Willie D of the Geto Boys on Overcoming His Past

I like to tell people my past don't define me. It refines me. I like it. You see? Because it's so much that I see. I have foresight now. So much that I see, that I've seen, that I've witnessed, I've done myself personally or I've been very, very close to the action. And I'm an odd man. I say, well, if you do this, then more likely this will be the outcome. That's why I never joined a game. Because I was like, not that I didn't do anything wrong, but I felt like if I'm going to do something wrong, I trust me to not snitch me out. You know? So... Best reason for that. I'm going to tell you a story that I've never told publicly. In the mid 80s, there were some cab killings in Houston that it was killing cab drivers. The guys who were involved, who started it, came to my house first to get me to go with them to hit a lick. We poor, we in the hood. You know? Like, everybody needs money. Some of us, we're not going to eat if we don't go out there and kill something. Not literally kill a person, but kill something so that we can nourish our bodies. Right? It came to me. Hey man, look, we're going to go do this. And I look out and I see like, it's the dude that wanted to catch that's in the neighborhood, that tough guy. And then I look out and I see like three other dudes with him. Oh hell no, that's too many dudes. If he wouldn't have had that many people with him, I probably would have went with him. If it would have just been him and another cat, all right, I probably would have went. I don't know. But he had like three other dudes with him. And the next morning I hear a cab driver, old black dude in the neighborhood where he wasn't from the neighborhood, but they killed him in the neighborhood. And he was the elderly dude. And they only took like 30 something bucks. And so I know that's what happened. Right. So then over the next like maybe three weeks, four more cab drivers get killed. I know. I got a pretty good idea who's doing this. Right. Because I'm not the only one that knows. It's other people that know these guys and they're talking. So there's murmurs in the streets about this happening. So then they get caught up and each of these guys, they end up with the one that got the last year, it was like 15 years. All these guys were minors except the main one. They were 14 or like 19 years old. So they end up with a minimum 15 years and then the one that got the max was like 40 years. So my life would have been very, very much different had I walked out that door that night. Wow. That's some heavy shit. So I could see a lot of things happening. Like I can see, you know, like experience, you know, I can see a lot of things happening from my own experience, but other people's experience too. And I personally do believe that experience is not the best teacher. Other people's experience is the best teacher because if I see you go out and if you walk around the corner and you come back running back bleeding profusely, I mean, these guys around come just stab me, man. Why would I run my silly ass around the corner? They just stab you. What's going to happen to me? What's likely to happen to me? What could happen to me if I go around that same corner and my style me next? So no, I'm not going around that corner. I'm going in the opposite direction. In fact, get them by me, man, because they might come stab you again and get me while I'm with you. Yeah, I think you're right. I think you can learn from both, but you can learn the terrible lessons from other people that are having to do it. Without ever having to do it. If you stick your hand in the fire and it burns you, why the hell would I stick my hand in that fire and let it burn me unless I want to be burned? So that's why these, the gang thing, I could never get with it. I've never been a gang member, so I don't know what these guys be thinking. I don't know what they would be thinking, man, but I just don't see an upside to it. I just, it has a terrible retirement plan. You know, most of the dudes, most of the dudes are killed before they're 30, are maimed. They have a extensive criminal history. Their opportunities are severely limited because of the record. People are afraid to do business with them. You know, it's just way too much. And I just feel, I just figure like, you know, well, I'm just going to go ahead and avoid that. Plus I'm a black man in America. It's all kind of ways to get killed in it. It's all kind of ways to die already. You know, right? Okay. Besides like, you know, like natural stuff, like natural death, diabetes, cancer, lupus, you know, obesity, all these types of things right that can kill you. Stroke. You got accidents, you know, I get hit by a car or something like that. You got domestic disputes. Why would I say, man, you know what? I need one more motherfucking thing to die to help me rush this death. I got to get there, baby. I got to get there. I'm going to join the gang. I'm trying to eliminate the things that can, that can kill me. I'm trying to avoid those type of things. Why would I walk right into something? But again, a lot of people do like what, what, where did you get the wisdom? Like you've, the way you think right now, this, have you always thought this way where you plot ahead and look at things like you're playing 3d chess? I did to an extent, but I got a lot better at it in my twenties, like late twenties. I got really better. And the reason why I say that is because the trip part about it is that like there are dudes that are my age that tell me, man, you was like a big brother to me, you know, because I've been knowing them since we were like teenagers or early twenties or whatever. And I've always been just a few steps ahead and, and, you know, seeing what was going on, you know, watching, you know, so, but I still had some things that, that I had to learn primarily conflict resolution, conflict resolution. It should be taught in schools. I agree. Americans have a big problem with conflict resolution. It should be taught in schools. Any of you politicians out there, y'all want to work on a bill with me. Come on with it. I'm down. Conflict resolution should be taught in schools because I remember being on stage, man. And somebody would like heckle. Like it'd be all, it would be a dude, always a dude heckle. Like, Oh man, talking crazy for no reason. I would jump off stage, knock him out, get back on stage and finish the show. You know, I would do stuff like that. I mean, once we were in Jackson, Mississippi, let me see, uh, statue limited. Okay. I'm past. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, uh, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, very, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I materials calledMAN. I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm in the, I'm Man, we like man, fuck that, we. I grabbed my cousin Dre and we go in there. Say man, you gonna come off that money? At first he chuckled. Say man, hey Blick here, bring that money back here and da da da da da. He gave us the money. We came back to the limo. I like how you been careful with this. Even, just the motion. We got the money, we got the money and now everything is good. Went on the stage and did the show and then left. This is me, again, cowboy western days. Not really thinking, all kinds of things that could happen with that in that situation. Sure. Going back on the stage, listen, just going back on the stage, back up. Just taking that money like that in the first place. That's the case, that could be the case. Then you go on stage and do a show. We're in his hometown, he could be rallying the troops. We come out, it's over. I'm not thinking on that type of level. He violated, you get this and that's it and it's whatever, who else would get it? What would you have done different now? Oh, in that exact same situation, I would try to convince him to pay up. He still wouldn't get away with it but I would just do it differently. Yeah, I like, I get it. Yeah, still, he would have to pay up. There's a long history of promoters not paying people. They must pay. They must pay. They must pay because what you don't wanna do is you don't wanna have, be in a situation where people owe you money and look man, it's honest days work for honest days pay. Nothing more, nothing less. Episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience are now free on Spotify. That's right, they're free from September 1st to December 1st. They're gonna be available everywhere but after December 1st, they will only be available on Spotify but they will be free. That includes the video. The video will also be there. It'll also be free. That's all we're asking. Just go download Spotify. Much love, bye bye. Me.