I have been down since Ring Master. I have earned the Hatchet man tattoo on my back. Some of the greatest moments in my life have always been accompanied with ICP’s music. I started listening to ICP, and stopped listening to everything else.

     My first daughter got sick. Really sick as in cancer sick. She had come up to me one day saying she couldn’t walk which turned into an ER visit, which then turned into an emergency surgery to remove a tumor from her spine. A couple months later the remanent of the tumor spread, and we were to go through radiation therapy.

    Probably the darkest time in my life, everything was changing. I remember her hair slowly falling out, I remember walking her to school with no hair and being stared at. I remember picking out wigs and head wraps. I am trying to make this short as I could recall several more experiences that no parents should ever have to go through.

    The point? The one thing that has been constant is ICP, and the juggalo mentality of never giving up. I remember many sleepless nights that I would lay awake and listen to the music. Knowing the dark carnival would somehow protect her life and my sanity.

    Fast forward to today, she is clear, her hair has grown back and I hear about the Violent J charity tour. Helping sick kids has become a passion of mine, and it seems to have met my other passion…ICP.

    I have been to several ICP shows, and this Sunday I will be at the launchpad (in Albuquerque) to see the charity tour. Every show has been significant to me, but this show will be different. To me, it will represent life coming full circle (I am almost 40). I will be in the bar, watching and listening to the music that is “more than music”. It was a life-line for me. It carried me through some of the most difficult times of my life. Many do not understand but Violent J and Shaggy are a huge part of many lives, and have been a huge inspiration to me throughout various parts of my life. If it wasn’t for my wife, family, and ICP I don’t know if I would have had the strength to carry on this far, and finally see that Shangri La is within reach.

    ( This is a very condensed version omitting tons of other horrible shit that happened. I just felt that I had to get this off my chest, and I do hope somehow and someway Violent J and Shaggy see this. I cannot thank them enough for what they have done throughout my life.)

WIKD