Lil Xan recalls the SoundCloud era, from driving XXXTentacion and Ski Mask to an Airbnb to meeting Juice WRLD backstage and briefly talking to Mac Miller before his death. He reflects on losing several peers and plans to expand the podcast into a longer-form production.
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Hello everybody, what is going on? This is, I believe, episode 3 of the Before I Forget podcast. As you have noticed, there's been a little hiatus between episodes 1 and 2. I believe the last episode I did for this podcast was, oh, like 2 months ago, maybe 3 months at the most. Um, but there's a reason for that. I wanted to get episodes out more frequently, uh, but I like to do this thing where I, I take some time off from, um, social media and, um, and kind of working and whatnot. And it's probably not in my best interest to do that, but you know, sometimes I need a break from, um just, I need a break from it all, you know. Social media and whatnot can be pretty overwhelming sometimes and, uh, and very, very emotionally draining. And then, you know, along those lines, and it just gets too much sometimes. So I mean, if you, you could ask any of my close friends, family, they'll be like, oh, Diego, he disappears sometimes for, uh, a month, 2 months, 3 months. Um, on end, but I always do come back. I always do come back, and I'm back now. And, um, yeah, I, I took a little social media break and, um, just to clear my head and whatnot, and I'm, I'm feeling a lot better. Um, you know, like I said, it just can build up, build up inside you, all that, all those emotions, and it just gets to, it gets to a point, you know. And, and I do that so I don't have like a mental breakdown and all that, all that crazy jazz. But I'm feeling a lot better. I'm feeling, I'm feeling a lot better. And I just wanted to say thank you to all the listeners out there. I know this is, you know, this is like my ghetto kind of podcast right now, but I want to make this into something that lasts very long term, that lasts a long time. And I just wanted to say thank you to all the people that are listening out there. And yeah, it just means a lot. And yeah, as you can notice, as you have noticed, there you go, my speech impediments always reaping its ugly head. We're not in the studio room currently. I'm trying to remodel that studio room to get it just, I don't know, I'm trying to get it to where it looks like an official podcast kind of studio room. Um, so yeah, I'm in the middle of remodeling that. So, uh, welcome to my couch in the living room. That's where we're going to be doing this for today and maybe episode 4 after this. This is episode 3. We might still be here on the couch, but you know, wherever, wherever I need to do it to get it done. Um, I love, I love this podcast even though I've only had a couple episodes that have come out so far. It's, it's very therapeutic. For me to do this. I like to talk about certain things, parts of my life, you know, stuff that I've struggled with, or the good, the bad, whatever it is. It's very therapeutic. And yeah, again, I just want to say thank you to anybody that's listening to this because we're very early on in this. And yeah, I just hope one day that we can make this into a big budget, big production thing. But you know, you got to start, you got to start somewhere. And we're here at the beginning. But yeah, thanks again to everybody that's tuned in to the first couple episodes. And today it's a little different. Today I was going over my notes because I always write notes before I do these episodes. I like to, you know, to get my head in the right place and what I want each episode to be about. In the past episodes, I believe one was about losing my mom. The other one was about you know, life after you peak in fame, you know, the inevitable fall-off. I believe that that's the name of that episode. Um, and I was thinking, what, what should be episode 3? What is the theme of episode 3? And, uh, I was like, maybe, you know what, I kind of want to do like a story time. I think that's a little different so far than what we've done. Um, while the last 2 episodes have been more like struggles and hardships that I've gone through in life. I wanted to make today kind of just a story, like a storytime, you know, talking about just a couple, maybe a couple or a few experiences that I had from the grand old SoundCloud era, the Xandemic, as some people like to call it, you know, 2016 to 2019. And I've touched a little bit on that, I think, in my last episode, The Inevitable Fall Off. Um, but I wanted to go over, um, my certain experiences with, um, notable figures from that era. Um, you know, people, people like XXXTentacion, um, people like Juice WRLD, people like Mac Miller. Uh, Mac Miller, he's