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Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Classic Music Saved Me with Simon Davies-Executive Director Teen Cancer America
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- [00:00]
Simon Davies
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
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Simon Davies
You know, I think to be able to give back, you know, their talent and their creativity to people that are going to benefit from it on a deeply personal level is a gift. And I would like to think that they can all recognize that, that what they have is a gift to be able to help people through difficult times.
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Lynne Hoffman
I'm Lynne Hoffman and welcome to this episode of the Music Saved Me podcast, the podcast that delves deep into the healing power of music. If you like this podcast, thank you so much. Please share it with your friends. And also please check out our companion podcast from Buzz Night Media Productions called Taking a Walk Music History on Foot, hosted by Buzz, which is available wherever you get your podcasts. Now today I'm so excited. I get to speak with Simon Davies. He is the executive director of Teen America, which was founded by Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend of the who. Now Simon and his team have a mission which is increasing the survival and improving the lives of adolescents and young adults with cancer by transforming hospitals to better serve their needs. It's a noble cause and we are thrilled to have them here. Simon, welcome to Music Save Me.
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Simon Davies
Yeah, it's a pleasure to be here. I'm really looking forward to the conversation.
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Lynne Hoffman
Me too. Let's start out by having you tell us about the important work of Teen Cancer America and how you became involved.
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Simon Davies
Yeah, well, that will go back a long way. So we'll just start with Teen Cancer America first to begin with. But basically, as you know, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend of the WHO are the founders of this organization and it's really built on a lot of work that happened in the uk. I was the chief executive of an organization called Teenage Cancer Trust in the UK and we did a lot of work there. Roger and Pete loved what we'd achieved and they asked me to do something to help them develop a charity here in America, which I did. Not with an idea that I'd end up here, but I have, and that's 11 years later that I'm now being the Executive Director of Teen Cancer America. And we've made a lot of progress here, so I'm excited about that. But the principle of why we do what we do is really very simple. The health systems, as they are established now and have been for many, many years, are siloed principally into pediatric cancer care and adult cancer care and pediatric cancer care. The average age of a hospital in the US in a pediatric hospital is six. And in the adult world, the adult hospitals, the average age is 60. And it doesn't take much imagination to think about that from an adolescent's point of view or a young adult's point of view. We work with adolescents and young adults and both of those communities feel very left out of the environments and the places that they find themselves in because it's isolating to be amongst very young children and everything is designed around Disney and all of the things that you expect to see in a children's hospital and that a six foot adolescent doesn't really feel like they fit into. And likewise in the adult world, most everything is geared up towards much older people and feel very isolated in that setting. And our goal, our mission is to change really and create a new paradigm which is adolescent and young adult cancer, so that coming together of pediatric and adult care in order to create a specialty that's just around adolescents and young adults and that's on the basis of their clinical needs, in terms of the treatments that they have, because sometimes those have been designed for older or younger people and they're not right for this age group, but also their psychological and social welfare whilst they're being treated and making sure that they have opportunities to experience what they need in terms of social support, in terms of the experience that they, they have, the environment even that they're in, that's created much more for them and creates a specialism. So we're kind of trying to, I suppose, bring about an awkward merger, how you might describe it, between two silos that have not communicated well before and bringing them together to develop a specialist service for these young people and ultimately improve their experience and Their outcomes and their survival.
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Lynne Hoffman
It's very special what you do. And when you do think about it, when you put it that way, you don't really ever see or hear anything that's geared towards this critical time in people's lives when they're growing. I mean, young, like you said, and old. But right there in that sweet spot, it's so, so critical. Besides all the other things that they're dealing with in their life, then they've got to keep this on top of, which is what really made me so excited to meet you. When I did, our paths crossed at an event that you were throwing, and it made me see. I believe Rob Zombie was there. So there was this music element. And. And also you had them in the creative process, which I think music. Well, on this podcast, we talk about how music can be a healing device. And. And so that's why I was so interested in having you come on to talk about this, because you do bring a lot of that creativity together to help them manage. Also, I've had a lot of artists come on this show. Young and writers. Beth Nielsen Chapman, Danilia Cotton. I can go on a list who have faced this in their lives and persevered because of the music.
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Simon Davies
Yeah.
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Lynne Hoffman
So I had to talk to you. It was my mission. Can you share a personal experience where maybe music has helped you through a difficult time?
