The Interview With Trevor’s High School Friend Mike Braithwaite

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, as I told you going into the break, I'm
going to talk to an old friend from high school.
We played on the same baseball team, and his message
to me over the last few weeks has been life
altering and changing. Mike Braithwait, Mike, welcome to the show Man.
Thank you for getting the strength to talk to us.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey, thanks for having me, you.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Bet, Mike. Before we get into the reason that you're on,
let's go back. I left Ridgecrest in eighty four. You
were ahead of me in school in eighty three. Tell
us a little background of your musical history when you
got down to San Diego. People are going to find
this story fascinating.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Well, I started off going to school with San Diego State,
San Diego State, and I took a a class at
UCLA with Thomas Noonan who Todd and he was the
king of Billboard magazine all that sort of you know.

(01:00):
I did the top forty charts that Casey Cason would
come up with and do the weekly top forty. So
he had very much power in the industry. And he
took a he taught a closs on the music industry
and every week there have promotions people. Van Hamd's manager
came at Leffler came one weekend, I mean one week

(01:24):
so anyways, I became really good friends with him, and
he offered me a job at the end of the
class to be an A and R representatives for and
M Records, Warner Brothers Capital, whatever I wanted and the end,
I turned it down because I wanted to finish my
degree at San Diego State and I wanted to and

(01:44):
it was a little bit risky at the time. I
learned a lot about the business and it was pretty cutthroat,
so at the time I was a close called I
never regret I regretted that doing it. I think it
would have been a fun experience to try that. But
but anyways, shortly after that I met Eddie Vedder. I

(02:05):
was working working at a study job at San Diego
patrolling on the corporation. It was in Miramar in San Diego,
and he was my boss. He was my boss, and
we became best friends immediately. We eventually became roommates. I
helped him with his his his his solo work. Bad

(02:28):
radio things like that and.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Been heard on any radio or anything, right.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Right, right, it hasn't been heard of or anything, and
so it wasn't until he met Jack Irons from the
Chili Peppers. Ex drummer of the Chili Peppers recommended him
a good guys in Seattle. Hey, I know the singer
in San Diego that would be good for you. Guys
don't want to try him out, so they tried him out.

(02:57):
He made it, and Eddie flew back and forth in
San Diego during the demo tape process of the first
pro Jam album ten and we I gave my input
into the first album nanded abusing some of it, the
fair amount of it nanded abusing. So that's that's my

(03:17):
only claim. The same.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Well, it's quite a musical history there as well. And
you still didn't you keep producing? Don't you got a
bunch of sound equipment and whatnot?

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I've had a studio for years
and all that sort of stuff. And I've been big
on songwriting, you know that sort of thing.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
No, I don't remember. I don't remember you being in
a band in high school. Do you play anything.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Piano? Guitar? I even played. I played violin in elementary
school in he through high.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
School, so heanys speaking of high school once? Uh, do
you think anybody's ever had a baseball coach who gets
mad at infield practice, throws the bat in the air,
gets in his pickup truck, and peels out in the gravel.
Sizemot You remember him doing that?

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yes, yes, yes, that's.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Funny, the crazy redhead baseball coach. Didn't he seem old
at the time? I bet he wasn't a day over
twenty eight?

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Was he? Rods Moore was pretty young at the time. Yeah,
he was pretty young.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
And when Mike and I reconnected here, when he called
me a few weeks ago, Mike, he said, your memory
of me and baseball? Do you want to? Can you
tell that one on the air?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, it was just classic. We were playing
Annamog Valley High School, the big rival for Bridge Crestburrow's
High School. And I was on deck to hit and
Trevor just hit him a ground ball, and the first baseman,
instead of just touching the bag, actually just like pushed

(04:47):
Trevor just pushed him, pushed him over out and you know,
always the fence product. But just Trevor's not a big guy,
this ball guy, so he just got just creamed. And
so what did Treubbor Trevor through his helmet at him.
You know it's because you know it's going to pursue off.
When someone does that to you. You're young, you're eighteen.
You're gonna get mad, So you do so that the

(05:09):
catcher for Anlo Valley ran up the first baseline Ryan
at Trevor. I was thinking to myself, I've got to
do something, protect my buddy. So I tackled him from behind,
got him into a headlock, and just held him there
for dear life, because if I let him go, who
knows what this guy would do to me, could kill me.
So so I just let so the coach is separated
as I just held him in his clock. I've been

(05:31):
punched him a couple of times.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Hey, that was my only baseball brawl. What was that
your only baseball brawl in your baseball times?