not from the— he wouldn't— you wouldn't consider Mac Miller a SoundCloud artist, but He, you know, I'm just— I mean, like, from when I met him in my personal experience with him, um, because I've been listening to Mac Miller since I was— since 2009. Um, yeah, I love Mac Miller. Rest in peace. Rest in peace to all of them. Rest in peace to X, Juice WRLD. Um, we lost so many great people, and today I kind of just wanted to, uh, go over, you know, my personal experiences with a couple of those cats. Um, because I, I don't think I've talked— maybe I haven't. I think Mac Miller I've talked about in some interviews in the past, um, my experiences meeting him and whatnot. But yeah, I kind of just wanted to go over today, you know, my personal experiences, uh, meeting, you know, these, these legends, these absolute legends that, that, you know, especially people like Juice WRLD and XXXTentacion people that like paved the way for the generation that I came from, the SoundCloud generation. I will say I wish that I could have got to meet Lil Peep. That's one person I never got to meet in person, but I was a big fan of Lil Peep, a big fan of his music. And just, yeah, and you know, a lot of people don't realize this, but like, I mean, actually I take that back. A lot of people probably do realize this, but Lil Peep inspired the hell out of me. Um, before I even was rapping and, and whatnot, I, I, I was listening to Lil Peep, and that's the shit that made me want to get, you know, face tats and, and, and start expressing myself, um, through music and whatnot. And, uh, you know, I think it's funny because a lot of people forget that, like, Lil Peep and, and them, they were, they were already doing their thing on SoundCloud before I was even making music. I kind of came along a little bit after them, maybe just by some months, but I still came a little bit after them, but still in the same generation, um, but enough for them to influence me and, and definitely my music and my whole aesthetic. So yeah, I mean, rest in peace Lil Peep. I, I, yeah, I wish I could have met him, but, um, yeah, I want to talk about like meeting— also, sorry if, if you're watching this, uh, on YouTube or the clip version. Yeah, my hair, I need to get a haircut. It's, it's starting to grow out. Um, but obviously if you're listening to this on Spotify, thank God to the people listening to this on Spotify, you don't get to see my crazy hair today. Um, but yeah, uh, but yeah, I want to go over, I'll start off with XXXTentacion. I'm sorry, my speech impediment. I've had that. If, if you're a diehard fan of me, you know I've had this speech impediment ever since I was young. You know, it makes me— it's unique though. I've learned to love it. It is what it is. I have problems with S's and R's. I went to speech therapy for like 8, 9 years when I was younger, but that's a side tangent. Well, that's for another video. But yeah, I want to talk about when I first met XXXTENTACION. It was around early 2016. Um, it, it was such a random, such a fucking random occurrence because I wasn't making music yet, so I didn't have any clout or, or buzz or anything. I was, I was a nobody. I was, I was— this is when I was a photographer, a camera guy. And, um, I had a buddy named Chris Lucas. Shout out to Chris Lucas. Haven't talked to him in a long time, but I hope you're doing well, Chris Lucas, if you ever hear this. Um, he, he was mutual friends with this guy named Rojas, Rojas on the beat. And, uh, if that name sounds familiar, that's the dude that produced, um, well, I think he produced a few records, but he put the biggest one I think a lot of people will know him by, uh, he produced Look at Me by XXXTentacion. The— I mean, everybody, that's, that's such a big song. I love that song. Um, and probably one of the first songs, yeah, that took Lil Xan's career, um, to a whole nother level. Um, but yeah, my homie Chris Lucas, he had a mutual friend Rojas, who was a big producer in the underground at that time. Shout out to Rojas. Um, and, um, Rojas had hit up Chris, Chris Lucas, and was like— oh, also backstory, Chris Lucas was, was staying at my house at the time, so We were super, super close friends. And yeah, Rojas had hit up Chris Lucas and was like, yo, I got these artists from South Florida. They're making waves right now on the internet. On the internet. I sound like an uncle right now. On the internet. On SoundCloud. And yeah, they're coming out to do a show in LA. Which I believe it was— I forgot the name of the show. I think it was called Rojas Fest. He— it was like his whole thing. Yeah, that's— I think that's what it was called. Um, and he needed somebody to pick them up from the airport. And, you know, I, I was tapped in. I, I know— I knew who, like, Ski Mask and, and