How I Became The Worlds Best DJ With Only One Arm: Black Coffee | E183

We just heard this sound, and it was a car, just rammed through the crowd. And I just blacked out.

Make some noise for Black Coffee! (audience cheering)

I hardly had a childhood. I was always working, and I used to hate it growing up, because I just felt like, "Well, when, when am I gonna become a child, you know, and play like other kids?"

The 10th of February, tell me about that day.

(exhales sharply) Man, that was a scary thing for me. When I went to the hospital, no one knew what to do. I would literally close my eyes. I wouldn't know whether it's here or here or here or ...

So, it was paralyzed at that point?

Yeah. I stayed for three months in the hospital, you know, and that depressed me even more. Music helped me so much. It brought me peace. This is why I share it. It's my way of healing people the same way it healed me. My childhood, where I come from, those things scare me.

Why do those things scare you?

'Cause it's a story that ... It was, for years, hard for me to share. So what happened is I ...

(Music) Before this conversation starts, I've got a favor to ask from you. 74% of people that watch this podcast frequently haven't yet hit the subscribe button, and 9% of people haven't yet hit the bell to turn notifications on. The bigger this platform gets, the bigger the guests get. So if you could do me one favor, if you've ever enjoyed this podcast, please hit the subscribe button and turn notifications on. Without further ado, I'm Steven Bartlett, and this is the Diary of a CEO. I hope nobody's listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself. (music) So the question that I always start this podcast with, because I, I, I ch- ... I studied childhood psychology for a little while, and it was illuminating to me how much of our early years end up defining and shaping us-

Of course.

... how m- who we become.

Of course.

So that early context before 12 years old, what, what did that look like for you?

(inhales deeply) Um, when I was born, my, my parents were, were married. My mom was super young. I was the first one. Um, (clicks tongue) two other siblings at the time. Uh, my mom married very extremely young, probably like 22, 23 already. With three kids, divorcing. Um, (clicks tongue) we were moved to live with our grandmother from the maternal side, and she's the one who raised us. And she used to work in a general hospital in the sewing room, but I saw her w- working extremely hard to go for everything she wanted. You know, like, I look back, (clicks tongue) and try to imagine how much money she was earning, and look at the achievements, like changing her mud house into a, a big designed, respectable house. And she did this bit by bit by bit. And as a kid, I was there, and I saw it. Whatever little money she would have, she would buy the bricks, they would wait. She buy sand, it waits. She buy gravel, it waits. Everything, (clicks tongue) slowly. So that's what I learned from her, like, to be assertive. You, you wake up. You go work. Also, the strongest thing that I learned from her is that she had cows, and she was the only woman in the area, you know, who had cows, you know, and she was single woman. And (clicks tongue) my job was to, every morning, go milk the cows before I go to school, every afternoon after school. So I hardly had a childhood. I had, like, um, time to play as a child. I was always working, 5:00, 5:30 from 11 years old, every single day. And, um, that was my environment, you know, where I'm like, "Okay, whatever you need, you just ... You have to work. There's no other way." And so, for the few years, (clicks tongue) she would make sure I'm up. She would make sure, you know, I'm on time, and eventually it was my thing. She didn't have to wake me up. She didn't have to tell me when to go. She didn't have to ... If there was a problem with the, the cows, I knew what was wrong. If I needed to get medication from the pharmacy, you know, I, I understood everything eventually. It became my thing, you know. Um, (clicks tongue) that's, that's my childhood.