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The Rich Roll Podcast

Jeff Castelaz: Music As a Weapon, Solace In Cycling, Building a Life of Service & Why It’s All About The Neighborhood

The Rich Roll Podcast

Rich Roll

Education, Society & Culture, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.713.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2015

⏱️ 168 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jeff Castelaz is a big deal in the music biz. A self-made guy who scraped his way from nothing to launch and manage major musical acts, found and run a successful indie label and even serve up president duties at a major record label. All of these things are very impressive and interesting. None of these things are what draw me to Jeff. Jeff is on the show because of his compelling, at times heart-wrenching but incredibly human life story. From his abusive childhood to his struggles with alcohol to the devastating loss of his six-year-old son Pablo to cancer, Jeff is a survivor. A guy who refused to let unbearable pain destroy him, instead leveraging it to access a deeper personal truth, inner strength and sense of purpose. Finding life-saving comfort and solace in both music and cycling as far back as he can remember, Jeff successfully channelled his incredible passion for both into creating a life and legacy of meaning in selfless service to others as an entrepreneur, husband, father and philanthropist. In his most recent post as president of Elektra Records, a division of Warner Music Group, Jeff worked alongside the likes of Ed Sheeran, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kitten, bringing in acts like Fitz and the Tantrums, Saint Motel, The Moth & The Flame and Kaleo. Prior to his post at Elektra, Jeff served as CEO of Dangerbird Records, which he co-founded in 2003. There, he played a key role in the careers of Silversun Pickups, Fitz and The Tantrums and Liam Gallagher's post-Oasis effort, Beady Eye. In 2009 Jeff & his wife Joanne Thraikill tragically lost their son Pablo to cancer just six days after his sixth birthday. From the moment of Pablo's 2008 diagnosis with bilateral Wilms Tumor, a rare form of childhood cancer, Jeff took to the blogosphere to keep friends and family apprised of developments. Sharing his incomprehensible pain with a bold and raw vulnerability, PABLOG! went viral, resulting in a massive and unexpected outpouring of love and support for Pablo and the Castelaz / Thraikill family. Support Jeff and Joanne ultimately channelled into what would become the Pablove Foundation– a pediatric cancer charity which has raised $10 million to date in support of innovative pediatric cancer research and programs for kids and families living with childhood cancer. Each year since its inception, Pablove hosts a charity ride called Pablove Across America. Today — Monday October 5, 2015 — marks the start of Pablove’s seventh annual week-long cycling event in which 40 cyclists will ride from Los Angeles to San Francisco to raise funds and awareness for childhood cancer. To find out more, get involved and donate, click here. This is a conversation about music and life. Rage, pain, disease, addiction, loss and grief. It's about breaking old cycles. Learning how to heal. Growing up, self-care and sobriety. It's about hope, family, redemption and service. It's about salvation. And it's about the beauty, comfort and agony that comes with loving wide and loving deep. Jeff is an incredibly charismatic guy with a infectious energy and a spirit the size of Montana. I'm proud to call him friend. And I'm proud to share this conversation with you today. May it move you as deeply as it moved me. Peace + Plants, Rich

Transcript

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0:00.0

And I just wrote and wrote and wrote in my imagination lit up and opened up and it was like meditation for me

0:06.4

It's and we know now like cycling is literally a meditative act. They've done research on this

0:11.4

It does the same thing for the neural pathways that

0:14.9

actual meditation sitting on your ass and breathing deeply

0:18.8

does for you and

0:20.8

It gave me a way to get around it gave me

0:24.4

Something to be passionate about other than music and writing that's Jeff Castellan

0:30.2

And this is the ritual podcast

0:45.4

Hey, everybody, what do you know what's going on? What is it in news? What's up? I am ritual. I am your host

0:51.7

Welcome to the show. This is the podcast where I sit down with the outliers the big forward thinkers across all categories of

0:59.4

Positive paradigm breaking culture change and the goal is simple to help all of us

1:06.1

Unlock and unleash our best most authentic selves to embrace our inner truth and express that more deeply

1:14.5

So thank you so much for tuning into the show for subscribing on iTunes for checking out my weekly newsletter for giving us a review on

1:21.6

iTunes and always making sure to use the Amazon banner at at which role.com for all your Amazon purchases

1:27.2

The banner ads right there on the podcast page. You can't miss it

1:30.8

It doesn't cost you anything extra. It's just a really straightforward simple great freeway to

1:36.6

Support the mission and it really does help us out a lot

1:39.3

So thank you so much to everybody who has made a practice of that

1:43.4

Got my buddy Jeff Castellan on the show today

1:46.0

He's a great guy super interesting guy and I'm really excited about this one

1:50.5

I think you guys are in for a treat Jeff is a high-level music industry executive

1:56.7

He is an avid cyclist. He is a philanthropist

...

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