Shadoe Stevens
Appearances
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
When I was 10, I built a radio station in my house. And when I was 11, I was discovered by a local radio station. And they put me on the air as the world's youngest disc jockey. And my parents didn't drink or smoke or use drugs or curse or fight in front of the kids. Didn't want to drink. Drank once. Projectile vomited. My fourth year of college, I discovered doctor-prescribed prescription.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
We were drug addicts. And they weren't talking about drugs. They were talking about steps or something that made no sense at all. And I couldn't relate to. So the counselor comes in a couple of weeks in and he said, you know, you guys should try listening. We were voted least likely to succeed because we had so many opinions about this whole program thing.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And he said, this is the only thing that's worked. It's worked for millions of people, but you got to do it. And maybe you should figure out, listen to how it works. And then he turns and he said, you've got some anger issues. So if I were you, I'd get a sense of humor.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
If you don't have a sense of humor about who you are, what you've done, where you've been, and where you're going, you're in for a rough ride. This life gets tough. You better be able to laugh at yourself. And for me, a bill went off in my head. And I got up the next morning, half hour before everybody else, and started meditating.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Tell me about the meditating, because that's what you're doing now.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Everybody has things happen that are really difficult. And that includes failure in work and aspirations and health issues and all kinds of things. But meditation is the only important thing I've discovered in life. And I enthusiastically suggest that everyone take it seriously. And the whole step work.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Well, there's a couple, there are different kinds of meditation and people get comfortable with just something that's easy, like guided meditation or mindfulness. Mindfulness is you go sit in the park and you smell the fresh cut grass and
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And you listen to the sounds of children and you hear the birds and you think of different kinds of birds and you watch a butterfly go by and you get out of projecting into the future or reflecting on the past. You're in the moment and you are basically saying, thank you. Life is good. And that works.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And so does guided meditation, where you kind of turn your thinking over to a narrative delivered by someone else. And they tell you, and you see this movie in your head, and you get out of the future and out of the past, and you aren't thinking of traumas, you're thinking about I feel calm. I feel calm. It's good. But true meditation is focused mantra-based meditation.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And basically, you take control of all of it yourself. And in yoga, they teach you and they say, watch your breath. And that's fine, except it's really hard to watch your breath. The problem with all these things is that you, the critic in your head steps in and
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
and you're listening to this voice, and it really works, and you feel calm sometimes, and then you go, wish he had a different voice, maybe a female voice. You know, I've heard this thing, travel down, or walking down the path, and there's the river off to the right, and the sounds of crickets, and I think, I've done this, this is not working.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And you go, and you try to be mindful in the park, and you know, I smell the fresh cut grass, and I've, this isn't working. It's like, I got things to do. I forgot to send that email and I should take a shower and I've got a thing I've got to get to and you're in your head. Your head chatters. When you're watching your breath, that's all well and good, but there are
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
supportive kinds of focus that contribute to being able to watch your breath so that your mind doesn't have time to interject and to go because for example if we were to sit here and you want to sit upright always and have your spine straight because all the energy is in your spine And you want for your body to go into a deep sleep-like state, which is beyond calm.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Calm is one thing, but when you get into the body getting so quiet that it gets numb, and your body feels like it's out here, kind of like the skin of a soap bubble, and you are consumed in pure consciousness. And that's the I am, the witness, the soul, the spirit, the bubble of consciousness in an infinite sea of awareness.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And you realize that the deeper you go, the deeper there is to merge into. And this is the high that we're all looking for. It's beyond calm, it's beyond peace of mind. It is... It's the confirmation of everything you believed or listened to or thought was reasonable about faith. Which is why I bring up to people that I think they should find their own body of evidence.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
You know, spend a little time Looking at the poetry of Islam, or the Buddhist koans, or the teachings of Indian masters, or Native American powwows, what are the spiritual beliefs of people of great faith? The articulate ones, the physicists who... I found dozens of quotes by brilliant people. And every time I find one, I write it down. And then I try to commit it to memory.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And it becomes part of my personal body of evidence that has nothing to do with mythology or dogma. Mythology is always the stuff that atheists buy into. Yeah, he's part of the Red Seas. Yeah, right. Changed water to wine, maybe. Yeah. Or dogma, which are the rules and regulations of how to get to the infinite what. And then we get into the question of what is God and why do we use the word God?
