S1E17: Brian Burnette on Loving Family, Drug Abuse, and Music

Dive into a powerful episode of the Axé All Day Podcast with host Andrew Carroll as he welcomes the incredibly talented Brian Burnette to the mic. Get ready for an inspiring conversation that delves into love, music, overcoming adversity, and the remarkable journey of transformation.

In this heart-to-heart exchange, Brian Burnette shares his incredible life story, from his early days singing in the car with his family to his remarkable wrestling journey and the turbulent encounter with addiction that followed. But this episode isn't just about the darkness; it's about the incredible resilience of the human spirit. Brian's story of redemption and creative expression is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Join us as we explore the healing power of music, the importance of finding healthy outlets for emotions, and the incredible support of loved ones, including Brian's loving wife, Rhonda. This is more than just a podcast; it's a journey of self-discovery and hope.

If you're a fan of real-life stories of triumph over adversity, the magic of music, and the resilience of the human spirit, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in now and be ready to be moved by Brian Burnette's incredible journey on Axé All Day. 

Transcript

Andrew Carroll 0:19

I am Andrew Carroll. I'm the host of the Ashe All Day Podcast, brian, just so everybody knows, when you open up your heart and you sing, you're changing the world on a molecular level. You are the alchemizing vibration of sound. My open heart sees you. I wanted to share you with the world brother. Give a little introduction, man. Let the people know who you are and what you're all about.

Brian Burnette 0:39

My name is Brian Burnett. I am a musical artist. I use music as my outlet, my creative outlet, to exercise my feelings and work through my issues and entertain people. I've got a family. I've got four children and a beautiful wife that I love very much. Oh my gosh, I just celebrated my eight year wedding anniversary with my wife.

Andrew Carroll 1:03

Give her a shout out. She's so dope, Rhonda.

Brian Burnette 1:05

Rhonda May Burnett. She's so amazing and beautiful and loving and caring and she's a wonderful mother. She's an amazing model. Check her out. She's got some really cool stuff up on social media. Dude, she's doing big things. Absolutely. On our anniversary I said, wow. You know, rhonda, it's been eight years already. Has it really been eight years? It almost doesn't feel that long, but I've never loved you more. Things just keep getting better and I'm so grateful for that.

Andrew Carroll 1:35

That's so beautiful man. I'm so happy to know you guys, you and your wife. I'm so fully supported and expressed and if you're in the Burnett tribe, you're held with love and compassion and support for whatever you're doing. And it's an incredible feeling, man. Like I said when I met you guys.

Brian Burnette 1:55

What was that in February? It was February 6th yeah.

Andrew Carroll 1:59

I had only been in Seattle for like two weeks, dude, and I needed Brentons and I was in a rough place, dude, and you guys were there.

Brian Burnette 2:07

When I met you.

Andrew Carroll 2:08

I told you and I told Rhonda, our lives will never be the same again. That by the time next year hits that we'll look back at that moment and we wouldn't even recognize what was going on.

Brian Burnette 2:18

We are already well on our way it's so cool, we have so many things to be grateful for so much. It's incredible.

Andrew Carroll 2:28

I love gratitude and I love you and it's so important to give yourself the credit to for the work that you put in and the accumulation and culmination of the skills and abilities and the hard work and the time and you've been playing music and involved in music since you were a kid, right. Yes, absolutely, from singing songs with mom and the Sing what you're about to tell me.

Brian Burnette 2:52

So, from singing in the station wagon with my mom and brothers to going out to play and guitar and finding out about other things, I wish and I wished and I came and I saw and received so much Love, so much Praise, so much to be grateful, yeah.

Andrew Carroll 3:33

Dude, I got chills. It's so good You're welcome. You're welcome. This is the Brian Burnett. You will know his name. So yeah, you started out in choir. You were Mormon, right.

Brian Burnette 3:45

I was born and raised in the Mormon church. That's actually a lot of the songs that I used to sing in the car was the church songs and we'd get into choir and would sing choir songs with my mom and we would always do the different parts and harmonize and make the air buzz and it was just so cool. Being 11, 12 years old and making that harmonic buzz inside the car that just filled the whole space is so amazing.

