Latest / Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane / Why Not Today? Season 2 - Episode 2 with Christian Quesenberry, a Musician.

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Why Not Today? Season 2 - Episode 2 with Christian Quesenberry, a Musician. · Why Not Today? with Leslie Kane

0:00
Hello, this is Leslie and I am the host
0:04
of the Why Not Today podcast.
0:05
This is a podcast to celebrate people who have been
0:07
courageous and said, why not today?
0:09
I started the podcast in honor of my father,
0:11
Patrick Kane, who often said, why not today?
0:14
I'm based in Reston, Virginia,
0:16
planned community right outside of DC
0:17
and thanks for joining us today.
0:19
And I am excited, this is the second episode
0:22
in our second season, so it's been over a year,
0:25
which is a milestone and really fun.
0:27
And I love meeting new people and their stories.
0:30
And today I have Christian Quisenberry,
0:32
did I say that right?
0:33
Quisenberry.
0:34
Quisenberry, okay.
0:35
As my guest, and I would like to talk about,
0:38
you never know who you're gonna meet
0:39
and how you're gonna connect with someone.
0:41
So Christian, I was introduced to first down
0:44
at Smith Mile Lake, a friend of mine knows somebody
0:48
that is a musician and he played on his dock
0:51
and we went years ago and then during COVID again
0:53
and Christian was playing, kind of got to know you there,
0:56
Christian, and then reached out to you about playing music
0:59
locally here in Northern Virginia,
1:00
but then it just kind of followed you.
1:02
You had a song come out, heard it,
1:04
and I love your story and your courage
1:06
and what you've had to overcome in your life.
1:09
And so, and we're excited to have you share your story
1:12
and share with listeners kind of what you've been able
1:16
to do with your life.
1:17
So why don't you introduce yourself?
1:21
I don't know you that well, except for seeing you on stage,
1:23
you're an amazing musician.
1:24
I almost forgot to call you.
1:26
It's funny when you see me on stage
1:28
and then when you see me off stage,
1:29
it's like, is that really the same guy?
1:32
I kind of lose myself on stage a little bit,
1:35
but hi, I'm Christian Quisenberry, I'm 26 years old.
1:39
I was actually born in Sacramento, California
1:43
when I was two years old, I was adopted
1:45
and moved out here to Huddleston, Virginia,
1:48
Smith Mountain Lake area, that's where I was raised.
1:50
It's where I live now. What a difference, California.
1:53
West coast to East coast, right?
1:55
Yeah, all town Virginia.
1:57
Yeah, I'm still a hippie though.
2:01
But anyway, so yes, it was, I grew up on a farm
2:06
with my two sisters, my dad, my mom.
2:08
I didn't really have the best childhood.
2:11
I mean, I had an awesome childhood, don't get me wrong,
2:14
but it's kind of weird.
2:16
I went from kind of an abusive situation
2:20
with my biological parents into now I'm 26
2:23
and I kind of have realized that maybe my adoptive situation
2:28
wasn't as good as it could have been either.
2:31
So I haven't really came from a lot of good situations.
2:35
My dad was an alcoholic growing up my whole life.
2:39
And I think that's where a lot of my alcohol addiction
2:43
and drug addiction, drug abuse came from, was seeing that.
2:47
And my mom was kind of an enabler for that.
2:50
She didn't really approve of it here,
2:53
but she didn't really do anything to prevent it.
2:56
So it wasn't really an easy childhood.
3:00
There are good times, we had good times
3:02
and there are bad times, but that's everybody.
3:06
What's a fun fact about Christian?
3:08
Oh, fun fact about me, let's see.
3:12
This is the first time I've ever had long hair.
3:15
Oh really?
3:16
Yeah, this is the longest my hair has ever been.
3:19
I've always had short hair
3:21
because my dad made me keep it short growing up.
3:23
And I told myself when COVID hit, I was like,
3:27
you know what, I'm gonna grow my hair out.
3:30
I'm gonna do what I want to do.
3:32
Well, that's really cool.
3:33
I just thought it was part of the musician look of you.