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
So why? And if you don't need to, don't. If that makes you uncomfortable, the almighty mover, the original source, the original operating system, that something that's infinite, incomprehensible, formless, absolute, that created all of this cause and effect, this universe of order.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And the more you find these things that you believe in, the greater your ability to turn your will and your life over to the care of this something that you can't begin to comprehend. But when you meditate, it's the confirmation of all of those words and ideas. When you have the experience of going within, of transcendental consciousness, it affects everything.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
It opens up living in possibilities. It gives you ultimate hope. It gives you an idea of an infinitely perfect universe beyond the physical universe. So that was graduate school.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Well, this is a long story. I don't know how much you want to hear of it. All of it. I'll tell you in a nutshell. I grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota. I'm the oldest of five children. And my parents didn't drink or smoke or use drugs or curse or fight in front of the kids. My dad was very entrepreneurial.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
It's self-care. It's not wanting to suffer. What? It's not wanting to suffer. Yeah. I don't want to suffer. I'm not going to go out. I got sober with a guy once. that was young, handsome, articulate, had his own business. Great. He owned a flower shop and we saw him at meetings all the time and stopped seeing him. And one day I was walking down Melrose and this carcass started walking toward me.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
A carcass? Yeah, a carcass. And as it got closer, I realized it was my friend. And I went, uh, hey, how are you doing? And he said, you know, well, you know, I got it. You know, I went to these meetings all the time and it was like, oh, you just don't drink or use no matter what.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
So, you know, I didn't see the reason to go to meetings anymore because, you know, they were kind of boring and, and, um, And I was going to church, and I went to communion. And part of it was just a little shot of wine. And I had it, and nothing happened. nothing happened. I'm good. So a couple of weeks later, a friend of mine was being promoted at a law firm and everybody's having shots.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
So I had one shot and nothing happened. I was good. A couple of weeks later, there was another one and other shots. I had a couple of shots and then pretty soon I started drinking again. And then pretty soon I was drinking, you know, pretty much all the time, but I needed a lift. So I started doing a little cocaine and then, you know, I, uh,
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Well, you know, snorting it wasn't good enough, and I started smoking it. So he says, yeah, so then I started shooting it. And then I was drinking so much that I got gout. And my ankles were swollen purple and black. And my best thinking was to shoot the cocaine into the gout. That's a bad idea. No, I would have that idea. It's funny and horrifying. And he died a few weeks later. Okay.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Not as funny. Not as funny. Yeah. Yeah. It's stark out there. And as you know, after you've been around a long time, you hear really terrifying stories.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Truly, truly. Well, you better keep your sense of humor. Scott, what else have we got? It's like, if we could have done any better, we would have, but we didn't know better at the time. We were doing the best we could. We were just trying to get by. It was like, want to have a little fun. I just want to fit in. I just want to not feel... and self-conscious and afraid.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And I want to be like the cool people. And I, you know, that's what I want. I want to be like the cool people from, you know, from the big cities. I grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota. Were you using when you met your wife? No, no, no. No. Again, backstory. I was married twice before. Were you using when you met your first wife? Yes. Well, we used together. And then she had the good sense to stop.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And she left me because I was doing too many drugs and she didn't want to be in Los Angeles anymore. So I'm saving myself and got away. And on the rebound, I married somebody else. And it seemed like a good idea at the time. And it was, we fought every day for five years. Right. And then I got sober and went, I don't want to fight anymore. In fact, I don't want a relationship anymore.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
He owned clothing stores and toy stores and go-kart tracks and firework stands on the 4th of July. And all of the kids would run a different firework stand. When we had fireworks displays, they were at our house. It was Norman Rockwell, and I had go-karts, I had motorcycles, I worked early, I was very aggressively enthusiastic, and I built a radio station from a kit in my house when I was 10.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Clearly, it doesn't work for me. I didn't grow up like this. My parents didn't fight. They didn't scream. You know, I'm not, what have I become? Right. And so I got happy being myself. When I got sober, I went, oh, I've got an active mind. I've got to get busy. So I took up martial arts. I took up yoga. I took up running. I went on a doctor supervised fast and lost 50 pounds.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