Andrew Carroll 4:15

Harmonies are a beautiful thing. I'm so glad you're not Mormon anymore.

Brian Burnette 4:20

No offense.

Andrew Carroll 4:21

Or do be offended, it doesn't matter. But, you had. Your story is so cool. I want to talk about the busking. I want to talk about you just picking up and leaving right after high school. I want to talk about the wrestling, the drugs. I want to talk about that. So you and I were having a conversation one time about significant life events and you were sharing with me about how, once you realized that God and Satan and I don't know how many people are ready for that.

Andrew Carroll 4:47

But I knew I was like, yep, I get you, I totally get it.

Brian Burnette 4:51

OK, so we're going there today.

Andrew Carroll 4:53

Yo, we're going all the way in dude, all the way. Yeah, this is not softball. Well, let me just say this is not like club softball. I do not mean any disrespect to those collegiate level athletes who like monsters, monster athletes playing softball. Maybe Wiffleball is a better.

Brian Burnette 5:12

T-ball. Anyway, this ain't your mama's podcast.

Andrew Carroll 5:15

I hope not. Yeah, man, Give us the couple minute version of like of the ride started the semi beginning. After like into high school the wrestling, what that looked like.

Brian Burnette 5:29

I hope you understand that this is more than a couple minutes yeah.

Andrew Carroll 5:32

I got you. Ok, you're getting it. Ok, you're so good.

Brian Burnette 5:35

I had one hell of a temper when I was young and I would do some stupid destructive things.

Andrew Carroll 5:41

Like what things.

Brian Burnette 5:42

I threw a piece of corn on the cob at my brother and smashed it through a window. I got locked out of the house when I was eight years old by my brothers and I was really upset and, not realizing I I hit the, hit the storm door and shattered the glass. Actually, this one here and I slipped my wrist open, had to go to the emergency room. It was bad. One time I was angry and I just took, you know, like the loppers that you used to cut tree branches oh, put it right through a live extension cord. I was five, wow, I was just always doing things you don't want to do, because I was angry and felt helpless or whatever you know and a lot of that was part of being the youngest sibling.

Andrew Carroll 6:29

I just want to take a second and hit on what you just said, man. So so many people can relate to anger, but I don't know that they have done the work to understand the root cause of where that's coming from, because people get to anger and they shy away or they turn from it and they won't sit with it. But you just said that you were angry because I felt helpless Say that again.

Brian Burnette 6:50

I felt helpless yeah.

Andrew Carroll 6:51

And in that helplessness, you experienced anger in an effort to protect yourself. Yeah so, haha, just letting people soak that up for a second, because that is something that is often overlooked. Anger is a teaching tool. It tells us when things that are happening to us are not okay, and I appreciate you for bringing that medicine on the podcast today, because people needed to hear that. I got full body chills and that's when I know it's time to pause and stomp a foot and say hey, listen to that, please continue. Thank you so much.

Brian Burnette 7:23

So when I was in third grade, there was this guy that came around from the local freestyle wrestling club handing out flyers and telling the. He came to my school and was in my class and everybody got a flyer. And you know we're thinking like Hulk Hogan, you know stuff and wow, you know. And I was thinking like wow, this could be cool. So I showed it to my folks and my stepdad. He jumped right on it and said yes, absolutely yeah, I'll take you.

Brian Burnette 7:54

Turns out, wrestling was big in his family. He was a wrestler, my older stepbrothers were wrestlers and fighters and so I got into it First day, got in there and I gave it all I had and I lost to the coach's kid. And this determination set in me, along with my mother's words of you need to learn to use your anger for something better than just throwing fits and channel that because you are so powerful. So I stuck with wrestling from third grade all the way through high school, ended up going to the state tournament all four years of high school and placing Was that here in Washington?

Andrew Carroll 8:33

Yeah, okay.

Brian Burnette 8:34

I was going by the family name Gileam as the last name in school as well. Okay, if you're ever look up Brian Gileam, 135 pounds, class of 2000, mass classic, you'll see me in there. It was pretty cool. I had scholarships or scholarships available. There was a completely different path I could have taken than the one that I did. Are you open?