3:36
No, it's funny, I actually just, it's my COVID hair
3:39
and I decided to not cut it because it's funny
3:41
because people actually have now said to me like,
3:44
Christian, you can't cut it.
3:45
It's your rock star look, you can't cut it.
3:48
It is, that's how everyone else knows you.
3:50
I'll keep it, I'll keep it.
3:52
Give the people what they want.
3:54
Exactly, and is it kind of a rebellion against your dad?
3:58
A little bit, yeah, like come on, dude.
3:59
I do what I want now.
4:01
Exactly.
4:02
Well, so I love your story
4:04
and I'm excited for you to share it with everybody listening.
4:08
But before we start, what does courage mean to you?
4:11
Courage to me means just being upfront
4:15
and standing up for what you personally believe in,
4:20
whatever it may be.
4:21
It can be anything, whatever your religious base is,
4:24
your political base or just how you view life.
4:28
Courage is standing up what you personally believe in
4:30
and not letting other people dictate
4:33
who you are and who you should be.
4:35
Love that, yeah, totally agree.
4:37
It's interesting with all the episodes,
4:39
everybody's got a different twist on what courage is.
4:42
My brother who I interviewed last week or the last episode
4:45
actually looked it up in the dictionary
4:46
and first person to do that, but.
4:48
Well, the Webster dictionary.
4:51
Yeah, exactly.
4:51
So it sounds like you've had a courageous life
4:55
from moving from West Coast to the East Coast,
4:59
from California, which is a whole different world
5:02
than Virginia, we've got time in both places
5:05
and being adopted and abuse and alcoholism.
5:10
So it sounds like you've had a very courageous life
5:12
from the get go.
5:14
So, and then I know just recently on a journey
5:18
of becoming sober yourself in your music
5:20
that definitely takes courage.
5:22
So why don't you share with us,
5:24
what things you think you've done are courageous
5:27
and to give other people hope
5:29
and share a little bit of your journey
5:30
and the things you've had to do that are courageous.
5:33
You probably have to keep doing it
5:35
and I was thinking about yesterday
5:37
because for those watching or listening,
5:40
it took us a couple of times to get this done.
5:43
And you've had major cell phone issues
5:46
and internet issues.
5:48
You admitted you almost threw the phone out the window,
5:51
which I can see you've seen.
5:52
But, and on a sober journey,
5:56
that is one of those things
5:57
that was probably maybe a little challenging.
5:59
Don't drive me to drinking, girl.
6:01
Yeah, I'm fine.
6:04
All right, share some stories.
6:06
So yeah, so I guess for me,
6:09
the first, the biggest thing is that
6:12
this is all I do for a living.
6:13
A lot of people tell me, that's a big step
6:16
in and of itself.
6:18
Music, it's crazy how our society won't
6:23
and they just refuse to view what I do
6:26
as an actual profession, like a real job, a real career.
6:31
Even on the level that I am,
6:32
I'm still pretty local, a little regional
6:35
as far as the artists that I am right now.
6:36
I'm not international or worldwide by any means,
6:40
but it's crazy to think that someone can look at me
6:44
and be like, oh, get a real job.
6:46
Like I jumped off the deep end from,
6:49
I worked the nine to fives, man.
6:51
I did kitchen jobs, I did CNA work,
6:55
I worked in the medical field.
6:56
I did, I was a painter for a little while.
6:59
I did the nine to five
7:00
and I just couldn't find what suited me.
7:02
So a little under two years ago,
7:05
I'm actually coming up on my gig aversary as well,
7:08
what I call it.
7:09
March 25th was the first show that I ever played
7:13
out into central Virginia music scene,
7:15
my first ever solo show.
7:18
And that was at the Clubhouse Bar and Billiards
7:20
in Lynchburg.
7:21
And that for me was like a huge just step of courage
7:25
because it was me saying like, look, I'm gonna do this.
7:28
I'm not gonna listen to what society is telling me
7:32
and I'm just gonna jump off the deep end with this
7:34
and see what happens.
7:37
It hasn't always been easy.
