Celebrity Jobber with Jeff Zito - Ryan Dusick

Summary

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Celebrity Jobber Podcast with Jeff Zito

Episode: Ryan Dusick (Original Drummer, Maroon 5)
Release Date: September 12, 2025
Podcast Host: Jeff Zito
Guest: Ryan Dusick

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Episode Overview

This episode features an insightful conversation between Jeff Zito and Ryan Dusick, the founding drummer of the globally renowned band Maroon 5. The central theme explores the complex realities behind achieving stardom, the toll that fame can take on mental health, and the journey of reinvention when a “dream job” ends unexpectedly. Ryan opens up about his path from music stardom through personal struggle to his new life as a mental health advocate and therapist.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Myth of Overnight Success (03:39–04:57)

• Maroon 5’s Early Struggles: Ryan recalls that prior to their grammy-winning breakthrough, Maroon 5 toiled for a decade, enduring failures and lineup transformations:

  “We were a band for 10 years at that point. So there a whole backstory that led up to that moment.” (03:39)

• Hard Touring Life: Even after their album “Songs About Jane” was released, success was gradual. The band played over 500 shows in two years, living out of vans and doing their own heavy lifting.

Musical Roots & Family Influences (05:21–06:51)

• Growing Up in LA: Ryan describes his family’s subtle but rich musical background, with relatives in both professional music and entertainment law.
• Early Inspiration:

  “My grandfather, my dad's dad was a Hollywood makeup artist... but he also was an amateur songwriter and he played piano and he trained my dad and my aunt to sing harmonies when they were like four years old.” (05:21)

Pursuing Dreams vs. Having a Backup Plan (07:42–10:36)

• Education & Parental Guidance: Despite his rock aspirations, Ryan’s parents insisted on a college degree for security.

  “I'll go to school until we become rock stars. You know, that was my big plan.” (08:03)

• English Major as a Safety Net: He eventually realized the value of his degree — especially when writing his memoir, Harder to Breathe:

  “For 20 years, I did nothing with that bachelor's degree, right? And then all of a sudden, I find myself back in school, getting a master's degree... and then decided to write a book called Harder to Breathe about my life.” (09:18)

The Reality of the Rock Star Lifestyle (11:09–14:36)

• Two Phases of Touring:
  • Initially, the band endured a frenetic schedule in cramped vans, doing everything themselves.
  • Later, as fame grew, they were jet-setting globally, but faced a new level of unrelenting pressure and scrutiny.
• Mental & Physical Exhaustion:

  “Everyone has a threshold past which it's too much. And for me, I went way past that point. And it really did start to take a toll on my constitution.” (13:38)

Turning Point: Forced to Leave Maroon 5 (15:09–18:42)

• Breakdown – Physical and Psychological:
  Ryan’s arm injury made drumming impossible, but the deeper issue was a total physical, psychological, and spiritual collapse.

  “My unconscious mind and my nervous system just made a decision at a certain point that I couldn't make consciously, which was, we're not going to let you continue to do this.” (15:09)

• Losing Identity: The hardest part was losing not just a job, but his entire identity:

  “The band was my entire world. It was my entire life at that point. It was. My entire identity was wrapped up in being the drummer of Maroon 5.” (16:09)

• Aftermath – Coping with Loss:
  Turning to unhealthy coping mechanisms, Ryan eventually recognized the need for help and began a journey of recovery.

Reinvention & Mental Health Advocacy (19:28–22:01)

• Recovery & New Purpose:
  Service, therapy, and writing became new lifelines for Ryan.
• Promise to Live:
  As an advocate and speaker, Ryan now works with Promise to Live, a suicide prevention movement:

  “Promise to Live had reached over 3 million people live streaming on their event last year... It's an organization that's really, you know, sort of putting their money where their mouth is in terms of advocacy on a global scale.” (19:28)

• Fulfillment in Helping Others:

  “Becoming an advocate has just been another level of fulfillment that comes from this incredible journey I've been on.” (21:29)

First Job & Childhood Passions (22:21–22:57)

• Little League Announcer:
  Ryan’s very first job was as a baseball announcer at age 12, combining his early love for baseball and performing:

  “I'd show up with my little score pad, I'd keep score and I'd run the scoreboard. And I'd say, now up at bat...” (22:21)

The “Big Break” Moment (23:25–26:40)

• Arena Show with John Mayer:
  The moment Maroon 5 saw their lives change was playing their first arena — a 12,000-seat venue opening for John Mayer.

