The band which we get into that story just kind of

swept me off my feet and it turned into what it did. And even that I kind of fought against up until like 30 minutes ago. You know, and like it becomes something that's almost like nostalgic. Everybody's like, you know, drooling for 2016 right now. And I'm like, that's so funny to you. I know, it's made of me too. Don't worry about how it falls. Falls apart or falls together. I want to ask you about that too if I can.

Yeah, good.

So when you first shaved your head, are you still chronically online? Yeah, social media and auto-tune on my favorite drug. But um. Jesse, welcome. Thank you for being on my show. It's your hand, me, dude. So I love to get a snapshot because growing up in Chicago, we have an idealized concept of California life. Of course, we're different generations, but growing up in the 70s like it did, California dream, whether it was Disneyland or it seems so idyllic and obviously a lot of what the music business propagates into entertainment businesses, the idea that California is the American lifestyle. So growing up here, give me the reality of your circumstance. Yeah, I mean, I think the older I get the more I see how just idealistic it it really was. You know, once you get out and you experience other places.

Yeah, Middle America is very sobering.

Yeah, but every time I fly back, I'm like, I like this place.

Yeah, yeah.

It makes me appreciate it more.

We felt the same way when we would fly into Los Angeles.

See, that's what's always been wild to me,

because I would have like, you know, kids in my neighborhood,

their cousin will come visit from wherever. And they'd be like, we don't want to leave.

And I'd be thinking to myself, wherever I go,

I always want to leave it.

Come back here.

And now I kind of get it. Yeah, you know what I mean? But also give me, sorry, also give me the, like, the musical environment, the cultural environment. so I can get a snapshot of it.

So I mean, okay, so I grew up in a smaller suburban area

about an hour north outside of LA, 45 minutes north of LA

called Newberry Park. And you know, it's an upper middle class community, pretty safe, very safe, a lot of open space, a lot of parks, you know, skateboarding. Yeah. What sort of mix racially there? White and Hispanic, I would say, mainly. Because I hear a lot of soul and influence in your music, which most people maybe wouldn't pick up on. It's not coming from there. I. I mean, we could get to that, but I'm just trying to understand where the music and the person comes from. Right, right. Well, yeah, I think my trajectory or my programming is a bit interesting because I was a child actor. So when I was like five turning six, I became an actor. Can... Can you walk me through that process because that's mystifying to me? Yeah, well... And I've interviewed a lot of famous child actors. Yeah. So that's an interesting thing because everybody has a different story. Was it like a stage mom thing or was it something you were interested in? No. I was like discovered. I went to go see a movie at the mall. No one was discovering us in Chicago. See, that's part of that. They were looking, they were praying on us out where I was. You know, this close to the microwave of Los Angeles, you walking through the mall and to me, so like, no, I was seeing a movie. And I was, yeah, about five or six years old. And there's a girl sitting next to me, like a teenage-ish girl. And I was just like being a little, and just like, you know, talking and just giving her the play-by-play of the movie. Just whatever. And he had game back then. I mean, I wasn't even, I was just, you know, if you say something, I'll take it. But no, we walked out of the movie theater and she went over to her parents and was like, you know, I think this kid could be an actor. Anyway, they come over to my, I was with my dad actually at the time and pretty much were like, hey, you know, Sandi, our daughter says that

Jesse's pretty entertaining kid and like, I think he has the look, like we're managers and we manage our kids and if you're interested, like, you know, here's our number and so I took it back home to my mom and she was always very like, cause in that community, like I said, people like, we'll be at the mall scouting kids and whatever and like then the bit is, they'll get you to try to pay for something.

And then that's when you get a whole cottage industry

where they cut a scam parents. like we'll be at them all scouting kids and whatever. And like then the bit is they'll get you to try to pay for something.

...