I changed my life completely in mere months. And I meditated. And I meditated every day. And I went to meetings. Now, nine months sober. My life has changed. I'm happy. I'm up. I'm doing things. And a guy that worked for me went to the bank. And he was standing in line next to this beautiful model, black woman, international model. Started talking. He flirted a lot.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Said, why don't you come over and hear the music we're doing over at our studio? She goes, sure. I go walk into the studio and there he is playing music for her. And she's the most beautiful person I've ever seen in my life. It's like, I tried to be cool. I'm like, so what are you playing here? I'm catching glimpses and glimpses and God damn. And she got uncomfortable and left.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
She said later that I saw this aura around you and it was like too intense. I had to get out of there. So I say to her, I say, Ron, who was that? He goes, it's this model. I met her in the bank. I went, does she sing? Yeah, I think so. Get her back. So the very first thing we ever did together, I had sold a show called Shadow Vision, which is very crazy.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
kind of like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at 100 miles an hour. And I sold it to HBO. And we were working on it at the time. And one of it was a little piece of music called Oh, You Perspire. And it went like this. Oh, you perspire. Yeah, you perspire. She'd go, oh, you perspire. And we did this about 50 times because it was so sexy and so funny.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And to make a long story short, we're still together. And we've never had a fight. I've never raised my voice. I mean, we've disagreed. We've gotten edgy with each other a few times, but nothing. It's blessed. It's a fantasy land marriage. I told you. I told you. And he's proof. She's as good as it gets. And then, of course, my children look like her and are gorgeous. Sunningly beautiful. Yeah.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And now I have three grandchildren who also basically look like her, or variations, and they're gorgeous. And I pinch myself, and I think, you know, I walk my, I have two daughters. I have a son for my first marriage as well, and we have a great relationship, and he's amazing. And I was walking my first daughter down the aisle some years ago, and it was Hollywood.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
It's like the most beautiful people on the left and on the right, candlelit. I mean, just like it should have been filmed. And I'm walking her down the aisle and she's like, she looks like, she's like Beyonce, you know, she's just beautiful. And I, and I tell this story all the time. I'm walking along and I kind of tremble a little bit.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Because I see myself in convulsions on the bathroom floor, and I thought, I almost missed this. There have been countless moments like that of, I almost miss this. These grandchildren. I mean, it's on and on and on. And how did I get so lucky? How come I didn't die coming out of a blackout in Topanga Canyon at four in the morning with my car spinning in circles? right up to the edge of a cliff.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
It's like a Hollywood movie that really happened. And at the time I go, where have I been? I don't know. What time is it? Where have I been for three hours? I don't know what I've been. So I get out of the car and I'm catching my breath and it's four in the morning and it's dark out and I'm in Topanga Canyon and I don't know how I got there.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And I, my best idea is to take out my gun and shoot it into the air as a, as a symbol of my commitment to never use again. Nope. I got in my car and I drove slowly home. Got some rest. I was heading into town to the studio the next day and I was falling asleep. So what could I do? I had to call the dealer. And he was there. And so I'm back on the treadmill. I'm not going back to that.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
I'm not going back.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And when I was 11, I was discovered by by a local radio station and they put me on the air as the world's youngest disc jockey and I did rock and roll on Saturday morning on KEYJ and then I stayed doing radio most of my high school part-time you know in the summers and went through five years of college didn't didn't want to drink
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Well, you know, I don't entirely agree with you. That's why I said it. I really like hearing the stories, and they are miraculous. I've had a series of people speak before this meeting that I'm secretary of, a Cocaine Anonymous meeting, that are jaw-dropping. And it is a life beyond... That whole thing about a life beyond your wildest imagination is absolutely true.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And I had my own company called Shadow Vision. And we were doing things like the Blues Brothers. and fast times at Ridgemont High and 48 hours. You did those? Countless convulsions later, I had an overdose in my studio. I was walking my first daughter down the aisle, kind of tremble a little bit. I see myself in convulsions on the bathroom floor and I thought, I almost missed this.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
It doesn't mean that you still don't have trouble. You still don't have failures. You still don't have stuff you have to get through. But by being... Among others who are wired like we are, we get a support system, and somebody has been through this already, who's had that operation, who's done something, who's recovered, who, you know, you need a job.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
All of a sudden, a job comes up out of nowhere just because you were present. And those stories are the heartbeat of it. It's what happened yesterday. You know, what it was like, what happened, and what it's like now. Basic, the hero's journey. None of us should be alive. Everyone in there has come in broken and terrified and weak and ashamed.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And all they do is take direction and then learn to help others. Do you know what I learned from AA?