X, and I, I, I was tapped in. I knew who these guys were. Um, so I was like, yo, we gotta go pick them up from the airport. And Chris was like, "Let's do it." And so we go and we're on the way to pick them up from the airport. And a part of me at the time was like, "There's no way, like, we're actually going to pick up Xan aka Lil Xan and Ski Mask the Slump God and BroHass." Like, I don't know, like a part of me thought like maybe, I don't know, this was like a prank or some shit. Because again, like, I was a nobody. I don't even think I had— I think I had one song out and it was like Nothing. And, um, so we get to the airport and I'm driving my, my parents' car at the time too. Also, yeah, I took my parents' car to do this. I don't even remember if I told my parents what I was doing with their car. Um, they probably wouldn't have let me, but, um, yeah, it was a 2015-16 Nissan Versa. Cheap-ass car, cheap-ass car, but it got the job done. Shout out to that Nissan Versa. I think actually if you go look at the Bin Bouted video by me, you can see that same Nissan Versa in, in that music video. Fun fact. But, um, yeah, so we get to LAX, we get to the airport, and lo and behold, XXXTentacion, Ski Mask, the Slump God, and Rojas all pile into my car. Whew. And I just remember, like, I was so nervous at the time. I was like, there's no way, like, this is actually happening. And I was stoked though. I was like, OK, Diego, you got to be cool. Be cool. Don't act like a fanboy or stupid. You know what I mean? Don't act stupid. Yeah, it was chill though. They got in the car and, um, and we were— we— they wanted to go to their Airbnb, um, somewhere in LA. I don't remember where, but it was somewhere in LA. And, um, I remember also on the drive there, another dope thing that happened, uh, one of them, I think it was Rojas, was like, yeah, bro, if you want to stay, um, at our Airbnb with us We're there for like a week. You can stay there too, you know, just find a place to crash, a couch, an extra bed, and you can crash with us. I think secretly they wanted me to stay there because I had a car and I could just drive them around everywhere that they needed to go. But fuck it, I don't care. I definitely was like the little assistant runner kind of bitch boy. But I was so happy to just be hanging out with such influential people and people that I was fans. I was fans of their music, and it was so dope. And a notable time that I'll never forget too was on the drive to the Airbnb. I remember X was like, he was like, "Yo, I got this song. I just made this song. I want to play it on the speakers." 'Um, do you have an aux cable?' And I was like, 'Damn, do I have an aux? Hell yeah, bro, play some shit, play some shit, man.' Um, and he hooks up to the aux cable, and the Nissan Versa surprisingly had decent, um, a decent speaker system. I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty decent. And, uh, he plugs into the aux, and, um, and then the first, the first part of the song is, 'Bitch, I'm sipping tea in your hood. What the fuck is up, bitch? I'm sipping tea.' Yo, hood! And I was like, what, dude, this shit is crazy, bro. And oh man, we were like all getting hyped and shit in the car. Oh man, that's such a good memory that I have of, um, of meeting, uh, meeting them. Yeah. Oh man, that was crazy. And then I remember we get to the Airbnb and, um, it just more dope shit would happen. Like just hearing X speak, you know, he was— he— I always tell people Lil Xan aka Diego Diego was like an alien. Like, he, he spoke like, like a prophet, you know what I mean? Like, he spoke like he was like a 200-year-old like wizard or, you know, some shit like that. Um, for— and he was so young. I don't know exactly what his age would have been, but he was young, you know. I think he was younger than me even at the time. Um, but it was just— yeah, I was just there soaking up all that, that knowledge and and shit, and hearing him freestyle. They started doing freestyle battles, um, him, Ski Mask, and, um, you know, it was— yeah, I was, I was just there soaking up the knowledge. And again, this is before I was, you know, known or anything. I think maybe I was going by Lil Xan. I don't even know if I was going by Lil Xan, but you know, who knows. Um, but anyways, I think they did, um, an interview with Elevator magazine while, while they were at that Airbnb. That's another thing. If you want to see the shit I'm talking about, um, go look up the XXX Ski Mask, uh, Elevator interview from way back in the day. And, um, if you look at the background of that interview, that's the Airbnb that I'm talking about that I stayed in. And I think you can also find other clips of us all in the Airbnb back then, um, from like 2016 and shit. So if you really want to go digging