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Simon Davies
Boy, many. You know, I think music is such a. Is such a genre, which I think connects everybody in so many different ways. And I can think. I mean, I guess, you know, the most. The. The most emotional of the music that has affected me is. Is in relation to, you know, the love of my life. And I still now listen to music that means something to our relationship after almost 50 years of being together. You know, and there are, you know, there. There. There are. There's music that evokes those moments from many years ago when we first met. And it, you know, it's a. It's a motivational thing in our. In our partnership, and we share it.
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Lynne Hoffman
In your opinion, what makes music so powerful? What is it about music that helps so much with. With our emotions, with our healing?
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Simon Davies
I mean, and this isn't just a viewpoint, you know, this is proven, you know, that music does have an intrinsic value in the healing process. And, for example, we are now embarking on a global initiative to have young people share the music that has helped them get through their cancer experience. And so we're creating a global playlist from all around the world that people are contributing to of the music that has helped them during their cancer journey so that we can have this as a library and accessible to all the people that are going through. And I think it's a, you know, so it's a visceral thing. You know, music inspires people anyway, but I think it's a place that people turn to at times of crisis where they can really connect with something that is meaningful to them and gives them, you know, confidence and can help them through those. Those moments.
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Lynne Hoffman
I couldn't agree with you more. And mental health is also a pretty significant topic, especially recent days. How do you think that musicians can use their platform to address mental health issues, which I would assume is a large part of going through a diagnosis of cancer, much less just teenage.
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Simon Davies
Yeah, yeah. I mean, there are many kind of stress points, you know, and, and feelings of depression and hopelessness and isolation. And so music can often be an inspir or a therapy or a relaxation during a stressful moment. And I think musicians that are, you know, have the. Especially for young people, you know, musicians that they know and that they love anyway are tremendously powerful in their lives. You know, people will not just talk about this piece of music that got me through. It'll be this artist that got me through because it's the. Their songs and what they create and so that has meaning. And so from a musician's perspective, you know, I think to be able to give back, you know, their. Their talent and their creativity to people that are going to benefit from it on a deeply personal level is a gift. And I would like to think that they can all recognize that. That what they have is a gift to be able to help people through difficult times.
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Lynne Hoffman
Speaking of gifts, can you tell us where we can hear or see some of these songs that you're collecting from around the world from teenagers?
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Simon Davies
Yeah, we're going to be creating up a special part of our website. We've only just started, but we will do. You can go to. To teen canceramerica.org which is our website. Say that again. Teenager canceramerica.org and you can find out about all of our music initiatives there. But we're going to create this global list and have that linked so that people can just come to the site and add their own.
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Lynne Hoffman
Their own music. That's great. Well, thank you and please keep us posted on that. I definitely want to know, have you seen any changes in how society views mental health in relation to the arts over the years?
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Simon Davies
I mean, I think that certainly mental health is hugely on the agenda at the moment, which is great. People are being much more open about it, and there's a lot more talk about it. When I think about adolescents and young adults particularly, there's an awful lot that's related to social media and some of the challenges that that brings in terms of its opportunity, but also its challenges in some of sort of social isolation that sometimes it has created. And so I think mental health is definitely. It's definitely on the agenda. It's being talked about more openly, and people are talking personally about their experiences, whether they're artists or whether they are people who are going through a mental health crisis. So I think it's. It's also. It's a kind of a normalizing process. You know, we all have struggles, and there's a sort of spectrum from, you know, the. The just the everyday anxieties through to the crises. And I think just that openness and how, you know, music is related to that, and it's being expressed in music and in song, and it's being expressed by the people who are the creators of it. I think this has to be just a very positive message for the world.
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Lynne Hoffman
Looking ahead, what are your goals for the next few years with teen cancer America?