7:39
There are still financial struggles and stuff like that,
7:42
but I don't let that sway me from just keeping my nose
7:47
on the grindstone and just keep working at this.
7:50
That's kind of one of the stories I share
7:53
when I started this is I started a Mary Kay part-time
7:59
side hustle thing 28 years ago
8:01
and left my corporate job 23 and a half years ago.
8:07
And people thought I was crazy.
8:08
Like really new corporate and still to this day I get,
8:11
are you still doing that Mary Kay thing?
8:13
I'm like, are you still an attorney
8:15
or are you still a whatever?
8:17
I'm like, yeah.
8:18
And it's given me an amazing life.
8:19
And yeah, it's not always easy.
8:21
I can tell you 23 years later, it is much better
8:24
and it gets much easier, but there's some days
8:27
that I'm like, oh, do I really wanna do this?
8:30
And then you think of the nine to five grind
8:32
and all the backend stuff that happens with it
8:36
and it's so worth it.
8:37
So keep going.
8:38
I applaud you for doing that
8:39
because it is a big leap of faith.
8:41
But you just gotta do it and you gotta stand your ground.
8:44
Like this is what I'm doing.
8:46
Right.
8:46
And in the midst of all that struggling
8:48
with the sobriety thing,
8:49
I don't struggle as much with it now.
8:52
Now it's just kinda like, I don't know, second nature
8:55
just to not drink.
8:57
I don't know, it just happens.
9:01
But a lot of people, especially when I'm playing
9:03
in a bar or restaurant, a lot of people come up to me
9:06
and be like, how do you even stand up here
9:10
and tell people that you're sober
9:11
when you're standing in a bar?
9:13
People are all around you drinking
9:14
and you're just up here.
9:17
I tell them like, look man, I just, I don't know.
9:19
I let the music take me.
9:21
I put my focus and my heart into my music
9:25
and into my family.
9:26
And that is what drives me to stay off that bottle
9:31
and to keep, you know, stay out of the bad stuff.
9:35
You know, it's not easy, but it's not hard at the same time,
9:41
because I discipline myself to know like,
9:44
this is what I should and should not do.
9:46
It's not good for me.
9:47
What is good for someone else
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or what is okay for someone else is not okay for me.
9:52
And I've reconciled with that, you know.
9:54
So I can walk into a bar and I can sit at the bar
9:57
and I'll order myself, you know, a virgin tequila sunrise.
10:00
And you have no idea the funny looks I get from a bartender
10:04
when they're like, do you want a virgin tequila sunrise?
10:08
So you want pineapple juice and grenadine.
10:10
And I was like, yeah, yeah, that's what I want.
10:12
It just makes me feel like I'm doing something, you know.
10:14
Right.
10:16
So let's talk about your journey to becoming sober.
10:19
The courage it took you to do that.
10:21
Was it like just one day, did something happen?
10:24
Did you like, I'm just done with it or was it a journey?
10:28
Yeah, so me, it had actually been a problem for a while.
10:31
I started drinking heavily after high school.
10:34
I actually took my first drink when I was 14.
10:37
I remember, and now that I'm 26,
10:40
I'm like really done a lot of soul searching
10:42
over the last year and a lot of dipping into my childhood
10:46
and figuring out who I was and everything.
10:48
And I think the reason that I picked up the drink
10:51
in the first place was just to finally get this feeling
10:55
of acceptance from my dad, you know.
10:59
I had spent my whole life, you know,
11:00
going from a biological family to now an adopted family.
11:04
And I just wanted acceptance from somebody, you know.
11:07
So I thought maybe, you know,
11:08
drinking with him would be that.
11:11
Turns out it wasn't.
11:12
It actually just stemmed a whole slew of alcohol,
11:18
alcoholism for me in my life.
11:20
And after high school, I had started drinking a lot,
11:23
partying a lot.
11:24
I was doing different drugs and popping pills
11:26
and different stuff like that.
11:28
Were you in the music, were you performing then or?
11:30
No, I wasn't actually.
11:31
I was, so throughout high school,
11:34
I was really involved in the arts department.