for these, these grails, yeah, they're on the internet and, and whatnot. And a couple of, couple or few days go by and then it's time for the show. And I'll post a clip also online. I have a clip of the show that we all, we all attended, we all went to. And in the clip you can see early, early, early versions of me Lil Xan aka Diego, Ski Mask, I believe Smokepurpp was there. You see Lil Pump in the video, Lil Pump was there. And it was just so iconic and early and just, you know, rare to see all these people that would eventually blow up and become huge stars just right before, right when they were on the cusp of taking off and blowing up. And, uh, yeah, I'll post that. I'll post that on TikTok, um, after I, after I do all this. Yeah, I'll post that. And it was a great night. You know what's crazy too about that show? Um, it wasn't like sold out or anything. That's what I'm talking about. This was so early on that it, it was like, you think about X nowadays, if X was still around today, he would sell out, I, I think arenas, to be honest. That's, that's the kind of influence that someone like Xan aka Diego Diego had, you know, if he was still here. Same with Juice WRLD. If they were still here, they would be selling out arenas. And yeah, it was just a crazy time. Shout out to Elevator Mag. Shout out to Rojas. I still talk to him occasionally. Shout out Ski Mask too. I haven't talked to him in a long time, but it was dope kicking it with him. I would go on to kick it with him a few times after, you know, Betrayed and all that jazz came out. Um, but yeah, that was my experience meeting, um, some South Florida legends. XXXTentacion, Ski Mask the Rojas. Um, I didn't get to meet Lil Pump that day. I would meet him down the road later, uh, once my career started to become more favorable and whatnot. Um, and Smokepurpp, I would meet him later down the road. Um, yeah, and I just, you know, another thing I, I'll say before I move on was I remember just being there and, and just like thinking there, there was so much like magic. Like, that's— I know it sounds cringy, but like it felt like magic was just in the air, was the whole time. I— the whole time I stayed with them at the Airbnb leading up to the show and the show It just felt— it sounds so stupid and cringy, but like, it just felt like magic, you know? And I don't know, man, it was stronger than any drug that I've ever taken. And you know me, I used to be crazy. It was just pure adrenaline, pure rage, pure just magic, man. And I'm not gonna lie, I feel like I, I, I miss that stuff, man. And, and again, that was the best time, and that was before I even blew up or, and, you know, was— had any sort of notoriety. Um, that was the funnest time where it just felt so raw. The energy was— it was so real. And yeah, I feel like I'll be chasing that, um, until, until I die. It was something so incredible, man. But I'm also very grateful that I also got to experience just something like that, you know, because not everybody gets to experience something that— I don't know, that dope, that raw, emotional, you know, something so cool. Also, the people watching this on— because a lot of people probably just listen to this on Spotify and Apple Music— if you keep seeing me play with my hair, I swear to God, I hate when my hair starts getting long. I, I, it gets in my eyes and I gotta start moving it and shit. But also, people that are just listening to this, they have no idea what I'm talking about. Um, but I keep playing with my hair and it's like a tic that I can't stop doing it because it's just, oh, I, I need to get a haircut. Um, anyways, yeah, that was, uh, meeting again, uh, South Florida legends XXXTentacion, Ski Mask the Rojas, and yeah. And another, uh, yeah, another artist that I would love to talk about— let me look at my notes right now— um, Juice WRLD. Oh man, Juice WRLD. Shout out to Juice WRLD. Rest in peace to Juice WRLD. Um, what, what a, what, what a nice guy. What I mean, on top of being an amazing artist, um, such a nice guy, such a nice guy. I got to meet Juice WRLD, um, I don't know, I guess maybe the years are kind of skewed, but it would have, I think it was early 2018. It was either late 2017 or early 2018. I was in Rotterdam, which is right next to Amsterdam, and we were doing a festival. I forgot what the festival is, but it's a big festival. It's a big festival. All the artists at that time were there. Lil Pump was there, Denzel Curry was there, um, I could name so many people. Everybody was there. And, um, and this was when Juice was like first blowing up. Like, like, people knew who, who like Juice WRLD was at the time, but like he wasn't like where he would like get to, um, like fame and notoriety-wise. Um, and I remember I was just backstage at at, you