June 27, 2025 • 31 mins
Amazon Music
Spotify
More about artist
Bio
Back in the mid-’80s, James Sifuentes began writing and recording some pretty good
pop rock. He and Bill, his brother and bandmate, dreamed of getting the songs re-
recorded professionally, but life, other interests and careers intervened.
Then came more life: age 50, cancer, Hodgkins’s lymphoma. He beat that. Ten years
later, July 2023, turmoil at the hospital where he had been an executive for 19 years
resulted in his firing. A few months after that, January 2024, he suffered a heart attack
while interviewing for his current regional manager position with the Chicago Park
District.
He didn’t know about the heart attack until he went to urgent care after the interview.
At this point, he tells himself that if he’s going to put out his music, he ought to do it, and
by March, he persuades himself to get it done.
Then, January 2025, disaster for the second January in a row. He is diagnosed with
stage 4 pancreatic cancer, but now he is seriously committed to putting out his music.
And the result, a year later, is “Summertime,” the single, a jazzy pop-rock anthem to the
season, and Summertime, a 12-track album of some pretty good pop rock transformed
into seriously good pop rock.
It’s all under the name Sifuentes. It features Jim, his brother Bill on guitar, and Matt
Riggen, a multi-talented colleague from the park district, on drums, brass and piano.
“Overall, it’s pop rock, but there’s some stuff that fits in different genres.”
The single features the rocking guitar and beat you would expect from someone
influenced by the Beatles, especially John Lennon and Paul McCartney, funkadelic,
(Parliament) and R&;B.
And it also has some swinging brass work too.
“The ’60s, I was only a little kid,” said Sifuentes. “My dad actually bought Beatles
albums, and we were just listening to them and, yeah, they became it.”
Growing up, living and working in Chicago, “Summertime,” to him, means the end of the
ice, snow and cold of winter and the “beauty, the energy when people get to go out,
wear shorts, barbecue, head to the beach and enjoy a different feeling.”
“It’s just trying to capture that feeling and make people feel good when they listen to the
song.”
He has been writing, composing, playing and recording music ever since he and his
brother were teens. At one time, he wanted to do that full time.
“We just didn’t pull the trigger, my brother and I. We wanted to get into the studio to
record these songs. We wanted to hear what they would have sounded like
professionally.”
After the heart attack last year, “I said, ‘I’m gonna get these songs done.’ In March of
last year, I said I’m gonna put out an album, so I set the goal.”
But doubts set in: already 60, health not good, and though the music he had written and
recorded was good, he hadn’t been playing much, or singing.
Somewhere in here, his daughter Amanda says to him about “Summertime,” which he
wrote in his 40s, “I love that song, Dad. You should finish it.”
“And I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to do this album. I will release it around
summertime, so, I want that to be the title.”
He began work, getting back into musical shape, working over his songs, and by
November, he was back in the studio.
Then January, and this time it’s pancreatic cancer. But, “I’m always one to finish a goal.”
Now it’s June, and the album is out.
“And I celebrated yesterday,” he said. “My staff here at the park district, we held a
listening, they called it a listening event, and they played the album. My brother, Matt
and I did some of the songs, five of them, just acoustic versions, but it was really nice.”
And that’s the story, he said. The love of music, the talent, the gift, has always been
there, waiting to be unveiled.
That’s what he calls it, an unveiling.
“People know I play guitar, kind of, but didn’t know this other part of me, that I could
sing, or I can record, and I compose songs. It’s an unveiling of another part of Jim that
people might not know.”
He wrote most of the songs when he was 18-25. “The Memory” is about where he grew
up, “walking around the park, going to school.” “Searching for Another Day” he wrote
when he was 18.
“Life,” coming more than 30 years later, after the first bout with cancer, “kind of
complements tha
Spotify
More about artist
Bio
Back in the mid-’80s, James Sifuentes began writing and recording some pretty good
pop rock. He and Bill, his brother and bandmate, dreamed of getting the songs re-
recorded professionally, but life, other interests and careers intervened.
Then came more life: age 50, cancer, Hodgkins’s lymphoma. He beat that. Ten years
later, July 2023, turmoil at the hospital where he had been an executive for 19 years
resulted in his firing. A few months after that, January 2024, he suffered a heart attack
while interviewing for his current regional manager position with the Chicago Park
District.
He didn’t know about the heart attack until he went to urgent care after the interview.
At this point, he tells himself that if he’s going to put out his music, he ought to do it, and
by March, he persuades himself to get it done.
Then, January 2025, disaster for the second January in a row. He is diagnosed with
stage 4 pancreatic cancer, but now he is seriously committed to putting out his music.
And the result, a year later, is “Summertime,” the single, a jazzy pop-rock anthem to the
season, and Summertime, a 12-track album of some pretty good pop rock transformed
into seriously good pop rock.
It’s all under the name Sifuentes. It features Jim, his brother Bill on guitar, and Matt
Riggen, a multi-talented colleague from the park district, on drums, brass and piano.
“Overall, it’s pop rock, but there’s some stuff that fits in different genres.”
The single features the rocking guitar and beat you would expect from someone
influenced by the Beatles, especially John Lennon and Paul McCartney, funkadelic,
(Parliament) and R&;B.
And it also has some swinging brass work too.
“The ’60s, I was only a little kid,” said Sifuentes. “My dad actually bought Beatles
albums, and we were just listening to them and, yeah, they became it.”
Growing up, living and working in Chicago, “Summertime,” to him, means the end of the
ice, snow and cold of winter and the “beauty, the energy when people get to go out,
wear shorts, barbecue, head to the beach and enjoy a different feeling.”
“It’s just trying to capture that feeling and make people feel good when they listen to the
song.”
He has been writing, composing, playing and recording music ever since he and his
brother were teens. At one time, he wanted to do that full time.
“We just didn’t pull the trigger, my brother and I. We wanted to get into the studio to
record these songs. We wanted to hear what they would have sounded like
professionally.”
After the heart attack last year, “I said, ‘I’m gonna get these songs done.’ In March of
last year, I said I’m gonna put out an album, so I set the goal.”
But doubts set in: already 60, health not good, and though the music he had written and
recorded was good, he hadn’t been playing much, or singing.
Somewhere in here, his daughter Amanda says to him about “Summertime,” which he
wrote in his 40s, “I love that song, Dad. You should finish it.”
“And I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to do this album. I will release it around
summertime, so, I want that to be the title.”
He began work, getting back into musical shape, working over his songs, and by
November, he was back in the studio.
Then January, and this time it’s pancreatic cancer. But, “I’m always one to finish a goal.”
Now it’s June, and the album is out.
