March 28, 2024
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Jumpsteady Interview [90+ Minutes!] (7/6/14)

Welcome to our epic, 98 minute interview with one of the DONS at Psychopathic Records…the one and only JUMPSTEADY!  I had quite a few questions, but never thought that we’d get this epic response of an interview from Mr. Bruce!

Before getting started though, Jumpsteady wanted to reiterate that there will be NO JUGGALOS TURNED AWAY FROM THE GATHERING!  Legend Valley is 120 acres, and there is PLENTY of room for everybody who shows up!

He also wanted to make sure that a few people were thanked.

Jumpsteady Thank Yous:

  • Bowski, Chaos Ninja, Dean Kulik (graphic designers who created the look of the Gathering this year)
  • Ryan Archabald and Kuma (the ninjas behind the infomercial)
  • Violent J, Shaggy 2 Dope, Bill Dail, J-Webb, Will Sigler, and the rest of Psychopathic Records’ team and Juggalo affiliates (for all the hard work and contributions to the Gathering this year!)
  • Faygoluvers.net for putting this interview together

Faygoluvers Thank Yous:

  • Jumpsteady (for taking the time to do this)
  • Psychopathic Records’ whole team
  • Xanarki (for transcribing the entire interview)
  • Andree Twiztid Marschall (for the Jumpsteady interview graphic)
  • Everyone who takes the time to check this interview out and continues to support Faygoluvers!

Now, let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this thing!  First, you can stream the entire audio from the link below:

 

Jumpsteady Interview (stream):

[audio:https://www.faygoluvers.net/v5/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Jumpsteady-Interview-64kbps.mp3]

 

Download Audio (MP3 format):

zipfile

Download the Faygoluvers Jumpsteady Interview  (88.8 MB)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YouTube stream:

[youtube width=”560″ height=”344″]http://youtu.be/MJOF5GEDAk8[/youtube]

 

Interview Text:

FLH: Last year you were involved in the Gathering planning, and you kinda got involved in it again, but this year it was like your baby from the beginning, how have things changed since you started planning the first Gathering in 2000?

 

Jumpsteady: Well it’s very similar to the very first Gathering I did because in the original Gathering that I used to put on way back in the day, I did most the work, and then Billy did all the production as far as staging and lights, he handled all that aspects of it and I pretty much did everything else. And this Gathering is very similar to that. We all come up with the ideas for the Gathering and we put out questions for the Juggalos and stuff online. We reached out to the family and basically ask their opinions on stuff like what artists they wanna see and what events they would like to see and we take all of that in consideration and we compile all that information and we piece together what the Gathering is gonna be for that year.

Now last year, I only had about twenty percent to do with the Gathering. I was just pretty much focusing on events, like the Miss Juggalette Pageant through the Neden Game and stuff like that, mostly dealing with that. Also dealing with booking the underground artists. But this year, I’m taking on most of the responsibility of the Gathering, about ninety percent of it, from booking the major acts and everything else. Like last time, I don’t know how many people know this, but I was gone from Psychopathic for a while, and when I came back in, there were other people that took the Gathering under their wing.  So I kind of had to take a backseat to that, and kind of look at what they were doing, and put my two cents in here and there. But I didn’t really like what they were doing. It made me very uncomfortable to sit back and a lot of times, the people at the time whom were working on the Gathering, they would come at me and be like, “Yeah we reshuffled this guy and reshuffled that guy and we weren’t able to get him” and my question was like, “Well if they said no, did you just give up? Did you keep at it?” I’m very persistent, I’m a very persistent ninja!  So like for me, a lot of the artists we got this year, they said no at first.  Like “No we can’t make it etc.” So I just kept at it, I didn’t give up. And this year the lineup we got is straight-up devastating.  It’s one of my favorite lineups for me personally. Somebody that is a true hip-hop head, to me, it’s the best of the underground music that’s out there. Like all the major underground labels, that I consider major underground labels, are all crazy highly represented this year, which is something that we haven’t had in a very long time, if ever.

And also bringing in like Cypress Hill…we’ve been trying to get Cypress Hill since the inception of the Gathering. So it’s the fact that we finally were able to get them this year is a super honor to have them and is a super privilege to have them at the Gathering this year. So yeah, I feel that I just threw myself into it, and especially because the last Gathering, it was kind of hurting last year. We had a lot of problems last year which basically brought along a lot of financial problems. So I was really determined this year to make sure everything’s on point. Like last year, tickets were mailed out late, people showed up at the gate, there were no programs or metal amulets ran out.  The problems with people getting through the gate it was really slow and it took a really long time for people to get into the grounds. I was watching all this last year, and basically I was really determined to not see the same mistakes happen again.

 

FLH: That’s good to hear because it kind of was a clusterfuck last year.

 

Jumpsteady: One thing about last year’s Gathering is that 2013 was a really hard year for us. I think that a lot of the problems we had was like, Twiztid leaving, and all of the other bad things happening at the same time. It was just kind of like a downer. And I think that affected how many people came that year. And then another problem was the fact that being our 7th year at the same place, ninjas knew the grounds, and there were a lot of people just sneaking in. There were a lot of Juggalos just sneaking in. I probably got approached 40 or 50 times, Juggalos coming up to me like, “Ah man I lost my wristband in the mosh pit!” Everyone had the same story! I’m like “Damn that was one hell of a mosh pit!” But they were sneaking in. I’m not saying they all did. But I pretty much knew, people walking around with no wristbands on.  Believe me, I’ve snuck into my fair share of events throughout the years, so I’m not hating on people sneaking in.  But it was just to a point where it was hurting us to the point where it was jeopardizing of having a Gathering again. So it really made us have to look at the whole situation.  I evaluated everything like, “One, we can’t go back there.” If we go back there again, financially, it would ruin us. Plus, Juggalos are waiting for something different. It had been there for so long, and it was a cool spot don’t get me wrong, I know there was a lot of love there from the people on the grounds and everything, but it was just ready for that change. It was time to say “We need to amp this up.”