11:36
I did the musicals and I was really involved in choir.
11:39
That's why I learned all of my vocal,
11:41
all my vocal coaching and everything was in choir.
11:44
And I thought for sure I wanted to be a music teacher.
11:46
My senior year, I took a internship with my choir teacher
11:51
and I learned real quick that maybe this isn't for me.
11:54
It's a little bit too complicated.
11:56
And then after high school,
11:59
I was like, found like, what am I gonna do with my life?
12:02
So that's when I joined the medical field
12:03
and did the CNA thing.
12:05
And then I jumped around the kitchens
12:07
and all in the midst of drinking and partying
12:10
with all of my buddies and stuff,
12:12
buddies of which that I don't have anymore
12:15
because it was like, as soon as I quit drinking,
12:17
they were like, well, we don't want to.
12:17
Isn't that amazing how it is?
12:19
And I wonder too, the environment you lived in,
12:22
I mean, you live at a resort area, a lake.
12:25
I wonder if that contributed to a lot of people on vacation.
12:27
I was actually, at the time I was actually living homeless
12:30
in my van.
12:31
Okay.
12:32
So I was, my parents had kicked me out.
12:36
This was in 2017, 2018.
12:40
And I was homeless living out behind Happy Coffee
12:44
in Bedford, it was a little coffee shop.
12:47
And I was actually working at Happy Coffee.
12:49
They didn't know that I was living behind the shop
12:52
in my van every night.
12:54
Every morning I'd get up and I'd run down to Bedford
12:57
YMCA and I'd take a shower real quick.
13:00
I had a membership down there.
13:01
I'd take a shower, brush my teeth.
13:03
And I'd go run down to Happy Coffee,
13:06
open up the shop for the day.
13:08
And they found out I was living in my van behind the shop
13:11
and the owners actually offered me a room in their house
13:14
to kind of help me get back up on my feet.
13:17
And they were letting me work for them while,
13:20
pay them rent and everything.
13:21
And long story short with that,
13:23
they actually ended up scamming all of us
13:25
and running off to El Salvador.
13:28
Oh wow, oh no.
13:30
That's a whole nother story.
13:32
Wow.
13:34
But that was actually all in the midst
13:36
of when I met my wife, Amy.
13:39
She was a regular at the coffee shop.
13:41
She did not like me at all.
13:43
Not many people did when I was in the height of my drinking,
13:47
which is understandable.
13:49
It took a little bit of coming around for her,
13:51
but we actually started living together.
13:53
We started dating within,
13:55
I think it was like two to three months
13:56
after meeting each other.
13:58
So I pulled on her heartstrings a little bit, I guess.
14:02
And then we moved in together
14:04
and that's when everything kind of flipped upside down
14:08
with the coffee shop being sold
14:11
and they scammed us and ran off.
14:13
So we were actually homeless.
14:14
She moved in with me at their house
14:17
and we were like, where the heck are we both gonna go now?
14:21
So her family actually brought us in.
14:24
Her mom and dad brought us in
14:25
and let us live with them for about a year, I think it was,
14:28
until we finally got up on our feet and got our own place.
14:32
But it was in that year, about that year, year and a half,
14:35
when I was still drinking hard and partying hard.
14:40
And I actually pulled Amy into a little bit of that lifestyle,
14:44
which I kick myself all the time still for.
14:47
I still work on the forgiveness aspect on my side,
14:51
forgiving myself.
14:52
But it was in that year and a half span
14:57
that things got really bad and I started getting just,
15:02
I was not the same person.
15:04
Every time I drank, I'd get angry and aggressive
15:08
and it was just, I became a spitting image of my dad.
15:13
Isn't that amazing how things, we just,
15:16
we model what we learn.
15:17
Right, it's all-
15:18
We don't like it, we try it, we copy it.
15:21
Not to say that it was my dad's fault in any way,
15:24
because it's not, that's my choice.
15:26
It was my choice to pick up on.
15:27
But that's what you knew, that was your reality.