“And I celebrated yesterday,” he said. “My staff here at the park district, we held a
listening, they called it a listening event, and they played the album. My brother, Matt
and I did some of the songs, five of them, just acoustic versions, but it was really nice.”
And that’s the story, he said. The love of music, the talent, the gift, has always been
there, waiting to be unveiled.
That’s what he calls it, an unveiling.
“People know I play guitar, kind of, but didn’t know this other part of me, that I could
sing, or I can record, and I compose songs. It’s an unveiling of another part of Jim that
people might not know.”
He wrote most of the songs when he was 18-25. “The Memory” is about where he grew
up, “walking around the park, going to school.” “Searching for Another Day” he wrote
when he was 18.
“Life,” coming more than 30 years later, after the first bout with cancer, “kind of
complements tha
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
If you love entertainment, current events, and Hollywood, don't miss
Creator to Creators. Hosted by the filmmaker Mio Shabine, known
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Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi, guys, welcome to another episode of Creators to Creators. Today,
today we have a special guest. Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Thank you absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
You know, I love going back to the beginning. I
always say the beginning chart our trajectory in life. You know,
our little habits that we pick up along the way,
you know, follow us into our adulthood. Tell me a
little bit about your child, what was that like? And
you know, has has music always been the goal?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
First of all, I come from a good Mexican Mexican
American family. There was ten of us nice and music
was always the part, whether it was listening to my
relatives play Mexican music or my father who my mom
and dad grew up in the depression and listening to
the big Band, Sinatra, Glenn Miller and the influences of
(01:30):
that and know and behold growing up with ten you
have a variation of different types of music from Beatle music,
which is near and dear to my heart, which was
my biggest influence to my sisters in the neighborhood. We
grew up in the back of the yards, really the
back of the stockyards and listening to the Dells at
the Phonics via them right or in the seventies when
(01:51):
I was in high school, I got into Parliament and
funk Adelic, Lakeside and all that, and to the pop
rock or or you know, the new way music that
came through and all that time in the beginning of rap,
which it was interesting to watch that. So growing up
and having that music kind of all around me, it
(02:12):
was great, but without of doubt one of the biggest
influence because my father, God love him, in the sixties
loved the Beatles, brought his albums and in the seventies
I got exposed to it nice and be ause of that,
never stopped to want to pursue music as something that
was near and dear to me.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Nice. I love that, like, So do you feel like
you found your purpose I did.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I think music has been a soul made of mine.
And even though I took a hiatus for almost forty
years from it, because I went a different route and
became an executive and did my work through all my
life history and through all my experiences up until today,
I can tell you when I've composed a song, what
was happening in my life, good, bad, sad, happy, And
(02:59):
in the lyrics that I wrote with my brother, what
I wrote but my brother and I compose, I could
tell you what was going on in every aspect of
my family and every aspect of my life for the
most part.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, yeah, that's beautiful. Tell me a little bit about
the you know influence and the you know the process
of making this this amazing you know song, summertime.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Song, Yeah, one of the influences. When being influenced by
Lennon and McCartney, I would always tell people I'm more
a fan today than when I was younger. And what
I mean by that, I would listen to them and
my brother would listen to my brother Bill and would say, amazing,
how did they always have a hook? How is it
(03:48):
always catch you whether you'd like them or not, You
can walk away and say every song they seem to
have had a hook. And so the influence was always,
if I'm going to write a song, I'm going to
use them as because in my eyes mentors to me
annoyingly right. They also a marker of what a great
song could and should be. And so what I did Summertime,
(04:08):
I can recall making that and my daughter Amanda at
the time said, God, I love that, Dad, you should
finish it. It was all I had was it's summer time,
summer time. That was it. When I decided to do
the album, it was in March, and in Chicago it's
still heavy winter, heavy cold, and I know it would
(04:29):
take me a year to get it done, and I said, Okay,
the album's going to come out basically in April. That
was the goal that I set. And I said, perfect timing,
because I will have done a whole album. Summertime will
lead it off and a tribute to all the years
that I was writing music, and the song in and
of itself I try to capture for those that live
(04:50):
in the Midwest, probably even in the East Coast, how
you long for summer because those four months that you
get that warm weather, you are so happy about it
because you're always indoor. People love winter, I did when
I was younger, but you long for summer. You get
to wear loose clothing. Everybody's out in Chicago, you're by
the lake, or you're downtown or even in the backyard.
(05:11):
You get to stay out late it's light out. And
I wanted to figure out how do you capture that essence,
that beauty and put it into a song, and so
Summertime came out.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I love that. That's that's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I was reading your bio and you know, one thing
I took away from is that you have such a resilience,
you know, and so strong and such a positive outlook
on life. And I you know, with with all the
ups and downs that you face, I think that also
goes into your music, right if you feel like the
(05:49):
more life like zest to live life, you know, going
through things that you went through. Tell me a little
bit about that of like, you know, you're journey and
that marks by resilience by surviving cancer twice, and you know,
how did that influence the emotion emotional depth of your music.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
In every way? It did? At fifty I'm sixty one, I.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Was feeling good, amazing, you look amazing, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I was like, I feel good, going to because I
have a cough, and all of a sudden I get
diagnosed with Hodgkins lim foma, and for the first time
in my life, I realized life has an end finality
because I didn't know what was going to happen there.
I was scared. Yeah, but I was able to go through,
get treatment and successfully beat Hodgkins lymphoma. But the marker
(06:43):
on that was to know that life can change in
a moment's notice, and it did, and I continue to work.
I was continued to do my thing. I was happy
that I was able to kind of get through that
and beat it. Then, as I was sixty years old,
after nine eighteen years as an executive at a hospital,
I was let go, was fired and as a Mexican
(07:06):
American workers value, I mean my identity, and when I
was told, I wasn't going to get a reason for it,
and you weren't going to get a severance and say
se laves look my mind. And that happened in July
of twenty three and January of twenty four, I had
(07:26):
a heart attack.
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Speaker 3 (08:16):
After that heart attack, I survived, thankfully because one of
my major valves was ninety nine percent cloud. I fell
asleep and I woke up, and he says, usually a
wit don't make it where you don't get up, and
I got up.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
After that, I said, okay, I let music go for
a long time because in my twenties I was playing
in a band. I was composing songs on and off.
I composed, but nothing really in it. For many years
during my thirties early forties, I just didn't play period,
and I said to myself, I want to leave my children.
My two daughters music and there's a part of me
(08:49):
that people didn't know I did it at this level
outside of my brother, that we can compose and we
can sing. And then I did what I always do
when I said to go write it down. Yeah, go,
I'm gonna get it. And then I bring a group
of people close to me and I say I'm going
to do an album. I'm going to have it done
in a year. And it's said for me to keep
(09:10):
myself honest about a goal, and I've always done that.