  “Adam turns around to me, he says, vamp, vamp. So just keep playing the beat. And he turns around, he goes up to the mic, and he says, I want to see you guys... can we get the lighting guy to turn up the house lights?” (25:01)

  • The lights went up, revealing the packed arena and wild cheers, making the band realize:

    “That's not an experience most people get to have. And to see it, it felt surreal. It felt like a dream.” (26:30)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On pursuing a dream:

  "It's funny how things happen in life and at the time they, they seem like terrible, tragic events. And you look back and you're like, well, there was a good reason for that." — Ryan Dusick (08:03)

• On burnout and identity loss:

  "My body was just not allowing me to do something that my nervous system had identified as a threat." — Ryan Dusick (15:09)

• On recovery and advocacy:

  "Being just showing up for other people was a really helpful way for me to get out of the self obsession that goes along with addiction and anxiety and depression." — Ryan Dusick (19:28)

• The transformative break:

  “Can we get the lighting guy to turn up the house lights? ... The lighting guy turns up the house lights, and we get a glimpse of 12,000 people staring at us, and they are cheering wildly... it felt like a dream.” — Ryan Dusick (25:01–26:30)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:39–04:57 — Maroon 5’s “overnight success” myth and early setbacks
• 05:21–06:51 — Ryan’s family background and musical influences
• 08:03–10:36 — Balancing dreams with education, English degree, early passion for writing
• 11:09–14:36 — The grind and unglamorous side of touring
• 15:09–18:42 — Forced departure from Maroon 5, coping with loss, breakdown and recovery
• 19:28–22:01 — Becoming a therapist, advocacy work, Promise to Live, and fulfilling a new mission
• 22:21–22:57 — Ryan’s first job: Little League announcer, passion for baseball
• 23:25–26:40 — The career-defining “big break”: first arena show with John Mayer

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Conclusion

This episode delivers a compelling and deeply personal account of Ryan Dusick’s rise, fall, and reinvention. It highlights the harsh realities behind the glamour of stardom, underscores the importance of mental health and adaptation, and serves as a testament to the power of finding new purpose after loss. Ryan’s journey shows that even after achieving — and losing — a dream job, it’s possible to redefine success and make a profound impact in a new field.

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For more on Ryan Dusick:

• RyanDusick.com
• Book: Harder to Breathe
• Podcast: Harder to Breathe Podcast
• Organization: Promise to Live

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Transcript

[A]

Hey, it's Jeff Zito. And thanks again for checking out the Celebrity Jobber podcast number three this week on the Apple Podcast music interviews chart. Thank you so much for listening and streaming everywhere. You listen to podcasts, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, we're on all of them. And I ask you to please subscribe. Leave a five star rating and please leave a review. If you want to check out past guests and episodes, you can do so [e-mail] you know, these are all different stories. This one was really, really impactful to me because I have a son who played baseball and at a high level all the way through college. And it was his dream to make it to the majors. And as a lot of people know, that's a tough, tough dream. Just like anybody, you know, it's a dream, right? So as things didn't work out for my son in the world of professional sports after he graduated college, he definitely had a tough time adjusting to the real world. My guest today achieved his goals, his dream. He made it, and man, did he make it big. But things aren't always as they seem. Ryan Dusick, the Drummer of Maroon 5, has a story that I think could help a lot of people. And I remember this story from the very beginning because I was working at the time in the music radio business and had a relationship with the guy who discovered the band. We'll talk to Ryan about that journey. What happened to him after he reached his goal? What was his big break? What's he doing these days? I think it might surprise you. What was his very first job? He was the original drummer for the band Maroon 5. Ryan Dusick, in is my guest this week on Celebrity Jobber, the Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, give a five star rating, and leave a review. Check out all our past episodes on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you pod. What if these celebrities weren't famous? What would they have become? What was their first job? We're about to find out. Hey, Ryan.

[B]

Hey, Jeff. How are you?

[A]

I'm doing great, man. Dusick, is that how I pronounce your last name?

[B]

You got it.