15:29
Exactly, and that was the moment that I realized,
15:34
like, look, I found myself waking up
15:38
in my buddy Dave's camper one morning.
15:40
I didn't know how I got there,
15:42
I didn't know what had happened,
15:43
and then I find out that I had actually gotten
15:45
into a huge argument with Amy's family
15:47
and things went sideways and found myself
15:50
homeless again, rock bottom.
15:53
There's my rock bottom moment.
15:55
And I spent the next month just working to the bone,
16:02
getting myself straight and talking with her family
16:07
and pleading with them and apologizing and everything.
16:10
And by some grace, they gave me a second chance.
16:15
And here I am today now, just being able to say that,
16:20
thank you to them for giving me that second chance.
16:23
Right.
16:23
Sometimes that's really, and now I see why they say that,
16:27
sometimes that's really all anybody with addiction needs,
16:32
is we just need that second chance
16:34
to really show you that we can.
16:36
And sometimes a third and a fourth, and-
16:39
Right.
16:39
It's not an easy journey.
16:41
I know other people that have been in your situation
16:44
a lot older and with a lot more at stake in life,
16:47
not that you weren't, that ended up homeless.
16:50
Right.
16:51
Because of addiction.
16:53
And it's a disease, it's a scary disease.
16:56
And society feeds it very well.
17:01
There's somebody I know, my niece follows,
17:02
it does a blog about, she's stopped drinking.
17:06
And it's interesting, you have your extreme young
17:08
doing tons and just partying nonstop
17:11
to a lot of women, not to categorize,
17:14
but I know that just come home from work,
17:16
it's been a stressful day to have a drink,
17:17
and there's a bottle of wine, and then it's an issue.
17:20
So this person has a blog and she talks about
17:23
how society makes drinking okay, and it's part of society.
17:27
Like, let's go out to dinner and have a drink,
17:29
let's go to a winery, let's go listen to music
17:32
and have a drink, it's been a hard day.
17:34
Today is St. Patrick's Day.
17:35
When we're recording this, you know-
17:38
I literally said to my wife last night, I said,
17:40
look, St. Patrick's Day is like the day that
17:43
everyone is just okay with drinking all day long,
17:47
and no one says anything about it.
17:49
No, and so, I mean, it's so prevalent that that's accepted.
17:53
You know, and if you don't drink,
17:55
people are like, what's wrong with you?
17:57
I get it all the time, especially people my age.
18:02
Like, I have very few friends my age.
18:06
Most of my friends circle are people 40 and above.
18:11
Because it's like kids, people my age,
18:14
they're just like, they don't wanna hang out with me
18:16
because I don't drink.
18:17
No, they don't think life can be fun if you're not drunk.
18:20
Right.
18:20
And I know people like that.
18:22
Like, you know, I will say, I don't drink a lot,
18:26
but I drink, but I'm like, I'm good with one good cocktail
18:29
and I'm done.
18:30
Like, I don't like the feeling of not being in control.
18:34
And I love the, I mean, I will go out
18:36
and enjoy a drink or two, but-
18:38
I just recently found this whole shloof non-alcoholic beers.
18:43
Oh yeah.
18:44
I didn't even know that was a thing.
18:45
And I'm just like, wow.
18:46
There's a bunch of non-alcoholic beers
18:47
and there's a bunch of mocktails.
18:49
Right.
18:50
The bar is just open in DC, it's just a mocktail bar.
18:53
So when we came up, my first band show this year
18:56
was at Capitol Hill House, the Richmond Music Hall,
19:01
this year in January.
19:02
And we came up there and I actually tried
19:04
my first non-alcoholic beer at Capitol Hill House.
19:08
And it was like mind blowing.
19:10
I was like, wow, I actually can like, you know,
19:13
walk around the bar and people not give me funny looks.
19:17
And I still am not actually drinking alcohol.
19:21
This is really cool.
19:22
I was like, wow.
19:24
There's a funny story about that.
19:26
So they've had non-alcoholic beers
19:27
for years and years and years.
19:28
And I was with a friend one day
19:30
and he was drinking way too much.