And after I did that, quite honestly, you know what
I thought about it. I said, I'm sixty years old,
can sing. I haven't been playing and I wasn't the
greatest musician. I can compose and I could sing, but
a handsung. And I said, down it, I don't care
heart attack, cancer, I'm going to get it done. And
(09:32):
it was it was a stretch goal to say the least,
but it was internally calling me because really when all
this stuff happened, I was down and out. And what
happened I realized music had never left me. I kind
of like closed the door, and once I opened it again,
music came back and did what it did. It gave
me life. It provided purpose. It said you can do this,
(09:54):
and even if people don't think you can, and even
if you don't think the music's relevant, We're going to
do it together and let's see what happens. And along
the way, I started practicing from March until I went
into the studio for the first time in November, and
divine providence, I meet. I go to a King Signetta
in September right before that, and I meet this young
(10:16):
kid who's his mom invited me and he's playing for
his sister's Keen Signetta band and they have a DJ.
So I go up to them and I said, God,
you guys sound great. Temmy yes, and I go I
love it, and I tell him I'm going to go
into the studio November, just talking music.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Back at the end of the night, he goes, hey, Jim,
is it okay if I tape you in the studio?
And I'm like, okay, great. I thought he was just
going to come with his Apple phone do a little
recording for him.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
He walks in and it's a whole production. He's got
as it as a Netflix production. Wow. I didn't realize
his love for it. He's now going into his freshman
year in the fall at Northwestern University, Nice very area.
And what happened was he was able to capture me
recording the whole album from November up and through even
(11:07):
through last month when we performed out And little did
we know that in January I would get this pain
on my side of this year. And in February I
got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer stage four.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
And at that point a decision had to be made.
Do you just stop the album, give up and move away,
because there's a lot of reasons to do that. You've
got to put closure to a lot of things. Are
you going to continue to work all the rest of
those questions and all these other challenges? Can you sing
you're going to go into chemo? And a lot of
(11:44):
reasons I finished it and did it. One is because
I don't like to not finish a goal. Number one. Yeah, Yeah,
it's a little different, right, you got this major diagnosis.
And two you know, people say, so death sentence not
for me, right. If anything, it's an opportunity, it's a gift.
And here's what I mean by that. Don't get me wrong,
who the hell wants cancer? But it allowed me to say, Okay,
(12:05):
I knew life was finite at fifty because I got
that cancer. I knew when I had that heart attack,
I was lucky to get out of it. But now
mode where Okay, I might have a shortened life, possibly
unless some miracle happens. But now I know I can
make ends with things that I want to. I can
tell people I love them. I've always done it, but
more intentionally. And I was going to finish just because
(12:27):
I said I wanted to leave something a legacy for
my children and for my family, and had a gift
of music I wanted to share with the world. Yeah,
so go forward with the documentary. And when I went
into the park district I started that past year. I
met Matt Riggan, who was a music instructor in one
of my parks and he is a multipurpose, incredible musician
(12:51):
who is degreed in brass. And I told Matt, I
have a song to memory, you know me, I said,
I have this slick dad, but I always that sound
would be good like a Glenn Miller song. And he says,
I can do that for you. And because I go
and I'm looking for a drumm, he because I played
drums too, and it just fell into place. He ended
(13:13):
up playing the percussion on my music, the brass, I
played the guitar, I played keyboards bass. My brother came
in and played some of the rhythm and some of
the lead as well, and that led into the album.
Interesting enough, when I was diagnosed in February, they wanted
me to start chemo early March. I told I can't,
and I know the doc looked at me and I said,
(13:35):
I got a project I have to finish and if
I start chemotherapy, I didn't know if I was going
to be able to do what I need to do.
And at that time I only had two songs recorded,
me and Matt. Then November I only got two songs
one because I was doubting myself as a musician singing.
And by the time November finished, I said, I got it.
(13:56):
I can do this. We're going to finish the album
and do four songs per session whatever. And when we
went into the studio in March the first time, the engineer,
who is Doug Malone, Jan and Deck Great calls me up, Jim,
I'm sorry, my mom's ill. She's in the hospital. And
he lived in mid in Midwest Illinois, so he couldn't
(14:17):
be there. He had to cancel before chemo. I have
one more session to go in I get sick. I'm like,
oh my god, we're able to lay down six songs.
I sing on it and I tell him it was
it sounds good. What doesn't sound good? You can tell.
I got a sore throat, I don't feel well, and
so I decided. I said Doug, I'm gonna come in
(14:39):
the day when he got a go opening. And it
was the day after my first session of chemo, and
I said, I'm there. I'm going to sing these songs over.
And so I go in and for those six songs,
we knocked it out, and then I came back again
in April to finish the other songs. We got eleven
songs recorded. Wow, and I'm happy with what happened, even
(14:59):
with all what's going on. You know, the doubt and
then the confidence coming back knowing those songs we're gonna
be good. Trying to finish all these songs only have
a one time shot. It's not like I'm there three times.
It was like I was finishing these songs on my logic,
giving it to my brother and mat say, here's what
we're gonna do. Here's what I want you to play? Yeah?
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Speaker 3 (15:52):
And knowing that this diagnosis is there because people say
going to stop working, which I haven't. I'm still working
and to be able to do it, I could. Ye,
I'm going to finish this. So we finished eleven songs,
but I said we're gonna do twelve. So what I
did was take one of the songs that my brother
and I recorded when we were in the late eighties
early nineties. Can't remember the timeframe that when that picture
(16:14):
on the album is when we looked like that, so
ing rumors and put it on the album one because
my daughter said, I love that song, that you should
do it. We didn't get a chance to re record it,
and I said, it still sounds good and if it's
within the framework of what I wanted for Summertime, nice
and it did. And so that was kind of the
progression of all of it, and stories behind the songs
(16:36):
are there, but that was the challenge. And I have
to say, right now a sixty one, I can confidently
say I'm just happy that album came out. I look
at it and blessed by Diego being able to document
He's going to do a documentary on it, Matt coming
into play, my brother coming back to help, and myself,
(16:58):
you know, resume acting myself from the depths of you know,
where I was at and still having that and choosing
to live and choosing to be fully alive as as
I can till today and I am, and actually summertime
in Chicago. Now, I'm just like, oh, yeah, that's that's
(17:19):
what I wanted, right, That's where I'm at.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
That's beautiful. Wow, that's beautiful, And that documentary is going
to be incredible, incredible how and I'm just curious, what
was it like performing the acoustic version of your song
at the Park District listening event.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
It was great and it was interesting because my staff
at the parks came in and said, we're going to
do a listening session. I go, what is that? And
they go, we're going to have you know people come out.