[A]

Really excited to talk to you, man. Kind of, you know, a little bit of history. I'm in the radio business for a lot of years, so I have a relationship with Ben Berkman. And I remember and for people that don't know who that is, he was very influential in discovering, if I, if I can say Maroon 5. And, you know, I haven't talked to him in a lot of years, but I remember just being so fascinated with how his business with Octone Records. I actually called him, like, I don't 25 years ago, and I asked him for a job, you know, that was always, you know, taught, if you want something, go ahead and just ask for it. He was just like, ah, you know, he didn't have quite the same feelings about me probably as I had about him, because he's just such a smart, smart business guy. So I remember the whole thing with Maroon 5. I worked at a alternative station and there was a song, it was, I. I think it was called Harder to Breathe, which was the, the first song that came out. But this, this didn't like, this wasn't like a overnight success, right? Like, you guys had some rocky roads until you got to that point, Correct?

[B]

Yeah. It's funny because we won best New artist Grammy in 2004 and people thought, you know, it was an overnight success. We were a band for 10 years at that point. So there a whole backstory that led up to that moment. We started the band in, in 94 in my parents garage when we were just grungy kids emulating Pearl Jam and Nirvana and Sound Garden. And it took a decade. It took a decade of, of. We had one major record deal with Warner Brothers that we put out an album that totally flopped and we had to go back to the drawing board and start over. We had many lives as a band. A lot of different sounds, a lot of different failures that led to us growing and eventually discovering the sound that became Maroon 5. But even, even on that album, Songs About Jane, that was our breakthrough. We made that record in 2001. We toured in 2002 and 2003. We played over 500 shows in those two years. And that's not even including all the other stuff. The, you know, the in store appearances, the radio appearances, the photo shoots, the video shoots. So it was an exhausting couple years. And then the album took off.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So we were literally two years into the, the most grueling touring schedule you could possibly imagine. And then this Love became a big number one hit.

[A]

Wow. I remember, I remember. And tell me, Ryan, are you like, you grew up in la, so is your family musical? Were you guys just high school kids? And we're like, let's start a band, get some chicks. What, what was the, the back like? Did, did you and your family, did you have any kind of musical background growing up?

[B]

Definitely, definitely. You know, growing up, I Didn't think, I guess I didn't know any different, but I didn't think of myself or my family as particularly musical. But when you look at the amount of musicians in my family and the successes, it's definitely. There's a story there. My, my grandfather, my dad's dad was a Hollywood makeup artist. So we, you know, being an LA family, we were the entertainment industry. Hollywood was a part of my blood. But he also was an amateur songwriter and he played piano and he trained my dad and my aunt to sing harmonies when they were like 4 years old. My aunt Michelle went on to be a Broadway singer and star and recording star and TV and film. My dad, you know, played a little bit of guitar and was an amateur songwriter himself. He used to sing songs to me and my brother when we were going to bed at night. And on my mom's side, my grandfather played two instruments, the fiddle and the, and the mandolin. And I had two uncles that growing up played jazz drums and guitar. So there's a lot of musicians in my family and some successful ones. And then. But it was when my older brother Josh started playing the electric guitar and emulating Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, that's when I kind of found my passion, decided to play the drums. But yes, when we started the band, we were just the. A bunch of idiots wanting to.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Get checks.

[A]

So what, what, what about your mom and dad as far as like, what. What kind of work were they in, kind of business were they in when you were growing up?

[B]

Well, my dad's an attorney and he actually does work in the entertainment business a lot. So he. Okay, you know, my aunt Michelle, who's a star, he. That's. Was probably his biggest client for a lot of his, his career. He's, he's worked in animation. He's worked in a lot of different fields of as, as, you know, the, the legal entity of these companies. So yeah, I mean, I've been in and around the entertainment business most of my life, so we were really fortunate in that way. I think when we, when we did finally get a record deal, we had some exposure to what that would bring. And we had you hear horror stories, of course, of people that get taken advantage of because they have no idea what's in a contract, what they're signing, what is going to come from that life. So we had a little bit of education, however, you know, that doesn't really prepare you for what the life is really going to be like. I don't think anything can really prepare you for that.

[A]

I want to get into that in a second. But were with your dad having that background, was he ever like, ryan, this is cool, have fun. But did he point you in a certain direction when you went to college? Did you have like a, you know, a backup, if you will, or a major that you were, you know, studying in school?