19:32
And so he went to the restroom and I told the bartender
19:35
to start giving non-alcoholic beers.
19:36
Chicken, chicken.
19:37
And he had no idea.
19:38
But going back to the society
19:40
and how it's so normal to talk about drinking,
19:43
my youngest sister has Down syndrome.
19:45
Doesn't drink, never really.
19:46
I mean, she's had a few sips here and there,
19:48
but it'll be interesting.
19:49
She's 40 now and it'll be, she'll go,
19:52
oh, I had a hard day or it's happy hour.
19:54
I needed, and she'll go, I need a drink.
19:56
I'm like, you know, she just hears that, modeled.
19:59
And so she's not that she's ever gonna have one,
20:01
but that's her, what she says.
20:04
Interesting.
20:06
So when did you start playing music?
20:10
Oh man, music for me?
20:11
Was Amy a musician when you met her or did she?
20:14
Amy is a musician, yes.
20:15
So she, her and her whole family are musicians.
20:19
They're really heavy into bluegrass music.
20:21
They, when I met Amy, she was playing with her family.
20:24
I actually kind of stole their bass player a little bit.
20:29
Sorry, Ricky.
20:29
But they were playing in a family band.
20:33
They have a amazing family bluegrass band
20:35
that they've done for years.
20:38
Ricky's been playing music his whole life since he was 11,
20:42
I think is when he won his first mandolin competition.
20:46
But for me, music started when I was,
20:51
I was in fifth grade and my school did a Greece musical
20:56
and I was one of the Greece boys in that.
20:58
We performed that and then right after that,
21:02
or that was fourth grade and then fifth grade,
21:04
my, one of the cafeteria ladies invited me
21:07
to the summer program down at the church,
21:11
the local church in Huddleston
21:13
for their musical program that they were putting on.
21:16
And that was when I kind of fell in love
21:18
with the whole like performing,
21:22
the performing arts thing was a very young age.
21:26
And I got on stage with them
21:27
and I just really, I really fell in love with it.
21:29
So I stuck with it.
21:31
I started learning guitar when I was 10 years old.
21:34
I had gotten A's, straight A's on my report card.
21:37
And this is one of those good memories
21:39
that I have from my childhood.
21:40
I got straight A's on my report card
21:43
and my mom said, all right, well, here's a hundred dollars.
21:46
You can go buy whatever you want.
21:48
So we went to the pawn shop in Bedford
21:51
and it was this really old beat up New York pro
21:54
off-brand classical guitar.
21:57
Didn't even have all strings on it.
22:00
And I was like, that's what I want.
22:01
I want that guitar right there.
22:03
And it was $75 guitar and I bought it,
22:05
put new strings on it.
22:06
And my mom got me lessons
22:08
and I took lessons for about a month.
22:10
Learned like pretty much the bass chords and everything.
22:13
And just kind of took it from there myself.
22:16
And I started picking in the church bands
22:19
down at Huddleston.
22:20
I was the praise and worship leader for them for a while.
22:24
And then throughout middle school and high school
22:27
is when I started jamming with buddies and stuff
22:30
outside of school.
22:32
And then throughout high school
22:36
is when I did all the musicals
22:38
and I was really big in choir.
22:40
I did district choir and all state choir.
22:43
And I did honors choir my senior year.
22:45
I was ranked first in the state for tenor one
22:49
and tenor two, my junior and senior year.
22:53
So that was really cool.
22:54
I had those metals still hanging in my room.
22:57
And then everything just kind of fell off for me after that.
23:01
That was when I started drinking a lot
23:03
and I lost my passion for music
23:06
till I met my wife and her family.
23:09
And they, I just think it was the universe, man.
23:12
The universe was bringing me right back into music
23:15
and they knew what I needed.
23:16
And now I'm going on my fourth year sober
23:20
and it's because of the Ellis family
23:22
that I got back into music.
23:24
I remember every morning waking up with Amy
23:28
at her parents' house when we were living with her parents.
23:31
And every morning I'd wake up and I'd hear Ricky downstairs
23:34
playing a banjo or a mandolin or a guitar or something.