You want to play your album? And then I realized
they wanted me to do some version of it. And
there's only three of us and I haven't played in
forty years. And I pull out my Hoffner base and
(18:03):
there's a story about this Hoffner base. When I was
in high school, I was going to get kicked out
my freshman year, first year's semester. I remember meeting with
my mom. It was in the seminary system and the
pricess to me director says, you're going to get You're
on probation. What's probation? What does that mean? Basically, you
told my mom he's going to be kicked out if
(18:24):
it don't turn his academics around. My mom knew me
so well. God love her. And you know what thirteen
She says to me, if you make the honor roll
every semester moving forward, I'm going to get you. Because
she knows a Beatle fan. I'm going to get you
that Paul McCartney beatle bass, and I was, well, I
(18:44):
got it and I graduated. You know, it was ten
of us. I didn't get it a graduation. I got
it like four years later. I didn't care. And when
I came in the band, I played it. So when
I went out to play at the park, I pulled
that baby out. It's still worked, kept in good shape,
and it was great to be in holding that again
because that's when my brother and I played in the band.
(19:05):
And to hear that Liverpool sound again going on there.
It was great because I use a different base when
we recorded, but for the outside and going out there
and being in front of people again, it was fantastic.
I had people from all aspects from when I worked
in my past in the recreation. The hospital were out there,
family and friends and park people came out and the
(19:28):
venue was beautiful Marquette Park. They had this great venue
where you perform and it was such a great afternoon.
It was exciting and I was happy because the music
sounded great, even if it was just three of us,
because really we should have a keyboardist and another guitar player,
but we pulled it off. It was in a style.
So I have to say this, It was fantastic and
(19:48):
I felt great.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
I love that well. I love asking this question to
every guest, and there is no wrong answer. I promise
the three levels of influence, money, power, and respect, And
if you could choose only one of those things, which
one would you choose?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And why I would have to go with respect at
this point in my life and what I mean by
that respect of life, respect to the gift that I got.
The saddest part would have been if I didn't go
and fulfill the stream, then I would have not respected
the gift that God gave me. It goes out to
(20:26):
people and people like it, but it's a gift that
I had, and the respect that I give myself to
my children to say, no matter what challenge you have,
respect your gifts, respect what you have, believe in it,
and no matter what's in front of you, don't let
it stop. You love that comes when it does stop.
That means times out right, and that's okay. So I
(20:49):
would say respect in that aspect how I frame it,
and the respect to life, to my music and to
me and to honor the challenges that were facing me.
And still to be able to overcome them, regardless of
what was and still is surrounding me.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
That's beautiful. Wow. Did you ever imagine that your career
in the public service would one day intersect with your
music collaborations with colleagues?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Quite honestly, no, I didn't. I wanted to always do
my music. My brother and I would say, we're going
to go back in the recording studio when we're in
our twenties thirties, and we did. Let's get and life happens. Yeah,
he's pooled somewhere. He's got a family. I have a family.
I was working crazy, you know, as an executive, and
(21:41):
all this happened. And when it came back, it's almost
like God just put it together. Not to get religious, right,
but it took like love came together given all these challenges.
He says, Okay, you got these challenges, and you can
choose to go down or you can say, what else
have I given you to kind of make it through?
And I'm also going to give you some gifts. I'm
gonna give you digg I'm gonna give you the will
(22:02):
to go back, the respect and they you got this talent,
you got to overcome that you can't do it at
sixty and you're gonna pull it off, And I did
with the support of a lot of people cheering me on,
which was great as well.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
It's beautiful. Yeah, and you know it is that. It's
a thing I think sometimes too. You know when when age,
you know age, they say, oh, you got to be
this age. But I honestly feel like, you know, we
live in a time now that music is how we
consume music is so different than how it was consumed
way back when when they were you know, when there
was records. You know, now they're streaming, so music now
(22:37):
we can consume through TikTok, through YouTube, through Spotify. You know,
it's it's pretty amazing. So I think it's you know,
I always say it's there's it's never too late to start.
As long as you're you're alive and you have breath
in your body, go for it.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
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Speaker 3 (23:58):
I totally agree with that thing about it. It allowed me
to play different genres of my music. Right, there's everything's
fetal influence. But will you be Mine? Is a tribute to,
like I said, the neighborhood and my sisters who loved
the Delphonax, the Dells, that Philly sound, and I purposely said,
I'm gonna go back and try to make a song
that kind of reflects that from my style from what
I heard, Nice and when when when Matt, I mean
(24:21):
when I recorded the music. I loved it, the bassline
that I put in, and when Matt went in there
and added that saxophone. I literally in the studio the
engineer was I was crying, and the cheers of my
minds one was I realized I was doing and finishing
a dream and it was just crazy beautiful. I was like,
oh my god, what he put on that sound. I
(24:42):
was like, oh, he took it to the next level.
And I said, I hope that that sound is appreciated
because I really wanted to honor that and the other songs.
You know, it's just me in different areas, in different spaces,
in different times.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Nice, you mentioned that love for Beatles of cour growing up.
Do you do you see John Lennon's influence in your songwriting.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Sure, especially the lyrics. When you think about life, it's
kind of the question I was asked when I kid,
what do you want to be in life? What do
you want to do? And quite honestly, I was probably
the one that didn't know what he wanted to do.
Everyone's I'm your nurse I'm gonna go to college. What
I really wanted to do is do music. But I
(25:25):
never said it. I said it once to a priest
and I remember he says, well, Jimmy, you got to
be for real, you got to go go to college.
And I'm like, Okay, I'm never gonna tell anybody I
want to be famous. I want to write songs, and
I never did. But when I when I look at life,
the capture that information or that experience in a few words.
(25:46):
I look at that and I said, I think Lennon
emmaccartney would be happy, not only the song, but with
the lyrics throughout the whole album more or less. I mean,
some songs are poppy, and I was, you know, young
and just trying to get the song out there. But
a lot of songs, the lyrics behind it and the
melodies are worthy of attention. I think when you listen
(26:09):
to the songs, there's always a catch to the song,
There's always a hook, and the lyrics are are there
along for the ride as well.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah. I love that. If Your Life was a concept album,
what would the title be and what track would close
it out?
