We're Out of Time
From Grief to Purpose: Erik Thureson on the Loss of His Son, Hella Sketchy
Tue, 27 May 2025 18:48:00 GMT
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In this powerful episode of We're Out of Time, host Richard Taite sits down with Erik Thureson, father of the late Jacob Thureson—known to fans as Hella Sketchy, a talented young rapper and producer.Jacob tragically passed away at the age of 18 on June 27, 2019, following an overdose that had left him in a coma weeks earlier. His father shared the heartbreaking news on Twitter, while Jacob’s condition had previously been announced on his Instagram account. Erik opens up about Jacob’s extraordinary gift for music, which emerged as early as age 6. He speaks candidly about the complex emotions of grief and joy—how sharing Jacob’s story brings both pain and purpose. Above all, Erik is committed to honoring his son’s memory if doing so can help save even one life. 👉 Subscribe for more real conversations every week. 🔗 All things Richard Taite, We're Out of Time, and Carrara Treatment Wellness & Spa: https://linktr.ee/richardtaite For more on Erik Thureson: https://www.instagram.com/erikthureson
Chapter 1: What was Jacob Thureson's journey in music?
In the SoundCloud scene, he was the rising star. He really pioneered this certain sound and this certain style. Even big artists today like Drake and others that are using that same style. When he was in first grade, six years old, he was reading at an eighth grade level and his comprehension was at a sixth grade level.
We put him in a music school and by the time he was 10 years old, he could play the majority of Green Day's library on guitar. I'm grateful to be able to share his story. He taught me, like you said, what love was. Time is our most valuable commodity that is not renewable. Because when you get to there and then, it's still here and now. I'm here all night, folks.
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Eric Thurston, thanks for coming. Thanks for having me. It's an honor and a privilege to be here. Thank you. The pleasure is all ours. It's horrible circumstances. You lost your son to fentanyl. He went by the name of Hella Sketchy. So he was big in the underground rap scene. And he was your boy. Yeah.
Um, a lot of people don't understand if they don't have children that, um, You don't know what love is until you have a child. You think you do, but you don't. And so how old was he when he passed? He was 18. He's 18 years old. Yep. So what the listeners may not understand is, if they don't have children, is you got 18 years into this kid. Yeah.
And if you're anything like me, I love my kids more every day. So my kids aren't 18 yet. So you loved your kids more than I even love my kids. You had... I mean, do you remember? Yeah. Right? For hours. Yeah. Right? And your arms ached. Right. Right? And then you just slowly, as slow as you could, put him down in his crib. Right? Praying to God he didn't wake up.
And the second you had a handle on that, everything changed. And you had to get used to the next phase. Right. Yeah. And it was the hardest thing you ever did. Yeah. but it's the best thing you ever did by miles, right? Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. What I want to know about is, so I'm sorry, man, this is the most horrible thing. It's why I came back to work. Okay.
Um, and it's why we do this podcast because I don't ever want anybody to go through the pain you went through. But what I want to do is I want to talk about your son and, and I want you to tell me who he was, not as a rapper or any of that nonsense. I want to know who your boy was.
Yeah, it is difficult, but I'm grateful. I'm grateful to be able to share his story. I'm grateful to talk about him. He taught me, like you said, what love was. When he was first born, I thought I knew what love was, like you mentioned.
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Chapter 2: How did Erik cope with the loss of his son?
That's what Dylan was telling me. Dylan was telling me he was everything. There's some types of beats that he created. His bit has been named like Happy Trap or this really wavy... trap music that he came out of, but he really pioneered this certain sound and this certain style. Even big artists today that I'm sure you've heard of like Drake and others that are using that same style. Wow.
even the record label execs were, they were looking at him and when he was in the recording studio, they, they, they were, they would give him free time when people canceled because he lived at half a mile from the, from the recording studio off of Fairfax and La Brea.
And if someone canceled or if there are big gaps, he had a free pass to come in because the way that he worked with people and he was professional, he'd walk in, do his stuff. And he was kind to people, right? He was kind. He was joyful. Like he cared about other people. He was a HSP and an empath. HSP is a psychological term for highly sensitive person. Um,
Meaning, if you felt something, if you were angry or if you were sad or if you were joyful, he would feel that with the same degree of distinction as if it was his own feelings. I know. And didn't know how to separate that. We know what I've got, man. Go on. Wow. Mm-hmm. Said the guy with the third-rated mental health podcast. Yeah. And really do some more analysis on myself. Gone.
At this point at 17, he, he gets signed with Atlantic records. It's a, Pretty nice record deal. He moves to LA so that he could be close to the recording studio and then with the other artists that are coming in and he's working with. Sure. And where are you at this time? We're in Phoenix. Okay. And his uncle is staying with him probably four or five out of seven days of the week. Okay, cool.
So there's some, your brother. Yeah. And he was also his manager as well. Okay, good. And so he had some supervision. So we're like, okay, he's about to turn 18. He's an adult. He's going to do what he's going to do. We got some supervision in place. We felt great about it. And at that point, it seemed like he had a handle on sobriety.
Releases the first album and gets kind of caught up in the excitement of the first album coming out and is intoxicated on what I don't know. but it was pretty clear he was intoxicated at the album release party, which we just drove past the place on Fairfax as we were coming here. And so we were asking the questions and leaning in and, Asking the questions, what are you on? Mm-hmm.
And there was a period of time where it seemed like he was doing really well. He got a girlfriend shortly after the album release. And he's doing lives, walking the dog outside, getting exercise and getting out in the sun and not sitting and hold up in the room somewhere all day. And it seemed like he was doing well. We had come out, and this was June, the first week of June.
I was here for a film conference. Then we spent the next few days just hanging out with him and his girlfriend and had probably the best weekend that we had ever had. He was present. He was initiating events. And we went go-karting. We went to Peach's Tacos. We did all the things and just had a great time. And we were feeling like, okay, he's got a handle on this. This is great.
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