in my life I've always um I've always had a long for acting long before the music
it became an obsession and it became necessary for me I was always painting
um but just uh you know you paint it and you put it off to the side you know
for many years I limited myself away from any sort of painting or showing any paintings because the
idea of making it or succeeding having success in one field and then using that to instigate some
other thing altogether I I I was I was afraid of that you know I had I had far too much respect for
art to try to put myself in into that world just because people knew of me as an actor I didn't
like that it didn't sit well with me but um what I did was I limited myself and that's something that
you know what you're able to do no one should ever do there's only so many years on this planet
Marlin uh Brando said uh brush is a good life is a third song John life is a great song after it was
quite by accident it was in I was a musician and I was in a band and in a band kind of broke up and
I didn't know what else to do and you know you gotta pay the rent even you know when I was a
kid back then I didn't want to do the formula pitter-patter stuff you know I I thought well
if I'm if I'm gonna go from being a musician you know guitarist to uh an actor there's only one way
to approach it really which is kind of the same whether you approach music and so at the time I
remember thinking I think there's a general lack of punk rock actors in the in the neighborhood
of Hollywood so I made this vow to myself that I would only do the things that I wanted to do
to take the road that I thought was really the only right Road for me it's not going to be easy
never going to be easier for much of it you will stand alone but you've got to stand strong to
not get into mediocrity like the other 98 of the world you're all too smart it's too smart to let
it go to waste I mean you've got one shot at this one [ __ ] shot don't let a moment and slip by
grab it snatch it up make it yours celebrate every moment celebrate every [ __ ] breath
this is my life and it was the only Solace it was the only Sanctuary it was the only security it was
my first love you have to realize that whatever your day is whatever you're doing whatever your
job is whatever people think of you or project you to be none of it matters uh really until you
look round and see people who who are in need and I think the probably the best benefit of my
job is to help to make people smile who otherwise wouldn't or couldn't have a smile on their face so
um yeah that's my idea I began to study at various places near The Loft Studio studied
with some other teachers I read all the books that you could read and all that was great but
you realize that the only way to learn how to is not act necessarily the only way to learn how to
react and behave because it's just behavior and its reaction was to do it it's on the job
training it's trial by fire so I did my best to work up my own approach towards a character
so basically what happened was after so many years of limiting myself not allowing myself
to show anything that I painted though I painted for many years and I've always
stuck with it I just didn't want to show it and I think now is a very good time
to embrace the fear or whatever and and then it's showing
so to kick things off I've decided to release a series of nft portraits of dear friends of mine
who've uh mattered to me a great deal they will be released under the title never fear of Truth
this creative never fear truth has always been very very important to me and somewhat
of an obsession but it has never been more important to me than in recent years I think
well I'm looking into the face of Hunter Thompson or his friends these people that I've cared about
so much there is without question truth in in what in what happens to these portraits
and alongside these portraits um have included one of my of my daughter Lily Rose one of my
old dog no who passed away and the bunny man who was essentially well not completely inspired by a
drawing that my son jack made when he was about five years old by creating these portraits it
what it does is it allows me to give back and the idea is to start a community and on top of that
in particular it allows me the opportunity to support um a couple of very important
organizations who have been very very special and important to me and my family over the years one
is the gray woman Street children's hospital and the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles
ultimately having said all that what I truly truly hope is that
that you enjoy the uh the work um that you are able to take something from it you're gonna smile
there were the things that I probably should have done not from my perspective I mean from
my point of view I did the right things every every film that I've done I'm happy that I
that I made that choice I don't have any regrets whatsoever but I mean in terms of uh sustaining
a box office you know Bank ability I should have done a few other things
that I didn't do but I'm glad I didn't do them me
because it wouldn't have been you know yeah it would have been for the wrong reasons everything
that I've been lucky enough to do I did for the right reasons you have to realize that
whatever your day is whatever you're doing whatever your job is whatever people think
of you or project you to be none of it matters uh really until you look round and see people
who who are in need and I think the probably the best benefit benefit of my job is to uh
to help to make people smile
who otherwise wouldn't or couldn't have a smile on their face so um yeah that's my ideal