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Simon Davies
Well, in terms of our core work just with the hospitals, we're probably working with about 60 hospitals now. We'd like to be working with a couple of hundred. So we want to make sure that every single young person in America has access to these specialist services and facilities and can feel comforted and helped by that. But we also have been doing a lot of work on developing a music program, which is. We call it play it back, and it's a music education program for young people. My colleague Hilary Gann and Kenley Mattis, who's the music educator, they had got together and created this thing, and it's really taken off, and it's down to their knowledge and expertise about how to work with these young people, that it's as successful as it is. And it was started actually at the request of two parents, two sets of parents, both of whom had lost their sons around the same time. Two different cancers, but around the same age, same time. And they both said to us, we love what you do. We want to support you. But what really made a difference to both of our sons was music and their ability. They were both singer songwriters, and they had used music and poetry as a way of getting through the cancer experience, even though they didn't survive. And they said, we would like to raise some money for you, but we'd like it to go into a music program. Now, these were not rich people and they were the kind of bake sale level of fundraising. And between them they managed to get together about $20,000 over about a year. And they helped us create this Play It Back music program, which we have now extended. I mean, it's now an extraordinary program. Premise behind it is it's not. It's about. It's accessible to anybody who's going through cancer, regardless of their musical ability, but. But it's all about helping them to become singer songwriters. It's about that enabling them at whatever level of ability they have to be able to express themselves through music and to record that. And we help them not only record it, but record it to a very high standard so that they actually have, whether. Whether that ever would get used commercially or whatever, that might be their thing. But at the very least, it's a legacy of a very good quality thing. And I want to just share something with you.
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Lynne Hoffman
Please, please.
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Simon Davies
Today, from one of those parents, I got a. I got a card with a. With. With a thousand dollars from one of those parents who give us some, some money every year. And he said that today is Danny's birthday and Danny was his son and he wants to give this gift to us for our Play It Back music program because we've connect. We've reconnected with them and we keep giving them updates on how it's going and everything. And they're so happy to have been part of it. And it's a card and it is with a quote on it from one of Danny's songs which says the sky is bright with tender hope. And that one of his, one of his poems. And they just keep giving to us. And there's a picture of Danny. He was lost.
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Lynne Hoffman
Oh, what a handsome young man.
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Simon Davies
Beautiful guy to learn about. And there's a Danny Riley dot com. You can look at Danny Riley dot com and learn about him and see his music. But that inspired us. They inspired us to say, right, we're going to do this thing. And it's become a really important part of what we do. Obviously we want to get all that change done in hospitals, but we know that music is incredibly important to young people going through this terrible disease. And what we are enabling them to do is to write their own music, to. To write their songs. And we connect them around the country. So we have young people in different parts of the country who are making music together because we, we had to do that. We used to have it just as an LA base and then the pandemic came, and so we thought we better go online and do this thing. And now we have young people all around the country working together, and we have some great musicians and artists that have come along and helped us, and not just musicians and artists, but also technicians. We've had engineers help us. We've had producers help us, example. But we've had some great people. You know, there's a lot of opportunity for people to get involved, you know, especially people, you know, creative people who want to help young people and provide some sort of mentorship or help them with learning a new instrument or whatever.
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Lynne Hoffman
It takes, or even just to find an artist that gives them solace just to listen to whether they're listening to it or creating. All goes, I think, hand in hand, which is why I wanted you to come on, because besides just hounding you that I can do your commercials, I want to do more to help this cause because it is such a wonderful opportunity to give back. And it's so. I don't know how to explain it. It's just not maybe as known for whatever reason. And I know when it first arrived with Roger behind it, that really gave it some incredible momentum, for sure.
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Simon Davies
And obviously, having somebody like that is fantastic. But John Oates, who I mentioned earlier, and he has been incredible. And not only has he given studio time and helped people out, but he's also put our young people in his video.
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Lynne Hoffman
Oh, my gosh.
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Simon Davies
You know, and he's very personal about it, and that's what we love about it. And Roger has been the greatest ambassador you could wish for. Pete, too. But Pete. Pete's, you know, is. He helps in a quieter way. Roger's the lead singer. Yeah, man. And he's his. You know, what he's done for us and the way he's connected us with other people in the music industry and helped us is. Is second to none. I can't. You know, it's a gift from heaven to have someone like Roger helping you.
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Lynne Hoffman
For sure, Roger's the best. And. And John Oates, he recently just did an episode of Buzz Knight's Taking a Walk podcast, which is great, if you have a chance to check it out.
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Simon Davies
It's, you know, I love that. I love that.
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Lynne Hoffman
I'm glad that he's involved.
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Simon Davies
He's a very warm and loving human being, for sure.
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Lynne Hoffman
He sure is.
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Simon Davies
He's.
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Lynne Hoffman
And he's real. As real as it gets. And I think that's another thing that's so important about what you're doing and what. What's happening what it seems to be happening in the world today with the stigma of mental health, where people want to talk and they just want to be real. They just don't want to hear things that are heavily produced and perfected. They just want the truth. They want to hear and feel and know what people are going through. So they're not alone.