[B]

Yeah, of course. My parents wanted me very badly to have a degree to fall back on. And I, you know, I didn't see that at the time. I was like, well, I'll go to school until. Until we become rock stars. You know, that was my big plan. You know, it's funny how things happen in life and at the time they, they seem like terrible, tragic events. And you look back and you're like, well, there was a good reason for that. And it actually turned out well. That first record deal that we had came when I was a freshman and sophomore at ucla. And when we were making this record and I was convinced, you know, we're going to finish the record, go out on the road and become the next Beatles, and that's going to be it. I'm never going to go back to school. But that didn't happen. You know, the record flopped. We ended up coming home and having to start over. And I, somehow I had the wherewithal to re. Enroll at UCLA and declare an English major. And it was like the perfect amount of time. In the next three years, while I was studying, we rediscovered and found a new sound and then eventually got our second record deal. And so I was able to get that degree. And my parents, I think, very, you know, secretly were like, oh, thank God.

[A]

Right? What were you going to use that English degree for? Did you even get that far or no?

[B]

Well, my other passion, I, when I was in high school, well, even earlier than that, as a kid, before I discovered music, I always liked writing. Writing was something I had a passion for. And as a kid it was. Was just writing poetry or, or writing little stories that looked a lot like the books that I was reading, you know, children's stories and. But I kind of. That fell by the wayside for a long time. But in high school, because my passion was for music. The only other thing I was really passionate about was journalism. I was the editor of my high school newspaper in high school. And I, I think that if it hadn't been the success of the band, maybe music journalism, you know, working for a magazine or something like that might have been something I would have pursued. So I, I could have gone to journalism school. But I figured an English major was a good way to just develop the skill set of writing and, and all that stuff. But another. Another example is like, you, how things work out. Like, for 20 years, I did nothing with that bachelor's degree, right? And then all of a sudden, I find myself back in school, getting a master's degree in clinical psychology and writing writing papers, and then decided to write a book called Harder to Breathe about my life. And I really just wrote that book and did most of it myself without too much help from an editor because I had an English degree and I could do that.

[A]

Okay. Okay.

[B]

So things came full circle.

[A]

The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito Celebrity Jobber. You mentioned just a few minutes ago about, you know, the rock star lifestyle, touring, and people think it's glamorous and, and you mentioned, like, it's not really all it's cracked up to be. It. Can you tell me a little bit of the grind that you have to go through with the traveling and what it's like to be a huge star?

[B]

Well, I put it into two different phases because we toured on that album, Songs About Jane, for about four years in total, and it was just the never ending tour. And it is glamorous and it isn't, you know, it is all the things, when you reach the level we did, all the things you fantasize about, sure, those things happened and they were wonderful, but there was also a lot of things that went into it that nobody sees that is so incredibly challenging and oftentimes totally unglamorous. So for the first two years, 2002, 2003, playing over 500 shows in those years, we're driving ourselves around the country ourselves with just a. A tour manager and maybe a guitar tech in a passenger van and all of our gear and a U Haul. And every day you're driving, you know, six, eight hours to get to the next city, the next venue, pulling all of your gear out and setting up for soundcheck in those days, because we're also, we're there to play a show, but we're also there to hustle and schmooze with the local radio reps or the local distribution center. And so you're doing acoustic shows for the radio station or for your distributors or your, you know, your record label wants to schmooze with you, to take you out for drinks before the show or after the show. So your days are really jam packed with a lot of stuff. And you add to that doing meet and greets and doing photo shoots and doing all these things and having to fly home to shoot a video or do press because your singles coming out or whatever it may be locally or globally, but that was all on a micro level. For two years, it was just slowly building one radio station at a time, one city at a time, one town, one college town, one university, you know, and. But eventually it starts to all coalesce into this bigger thing where now you're getting a lot of attention and you have. We had a gold record. In the fall of 2003, we did our first headlining tour of, like, small theaters. And we were poised at that point to then go to the next level. So then it becomes exponential. In 2004, 5, we had major hits that came out globally. This love, she Will Be Loved Sunday Morning. And now you're. You're jet set. You know, you're flying all over the world. There's jet lag that goes into that. You're having to fly to London and then wake up and do a week of press and promo and play. Play at Wembley Arena.

[A]

Everybody grabbing at you, right? Like, everyone. Hard talk about harder to breathe. Everybody wants a piece of you. Yeah.