Speaker 2 (05:38):
No, there was Chino Chino High School. We were playing
at Chino High School down in LA and they came
at us with their baseball bats. On one game. You're
rasing their picture. The picture had a temper. We were
rausing them him, and he got madder and matter and
so fall he got wild and started pitching poorly, and

(05:59):
so there just emptied their dugouts and came after. So
that's the only other one I can remember.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
You know, I don't know do they still allow all
the banter. I wonder, like in Little League we called
it chatter, but you know, hey, batter, you couldn't hit
water if you fell out of a boat, you know,
that kind of stuff. I wonder if they don't allow
that today, you know, to make sure the kids don't
get their feelings hurt there as well.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
As probably probably not probably not well.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
I can say during that brawl you literally had my
back because he was coming at me from behind. Yeah. Good,
good move.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Mike.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Well listen, man, I know you've had a a I'm
just gonna segue here. You've had a lot of people, Uh,
I'm gonna let you talk about it, that have had
your back with what you're going through right now, and
I'm sorry I didn't know about it for up until
just a few weeks ago. Thank you you reached out
to iHeart here, left the messages that got it to
me immediately, And Mike, I'm just gonna say your message

(06:54):
was TRUV call me. I'm dying. Mike. Can you can
you explain your your disease for ever by listening right now.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, I've had a lot of disease for twenty eight years.
It's been a tough road. It was really a mission
for a while. It came back with a vengeance. I
had a mild stroke about nine months ago, and it
came back with a vengeance, and it just it just
got worse and worse, to the point where my body
rejects all medications now and I'm in so much pain

(07:27):
and it's off the chart pain, but I can't take
any pain medication for it. And I've had two heart
attacks in the last month, and there's nothing they can
do for me. My blood pressure's two sixty over one
thirty five most of the time a lot of times.
And I had a small stroke the other day. I

(07:47):
know I'm going to have a brutal ending. There's no
good outlook for me. I've the people that John Hopkins
in Baltimore told me the other day that they believe
it's permanent brain damage from the one disease. So there's
nothing I can do, and so I've been focused the
last five months or so. I've been focusing on reconnecting

(08:09):
with old friends and just reliving by positive, counting my blessings,
not being angry at God, not being angry at anything,
just understanding that the ball bounce is the same for everybody.
You know. It's just the way it is. And sometimes
miracles happen, but so far a miracle hasn't happened for me.

(08:32):
I've been people praying for me, but nothing's happened, and
it's probably not going to happen because miracles are rare.
But I hung in there for months and cruciating pain,
and in the process of that, I came up with an
idea of proposing a reconnection festival in rich Crest for
everybody that's from rich Crest from my time frame, you know,

(08:56):
from the seventies to eighties. Coaches, you know, business owners, pastors, anybody,
not just high school people, but anybody that you know, parents,
even anybody that wants to come together and reconnect and
tell remind them of old stories. It's magical. It's magical

(09:17):
when somebody brings something up that you hadn't heard and
forever and you forgot all about it. You forgot all
about it, and it's just that's right. I remember that.
It's just a magical experience. At this time of life,
so I wanted everybody to experience this. So I have
basically created dis fssival. It's taken off. I've got six
hundred plus people we're projecting right now, probably be closer

(09:41):
to eight hundred by the time November eighth comes. But
I'm not gonna make it. I'm I'm at the end
of my rope. I'm I'm not gonna make it. So
I'm the plan was, I was going to try to
make it, but there's just no way. So this is
a gift. This is a gift that I've created for
my friends, family and loved ones and just I just

(10:03):
want to make a positive, do something positive in my
time left, and that's what I've been doing.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
So, guys, if you're hearing what's coming out of Mike's
mouth and more importantly his heart and his soul right now,
he told me on Friday that when you said Jesus
is right there next to me, I wonder what that's
going to say to somebody right now who's maybe, well,
we're all facing death, we know that, but somebody that's

(10:31):
been told by the doctor, by John Hopkins like like
you have. I can't believe Mike when I think about
like if Hillary Clinton had won the election, I said,
I would be at a Motel six with a bottle
of Jack Daniels all depressed. I heard you say, you're
not mad at God. Has there ever been a time
during your ordeal that you're still going through where you

(10:53):
did have some anger?

Speaker 2 (10:55):
No, not at all. I mean, the ball bounces the
same for everybody. All balances the same for everybody. It's
it's good things happened to bad people, bad things happen
to good people. The only difference is, you know, if
you believe in God and God is by your side,
God will help you. And that's that's the bunk. That's

(11:16):
the difference. And you know, it reminds me of when
I when I when in nineteen eighty seven nineteen eight,
Eddie Vedder came up with a song called Believe You
Me and by the way, I'm I'm I've got a book.
I wrote a book about all this whole this whole
time period back then. In nineteen ninety seven, I was

(11:39):
really ticked off at Rolling Stone magazine. They bashed Eddie
and it wasn't fair, and so I was responding to
that and also just trying to I was upset with
thatdie at the same time because he's blown off like
friends and blown me off at the time. So I
felt upset. So I basically wrote a book about all this,

(12:00):
and I almost got published on a big literary agent
in New York City. Anyways, Nick Allen, a good foot
buddy of mine up in the Central Valley area, it's
going to finish it for me. But anyways, that'll be
discussing that if you ever want to read that. But
in nineteen eighty seven, Eddy Vedder wrote a song called
Believe You Me. And it was a time when Eddie

