Gregory Pereira

My mother was a big Beatles fan.

She loved the Beatles.

And I ended up loving the Beatles because my mother loved the Beatles.

And she would buy all these different beautiful records.

And we would have posters on the wall, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, All You Need Is Love.

And I felt that kind of sensation of happiness.

And I remember my mother and I just dancing and dancing to these Beatles songs, and I felt filled with love.

And for me, that was a great sense of family.

Within a few years, shortly thereafter, it seemed like my community in the South Bronx was hit with a tidal wave of heroin.

And in that devastation, people were caught up, and my mother was one of the ones caught up in this typhoon, tidal wave of heroin.

And she lost her ability to parent.

My father there had moved to the West Coast.

And in my search for family, because I was kind of left to my own devices, 10 years old, 11 years old, kind of pain attracts pain.

And I gravitated to that street life.

And at that time, they were indoctrinating young kids into the gangs.

And I remember my father talking about being in a gang when he was younger.

My mother started dating somebody who was in the Hells Angels.

So that life was kind of there for me to embrace.

And I remember wearing cut-off sleeves, jeans, MC boots, chains, patches, colors, and people would die for these colors.

I found a brotherhood.