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (26:34):
The concept would be Life is for Living Honestly, I
always tell people life is for living, and most people
don't live right there. Conditions different things, but music has
to be in there. My mission statement, and maybe this
(26:55):
is a better way to say my mission statement that
I made up in my twenties is create and play
a melodious song of love with your life. And I've
done that, and I think the song that would capture
it would be my favorite song. Really is the memory
only because I made those words back in my twenties,
(27:16):
but they're more real today. I go back to the
neighborhood I grew up with back of the arts, and
I go back to the grammar school and I do
remember Vicky Browne what I liked and I wanted the
kids there. I go back to the Cornell Park and wow,
it did change. And I go back to the house
I grew up, and I do want to see my mom.
And I think if you listen to that song, a
(27:37):
lot of people when they go back and they especially
a neighborhood. I think New York reflects is there's neighborhoods
or theirs. I forgot what they call them in New York,
but a neighborhood you grow up and you can kind
of say, oh, yeah, I remember that is what we did,
and I think that's it. And then really the verse thing.
When I look back on my life, I remember how
(27:58):
good it really was. That's I can say that all
my challenges growing up with ten kids, not having a lot,
my love is great. My life has been great. It
was great, and I have no necessarily regrets that would
take me back. And I look at it and I'm like,
I've been blussed.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah, absolutely, yes, absolutely. What advice would you give to
know that young boy, that young girl out there that's
trying to get into the music industry.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Here's what I told Diego. I said, if you're going
to do something, to go ahead and do it. If
it's not going to work out, who cares you're going
to learn from it? Don't do what I did. I
listened to a pre saying go to college, which took
me fifteen years to get my degree. When I had
this talent and I knew internally I had a talent
back then that was at a high level. Nobody else
(28:53):
could see it, and I played music in a whole
different way. I needed what my pathway is where I
needed to go, and I did, but I would tell somebody,
go after it. What's the worst that can happen? You
don't make it or you fail. But the greatest thing
about it, you're going to have done it. You're going
to know some of the things that you wouldn't have
known had you not done it, and you're going to
(29:14):
be a better person for it. And who knows, So
you don't go back at it and figure out a
new way to do what you want to do to
get where you want to get, and along the way,
people should be cheering you on so that whatever you
do in the future, if it is not that particular thing,
you may do it even better than you thought you
ever could.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Beautiful, beautiful? Where can people find you on social media
to follow everything you have going on?
Speaker 5 (29:39):
So?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
What a great question? I wasn't on And my daughter says, Dad,
you gotta get on Facebook, Instagram. And I'm like, what
I go. I I'm not even on Facebook, Dad, with it?
I mean, nobody's even on Facebook, but your ages are.
So I'm on Facebook, under I'm on Instagram. I believe
that fun this arrives and and I'm starting to put
(30:01):
my story on I'll start that soon because I realized
not only The music is beautiful, but story along with it. Now,
even when I hear myself talk about it is meaningful
hopefully for people who are challenged with health issues. They
didn't think that they could still move forward, and I
can say definitively, yes, you can, despite whatever setbacks you have,
(30:27):
despite whatever is going on, move forward and live in
the moment as best as you can.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah. I love that. Thank you so much for coming on.
It was such a pleasure to hear your story, and
thank you for such such great positive message of hope
and resilience, because that's such a good reminder to be reminded,
especially in this entertainment of that so up and down.
You know, it's so all over the place, and you know,
sometimes you know, we're not always full on, you know.
(30:53):
I think people only see the best pictures on social media,
but they don't see the and yet the other the
hard work and the turmol that we go through. So
thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I want to thank you as well. I appreciate it,
and so I wish all the best to you as well.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Thank you, thank you, and thank you all for listening
and always remember to live, love, laugh. We see you
guys next time.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
Goodbye.
Speaker 7 (31:19):
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If you love entertainment, current events, and Hollywood, don't miss
Creator to Creators. Hosted by the filmmaker Mio Shabine, known
for the shutter Hit documentary or Noir and the acclaimed
film Anatomy of an Anti Hero Redemption. This show features
interviews with filmmakers and creatives from around the globe. Join
(00:25):
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Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hi, guys, welcome to another episode of Creators to Creators. Today,
today we have a special guest. Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Thank you absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
You know, I love going back to the beginning. I
always say the beginning chart our trajectory in life. You know,
our little habits that we pick up along the way,
you know, follow us into our adulthood. Tell me a
little bit about your child, what was that like? And
you know, has has music always been the goal?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
First of all, I come from a good Mexican Mexican
American family. There was ten of us nice and music
was always the part, whether it was listening to my
relatives play Mexican music or my father who my mom
and dad grew up in the depression and listening to
the big Band, Sinatra, Glenn Miller and the influences of
(01:30):
that and know and behold growing up with ten you
have a variation of different types of music from Beatle music,
which is near and dear to my heart, which was
my biggest influence to my sisters in the neighborhood. We
grew up in the back of the yards, really the
back of the stockyards and listening to the Dells at
the Phonics via them right or in the seventies when
(01:51):
I was in high school, I got into Parliament and
funk Adelic, Lakeside and all that, and to the pop
rock or or you know, the new way music that
came through and all that time in the beginning of rap,
which it was interesting to watch that. So growing up
and having that music kind of all around me, it
(02:12):
was great, but without of doubt one of the biggest
influence because my father, God love him, in the sixties
loved the Beatles, brought his albums and in the seventies
I got exposed to it nice and be ause of that,
never stopped to want to pursue music as something that
was near and dear to me.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Nice. I love that, like, So do you feel like
you found your purpose I did.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
I think music has been a soul made of mine.
And even though I took a hiatus for almost forty
years from it, because I went a different route and
became an executive and did my work through all my
life history and through all my experiences up until today,
I can tell you when I've composed a song, what
was happening in my life, good, bad, sad, happy, And
(02:59):
in the lyrics that I wrote with my brother, what
I wrote but my brother and I compose, I could
tell you what was going on in every aspect of
my family and every aspect of my life for the
most part.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, yeah, that's beautiful. Tell me a little bit about
the you know influence and the you know the process
of making this this amazing you know song, summertime.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Song, Yeah, one of the influences. When being influenced by
Lennon and McCartney, I would always tell people I'm more
a fan today than when I was younger. And what
I mean by that, I would listen to them and
my brother would listen to my brother Bill and would say, amazing,
how did they always have a hook? How is it
(03:48):
always catch you whether you'd like them or not, You
can walk away and say every song they seem to
have had a hook. And so the influence was always,
if I'm going to write a song, I'm going to
use them as because in my eyes mentors to me
annoyingly right. They also a marker of what a great
song could and should be. And so what I did Summertime,
(04:08):
I can recall making that and my daughter Amanda at
the time said, God, I love that, Dad, you should
finish it. It was all I had was it's summer time,
summer time. That was it. When I decided to do
the album, it was in March, and in Chicago it's
still heavy winter, heavy cold, and I know it would
(04:29):
take me a year to get it done, and I said, Okay,
the album's going to come out basically in April. That
was the goal that I set. And I said, perfect timing,
because I will have done a whole album. Summertime will
lead it off and a tribute to all the years
that I was writing music, and the song in and
of itself I try to capture for those that live
(04:50):
in the Midwest, probably even in the East Coast, how
you long for summer because those four months that you
get that warm weather, you are so happy about it
because you're always indoor. People love winter, I did when
I was younger, but you long for summer. You get
to wear loose clothing. Everybody's out in Chicago, you're by
the lake, or you're downtown or even in the backyard.