23:38
I'd hear him playing some kind of instrument
23:40
and I had to go down and I had to play with him.
23:42
So that was just kind of, you know,
23:44
the universe pulling me right back into it.
23:46
And I'm forever, forever in debt to them
23:49
for just bringing me in and getting me back on my feet.
23:54
Yeah, great story.
23:55
And I've kind of followed you on social media,
23:58
seeing you down there.
23:59
And I know you and Amy just got married last year.
24:02
Yep, in October last year, yeah.
24:04
Yeah, did you get married on Dave's Doc or it was originally?
24:07
We were originally gonna get married on Dave's Doc,
24:10
but that was right in the middle of Hurricane Ian.
24:14
So Hurricane Ian happened and we were like,
24:16
frantically like, what are we gonna do?
24:18
The week of the wedding.
24:21
Actually, I say we as if it was both of us.
24:23
It was me freaking out.
24:25
Amy was actually calm as could be.
24:27
She was like, it's okay, we're gonna be fine.
24:31
Cause my drummer for the band for Christian Q and the Groove,
24:35
John, his family actually is, it's now open,
24:39
but they own Old Town Social House in Rocky Mount, Virginia
24:45
that just recently opened up.
24:46
And at the time when we were getting married,
24:49
they were like in the process of getting it all,
24:51
finalized the building and getting everything set up
24:55
to get ready to open in the new year.
24:57
And they were just like, look, we've got this space.
25:01
It's got a bunch of old vintage furniture.
25:04
You can totally decorate it out for your whole wedding.
25:07
If you want to, you can use it, here you go.
25:09
And they saved the whole wedding day.
25:13
So it turned out great.
25:16
Yeah, I love your style.
25:17
Then we went to Oakdale, Ohio.
25:20
Yeah, definitely.
25:22
Yeah, cool.
25:23
So, and I love that it sounds like, you know,
25:26
you were adopted and went through rough times,
25:29
but the community really helped establish who you are.
25:34
I know you're very close with Dave Owens and-
25:38
If it wasn't for that man,
25:40
I wouldn't be out in the music scene.
25:43
Yeah, and I remember going years ago,
25:46
we would, my friend and I would take the boat
25:48
and he knew and another friend, several friends knew Dave.
25:51
And I remember many a days sitting at the dock, him playing
25:56
and just jamming.
25:57
It's funny, my friends that,
26:00
some friends that live at the lake, they're like, yeah,
26:01
they started doing this music on the dock because of COVID.
26:03
I'm like, oh no, no, no, no.
26:05
Oh no.
26:07
And my friend Sando was at Bernard
26:10
and we could be sitting on the balcony.
26:12
Yeah, you could hear it.
26:13
That's what we know.
26:14
Well, we could hear,
26:15
but he would say, oh, Dave's doors are open.
26:18
We should go over there.
26:19
They're playing.
26:19
They're getting ready to jam.
26:20
Like he could see across the lake
26:23
if the door was open to the boat house.
26:25
Well, I can promise you now you can hear it.
26:27
Oh, absolutely.
26:29
So Labor Day and I love that you guys do the concerts.
26:32
So this is kind of fun.
26:33
If anybody's listening or watching
26:35
and you spend time at Smiths on Lake,
26:37
they do, you still gonna do it this year, the concerts?
26:40
Yes ma'am, we got three.
26:41
We were actually talking about it this morning.
26:43
It's so fun to bring it up.
26:43
So much fun.
26:44
So Memorial Day, Labor Day and 4th of July,
26:47
the Sunday of those holiday weekends,
26:49
they jam on the dock at Dave's house.
26:53
Right back marker R8.
26:55
Okay.
26:56
I don't know where, I just know where it is on the lake.
26:58
Well, it's funny.
26:59
If you're a lake person, you know what that means.
27:00
Okay.
27:01
So I had a friend of mine last year that was there
27:04
staying at Bernard's and we were texting back and forth.
27:06
And I know she's into music.
27:07
I'm like, oh, you gotta go here around,
27:08
take your boat over there.
