all right mr a j mcqueen welcome to the man talk show how you doing today my friend

i'm blessed brother last beer man yeah i mean for those of you that are not familiar

with a j's work um i was, I was telling you that I stumbled across

your music, your art on Instagram and was immediately struck.

And just like your lyrics and what you were talking about and your music really hit with me. And then I kind of went down a little bit of a rabbit hole, AJ McQueen rabbit hole. I watched a couple of interviews and I was like, I think I want to sit down with this guy and just have a conversation and kind of get to know you and hear a little bit more about your life. And so here we are. So thank you so much for taking the time with me.

Yeah, I'm glad to be here, bro.

Thanks for having you.

Yeah.

So let's start where I like to start often, which is tell us a story about a defining moment in your life that made you who you are today.

Man, so many.

But what I will say is, you know, I, a few years ago, I was in a very serious relationship.

You know, it's very serious to me, man. And, you know, they say, you know, it's very serious to me, man. And I, um, you know, I, you know, they say, you know, men fall, men fall in love, uh, three times in their life. That's what they say. I don't, I don't know if it's true. But so, you know, your first love is the, uh, you know, just the, the puppy love and, you know, And then the second one, you know, you, you, you, you know, just the puppy love and, you know, and then the second one, you know, you, you, you know, that's one where you, you really, uh, you open your heart. You learn how to learn how to learn how to, you're learning how to love and learning how to mature and, you know, emotional intelligence and things like that. Um, and in that relationship, um, you know, emotional intelligence and things like that.

And in that relationship, you know, who my capacity at that time, I was all in, you know, and, you know, and then not all in in some other ways.

I don't want to get on her a lot like I didn't have things to work on.

But long story short, she broke up with me, you know what I'm saying? And yeah, bro, that,

that, you know, a relationship can make you have a revelation, you know what I mean? And she broke up with me, man, and it helped me accountable to all of the, you know, all the things I need to be held accountable for as a man. And they really defined me, bro. You know what I mean, for a lot of reasons. You know, not just the relationship, but just the idea that, you know, you're not who you say you are. You know, I'm saying. And, and,

and, and, you know, just having that real mirror moment, um, it's what really defined this

person I am now, you know, I, um, mentally, emotionally, I, um, I, um, I lost myself. But,

you know, you know, you sometimes you have to lose yourself to be found, you know what I mean?

And so that's this version.

This version of me, as we speak now, is the version that came on the other side of that.

You know what I mean?

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