(05:11):
You get to stay out late it's light out. And
I wanted to figure out how do you capture that essence,
that beauty and put it into a song, and so
Summertime came out.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
I love that. That's that's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I was reading your bio and you know, one thing
I took away from is that you have such a resilience,
you know, and so strong and such a positive outlook
on life. And I you know, with with all the
ups and downs that you face, I think that also
goes into your music, right if you feel like the
(05:49):
more life like zest to live life, you know, going
through things that you went through. Tell me a little
bit about that of like, you know, you're journey and
that marks by resilience by surviving cancer twice, and you know,
how did that influence the emotion emotional depth of your music.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
In every way? It did? At fifty I'm sixty one, I.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Was feeling good, amazing, you look amazing, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
I was like, I feel good, going to because I
have a cough, and all of a sudden I get
diagnosed with Hodgkins lim foma, and for the first time
in my life, I realized life has an end finality
because I didn't know what was going to happen there.
I was scared. Yeah, but I was able to go through,
get treatment and successfully beat Hodgkins lymphoma. But the marker
(06:43):
on that was to know that life can change in
a moment's notice, and it did, and I continue to work.
I was continued to do my thing. I was happy
that I was able to kind of get through that
and beat it. Then, as I was sixty years old,
after nine eighteen years as an executive at a hospital,
I was let go, was fired and as a Mexican
(07:06):
American workers value, I mean my identity, and when I
was told, I wasn't going to get a reason for it,
and you weren't going to get a severance and say
se laves look my mind. And that happened in July
of twenty three and January of twenty four, I had
(07:26):
a heart attack.
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(08:14):
and heal.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
After that heart attack, I survived, thankfully because one of
my major valves was ninety nine percent cloud. I fell
asleep and I woke up, and he says, usually a
wit don't make it where you don't get up, and
I got up.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
After that, I said, okay, I let music go for
a long time because in my twenties I was playing
in a band. I was composing songs on and off.
I composed, but nothing really in it. For many years
during my thirties early forties, I just didn't play period,
and I said to myself, I want to leave my children.
My two daughters music and there's a part of me
(08:49):
that people didn't know I did it at this level
outside of my brother, that we can compose and we
can sing. And then I did what I always do
when I said to go write it down. Yeah, go,
I'm gonna get it. And then I bring a group
of people close to me and I say I'm going
to do an album. I'm going to have it done
in a year. And it's said for me to keep
(09:10):
myself honest about a goal, and I've always done that.
And after I did that, quite honestly, you know what
I thought about it. I said, I'm sixty years old,
can sing. I haven't been playing and I wasn't the
greatest musician. I can compose and I could sing, but
a handsung. And I said, down it, I don't care
heart attack, cancer, I'm going to get it done. And
(09:32):
it was it was a stretch goal to say the least,
but it was internally calling me because really when all
this stuff happened, I was down and out. And what
happened I realized music had never left me. I kind
of like closed the door, and once I opened it again,
music came back and did what it did. It gave
me life. It provided purpose. It said you can do this,
(09:54):
and even if people don't think you can, and even
if you don't think the music's relevant, We're going to
do it together and let's see what happens. And along
the way, I started practicing from March until I went
into the studio for the first time in November, and
divine providence, I meet. I go to a King Signetta
in September right before that, and I meet this young
(10:16):
kid who's his mom invited me and he's playing for
his sister's Keen Signetta band and they have a DJ.
So I go up to them and I said, God,
you guys sound great. Temmy yes, and I go I
love it, and I tell him I'm going to go
into the studio November, just talking music.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Back at the end of the night, he goes, hey, Jim,
is it okay if I tape you in the studio?
And I'm like, okay, great. I thought he was just
going to come with his Apple phone do a little
recording for him.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
He walks in and it's a whole production. He's got
as it as a Netflix production. Wow. I didn't realize
his love for it. He's now going into his freshman
year in the fall at Northwestern University, Nice very area.
And what happened was he was able to capture me
recording the whole album from November up and through even
(11:07):
through last month when we performed out And little did
we know that in January I would get this pain
on my side of this year. And in February I
got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer stage four.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
And at that point a decision had to be made.
Do you just stop the album, give up and move away,
because there's a lot of reasons to do that. You've
got to put closure to a lot of things. Are
you going to continue to work all the rest of
those questions and all these other challenges? Can you sing
you're going to go into chemo? And a lot of
(11:44):
reasons I finished it and did it. One is because
I don't like to not finish a goal. Number one. Yeah, Yeah,
it's a little different, right, you got this major diagnosis.
And two you know, people say, so death sentence not
for me, right. If anything, it's an opportunity, it's a gift.
And here's what I mean by that. Don't get me wrong,
who the hell wants cancer? But it allowed me to say, Okay,
(12:05):
I knew life was finite at fifty because I got
that cancer. I knew when I had that heart attack,
I was lucky to get out of it. But now
mode where Okay, I might have a shortened life, possibly
unless some miracle happens. But now I know I can
make ends with things that I want to. I can
tell people I love them. I've always done it, but
more intentionally. And I was going to finish just because
(12:27):
I said I wanted to leave something a legacy for
my children and for my family, and had a gift
of music I wanted to share with the world. Yeah,
so go forward with the documentary. And when I went
into the park district I started that past year. I
met Matt Riggan, who was a music instructor in one
of my parks and he is a multipurpose, incredible musician
(12:51):
who is degreed in brass. And I told Matt, I
have a song to memory, you know me, I said,
I have this slick dad, but I always that sound
would be good like a Glenn Miller song. And he says,
I can do that for you. And because I go
and I'm looking for a drumm, he because I played
drums too, and it just fell into place. He ended
(13:13):
up playing the percussion on my music, the brass, I
played the guitar, I played keyboards bass. My brother came
in and played some of the rhythm and some of
the lead as well, and that led into the album.