know, the world— where the art— the artist area during the festival where only the artists and friends and family can be before their shows and whatnot. And Juice was just like sitting at like a bench, a table, and he was just by himself, or I think he was with his girlfriend at the time. Um, and, uh, I went up to him and I was— I remember I told— I told Juice, I was like, dude, like 'Your shit's crazy, bro. Like, you're about to be—' I told him this, I said, 'You're gonna be like the biggest fucking thing, like, ever. You're gonna— like, I just know your sound is so— it's so good, so dope.' Um, yeah, bro. And I remember he looked up at me and he was like, 'Yo, man, I'm just trying to be like you, bro.' And I remember being like, dude, stop, dog. Like, nah, dog, because there is no fucking way. Like, he really said that. And I remember being like, dude, you are going to be 100 times bigger than any Lil Xan, like, could ever be. Like, you gotta chill out with that stuff. Like, you are— nah, bro. I told him, I said, you are gonna be so much bigger than me. Like, just, no bro, just, you don't even gotta worry, like, you, yeah. And lo and behold, what happened? He became the biggest freaking icon, one of them, of that, um, that era. And, um, that's just a fun story I have meeting him. That was the first time. Um, and also I will say he was the nicest, nicest dude ever. Um, the nicest cat, bro. Like, he was so nice, not cocky. And, and the second time I met him, and this is now Juice WRLD like on top of the world type shit, like he's not— like, when I first met him, he was just starting out blowing up a little bit, but now second time I'm meeting him, he's like on top of the world. Um, we sat next to each other at the 2018 VMAs that year And, um, I remember we were just giggling and shit. Like, he— we were literally— he was literally sitting right behind me. And I remember Logic was doing like a big performance for MTV. Uh, shout out to Logic. And, um, all these kids were coming up part— they were part of Logic's performance. A lot of like kids holding candles or something. And, um, I remember all the kids kept stopping, um, and holding up the performance. To get pictures with Juice and me, 'cause we were sitting like right next to each other. And I remember looking back at Juice and we just laughed. And we were like, "Bro, what is life? Like, life is so fucking crazy." Like, and yeah, and that was the last time. I would go on to do one show, 'cause Juice WRLD would go on to do a whole tour with Nicki Minaj. But they would ask me to do one show on that tour. I didn't do the whole tour with them. I just did one show in Stockholm, I believe Stockholm. Um, and yeah, it was a Nicki, Nicki Minaj tour with Juice WRLD, and I was like a special guest. Um, but I didn't get to see him that day. Um, I'm sure we, everybody was so busy setting up that show and whatnot. The life of an artist is, is wild, you know, you're so tired all the time. You're sick half the time. Um, but I didn't get to see him. Um, that would have been the third and final time I would have saw him. But, um, oh man, we— I'm happy with the, uh, the, the small short interactions that— in the couple interactions that we had. I'm very grateful, um, to have met him because again, he was the nicest guy. Um, on top of being so talented, he was just so down to earth and humble. Oh, my mic cut out. Yeah, my bad. Yeah, if it just went blank right now, my mic— there's a button on my mic that if I hit it with my finger, it mutes. Maybe I could fix that in the editing. I don't know, we'll see. Editor, if you can fix that, I love you. If you can't, we'll leave it in, it's all good. Um, but what I was saying was, uh, rest in peace to, um, to, uh, XXXTentacion and rest in peace to Juice WRLD. Uh, a couple of great guys, man, from my personal experiences at least. Um, yeah, I love that. I hate that. I hate this mic that if I tap this thing on it, it mutes the mic. I hate that. Um, and yeah, I guess I can also talk about looking at my notes Little Skies, the, you know, meeting Lil Skies, it was a little different. I only, I have a very short, um, not as, I didn't have as crazy of an, like, I don't put it, Lil Skies is dope. I love Lil Skies, great guy, um, he's dope. We made a song called Lies, and I love the song I did with Lil Skies, probably one of my, definitely my, definitely top 5 songs that I've ever made was, was Lies with Lil Skies. Um, I, I only met him for a little bit, um, at Atlantic Studios, um, the record label Atlantic. This is— I, I don't think he's with Atlantic anymore, but, um, um, I don't know how I ended up there. I don't even think like he invited me or anything. I think I was there to see— to hang out with like Bhad Bhabie or something back then. That— I think she