(12:23):
believed in God and he actually believed in God. His
mom was a big evangelical Christian. It still is, and
Eddie was very much. He wasn't a super strong Christian,
but he was. He believed. And the song Believe You
Me the second coming Believe You Me with the lyrics,

(12:45):
but it was a skeptical song that people that were
not living up to their you know, say I'm a Christian,
but they don't live up to it. That it was
a song of hypocrisy. And later on, right before he
joined program, he got pissed off of God and decided
that God is at fault for all the things that

(13:06):
are in the world, and I kept telling him, any
the ball bounces the same for everybody. It's called the
It's called free will. That's my opinion. I know I
was braced Lutheran. It's a free will. And you have
to deal with what you're given. You can make bad
decisions and read and you're not online with what you
should be doing. You're going to pay the price. But

(13:27):
sometimes you know you've got cancer in your genes. There's
nothing you can do about that. That's just that's just
life and and and and you can't blame God for
things like that. If you believe in God, you can't
blame God for that. So that's just not the way,
the way the whether things are set up. That's the way,
not the way God set things up. So but he

(13:50):
didn't get that. He didn't get that, and so he
kept blaming God. And now he doesn't. Now now he
doesn't believe they're the God. And I have a hard
time believe in even would admit that he even believed.
At one point, he even believed in God. But he
has a really tough time dealing with He's blowing me
off now, he won't respond to me. Because you know,

(14:10):
he's he has a tough time dealing with death. His
brother Chris died. I knew his brother really well. He
still hasn't dealt with that. Chris Cornell passed away. He
has done dealt with that. He has troubles talking to
people who have passed away or are in the process
of passing away. He just is because if you don't
believe in God, that's a pretty damn tough thing to

(14:32):
deal with. And that's what he's dealing with in his
personal life. And and so he's he's not doesn't want
to talk to me, and it isn't surprise of me
at all, oh regarding that.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
But well, Mike, anyways, that's listen man, November November eighth,
back in Ridge Cress, right right, right, Well, I'll be
there in my PRAYERA is that you'll be there with me.
And I know that you said you don't think you
will be from what John Hopkins has informed you. But man,
when when you said Jesus is right there next to you, Mike,

(15:05):
I'm just going to tell you, man, that's that's Christ
like my friend, and that's what we're called on this earth.
And your story might have might have hit somebody today
that might be exactly where you are. I know you
have to deal with a lot during the day, but
I'm sure there's a lot of time of not doing anything.
Would you would you want people to reach out to

(15:27):
you or would you want to converse with anybody that
might be in your shape?

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Sure? Sure?

Speaker 1 (15:33):
How do they you want to do? Email? Facebook?

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Email is fine or Facebook Facebook is fine too. Michael S.
Braithwait dot gmail dot com.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
Is my email, Michael M. S. Braithwait Or did you
say Michael S.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Michael S. Braithwait. This is my middle initial? Skype?

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeah, and that's b R A I T H W
A I T E. Michael S. Braithwait at gmail dot com,
Gmail dot com. And what are you on Facebook? Mike Braithwait, Yeah,
Mike Braithwait, Yeah, we'll post those up.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Man.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
I tell you don't know what God has in store,
None of us do, Mike. But I appreciate you coming
on and you well, you've you've touched us. All you
did me. You even said one girl from high school,
you talked to your story and all it letter to Christ.
So there's good and bad. All things work out for
the good. God bless you. And I'll talk with you
here against anything you want, anything you want to say

(16:33):
in closing, Mike.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, real quick, I will say this. In nineteen eighty six,
an old friend of mine called me and she was
committed suicide. I mean I called her. I haven't talked
her in six months, and she was in the process
of committing suicide. And she picked up the phone. She
picked up the phone, last calling her, and she was
curious who was going to be at the last person

(16:58):
she's going to talk to. She was curious who it was.
She picked up the phone. I talked to her. I
found out she was comed suicide. She swalled a bunch
of pills. I called that to one got the pyramids
there saved her. That is a miracle. That is a miracle.
I haven't. That's an example of a miracle. And you
can you can say it's just long odds, or you

(17:19):
can call it a miracle, whatever you want. But I
hadn't talked her in six months. One Saturday afternoon, at
one o'clock, I decided I need to talk to Tammy.
I called her and she picked up the phone. Now
where I go on Facebook and look at her family
and look at her family's family and and and they
would not be here if I had not made that call.

(17:39):
And not that I did anything great. I didn't do
anything great. I just did I just I wass a vessel.
I didn't do anything great. But but that but that
was I mean, I think that was a miracle. I mean,
it's got to be. I mean, WHI else The odds
are so long for it for me to call is
is strong enough. But for her to actually pick up

(18:01):
in the process of killing herself, well.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
I hear that is. And I'm going to ask, excuse me,
everybody out there listening, pray for a miracle for Mike Braithwaite. Mike,
Thank you man, God, bless.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
God, Bless you, buddy.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
This is the Trebortary Show, Condom Valleys Power Talk