, but I had a problem.
I couldn't sing, and I don't got a band. But
this genre, this culture called hip hop, gave me permission
to have my rock and roll dreams come true. And
not only did it have my rock and roll dreams
(07:30):
come true, it allowed me to actually work with the
rock guys that I was idolizing and hearing these records.
I'm doing something with Simon Kirk a free right now
for a good purpose, for sobriety and recovery. I work
with Aerosmith. I got songs with Patriarchs in Black, a
(07:50):
metal group. My new song coming out January twentieth. It
is me and Sebastian Bach together on vocals, Travis Barker
on Mick Mars from Motley Crue on guitar, and Duff
McKagan on bass. Damn. So I'm sitting in these rooms
and hanging around them. Can't believe my dream's cage.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
You got to pinch yourself sometimes, all because of music,
Damn man, DMC in the house here up there, you go,
turn it down the lights.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I love it. We went dark here. That's cool.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You don't even need to It's fine.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I do want to ask you.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I talk to a lot of musicians right and some
of them in the prime of their career right now,
and I know that a lot of them are having
some of those same battles that that you had. It's
not always the most publicized thing in the world. What's
what's your advice to? Uh, it doesn't have to be
a musician, any adult, but anybody, anybody going through it.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
First of all, everybody's going through something, some mental health issue, addiction, depression.
See I was I'm DMC from the hip hop group
Run DMC, who walked his way in his Adidas to
tell the world how tricky, tricky, tricky life could be.
But I'm also I was an alcoholic suicide of metaphysical
(08:58):
spiritual wreck even though I was DMC. So I'm no
different from the doctor, the lawyer, the teacher, the ups man,
the plumber, you know what I'm saying. And it was
a point in my life where I woke up one
morning I was completely depressed, and I didn't know why.
And you know, I looked at my life, you know,
(09:18):
walk this way, Adida's MTV first to go, Go First,
to go Platinum First. On the cover Rolling Stone went
this hip hop thing. I'm Daryl McDaniels. Why do I
not feel like I want to live anymore? So I
started with depression and suicidal thoughts. And then when I
got to the point where if I die tomorrow, people
know the 'run dmc story. There's records and videos, but
(09:38):
I want you to know Daryl. So I wanted to
write a book. So I call my mother up. Looking back,
I should have said, Mom, I'm depressed, I'm suicidal. But
you know how stigma is. I gotta be a man.
I can't let nobody know that I'm weak, vulnerables, confused
and scared. But when you let the world know your weak, vulnerable, confused,
weak and scared, that's when your power comes. But I
(09:59):
didn't know at that time, so I called my mother up.
I should have said, Mom, I'm thinking of killing myself.
That's why I want to write this book so I
can let you all know what I was thinking. But
I called my mom's up and I go, mom My,
birthdays May thirty first, nineteen sixty four. Just for the book,
to make it more interesting for the reader, I need
to know three things. How much did I weigh when
I was born? She told me what time I was born,
(10:20):
She told me what hospital. She told me, hung up
the phone. Now my alcoholic suicide and metaphysical spiritual records,
thinking of killing itself. She calls back an hour later
with my father, Hey, Daryl, we have something else to
tell you. And I'm like, okay, So I thought they
was gonna go, well, when you was born, there was
a power outage in the hospital and we gave birth
(10:41):
to you about candlelight something, you know, a story like that.
They have been with this. I'm suicidal, I'm alcoholic, I'm depressed.
They go, we have something else to tell you, and
I go, what you was a month old when we
brought you home, and you're adopted, but we love you bye.
Oh my goodness. I'm found enough that I was adopted
at age thirty five. Wow, I found out I was
a foy bad where I was at when it wasn't
(11:03):
until now I bring that up to the advice is
no matter how bad it gets, no matter what you're
going through We rightfully think I'm the only person going
through this. I don't care. I mean in nineteen twenties,
they thought that, in the eighteen hundreds and the sixteen
and ere even in twenty twenty five, next year, twenty
things on na think that. But it wasn't until I
(11:24):
met another adoptee who made me realize, oh, I'm not
the only adopted person in this world. I knew I
wasn't alone. Then I started thinking I might not be
the only depressed person in this world. I might not
be the only alcoholic person in this world. Might not
only be the suicide of person in this world. So
the traumatic revelation of me finding out that I was
adopted filled an empty void in me. I'm Daryl McDaniels,
(11:47):
run DMC first of Go Go, first of Go Platinum,
first with Thedida Sneaker deal. But I'm also an alcoholic
and I'm adopted. Once I said, there's nothing to be
ashamed of having something wrong with you, because everybody's going
through something. That traumatic revelation was the thing that said,
you know what, let me go to rehab and get clean,
(12:08):
because life isn't that bad. These are just labels it
doesn't define my situation, doesn't define who I am. I'm
still the mighty King of rock walking this way and
my dealers with Aerosmith to tell the world it's tricky, tricky, tricky. Huh.
So when I went to rehab to better myself, I
found the most gangster thing you know in hip hop
(12:28):
eBoy trying to be gangster. I found the most gangst
thing anybody could do. I found this thing called therapy.
And therapy allowed me to be mad, sad, glad, angry
at whatever emotion and stuff was in my life, and
I had no reason to be ashamed about it. Two
of my greatest rhymes is this, If you removed guilt
(12:50):
and shame from the situation, you remove the pain of
going through it. Don't be ashamed of being on meth.