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Simon Davies
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That connection, you know, you know, we're in a world where it's possible to become very isolated. And I think, you know, music is another way of connecting and engaging and it's so important. It's so important. And mental health in any kind of circumstances is a challenge. If you're having mental health challenges at the time of battling cancer, that's even, you know, that's a double whammy that's just so difficult to deal with. And to some extent, everybody who goes through cancer has some kind of mental health challenges for sure, because, you know, they're, they're facing the prospect that they might not survive. But young people going through it, you know, it's a. Yes, a difficult time in life. There are changes. There are, you know, there are, they're, they're going through bodily changes, they're going through psychological changes. They're. It's, it's an important time of education, it's an important time of career development. All these things can get messed up completely and that messes with you. That messes with you when you're going through it. So it's, you know, the things that you can find to help you get through the night. And music is a big part of that for young people. There's no doubt about that.
- [25:45]
Lynne Hoffman
Yeah. Let me ask you before I let you go, how do you personally stay inspired and connected to music in your everyday life?
- [25:55]
Simon Davies
You know, I got a very broad spectrum of music interests and I'm, I like to, I like to listen to music according to what my mood is. And I guess that's the same with everybody. So I'm not, I'm not, I'm not trying to suggest I'm very special, but you know, you know, there are times, you know, when you need a good rock song and there are times when you need a good ballad and being a, being a part of that and having a, you know, having a pretty sort of open minded about the, the interests that I have. So, you know, I can listen to, to Andrea Bocelli's Romanza, you know, and, and then, you know, one of my all time favorite American bands from when I was a teenager is an old Band called the Marshall Tucker Band. And, you know, they're all kind classic, classic stuff and, you know, that can get me going. But, you know, I've just started getting into, you know, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga, you know, and that single that they've got. I love it, you know, so it's. It's just. It's just an everyday part of my life and, you know, you gotta make the most of it. And, you know, you use your catalog for the. For helping to inspire you and any part of your day.
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Lynne Hoffman
Yeah, it's like you open your medicine cabinet, pull out this. You can't pull out the CD anymore, though. You have to. Yeah, that's true, you know.
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Simon Davies
Oh, well, hang on a minute.
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Lynne Hoffman
What?
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Simon Davies
CDS and cassettes are making a comeback?
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Lynne Hoffman
No, tell me more. How do you know?
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Simon Davies
Well, you can read it in the. In the news. They're the. They're the new vinyl.
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Lynne Hoffman
Oh, my gosh. Oh. So now vinyl came back and now.
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Simon Davies
It'S gone again back and now. And now everybody's getting out their old tape cassettes and, you know, we used to make those compilation tapes, you know, and they're listening. Yes. Yeah, yeah. And. And then CDs too. CDs got their place. So it's interesting. I think we are. We're going through a few. You know, you. You need a bit of retro in order to counterbalance the kind of high tech that's taking us an AI and all that stuff. A bit of retro is good for the soul.
- [28:19]
Lynne Hoffman
I love it. On that note, it's a perfect way to end our conversation, although I don't ever want to end a conversation with you. Simon Davies, thanks so much from Teen Cancer America and my life in general. Thank you so much for being here on Music Studio.
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Simon Davies
Thank you for the opportunity and it was great to talk to you. I love, love our conversations and thank you for all your support because you're a special person to the charity, as is Buzz.
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Lynne Hoffman
Oh, before you go, real quick, one more time, Play It Back. And where can people find all of this stuff we've been talking about?
- [28:51]
Simon Davies
Yeah, go to our website in canceramerica.org that's T E N canceramerica.org and make sure that you look into. You can. You're looking out for the Play It Back music program. And then there's amazing podcast series called the Real Me. And that's all about how it's telling young people stories at the same time as talking about the music that they've created and listening to it. Thank you.
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Lynne Hoffman
Thank you.
- [29:22]
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- [30:52]
Simon Davies
This episode is supported by FX Is the Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawke. Allow us to introduce you to Lee Raybon, a quirky journalist, rare bookstore owner, unofficial truth seeker who is always on the tail of his latest conspiracy. This time, his most recent expose puts him head to head with a powerful family that rules Tulsa, meaning only one thing he must be onto something big. FX is the Lowdown. All new Tuesdays on FX stream on Hulu.
- [31:21]
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- [32:22]
Simon Davies
This is an iHeart podcast.