had invited me to like a studio session, um, And but I went there, um, and Lil Skies was there too. Shout out to Lil Skies. Shout out to Bhad Bhabie too. That's another one. Um, Bhad Bhabie was real cool. She's real down to earth. Lil Skies was cool too. Um, and yeah, it was a, it was a brief interaction. Um, Lil Skies, I think he showed me like his album that he was working on. It was, now that I think about it, it was probably Life of a Dark Rose that he was showing me songs off of. And, um, and the only notable thing I remember was just like, I was like, damn, this music is fucking fire, bro. Like, this shit is crazy. And I was like, who engineers your music? Like, like, I tell them to hit me up. I, whatever your engineer is, Lil Xan aka Diego, I need that engineer because this shit sounds fucking crazy. Um, and this is before I signed to a major label. Or anything. And I remember Atlantic was like, one of their people came out the woodwork when I said that and was like, if you want Lil Xan's engineers, all you gotta do is sign with Atlantic Records and we'll hook you up. And I was like, ahaha, you sneaky bastards. You guys, I see your game. You're trying to get me, you know, I haven't signed yet. And we got Betrayed going crazy and then Colorblind going crazy. You're trying to get me, I see you guys. And I would ultimately go with Columbia Records, and that's a whole topic for another day. Jesus. But shout out to Lil Xan aka Diego Diego. I wish I had plans. I don't know if he knew this, but I wanted to do a follow-up, a follow-up record to Lies called Truth. Truth, Lies. Um, but we never got to do it. We also never got to shoot a music video to, um, to our song Lies, which kind of sucks. Um, but it's all good, it's all good. Um, yeah, and I'm glad, I'm glad, I'm super happy that Lil Xan aka Diego Diego is still making music and, and doing his thing because you can't say that for a lot of artists from, um, from our generation, you know. Unfortunately, a lot of them passed away You know, I, I'll mention like PnB Rock. I was friends with PnB Rock, and, um, that was hard when we lost PnB Rock. Such a talented artist and another amazing person. PnB Rock, the, the, the, the few times we hung out, he was extraordinary. Such a nice guy, super down to earth. Um, yeah, so that's sad. Rest in peace to PnB Rock. Um, rest in peace to Mac Miller too. Mac Miller, my— that's a whole different story for me because ever since I was young, and a big inspiration to even start making music, um, was Mac Miller. Um, I've been listening to him since, since 2009, since I was a kid, many, many years before I would even have aspirations, um, to make music and, and all that jazz. And I remember I got to meet Mac Miller through a friend of mine at the time, Cole Bennett of Lyrical Lemonade. Shout out to Cole Bennett and Lyrical Lemonade. They— I wouldn't be anything without them, so shout out to them, man. I'll probably make another episode where I go into depth about my experiences with Lyrical Lemonade and all that stuff. They were good people, man. Shout out to Lyrical Lemonade and Cole. And Jake from Lyrical Lemonade, I ain't forget you, bro. Um, but yeah, I got to meet Mac Miller because Cole Bennett was doing a video with, I believe it was Carnage, DJ Carnage, Made in Tokyo, and Mac Miller were the 3 people that were on that record. And if you go look up that video on Lyrical Lemonade, I have a small cameo in the music video. I think I'm like the pizza boy in the beginning of the video. Um, and if you read the comments, people hate me. And bro, people are hating on me. They're like, thank God Lil Xan wasn't on this song. Uh, thank God Lil Xan is just a cameo. And people hated me. They still do kind of hate me, but I get it. I was, I was, I was dumb. I was drug addict. I was crazy back then. Uh, so I don't blame them, you know. Um, but yeah, anyways, I got to meet Mac Miller, took a picture with him. We had a conver— we had a, uh, like a 10-minute conversation there with, with also other people there. And I just remember, man, this guy's super dope. I think we exchanged numbers, um, that day. I— yeah, we would have had to exchange numbers that day because I ended up with his number for a small period of time before he passed away. Um, and then we would talk. Um, we talked about making records and stuff, but it never came to fruition. Um, but one thing that did was the last show that he ever performed. Like, this is like, he did 2 nights, and I think it was the venue was called Hotel Cafe or Cafe LA or something like that. Um, and these are the last 2 shows that he actually ever did live before he passed away. Um, he, uh, he invited me out to, uh, to, to the last one too, the second show. Um, and I, I was, I was, I was just in the audience