[B]

Especially for somebody like me who's. I mean, I. I'm a social person, but I'm an introvert by nature. Like, I need my downtime. I need to retreat into my own space, and there's just no space for that. A lot of the times when you're in that world because you're constantly around people, like you said, everyone is kind of grabbing at you in the best way. Usually, I mean, usually everyone just wants to be a part of what's so special. And there's an energy, and that's where the fun comes in. You know, you feel there's just this energy every day. A lot of adrenaline, a lot of excitement. Every day you're celebrating something, whether it's just the show or another gold record in Denmark or a platinum record in Japan, and you always have something to celebrate. And we had so many wonderful opportunities to meet our heroes. Stevie Wonder, Prince, Jimmy Page. And so just amazing memories. But everyone has a threshold past which it's too much. And for me, I went way past that point. And it really did start to take a toll on my constitution.

[A]

Celebrity Jobber. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. So getting into what you do now, before, I mean, you're at the height of. You're at the height of the band is exploding. It's at the biggest point, you know, and you decide to. To quit the band. Can you tell me why? It Decided to quit the band mentally. The toll that took on you at that time and what you're. What you're doing now.

[B]

Well, it wasn't much of a choice really, because, you know, I. I had been having problems with my arm that became really debilitating and I really lost the ability to play the drums in the way that was necessary to perform at the level that we were. We were performing and we had tried for a year, you know, as we were transitioning from the Songs About Jane era into making the next record, the follow up to it. We had tried everything. I'd gone to every kind of doctor. The band was really patient in trying to allow me to heal and. And recover the thing that I didn't. I understood it on some level at the time, but in retrospect, I have more clarity on. Is that the problem wasn't just one joint or one nerve or one, you know, just injury that needed to heal. It was. It was a psychological breakdown as much as it was a physical breakdown. It was. It was a spiritual breakdown. My body was just not allowing me to do something that my nervous system was. Had. Had had sort of identified as a threat. The amount of pressure, the amount of stress, the amount of performance was really breaking me down. And so I really think that my. My unconscious mind and my nervous system just made a decision at a point, at a certain point that I couldn't make consciously, which was, we're not going to let you continue to do this. And so that just took the form of my body just not being able to coordinate playing the drums the way I used to. And so it was not something that it was really choice. I mean, it was just a mutual had to make for me to walk away and for them to move on without me. And that was really the most devastating and heartbreaking thing that's ever happened in my life. Because the whole. The band was my entire world. It was my entire life at that point. It was. My entire identity was wrapped up in being the drummer of Maroon 5. It was something that I invested all of myself for a decade into. We finally had all this success. I didn't know who I was if I wasn't that right. And so on some level, it was a relief because I'd been in so much pain and so much struggle. But in a larger sense, I had to go through a real grieving process to deal with and cope with the loss of that identity, the loss of that career, everything that went with it. I mean, it was my entire social world. It was everything that was connecting and.

[A]

I can only imagine.

[B]

Yeah, so I mean it was, it was a. It was a struggle. I mean, I really, I chose every unhealthy way to try to cope with it, as we tend to do when we're grieving. You know, I was angry, I was in denial, I was depressed, I was anxious, I was drinking too much, I was acting out and behaving. You know, I took on an alter ego where I was like still just a rock star living a totally decadent, nihilistic life as my way of just trying to escape and avoid the real feelings that I was. I was experiencing the pain, you know, so that obviously didn't work. I mean, it worked for a while, but in the long run it made things worse until I finally, you know, reached a bit of a spiritual bottom. Just feeling really disconnected from life and feeling like a lack of meaning and purpose. I just, just being, you know, really sick, you know, I, I had a terrible anxiety disorder. My alcoholism had reached a really unhealthy level. And so I, you know, I. I don't know how, but somehow I had just enough clarity to recognize that my way of doing things was, was, was not solving it, it was actually making it worse. And that the only way that I was going to find any solutions to what was really a problem for me was to surrender and to just accept the help that might offer me something I couldn't offer myself.