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Drank once, projectile vomited, thought this is like my dad says, why do you want to drink? Makes you loud and stupid. So I didn't until my fourth year of college. I discovered doctor prescribed prescription of Desbutol. Desbutol was a brilliantly subtle combination of a wide variety of intoxicants, mainly alcohol. meth and a barbiturate.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
There's a study in New England this last year of all of the cocaine that was seized. And they did tests on it and found that something like 97% of it had fentanyl in it. And something like 30% or 40%. I remember the numbers of xylazine, of Trank. The zombie drug, yeah, well, who wouldn't want that, the flesh-eating drug? It's like, oh, no, it's horrifying. And yet it's happening.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And, you know, we've got to reach out to people, anybody that's going like, maybe I have a, well, just, if you don't think you have a problem, don't do any for a couple of weeks. See if you can do that. You probably can't. Everybody thinks they're different. I'm smarter. I don't use that way. You know, I was that way. So was I. And until it gets really bad, you don't do anything. You can't.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And you have to be broken down in order to get to it. Unfortunately.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Anyway, what are you working on now? Well, my passion project started at the beginning of COVID and it was a lockdown and the whole world thought it's the end of the world and was terrified. And I'm sitting there with my studio and I thought, well, I've got to write something funny and uplifting. And so I started writing Mental Radio. It's mentalradio.net. And it started with me doing everything.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
I did all the production, all the writing, all of the sound design, all of the marketing, all of everything. And then I started attracting enthusiastic support. And the first one came from the guy who was the director of my federated commercials. And he's also a world-class composer. And I said, Chuck, do you have any music that you own the publishing to that I could use for my stories?
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And he goes, yeah, I've had all these movies I was paid to do that never came out. And you can have whatever you want in the library. It's like John Williams and Marconi and like the who's who. It's really world-class music. And this opened up my... And metal radio is all audio theater. It's stories, adventures, tall tales, serials, and parody and sketches.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And it all has a mythology behind it that gives it weight.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
and it's all dedicated to um you know optimism and hope and uh big ideas and and it's grown and then pretty soon i've got people saying you know i do voices i do voice work you know if you got any characters and then i would write these things and i'd have them do it and we'd do it like um like an animated movie and they would send me their their pieces and i'd stitch it together to make it sound real and
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
So it gave you the energy and it allowed you to stay thin and get a lot done while taking the edge off at the same time. It was widely abused and is no longer available. But that was the gateway. So now I have an acceleration that made me, because I was always busy. I worked full-time in radio and I went to school full-time.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
It grew. Now there are 26 episodes. Each episode would take weeks to do. It wouldn't be like an interview where you sit down now and maybe edit it together. This is highly produced like doing a movie. Some episodes would take a month, six weeks. It would take as long as it would take. And now there are 12 hours of stories and a little over a half million downloads. It's got a bit of a following.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
It's got great reviews. My favorite is it is... Audio Acid and Spiritual Crack. If you listen to the stories with headphones, sounds come from behind you. They move around in your head. It's very cinematic, and it takes you away from the world.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
About a year and a half ago, the president of the Montauban Theater in Hollywood, Gil Smith, was married to Ricardo Montauban's daughter for decades, and she died just before COVID. And he called me and he said, as I sat alone in my house during COVID, one of the things that got me through was listening to metal radio and laughing and feeling uplifted.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And he said, what do you think about doing it as live theater? I think that's the greatest idea I've ever heard in my life. You think we can? He goes, yeah, I'm thinking giant screens, immersive 360 degree surround sound. So the kind of sound that you do in your shows actually happens in the theater, hard left to right, things coming from behind, things that is really an immersive experience.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
So we've been working on it for about a year and a half and hope to have it up this year. The last nine months I've spent, I wrote and produced 16 songs. So it's not a real musical because characters don't break into song, but there's so much music in it. And the music is pretty fabulous. It's very uplifting and funny. There are songs like, there's always someone to blame.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
In fact, I have a little piece of that if you want to play it. Yeah. But there's always someone to turn on, someone to behind all your pain. I think that sounds fantastic. Is that coming out? Yeah. Well, see what we're doing, we're trying to do the legal now and the legal part is like always cumbersome. Sure. But we're in an advanced state of development. The scripts are done.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
We've done run throughs in the theater. The music is just finished in rough mixes, but the rough mixes are really fabulous. There's a song called Don't You Know Who I Am. I'm a self-made overachiever. I don't know how to explain some of these things. They're all different. The music is based on New Orleans second line music meets 1930s swing meets gospel. And the gospel is badass. It's real big.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
There's so much recovery in this show. I mean, yes, we're learning to laugh at ourselves. Yes, we're laughing at being afraid. Yes, we're laughing at who we think we are. There's a song called You Gotta Keep Your Sense of Humor when it is hitting the fan, sung by teenagers. And it's really fun. Did I leave anything out?