Andrew Carroll 8:55

to sharing with, because you and I have talked about that a little bit. You're such a beautiful human being, brian. And thanks dude, we don't become this the way that we are. I have so many children right now. I, like I'm so glad that you're here you don't become a beautiful person without just some absolute shit storms in your life and I've got those yeah.

Andrew Carroll 9:15

Think about how many people are pushing their kids to you. Better go wrestling. You better do your best. You better get that scholarship. If you don't go to college, you're worthless. All that was right there for you, man, and on the one hand, intentionally chose a different path and on the other hand, there were some demons in your life that kind of redirected you.

Brian Burnette 9:29

Yeah, absolutely. So I had just gotten back from the senior national tournament in Pittsburgh where I had made the top 12.

Andrew Carroll 9:37

I was out of the entire country. Yeah let's just throw that out there so yeah, I was one.

Brian Burnette 9:43

I was one point, a one point loss away from, actually, you know, getting a medal. Yeah.

Brian Burnette 9:49

So, it was really cool. I think it was a 64 man bracket, wow. So yeah, and it was all state champions and state placers from from around the country. So yeah, I mean I feel good about it. Yeah, as you should. I came back and found out that my girlfriend had cheated on me with this other dude and I was all upset about it and I was having troubles at home as well. I had actually moved out of my parents house at 17, going from that to having all the freedom, I didn't know what to do with it. And after finding out that my girlfriend had cheated on me, I'm drinking a beer and you know, hanging out with some folks, and this girl pulls out the little white baggy of which is that's math, and I had been offered it before. I was like, oh no, no, no, you know. No, no, no.

Andrew Carroll 10:40

The Mormon sensibility was still in you prior to that had you been drinking for a little while at this time, and stuff like that, like yeah, I actually stopped going to church 1516 years 16, I think Was that a pretty heavy conversation in the household.

Brian Burnette 10:58

Yeah, I was always in trouble.

Andrew Carroll 11:00

Yeah always.

Brian Burnette 11:01

So anyway, this girl offers me some math and I tried it and was immediately like my whole world changed and it was like the most amazing I had ever felt. Ever I did it for 10 months straight.

Andrew Carroll 11:15

Did you lightly dabble or did it take hold of you?

Brian Burnette 11:19

It took a pretty good hold. I had my moments when I wasn't doing it, but they were short.

Andrew Carroll 11:24

Yeah, fair.

Brian Burnette 11:25

Yeah, the claws were in and it became what life was all about, until one day I woke up after being awake for 17 days Wow.

Brian Burnette 11:36

Yeah, I went to sleep for three and I woke up in a shed behind a condemned mobile home that was all fenced off and with a generator outside that was powering the lights and the TV in there, that was fueled by Gasoline from the people's cars in the neighborhood getting siphoned out by the folks that were staying there. That's where I was. Yeah, that's meth. They had a mirror sitting there and I looked in the mirror. I looked like death, I mean sunken in everything, just all just.

Andrew Carroll 12:16

How bar after wrestling, was this the tournament, I think was in March. So either the tournament was in March, you came back, she had cheated on you. You're partying with some friends and you try meth.

Brian Burnette 12:26

It was the end of the year. It was like New Year's.

Andrew Carroll 12:29

But you went from being at a physical level of being a top 12 senior state champion wrestler in 10 months. Meth really almost completely destroyed you. Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Brian Burnette 12:42

So when I was asleep for three days, the folks that were around me just kind of left me there and I woke up and they're like oh man, we were worried about you. You've been out for like three days. We were thinking about calling the ambulance or something, but we didn't want to get busted.

Andrew Carroll 12:55

Yeah.

Brian Burnette 12:56

Yeah. So I saw myself in the mirror and I cried, I cried and I gathered my things and I left and I was done. I did not want to do that anymore, so I drove to Seattle For more. That was in White Center.

Andrew Carroll 13:10

Okay.

Brian Burnette 13:11

Yeah, I drove to Seattle, found a place to park my car. I was actually sleeping in my car at that time. Pike Place Market was up there and they had people busking up there, and so I went and got me a pass or a permit and started busking. There is one really interesting point that I want to bring up.