27:09
And she went, she's like, this is the coolest thing.
27:12
But there were probably two, 300 people, boats everywhere.
27:16
We've pulled up and Hannah and her friends,
27:18
which I remember Hannah when she was a little girl.
27:21
Hannah and us jello shots, but we were there,
27:23
I guess Labor Day and left before you guys were done
27:27
and went back to the dock and we were across near Bernard's
27:30
and docked the boat.
27:32
And I'm like, we can hear them all over here
27:35
than it was over there.
27:36
So yeah, so that's a fun thing.
27:40
So, but I love, Dave is definitely the father figure
27:44
and I've watched him.
27:44
Definitely.
27:45
Watched your story with him.
27:47
And we need people to guide us
27:51
when we don't have our own parents or role models.
27:57
That's right.
27:58
So I know you've got a bright future ahead of you.
28:03
Lots of great things.
28:04
So anything you would share to encourage somebody else
28:08
to be courageous?
28:09
Just be yourself.
28:11
That's one thing I've learned most important
28:15
and especially, I don't know, I've done,
28:16
like I said, I've done a lot of soul searching
28:18
in the last, really in the last six months.
28:20
I'm almost on the verge of tears
28:22
because I've spent a lot of time
28:26
in the last six months to a year,
28:28
just really searching myself
28:32
and diving back into my childhood memories.
28:36
And it's taken a lot for me to realize
28:39
I'm 26 years old and I had no idea who I was until now.
28:46
And sorry.
28:49
Okay.
28:53
It's a journey and it takes courage.
28:56
Whoops, I lost him.
28:58
Uh-oh.
29:00
Hopefully we can get him back in here.
29:01
Hold on.
29:06
All right, so I'm gonna kill some time here.
29:07
So Kristen got a little choked up and left my screen.
29:11
We've been having lots of technology issues.
29:14
So I will hope he comes back on.
29:19
But meantime, we're almost done, so that's good.
29:21
But I always try to tie this back to my dad.
29:25
Now, of course, Christian never met my dad,
29:28
but his story has a lot of similarities
29:31
and a lot of coincidences.
29:36
Like my dad grew up in California,
29:38
moved to the East Coast, and I could say that.
29:39
But I think the biggest thing is not tying Christian,
29:44
but tying Christian's life,
29:47
that my dad was one of those people,
29:50
it sounds like Dave Owens was, to Christian.
29:52
And my dad helped a lot of people that were struggling
29:56
to help them turn their life around.
30:00
He was the father figure.
30:01
I know I have friends that say they had more conversations
30:03
with my father than they ever did their own father.
30:06
And so I think that ties in my dad,
30:11
to my dad so much that, yeah, Christian took a village
30:16
and he's only 26.
30:18
He has such a big life ahead of him,
30:19
such a journey ahead of him.
30:22
So sorry, he got off, I know he's having internet issues.
30:28
But as I said, we're almost done.
30:29
So I'm gonna finish up now.
30:32
We may have a second recording I'll add as an addendum
30:34
to this if he comes back in.
30:36
But I wanna thank Christian for being my guest,
30:38
for being open and sharing his story.
30:41
And I hope this gives other people hope.
30:43
And if you are struggling or know somebody struggling
30:46
to get help and there's a better life,
30:48
and if you're on the journey for music
30:50
and you, be you and do what makes you happy.
30:54
And you can make a difference and touch people's life.
30:56
So Christian does have a song that he wrote
31:00
that is about his journey and becoming sober.
31:03
And so I can share that too in the show notes.
31:06
So thanks again for listening.
31:09
I'm excited, this is our second year as a podcast.
31:13
And it's been exciting to hear Christian's story.
31:16
Please encourage somebody else to listen.
31:20
We're on all the platforms, iTunes, Spotify,
31:23
like us, review us if you wouldn't mind.
31:26
Check out the website.
31:27
And yeah, thanks for being a listener of Why Not Today
31:31
and just say, why not today, anything is possible.
31:35
All right, thanks again, Christian.
31:37
And it was a great episode, bye.