Transcriber: Đạt Đào Quang Reviewer: Hani Eldalees
Hello, everyone, my name is James Lee.
I’ve been in the music industry about 16 years,
and I started in Los Angeles, California
I moved to Korea in 2011 with my rock band.
We were called Royal Pirates,
and they gave me the opportunity to travel the world and tour
and play in arenas in front of tens of thousands of people.
And that all came to an end in 2015.
When my left hand was cut off,
I was walking into a restaurant and a glass door collapsed
and severed my left hand, dislocated my left shoulder
and left me with glass stuck in my head.
So I had to transition from being a full time bassist, to being now
a full time music producer who’s blessed to work with some of
the best artists in the world.
Thank you.
I started my music production career in China in 2017.
And like I said, I've been able to work with some of the best singers,
some of the most popular artists,
some of the names you might know include Angela Baby, Tonguing, Junkier.
I've also had the opportunity to be
on stage with some legendary singers like Sonny or Wang Lijun,
just to name a few. And I started 2020 off with a ton of momentum,
so I was working as a concert producer
for very popular artist who was coming fresh off of a TV show that was
a competition based for idols.
And we had a fantastic first show in front of thousands of his screaming fans.
I can not forget the ringing in my ears, the thousands of fans screaming his name.
And we said, man, this is going to be a great 2020
We're going to tour the rest of China. It's going to be great.
But I said before we go, I got to go back to L.A. and see my parents real quick.
I'll be right back. And so I got on the plane, I got back to L.A. .
And then the world changed, as you guys know.
So going from the bright lights,
that would have been easy to be depressed being stuck at home,
but I decided to take this opportunity to really focus on the one thing
I wasn't able to do over the past 10 years.
And that's improved my relationship with my parents.
And don't get me wrong, there is nothing ever sour about our relationship.
They’re great people. They’re beautiful.
Hi mom, and honestly,
I just want to do my best to make sure that they had the best time with
the time they have left, because being away for 10 years,
it made me re-evaluate the way that I process time.
I used to think of time in terms of minutes, hours and years,
but being away for so long, I start to think of time in terms of visits,
in terms of moments and every visit, I would notice something new.
There would be a scar or there would be a new set of wrinkles on their face
or there’d be a new physical ailment. My father is disabled.
He's unable to walk properly,
and he had four serious back surgeries after which
the doctor said he would not be able to walk ever again.
So his ability to be mobile at this point is a testament to defying the odds.
So I wanted to spoil them. I wanted to give them something special.
And I thought, what better way to expedite
the improvement of our relationship than by buying them a car?
So I bought them a car, and it’s not fancy it’s nothing super expensive,
but it worked and it made them happy, so The longer I stayed.
I began to recognize why the gift of a car was so significant.
It's not that it was a toy, but it was a tool.
It gave them the mobility and freedom that they didn't have before.
And let me give you an example of why that was so significant.
My older sister just had her second child and whenever they wanted,
they could come visit and hang out and watch the baby
and they wouldn't have been able to do that before.
They would have been home just wondering what we're doing.
And so with this, I saw a re-emergence of strength.
Of confidence and maybe even a little hope.
After my accident, I began to realize that every single person will have
a moment in their life.
Where the fundamentals of who they are will change.
After 2020, I learned that this can happen again.
And this can happen again and again.
But it's really up to us to do our best with what we have.
Now, my parents are happy with their new car.
And yeah, they're healthy and happy and loving life,
so that's a plus one for me. Thank you.