Interesting enough, when I was diagnosed in February, they wanted
me to start chemo early March. I told I can't,
and I know the doc looked at me and I said,
(13:35):
I got a project I have to finish and if
I start chemotherapy, I didn't know if I was going
to be able to do what I need to do.
And at that time I only had two songs recorded,
me and Matt. Then November I only got two songs
one because I was doubting myself as a musician singing.
And by the time November finished, I said, I got it.
(13:56):
I can do this. We're going to finish the album
and do four songs per session whatever. And when we
went into the studio in March the first time, the engineer,
who is Doug Malone, Jan and Deck Great calls me up, Jim,
I'm sorry, my mom's ill. She's in the hospital. And
he lived in mid in Midwest Illinois, so he couldn't
(14:17):
be there. He had to cancel before chemo. I have
one more session to go in I get sick. I'm like,
oh my god, we're able to lay down six songs.
I sing on it and I tell him it was
it sounds good. What doesn't sound good? You can tell.
I got a sore throat, I don't feel well, and
so I decided. I said Doug, I'm gonna come in
(14:39):
the day when he got a go opening. And it
was the day after my first session of chemo, and
I said, I'm there. I'm going to sing these songs over.
And so I go in and for those six songs,
we knocked it out, and then I came back again
in April to finish the other songs. We got eleven
songs recorded. Wow, and I'm happy with what happened, even
(14:59):
with all what's going on. You know, the doubt and
then the confidence coming back knowing those songs we're gonna
be good. Trying to finish all these songs only have
a one time shot. It's not like I'm there three times.
It was like I was finishing these songs on my logic,
giving it to my brother and mat say, here's what
we're gonna do. Here's what I want you to play? Yeah?
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Speaker 3 (15:52):
And knowing that this diagnosis is there because people say
going to stop working, which I haven't. I'm still working
and to be able to do it, I could. Ye,
I'm going to finish this. So we finished eleven songs,
but I said we're gonna do twelve. So what I
did was take one of the songs that my brother
and I recorded when we were in the late eighties
early nineties. Can't remember the timeframe that when that picture
(16:14):
on the album is when we looked like that, so
ing rumors and put it on the album one because
my daughter said, I love that song, that you should
do it. We didn't get a chance to re record it,
and I said, it still sounds good and if it's
within the framework of what I wanted for Summertime, nice
and it did. And so that was kind of the
progression of all of it, and stories behind the songs
(16:36):
are there, but that was the challenge. And I have
to say, right now a sixty one, I can confidently
say I'm just happy that album came out. I look
at it and blessed by Diego being able to document
He's going to do a documentary on it, Matt coming
into play, my brother coming back to help, and myself,
(16:58):
you know, resume acting myself from the depths of you know,
where I was at and still having that and choosing
to live and choosing to be fully alive as as
I can till today and I am, and actually summertime
in Chicago. Now, I'm just like, oh, yeah, that's that's
(17:19):
what I wanted, right, That's where I'm at.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
That's beautiful. Wow, that's beautiful, And that documentary is going
to be incredible, incredible how and I'm just curious, what
was it like performing the acoustic version of your song
at the Park District listening event.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
It was great and it was interesting because my staff
at the parks came in and said, we're going to
do a listening session. I go, what is that? And
they go, we're going to have you know people come out.
You want to play your album? And then I realized
they wanted me to do some version of it. And
there's only three of us and I haven't played in
forty years. And I pull out my Hoffner base and
(18:03):
there's a story about this Hoffner base. When I was
in high school, I was going to get kicked out
my freshman year, first year's semester. I remember meeting with
my mom. It was in the seminary system and the
pricess to me director says, you're going to get You're
on probation. What's probation? What does that mean? Basically, you
told my mom he's going to be kicked out if
(18:24):
it don't turn his academics around. My mom knew me
so well. God love her. And you know what thirteen
She says to me, if you make the honor roll
every semester moving forward, I'm going to get you. Because
she knows a Beatle fan. I'm going to get you
that Paul McCartney beatle bass, and I was, well, I
(18:44):
got it and I graduated. You know, it was ten
of us. I didn't get it a graduation. I got
it like four years later. I didn't care. And when
I came in the band, I played it. So when
I went out to play at the park, I pulled
that baby out. It's still worked, kept in good shape,
and it was great to be in holding that again
because that's when my brother and I played in the band.
(19:05):
And to hear that Liverpool sound again going on there.
It was great because I use a different base when
we recorded, but for the outside and going out there
and being in front of people again, it was fantastic.
I had people from all aspects from when I worked
in my past in the recreation. The hospital were out there,
family and friends and park people came out and the
(19:28):
venue was beautiful Marquette Park. They had this great venue
where you perform and it was such a great afternoon.
It was exciting and I was happy because the music
sounded great, even if it was just three of us,
because really we should have a keyboardist and another guitar player,
but we pulled it off. It was in a style.
So I have to say this, It was fantastic and
(19:48):
I felt great.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
I love that well. I love asking this question to
every guest, and there is no wrong answer. I promise
the three levels of influence, money, power, and respect, And
if you could choose only one of those things, which
one would you choose?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And why I would have to go with respect at
this point in my life and what I mean by
that respect of life, respect to the gift that I got.
The saddest part would have been if I didn't go
and fulfill the stream, then I would have not respected
the gift that God gave me. It goes out to
(20:26):
people and people like it, but it's a gift that
I had, and the respect that I give myself to
my children to say, no matter what challenge you have,
respect your gifts, respect what you have, believe in it,
and no matter what's in front of you, don't let
it stop. You love that comes when it does stop.
That means times out right, and that's okay. So I
(20:49):
would say respect in that aspect how I frame it,
and the respect to life, to my music and to
me and to honor the challenges that were facing me.
And still to be able to overcome them, regardless of
what was and still is surrounding me.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
That's beautiful. Wow. Did you ever imagine that your career
in the public service would one day intersect with your
music collaborations with colleagues?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Quite honestly, no, I didn't. I wanted to always do
my music. My brother and I would say, we're going
to go back in the recording studio when we're in
our twenties thirties, and we did. Let's get and life happens. Yeah,
he's pooled somewhere. He's got a family. I have a family.
I was working crazy, you know, as an executive, and
(21:41):
all this happened. And when it came back, it's almost
like God just put it together. Not to get religious, right,
but it took like love came together given all these challenges.
He says, Okay, you got these challenges, and you can
choose to go down or you can say, what else
have I given you to kind of make it through?