Andrew Carroll 13:28

That whole thing was interesting.

Brian Burnette 13:33

So just because I had stopped and didn't want to do math anymore, I was still attracting those people. Those people were still coming around.

Andrew Carroll 13:43

Yeah.

Brian Burnette 13:44

It's almost like they just recognized me, even though I wasn't getting high. It was crazy. I was very approachable to them.

Effects of Drug Use

Andrew Carroll 13:49

Can I address that Mm-hmm? So when you're involved in some stuff like this, it's really important to understand that what you are actually doing is changing your vibrational frequency on a molecular level. In doing this kind of a drug, especially methamphetamine, which I think has a lot more than just the chemical component, but if we're talking about the spiritual realm, you are opening up a portal and an invitation for other beings to readily come into your space, into your temple, and so other people who are out there that speak that same language essentially are vibrating on that same frequency. And so even when you do decide to stop using a drug like methamphetamine, you still are part of that tribe until it has completely cleared from your system and you have made intentional, intentional, intentional change. This is part of the reason that an addiction to opiates and to methamphetamine are so difficult to overcome, and it takes exactly what Brian is talking about. There has to be a moment for that individual wherein they realize that what they are doing is going to kill them and they care about that. They want to continue living in a different way. How long after you decided to quit, your peers essentially stopped approaching you like they were and the rest of us.

Andrew Carroll 14:53

I have never done meth knowingly. I've probably had it in MDMA or something. There are certain chemicals that I'm just not drawn to and I know that they're not for me, so I have stayed away from that for most of my life. Now you and I have talked extensively about my experience with MDMA therapy and with psychedelics and those kinds of things my bread and butter. I'll go into that fear and do that all day, every day. It's so good. There's something about meth and fentanyl. I mean I can't really distinguish between the two and what they're doing to people, but you can see they're. People are turning into zombies. The fentanyl is more of the nod and more of the classic opioid symptoms that you will see from people, but meth is that real twitchy, jerky movement like the 28 days later type of zombie.

Brian Burnette 15:39

It took a while because I hadn't made enough changes. I hadn't made enough changes. I just knew that I didn't want to do that anymore. But I still wanted to party. I still wanted to drink and smoke weed and that kind of stuff. It's hard for me to say exactly how long it took. Two times after that I was approached with it. It was offered to me more than two times, but two times I accepted and immediately, immediately after doing it, all the same feelings came flooding back and it was 24 hours of regret.

Andrew Carroll 16:13

Oh yeah, that shame and guilt cycle bud, it was yeah.

Brian Burnette 16:18

So I would say, probably about the time I got a job at the bar here downtown. Uh, working in the kitchen is when that quit, when I got a job.

TV Show and Career Transition Discussion

Andrew Carroll 16:28

A perfect opportunity to plug in an awesome show that does not sponsor us at all. But have you seen the bear? No, dude, it's so good. It's got one of the guys, one of the actors from shameless Uh, I think he was, I think he was lip. He played Phillip on the show. Such a good actor. He basically like takes over like a family restaurant. He's a highly trained chef and he comes to take over like this sort of dive restaurant. But it's one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. Season two just came out like a month or two ago, but I don't have the streaming platform anymore that it's on.

Brian Burnette 16:57

Oh, what's the streaming platform? I think it's on Hulu. Oh, I don't either.

Andrew Carroll 17:00

Yeah, I mean just yeah, I put in my focus on some other stuff right now, but awesome, show you ever mentioned working in a kitchen.

Brian Burnette 17:07

Very cool, brought it up for me.

Andrew Carroll 17:08

Yeah, I worked in kitchens on and off for 10 years, okay.

Brian Burnette 17:13

Before I switched over to carpentry.

Andrew Carroll 17:15

Oh, yeah, yeah, because now you work wood. Oh yeah, yeah, jesus Christ, okay, yeah, okay, yeah, all right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's it.

Brian Burnette 17:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it's going to be a good show. You know it's a good show, so it's going to be a good show. Yeah, I think it's going to be a good show, yeah, yeah.