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
I would like to say mentalradio.net and my art site is called shadowart.com. S-H-A-D-O-E-A-R-T, shadowart.com. Mentalradio.net and watch the skies because we should be able to roll this out sometime this year.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And by the time I got to the University of Arizona, I was working full-time at the radio station and doing school and doing plays and getting a lot done. Guy says, you want to try some weed? I said, you should try it. I mean, it's a plant. It's not like it's heroin.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
See you next Tuesday. Seriously.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
So they had it all set up and it was a great big hookah and the hookah had these tubes and there was black light posters and they dimmed the lights and they turned up the sound system and it was a great sound system. I remember the music when I first got high, it was Minnie Riperton. Suddenly I was elevated into the ceiling and
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
and I was moving at one with the universe, and I saw it in colors on the left and on the right, and I understood, oh, no wonder you can't explain this. It's like trying to explain the color blue to a blind man. It's experiential. And I was really thirsty. And that night, I bought my first ounce. And within a month, I bought my first pound. Then I moved to Boston.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And in Boston, we were smoking every day and we shared our vibrations. We laughed for no reason at things that weren't funny. And the guy said, you want to try some acid? What's acid? It's like grass, more intense. So I try it. I have a terrifying experience. I could go into this in great detail because it's wildly funny. But horrifying. Let's not do that. But funny and horrifying.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Funny, the funny. Horrifying. Don't do the funny. Please don't do it. Well, you know, in retrospect, it is actually kind of funny. So then I get a prescription doctor in Los Angeles because I had a lot of responsibilities, you know, a lot of people I'm responsible for and I had to keep going. And I saw him for many years, but it was elevated little by little. And I always wanted to be up.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
I wanted to be working. I want to be trying things. I want to be doing art. I want to be writing. I want to be productive all night into the next day, you know, five day runs. And along the way, I had an LSD experience that was out of the body. And I thought, I've got to find a way here without drugs. And so I started studying drugs.
We're Out of Time
Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
comparative religion and quantum physics and out-of-body experiences and the occult and meditation. And I learned to meditate and I started and I gave up drugs and alcohol. And for a year, things got better. And then a guy came in and I had left radio and went into production and I had my own company called Shadow Vision and it was a production company and we were doing things like
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
find these things that you believe in, the greater your ability to turn your will and your life over to the care of this something that you can't begin to comprehend.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
the blues brothers, um, movie and fast times at Ridgemont high and 48 hours. You did those. I did all that. Those are fantastic movies. Yeah. They're great movies. And we were really on a roll. And, and then I started doing, uh, television commercials. Um, But about that time, about the time of the Blues Brothers, a guy came in and he laid down an ounce of Peruvian flake.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And it was crystal pure, and it was pretty. And he said, have as much as you want. And I thought, I have really been good. Clearly, I can pick it up or put it down, stop anytime I want. What would a little needle line hurt? Well, I did two because you have two nostrils. And then I do two more to balance the hemispheres of my brain. And pretty soon I'm arcing and we're getting a lot done.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And we worked through the night and through the next day and through the next night. And we worked and worked and got a lot done. I think we did 50 commercials. And then I bought my own ounces, and that opened up the door. And now I'm back 100%. And it was me and the team, because I had this great team. I was doing television commercials, the Federated commercials. I love those.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
I forgot about those. Those were the best. Yeah, there's a video on YouTube called Bludgeon Advertising that we did years ago. And it's the whole story of Federated and me. And in this campaign that I created, and we did 1,100 commercials. This was going really well, and they were getting really fun, but I was losing it. As it was growing, I gained a lot of weight.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
I gained actually 50 pounds, but... Because they didn't stop eating either.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
