Ep. 629 – In Memory Of John Forté: A Conversation On The Spirit Of Music
Mindrolling with Raghu Markus
Be Here Now Network
4.7 • 543 Ratings
🗓️ 17 January 2026
⏱️ 75 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we pause to remember the life, presence, and artistry of a friend of the show who will be deeply missed.
Recorded in 2021, this conversation features Grammy-winning artist John Forté in his first appearance on the podcast. John and Raghu talk about the spirit of music, the highs and lows of success, and John’s experience headlining the Ram Dass Soul Land Music Series.
John Forté (January 30, 1975 – January 12, 2026) is survived by his wife and two children. If you’d like to offer support, a donation link is available here: Honoring John Forte by Supporting His Family
This special episode features an inspired conversation on:
- Community as the spirit of music: John Forté’s Brooklyn upbringing in the economic downturns of the 70s and 80s
- The emotional, mental, and physical hardships of struggling to get by in an underserved community
- Perseverance through love: John’s inspiration for his musical career
- John’s highest highs, lowest lows, & what it is like to start over
- John’s friendship with the iconic Ms. Lauryn Hill, linking up with The Fugees, and their co-creation of a Grammy-winning, multi-platinum record, The Score
- John's stint in prison, where in his cell, his refuge and musical rebirth came in the form of an acoustic guitar
- Music as internal alchemy and Ram Dass’s influence on John’s song Gong Guru from his album Riddem Drive
- Venturing further into spirituality: John’s deep affinity for wisdom teachers like Ram Dass, Terence McKenna, Alan Watts, and Abraham Hicks
Listen to John’s other visit to the Mindrolling Podcast on Ep. 405 and a conversation about resonance, integration & catharsis on this special Ram Dass Fellowship with host, Jackie Dobriska, available on Ep. 124 of the Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast.
About John Forté:
John Forté is a Grammy-winning recording artist best known for his work with the hip-hop group, The Fugees, writing and producing songs on their multi-platinum record The Score. After a stint in prison while riding the volatile waves of success and failure, John coupled his refuge of music with messages of wisdom and love from inspirational spiritual teachers. Listen to John’s album Riddem Drive, and don’t miss him on the Soul Land Music Series: Songs & Stories Inspired by Ram Dass.
“My journey with music has been the relationship of having it, experiencing it, seeing it morph and take on different colors and shapes. It showed me from a very early age that collaboration was going to be the key for the source of my continued inspiration—working with others, finding that harmony—that’s the spirit of it. The spirit of music is community, it’s communication, it’s air itself.” –John Forté
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone, it's Raghu. |
| 0:10.2 | I'm back with Mind Rolling, a special edition. |
| 0:13.8 | Unfortunately, we lost somebody yesterday, very, very dear to us, John Forte. |
| 0:22.6 | We worked with John. He was part of our Soland music series, |
| 0:27.6 | and we did a number of different things with him, |
| 0:30.6 | particularly this absolutely wonderful recording, |
| 0:35.6 | vessels, angels, and ancestors. |
| 0:40.2 | And just suddenly John passed. |
| 0:45.3 | Actually, they don't even know quite why yet. |
| 0:49.1 | John was one of the most generous, endearing, fun, creative characters, |
| 0:58.3 | someone that I haven't met quite somebody like him in a long time. |
| 1:04.9 | And as many of you know, I used to work in the music business |
| 1:09.2 | and met a lot of great characters, but John is really up there. |
| 1:16.1 | And I'm sure that there'll be a link in this podcast to the record. |
| 1:26.1 | And there's a wonderful video that we did with him as well. |
| 1:30.4 | And I went to New York for the production of that video |
| 1:35.8 | and met his family and met his friends |
| 1:40.5 | and actually went to where he lived when he was a child. |
| 1:47.0 | He, so I really got pulled into who he, who he was, unfortunately. |
| 1:59.1 | And really, his enthusiasm, just that alone for life was so great. And he went through |
| 2:10.6 | a tremendous, tremendous stress and traumatic event in his life, which we talked about in the podcast. So I just wanted |
| 2:27.7 | people to, you know, just to honor John and this podcast that we did quite a number of years ago, when did we do this? Probably |
... |
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