turning up at the time. It's funny too because I was dating, um, Noah Cyrus at the time, um, and, um, you had to be— I think you had to be 21 to, uh, to, to get into the concert. And this was like a small, like, venue. Like, Mac can sell out big-ass venues, but this was like a small, like, uh, preview, I think, of the— of Swimming that was coming out. Um, and it— you had to win like a raffle or a giveaway to even make it to the concert. Um, so it was like real diehard fans type shit. Um, but he invited me out and Noah couldn't come because it was 21+ and she was like 19 or some shit, uh, or 20 I think she was, and I was like 23. Um, but yeah, I, I, I'm a big Mac Miller fan, so you know my ass still went. Um, and yeah, I, I was, I was turning up in the crowd He probably didn't even notice I was in the crowd, but I'm just a fan, you know what I mean? So of course I'm gonna be turning up in the crowd. Um, and, um, what else? Yeah, so after he performed, great performance, um, I, I, I was backstage. His family was there. I got to meet fucking everybody was there. John Mayer was there. CeeLo Green was there. Um, Mack DeMarco was there. Um, it was fucking crazy. I got to meet all types of crazy celebrities. Uh, his parents were there, I believe. And, um, yeah, I got— there's pictures, I think, of me like backstage there too with him. Um, but after a while, we had some good conversations. I, I said, all right, I'm about to take off, it was a great show, thank you for having me. Um, you know, I'm trying to keep it cool and shit. I'm like the biggest fucking fan ever, but I gotta play it cool, you know. Um, and I remember we said our goodbyes and we dapped each other up, and I was walking to the, uh, to the door And I made it all the way to the door and he like had ran and like stopped me. And I was like confused because like, oh, we just said goodbye. But I turned around and he's like, yo, I forgot to tell you, but like, just be safe. And damn, I just remember that would be the last time that I talked to him. He would pass away a month or two later. And I was just— those words stuck with me. And I was at the time, you know, I was also struggling with my own addiction. So just to hear those words like, "Be safe," you know, it really meant something to me and it did something to me. I was, you know, even though I wouldn't get sober for a while after that, it still was, it was very meaningful and it just meant a lot to me to hear, you know, my idol. Because, you know, they always say, "Don't meet your idols," but in the case of Mac Miller, He was everything and more! He was such a nice guy, super down to earth, and yeah I'm very grateful that I got to meet Mac Miller and rest in peace because he's my favorite artist still and I'm just very grateful for those experiences. And that's what I wanted to talk about this episode. I just wanted to talk about a couple or few artists that I had met you know people like Lil Xan aka Diego Diego aka Lil Xan aka Diego Diego and Juice WRLD and Mac and Skies and um— Maybe I'll make a part 2 to this episode, um, soon, in— or sometime in the near future where I talk about a few more artists. Um, I don't even have a name for this episode yet. I don't know. But I, I— you know what, now that I'm thinking of it, I want to make a part 2 because I've met a lot more artists than what I've talked about today. And, um, yeah, we'll call this Storytime Something I'll figure it out before I post this, obviously. Um, shout out to my wonderful editor, she's super dope, man. Um, I couldn't do this without her. She's the, she's the, the bomb. We love you. Um, and, um, yeah, so I'll probably make a part 2 to this soon. And yeah, thank you guys for listening. This is episode 3. Don't have a title yet. Usually I have a title to these things. Um, but we don't have a title yet, but when you see this being posted, it'll have a title. And, uh, yeah, I just thank you guys for listening. You know, I know it's ghetto right now and we've been on a hiatus, but just, you know, this is something I want to do long term. Um, shout out PodGo, the, uh, the company that's, that's behind the scenes making this possible. We love you, PodGo. And, uh, shout out to all the, all the shout out to all you guys. I love you guys. Shout out to the supporters. On TikTok. Shout out to the, to the supporters on in my Discord community, um, all the subs on TikTok. I love you guys so much. And yeah, episode 4 will be out in a couple days actually. After this launches, episode 3, I'm, I'm back to back hitting you with another one, episode 4. I'm not going to give any spoilers about what that episode's about yet, but anyways, I love you guys. Have a great Have a great 2026. Let's do this. Love you guys. I'm signing off. Diego aka Lil Xan. I love you.