[A]

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[B]

Yeah, this whole journey in the last decade of my life is not something I could have foreseen, but it was a natural outgrowth of my own recovery. You know, I discovered service early on in my recovery being just showing up for other people was a really helpful way for me to get out of the self obsession that goes along with addiction and anxiety and depression. And so that started, you know, just a whole new passion for mental health and psychology that led to me going Back to school to become a therapist and writing my book, Harder to Breathe. That kind of kicked off this other aspect of my life, which is this public advocacy that I've been doing. I didn't. I never thought of myself as a public speaker, but now I had actual, you know, life experience and an education to speak on. And so I started getting asked to promote my book and otherwise, to talk about mental health and talk about psychology and tell my story. And so becoming an advocate has just been another level of fulfillment that comes from this incredible journey I've been on. And Promise to Live is an organization that's taking things to a whole other level. It's one thing for me to work with people one on one, which is very fulfilling, and even to have some people buy my book or listen to my podcast, the Harder To Breathe podcast. Those are all really meaningful ways to be of service and to advocate. But we're talking about. Promise to Live had reached over 3 million people live streaming on their event last year. It's going to be more than that this year. It's an organization that's really, you know, sort of putting their money where their mouth is in terms of advocacy on a global scale. It's a global movement. On World suicide prevention day, September 10, where anyone can get involved, everyone can become an advocate just by tuning in and even live streaming it through their social media platforms to reach an even bigger audience. It's so necessary. We need to have this conversation, destigmatize talking about suicide, and ultimately save lives by connecting the people who need help with the resources that help them. And so that's why I've signed up to help with Promise to Live to promote this event. And I'll be there on stage at the Avalon Theater that night with my podcast co host, the Harder To Breathe podcast. We're both going to be up there with comedian Rob Riggles going to be on the stage with us. Jojo Siwa is going to be up there. They're honoring Allison Holker. There's just a lot of really interesting heroes and survivors, and it's going to be a. There's going to be performances and. And it's going to be entertaining, but. But obviously, most importantly, we're going to be talking about a topic that's so important and necessary to destigmatize.

[A]

Celebrity Jobber. The Celebrity Jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. Unbelievable story. I could only imagine what it would be like to have to choose your health over this incredible lifestyle and this dream come true. What was your first Job. Do you remember your very first job ever?

[B]

I think my first job, if it just popped in my mind when I was 12 years old, baseball was my first passion in life. And I thought I was going to be a pitcher for the Dodgers someday. I was a really good pitcher at age 12 and at my Little League, you could sign up to run the board and be the announcer for the Little League games. I think it was probably like something like 20 bucks a game or something like that. But I would do it every weekend. I'd show up with my little score pad, I'd keep score and I'd run the scoreboard. And I say, now up at that. Right, Charlie Tenenbaum?

[A]

Right on. That's a fun kind of first job. And lastly, I wanted to know, you know, I'm sure it could be a long story, but do you remember the moment everything changed? The big break? I just want to know, like, maybe what it was. Was it an appearance? Was it hearing your song on the radio? What was that thing that happened to where you looked at yourself in the mirror and said, my life's different forever?

[B]

There were a series of things that were like that on different levels. It was a very gradual thing because, you know, it wasn't an overnight success. However, you know, though, there are those flashbulb moments that are like, ah, that was a moment where we all looked at each other and said, holy crap. You know. And the thing that leaps to mind when I'm asked that question was the first time that we ever played in an arena. We were opening up for John Mayer for the first time. And this was actually pretty early. I think it was the end of 2002 probably, so our first year of touring on Songs About Jane. But we were about a year into touring and we were seeing the gradual growth. You know, we'd come into town the first time we're playing for 50 people. The next time we come into town we're playing for 200 people. It had grown to the point where we were playing, we were opening up for acts that were playing in theaters and stuff like that. And then finally John Mayer asked us to do a few dates on the east coast because he had heard our record and was a fan. We had, I think, harder to breathe out. But it wasn't a huge hit at the point, at that point. So people, some people would know us, but the general public didn't really know us yet. So we pull into. It was in Philadelphia at Temple University. They've got a 12,000 seat arena and. And John was excited to introduce us, which was cool because you didn't have to do that normally, you know, the opener goes on. The place is a quarter full. The lights are on. It's very undramatic, and no one remembers. And then the headliner comes on later. He actually held back the set time because the place wasn't full enough yet. And he said, everybody hang back. And so we're at the side of the stage with John in the wings of this arena. And then finally, the lights go down. And when the lights go down in an arena, we had never been on stage, you can't really see the audience. It's just a big empty void because you're up there. It's just like an airplane hangar. And all the lights are on you. These big, huge lights, and there's these big speakers that are going out to the audience that just kind of create this big rumble that you can't even really hear on stage because it's just kind of a rumble. So you walk on. He. He announces us, which was amazing. We were thankful, but. But he's just, like, under the spotlight. He walks off, we walk on. We just. We can't even see. We can't get a sense. It feels very cold. So we play our set. We're just kind of looking at each other like, okay, I don't know. I guess this is going all right. But we're in the last song of the set, which was Sunday Morning. It starts with me playing the beat at the start of the song, and Adam turns around to me, he says, vamp, vamp. So just keep playing the beat. And he turns around, he goes up to the mic, and he says, I want to see you guys. Like, we've been up here for half an hour, and I can't even see you guys. He says, can we get the lighting guy to turn up the house lights? And so right in that moment, the lighting guy turns up the house lights, and we get a glimpse of 12,000 people staring at us, and they are cheering wildly. And I remember vividly from my drum seat looking all the way to the back of the arena, at the very top, back seats, people waving their hands over their heads like this. And they looked like little ants to me. They were so far away.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