Don't be ashamed of being abused, ashamed of being an
alcohol all like, no, we all been. There's a million
people like you. You are not alone. And in therapy
I learned this, unless you admit how you feel, whether
(13:12):
good or badge you never heal. And what I mean
by that is if I come out here in front
of the world and I couldn't take on the world today, Hey,
we love you. I feel like I could battle the
line yayyy. But the minute you go, I'm depressed. Get
away from me with her a minute you go. There's
nothing wrong with somebody saying they're suicidal. They feel like that,
and what I mean by that, Let's find out what's
(13:32):
making them feel that way, so they ain't gotta feel
that no more. I can't tell you if it's a
hundred degrees outside, don't feel hot, but I can give
you a cool drink in ac if it's ten below,
I can't tell you don't feel cold, but I can
bring you inside, give you some heat and a cup
of hot chocolate. I can't tell you not to feel
that toothache, but I can say go to the dentist.
(13:55):
Second grade one, excuse me, Miss Peterson noticed that Daryl
McDaniels squinting to see the black ball. When my mother
came to pick me up. She wasn't ashamed to say,
Daryl Squinton are thinking the glasses? To this day, I
still wear glasses and got contacting right now.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
And you remember your teacher's name.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I remember. I was like, what's wrong with me? But
she said, no, he needs help to see. So we
all need help. The advice is this, no matter what
it is that you're going through, do not be ashamed
to ask for help. You're not wage, you're not psychle.
It's no different from having a back ache and gotta
go to the Cairo practice. It's no different from having
(14:34):
a toothfake and gotta go to the dentist. So, no
matter what it is, alcoholism, depression, emotions, past trauma. Because
we all are superheroes. I have a comic book company
called DMC. It's Daryl makes comics and then this universe.
I'm a super I'm not a rapper. I'm a superhero
and I'm running around bat in the bag. When you
look at all our superheroes, we're so busy looking at
(14:56):
how physically and mystically and magically powered they are. But
don't you know most all superheroes come from traumatic situations. Superman,
see we got problems. Superman lost this whole world. Yeah sure,
and came here and what happened to me. I'm a
comic book kid, is exactly like the superheroes I used
(15:18):
to audolize. My mother and father's like Daryl, we have
something to tell you. You're adopted and you're the King of
Rugget Clark, sit down. It's something we want to tell you.
Where your parents. But you're from another world and you
have power in it. You find your power in your weakness,
in your Oh that's a that's a song. In your
darkest hour, you find your power. Spider Man was raised
(15:40):
by aunt May, lost his parents Batman. Batman saw his
more than father murdered in front of him, but it
gave him a purpose. So do not be ashamed of
what you're going through. When I was in rehab, I'm
in there with alcoholics, drug addicts, gambling, sex addicts, and erexis.
All different situations but all same thing. And at the
(16:01):
end of the day we go off to our little
separate groups to deal with our you know, personal circumstances.
But at the end of the day we all come back.
Were all able to sit in the room and find
the similarities in our struggles. But also we can find
the simularities that are in the differences of our struggles
(16:21):
that will give us the strength to change the life.
And the important thing about mental health issues and addiction
and trauma and stuff like that, the most powerful thing
that we can do is what we do here. With music, Drew,
we need to talk about it. If we have conversation
about it, we have transformation. Now I'm sober, I get
(16:44):
out of rehab, I tell people I'm in therapy and
stuff like that, and by me ke, you know, hip
hop's about keeping it real. No, dmc man, what's up
with you? Well, I'm an alcoholic suicide and metaphysical record
found out that he was adopted at age thirty five,
and then for me it didn't and them once I
got jam Master Jay gets shot and killed. Then my
father died, son of Byfrid, brother of al Banna's. My
(17:07):
mother runs my pal. It's McDaniels, not McDonald's. These rhymes
are darrels. Those Burghers are Ronald's. I ran down my
family tree, my mother, my father, my brother, and me.
So now I find out that I'm adopted. But then
the man who was put here on earth to be
my father he dies. So imagine where I was at.
But the fact that I was in therapy, I was
(17:28):
able to sit there and talk about it and not
be ashamed of it. And then by realizing everything is okay,
my sobriety, my rehab, my therapy, having fun as dmc
walking this way with Arrowsmith and encouraged me to know,
you know what, I'm gonna go find my birth mother.
And I was able to go find my birth mother.
(17:50):
And when I found her, she said, oh my god,
I know you're dying to know why I gave you up.
And I'm a shoot, lady, that's a misstatement. And she said,
I gave you up to give you a chance, which
made me look at all around DMC stuff. She gave
it was her duty to get me here, but it
was my mother and father's duty to get me here.
With jujuw in my mind keeping it real about my situation.
(18:14):
You know I'm going through something. I'm weak, I'm vulnerable,
I'm scared. Is the thing that gave me the power
to save my life. And anybody going to something, go
tackle your problem. And it's not about you. It's bigger
than you. You go to you. Why did y'all get right?
Why should I be alive? Why should I do? People
want to know it's not because you play the guitars
(18:35):
now because you're gonna be rich and famous. Your story
of struggle, see I make songs, but your story of
struggle just by talking about it. The reason why you
gotta go get clean, or you gotta go to therapy
to talk about your trauma. You gotta go to therapy
to talk about your abuses. Your story will save people's lives,
not minds. I make cool records, but you, being who
(18:57):
you are, go take care of yourself so you can
take care of your world.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I want a message, man, DLL McDaniels, thank you so
much for your time. Man, what a legend in the house.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
I'm glad you got through it all because you got
so much more to give here.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Obviously.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I'm Drew Mallin in the WBZ newsroom.
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