I know Sarge and I have a lot in common. Okay. And I got big too. And people would say, you're big boned. So I knew, I knew. But there's video. So we did this thing called Fear and Loathing in Big Sur. And what I did is I bought motorcycles for all the guys. So we all had motorcycles and we put them in a big truck with all the equipment, the cameras and the lighting and everything.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And we had a sober driver. and headed off for Big Sur. And we had an RV, and in the RV, we were loaded up with cocaine and magic mushrooms from the Amazon, and I mean, on and on. I'm just like, we were well-packed. And we got up there, and part of that was to open stores in Sacramento and Fresno.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
So we'd do live appearances, and Fred would show up, and people would stand in line for two hours to meet Fred. Fred Radin? Yeah, that was my character. Fred rated for better. It was all alliteration. It was like Fred rated for federated, Fred and Freda rated for federated, Fred and Freda rated, my dog Veer for federated. You know, so listen fast and I don't have a lot of time to talk.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
I've been irritated, furious, frustrated.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
Well, the difference, the difference is that your commercials were good. Well, we never, no commercial ever went longer than 10 days. We did five to seven, eight commercials a week. Turn them out. We meet on Monday. We would figure out the writing on Monday. We would get it prepared on Tuesday. We would shoot on Wednesday. We would edit on Thursday and turn them in Friday for six years.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
I will have order in this court. My client was denied her rights to selection and freedom of choice.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
But she couldn't have been under choice at Federated. We have everything in audio, video, TV, and tape. Now an NEC 26-inch color monitor. Save $100 now at Federated 749.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
You'll see he had a VHS camera, so he was videotaping Fear and Loathing and Big Sur. And we're in the van on the way, and I'm amped. And you'll see it. It's funny and crazy as can be. And then it, there's a point in the video that shows, and then he went into rehab because it was like clearly out of control. But I mean, I was using, I lived in Malibu Canyon and I used into convulsions regularly.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
I had guns because I thought people were trying to kill me. I could hear, I could hear whispers outside the window, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And I put sheets over the windows and the doors. And I put quilts over the sheets and the windows and the doors because you can see silhouettes through sheets. And then I realized you can see around the cracks around quilts.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
So I put nails at one-inch intervals. And I sat with my 12-gauge short barrel double-odd buck. And I thought, either there's somebody out there or I've gone insane. I need to confront my destiny. And I went outside and I sat beneath the window with my 12-gauge and waited. And I heard a rustle in the bush. And then I jumped up screaming, No, you die, mother... And I chased them through the brush.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And they got away. So I went back to the bathroom to celebrate. Locked the door. Put the towel under the door. Ran the tub. Had another hit. And then rocked back on the floor in convulsions. And when I came to, I thought, I should take a breather. Not I should stop, I mean, because stopping wasn't clearly an option. When I got a... My doctor saw me and...
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And I had a physical and he said, if you're lucky, you're going to die. I don't think you're going to die. I think you're going to have a heart attack or a stroke any minute. And you've got to stop or you're going to lose your ability to talk. You're going to lose the left side of your body. Something awful is going to happen any minute. And you got to stop.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And I knew he was right, but I couldn't. I was humiliated. I was so ashamed of what had become of me. I thought, I'm insane. What's wrong with me? I can't do that. And I didn't. So countless convulsions later, I had an overdose in my studio. And my guys that worked for me came and found me at 4 in the morning, and they got afraid.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
And they called my family, and my family ganged up on me and talked me into going into recovery. I went to Betty Ford, and there was no room. So they said, come back in a few weeks. I went, please, come back in a few weeks. No. And they said, well, let's make a call. And they found me a... a room in Scripps in La Jolla. And that's where I went. Worst day of my life.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
I'm sure that I would never laugh again. I'd never be creative again. I was like going into a mental hospital. And then I talked to the counselor in admissions, and he said, you know, this isn't a mental hospital. You can leave anytime you want, but clearly things aren't going well for you, and maybe you should give it a day. Okay. So I did. And then my roommate turned out it was just like me.
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Meet the Youngest Radio DJ In History with an Inspiring Story Shadoe Stevens
He was a wannabe up all the time, crystal meth coke user. He was ready to leave. It wasn't working for him. And then we talked and we laughed. And he made me laugh. And that was my key. I laughed my way into sobriety. I sat there. We had a lot of opinions. And I say this when I share stories. We had a lot of opinions for you alcoholics because, you see, we were the elite of the mentally ill.