And I'm also going to give you some gifts. I'm
gonna give you digg I'm gonna give you the will
(22:02):
to go back, the respect and they you got this talent,
you got to overcome that you can't do it at
sixty and you're gonna pull it off, And I did
with the support of a lot of people cheering me on,
which was great as well.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
It's beautiful. Yeah, and you know it is that. It's
a thing I think sometimes too. You know when when age,
you know age, they say, oh, you got to be
this age. But I honestly feel like, you know, we
live in a time now that music is how we
consume music is so different than how it was consumed
way back when when they were you know, when there
was records. You know, now they're streaming, so music now
(22:37):
we can consume through TikTok, through YouTube, through Spotify. You know,
it's it's pretty amazing. So I think it's you know,
I always say it's there's it's never too late to start.
As long as you're you're alive and you have breath
in your body, go for it.
Speaker 6 (22:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
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Speaker 3 (23:58):
I totally agree with that thing about it. It allowed me
to play different genres of my music. Right, there's everything's
fetal influence. But will you be Mine? Is a tribute to,
like I said, the neighborhood and my sisters who loved
the Delphonax, the Dells, that Philly sound, and I purposely said,
I'm gonna go back and try to make a song
that kind of reflects that from my style from what
I heard, Nice and when when when Matt, I mean
(24:21):
when I recorded the music. I loved it, the bassline
that I put in, and when Matt went in there
and added that saxophone. I literally in the studio the
engineer was I was crying, and the cheers of my
minds one was I realized I was doing and finishing
a dream and it was just crazy beautiful. I was like,
oh my god, what he put on that sound. I
(24:42):
was like, oh, he took it to the next level.
And I said, I hope that that sound is appreciated
because I really wanted to honor that and the other songs.
You know, it's just me in different areas, in different spaces,
in different times.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Nice, you mentioned that love for Beatles of cour growing up.
Do you do you see John Lennon's influence in your songwriting.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Sure, especially the lyrics. When you think about life, it's
kind of the question I was asked when I kid,
what do you want to be in life? What do
you want to do? And quite honestly, I was probably
the one that didn't know what he wanted to do.
Everyone's I'm your nurse I'm gonna go to college. What
I really wanted to do is do music. But I
(25:25):
never said it. I said it once to a priest
and I remember he says, well, Jimmy, you got to
be for real, you got to go go to college.
And I'm like, Okay, I'm never gonna tell anybody I
want to be famous. I want to write songs, and
I never did. But when I when I look at life,
the capture that information or that experience in a few words.
(25:46):
I look at that and I said, I think Lennon
emmaccartney would be happy, not only the song, but with
the lyrics throughout the whole album more or less. I mean,
some songs are poppy, and I was, you know, young
and just trying to get the song out there. But
a lot of songs, the lyrics behind it and the
melodies are worthy of attention. I think when you listen
(26:09):
to the songs, there's always a catch to the song,
There's always a hook, and the lyrics are are there
along for the ride as well.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Yeah. I love that. If Your Life was a concept album,
what would the title be and what track would close
it out?
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (26:34):
The concept would be Life is for Living Honestly, I
always tell people life is for living, and most people
don't live right there. Conditions different things, but music has
to be in there. My mission statement, and maybe this
(26:55):
is a better way to say my mission statement that
I made up in my twenties is create and play
a melodious song of love with your life. And I've
done that, and I think the song that would capture
it would be my favorite song. Really is the memory
only because I made those words back in my twenties,
(27:16):
but they're more real today. I go back to the
neighborhood I grew up with back of the arts, and
I go back to the grammar school and I do
remember Vicky Browne what I liked and I wanted the
kids there. I go back to the Cornell Park and wow,
it did change. And I go back to the house
I grew up, and I do want to see my mom.
And I think if you listen to that song, a
(27:37):
lot of people when they go back and they especially
a neighborhood. I think New York reflects is there's neighborhoods
or theirs. I forgot what they call them in New York,
but a neighborhood you grow up and you can kind
of say, oh, yeah, I remember that is what we did,
and I think that's it. And then really the verse thing.
When I look back on my life, I remember how
(27:58):
good it really was. That's I can say that all
my challenges growing up with ten kids, not having a lot,
my love is great. My life has been great. It
was great, and I have no necessarily regrets that would
take me back. And I look at it and I'm like,
I've been blussed.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah, absolutely, yes, absolutely. What advice would you give to
know that young boy, that young girl out there that's
trying to get into the music industry.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Here's what I told Diego. I said, if you're going
to do something, to go ahead and do it. If
it's not going to work out, who cares you're going
to learn from it? Don't do what I did. I
listened to a pre saying go to college, which took
me fifteen years to get my degree. When I had
this talent and I knew internally I had a talent
back then that was at a high level. Nobody else
(28:53):
could see it, and I played music in a whole
different way. I needed what my pathway is where I
needed to go, and I did, but I would tell somebody,
go after it. What's the worst that can happen? You
don't make it or you fail. But the greatest thing
about it, you're going to have done it. You're going
to know some of the things that you wouldn't have
known had you not done it, and you're going to
(29:14):
be a better person for it. And who knows, So
you don't go back at it and figure out a
new way to do what you want to do to
get where you want to get, and along the way,
people should be cheering you on so that whatever you
do in the future, if it is not that particular thing,
you may do it even better than you thought you
ever could.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Beautiful, beautiful? Where can people find you on social media
to follow everything you have going on?
Speaker 5 (29:39):
So?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
What a great question? I wasn't on And my daughter says, Dad,
you gotta get on Facebook, Instagram. And I'm like, what
I go. I I'm not even on Facebook, Dad, with it?
I mean, nobody's even on Facebook, but your ages are.
So I'm on Facebook, under I'm on Instagram. I believe
that fun this arrives and and I'm starting to put
(30:01):
my story on I'll start that soon because I realized
not only The music is beautiful, but story along with it. Now,
even when I hear myself talk about it is meaningful
hopefully for people who are challenged with health issues. They
didn't think that they could still move forward, and I
can say definitively, yes, you can, despite whatever setbacks you have,
(30:27):
despite whatever is going on, move forward and live in
the moment as best as you can.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah. I love that. Thank you so much for coming on.
It was such a pleasure to hear your story, and
thank you for such such great positive message of hope
and resilience, because that's such a good reminder to be reminded,
especially in this entertainment of that so up and down.
You know, it's so all over the place, and you know,
sometimes you know, we're not always full on, you know.
(30:53):
I think people only see the best pictures on social media,
but they don't see the and yet the other the
hard work and the turmol that we go through. So
thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I want to thank you as well. I appreciate it,
and so I wish all the best to you as well.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Thank you, thank you, and thank you all for listening
and always remember to live, love, laugh. We see you
guys next time.
Speaker 6 (31:17):
Goodbye.
Speaker 7 (31:19):
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