And I almost fell. I almost fell off of my drum seat because it was like, that's not an experience most people get to have. And to see it, it felt surreal. It felt like a dream. Like it was.

[A]

It was right then and there. Ryan, what an incredible story. Promise to Live. His book, Harder to Breathe. Phenomenal story. Good luck to you the rest of the way. And it was a real pleasure speaking with you.

[B]

Thanks, Jeff. Appreciate it.

[A]

So thinking back to like, you know, working so hard towards your dream and you are just tirelessly working, not an overnight success like you said. It was like a 10 year process and finally achieving the status that you achieved. To only have to quit because of health reasons. It was taken all away. And imagining what that is like mentally going through. And he told you he was dealing with it his own way, self medication. It seemed like it took a while for him to come out of that funk. And again, I can only imagine, you know, when he went to college, he said he majored in English. He had a passion for writing, he had a passion for journalism. He thinks he might have gone in that direction if music didn't really work out for him early on. But as we know now, after dealing with not being in the band anymore and dealing with his mental health, he's now become a therapist to help other people in similar circumstances. I mean, I think it's just a really, really important story to hear. His other passion was baseball. So his very first job was at little league games and announcing the players. Sound like a pretty cool first job. Not trying to one up Ryan, but I had that same job, but it wasn't for little league. It was for the Boston Red Sox in spring training. And I remember being on the microphone now batting for the Red Sox, number 24, Manny Ramirez. And the place went wild off of my voice. It was a major rush. And I guess for Ryan, his big break was when he was out on the road with Maroon 5. He. He actually teamed up with John Mayer. They had a relationship. And when he was in Philly, all of a sudden, you know, they turn the lights on and there they were, 12,000 people there to see Maroon 5. And usually, you know, the opening band has a few people, stragglers coming in and out, but they were there to see Maroon 5. And I think for the first time, Ryan was like, wow, I think we're on to something. I think the moral of this story is there is life after your dream job. You know, if you have your dream job and it doesn't last long, you get fired. Maybe you feel like that job defined you and you'll never be able to get it back. This guy reinvented himself. He's in a good space. I think he's completely at peace with his decision. And I think at the end of the day, again, a very important story to hear. I think Ryan is a pretty good example of how to reinvent yourself and move forward. With that being said, Ryan Dusick.com that's D U S I C K Ryan Dusick.com he's got a podcast called the Harder To Breathe Podcast. He does therapy, he does coaching, he does speaking engagements. He wrote the book Harder to Breathe. And of course that's where his English degree came in handy, as he mentioned. So Ryan Dusick.com for more information. Thank you so much for making this one of the top podcasts on the Apple Podcast Music Interviews chart. I think we're number three today. We're streaming on all platforms, whether it's Spotify, Iheart, Apple Podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts, I ask you to please subscribe. Would love a five star rating and please leave a review. Plus you can check out past guests and episodes [e-mail] and celebrating the Celebrity Jobber Podcast's third anniversary. That's right, we're three years old. Over 150 episodes. Again, you can go back and check them all [e-mail] I can't thank you enough for listening. Got a great guest coming up next week. He'll be the last of the tenderloins. That's right, impractical joker. Sal Volcano, my guest next week. Until then, thanks again for listening. I'm Jeff Zito.