I wanted to mention too, that I really loved last year’s Gathering. When I was walking around, trying to oversee all the events, make sure they’re being ran right and stuff, and it looked like everyone was having a really good time last year, and I don’t know if everyone feels the same. To me, the Juggalos that showed up last year, they were like, super down! Each one of them carried a true spirit of a Juggalo. Everybody was sour about Twiztid leaving and even people hating on us and stuff, but people that were there, were true Juggalos, through and through. There was mad love there. It was kind of like the cream of the crop situation. So everywhere I went, it was just nothing but love. Ninjas having a super good time, so my actual gathering experience, even though financially it was crazy crippling, my experience at the Gathering last year was awesome!  I left there uplifted spiritually and I was like, “Man that was great!” But the thing is, this year, we’re not having anything near those problems, this year right now, the presales have doubled from last year. This year right now just seems like it’s popped! I’m not gonna sit back and take all the credit for it.  We have a really good team.  Some of those people working the Gathering last year, they’re gone now. Basically all of them are. And the team we got this year, I handpicked some of them, I really pushed for them to get hired here. The team we got this year is awesome! We’ve got a solid team that’s putting on this Gathering. People are working super hard to make sure this is the best Gathering ever and it’s reflected on everything. I feel like, I don’t know if you remember, but the website last year was horrible. It was hard to navigate, it just looked shitty. And every aspect of the Gathering this year, I feel like there’s heart put into it. There’s super heart put into it. I think that’s evident in every aspect of it. I feel like the magic is building, it’s there. It’s resonating out there and people are mad hype on this. Juggalos are just really ready for this. I think it’s gonna be a really good year overall.

 

FLH: I think with the change of scenery, and like you said, a lot of Juggalos that I’ve seen online, are super hype. Even veterans that have been to all of them, myself included, just seems like it’s gonna be unforgettable.

 

Jumpsteady: One of the things that really helped it out is when that whole thing went down in Kaiser, Missouri. Believe me, that was a low point in my life. I found the spot and everything, so I felt like I was really responsible for it. We were sitting around having a meeting about it, and I was like, “You know who we need to find. We need to find somebody that is down for our cause and actually has our back.” There were ninjas out there like, “Man this is bullshit, what’s going on with the FBI?” They had Juggalos backs even if they didn’t know anything about Juggalos. They were like, “Man that’s bullshit, how those people are being oppressed.” We need to go find somebody like that, and that’s who we found at Legend Valley, Steve Churckel. My first conversation with him, he was like, “This is bullshit what you guys are going through. I’ve been to the Gathering before and I know what they are. I know they’re nowhere near what’s hyped up and violent and wild and other stuff they’re claiming to be in the papers. I know what Juggalos are about.” And he was just showing super respect and he was like, “Man I have y’all’s back and it’s bullshit what’s going on with the FBI.” And I was like, this is the perfect situation. In fact it was so perfect it was almost like, man, it might’ve been a blessing losing Kaiser, Missouri. I know people over there, ninjas over there, and they’re not saying that. But overall I think it might’ve been a blessing.  It ended up being a super benefit, having to move like that. And the grounds itself is awesome!  It’s gonna look amazing. The setup we have, where the stages are all at and everything, it’s gonna be epic!

 

FLH: Obviously we have to wait to see how everything goes this year, but do you see Legend Valley being a long-term Gathering spot?

 

Jumpsteady: Yes and no. I feel like the Gathering should never be at the same place longer than three years. I think in any scenario, three years is about max. Basically my plan after the Gathering is to get feedback from the family, like “What do y’all think?” Just get the feedback and see if people are feeling it. If Juggalos are mad hype on it, then yeah, we’ll come back, we’ll do it again at the same place.  But that’s just my thought. I remember way back in the day, Juggalos would be like, “Man, the thing I love about the Gathering is that it moves every year.” It’s like, you get to go, hangout with all the family and the greatest family reunion in the world, but we also get to see this new place you’ve never been to.

For a lot of Juggalos it’s like, “Man, I never go nowhere! The Gathering is the one time I travel every year.” It’s almost like the Juggalos love that element of it, because they go out and explore the city and get to see a new place or whatever.  I feel that, but it’s hard taking it to a new place every year, especially with everything going on like the FBI labeling us a gang.  It’s incredibly hard trying to find a place and once you do, to keep that place. And then dealing with businesses you’ve got to hire to put on the Gathering every year. The staging, the lights, the generators, the porta potties, the portable showers. You’ve got no idea how many outside people we have to bring in to create this town for that weekend. It’s very difficult, it’s not easy.  It’s a lot of jumping hurdles and climbing over walls to make stuff happen, and getting doors slammed in your face. Especially for those that don’t understand what it really is.  They fear us. They fear us coming into the town, they hear all these stories and think it’s this horrible horrible thing.  Unless you’re a part of it or been to it, you can’t really understand it for what it is. The Gathering is one of the most beautiful things on this planet. I love being at the Gathering and just being with the family and just floating around the grounds at night and just talking to ninjas.  It’s just an awesome time.

But yeah, to answer your question, I can see coming back again but it’s up to the family.  It’s up to y’all. We’re gonna reach out to everybody and see what everybody’s thinking, and if they’re feeling it, we’re coming back again. I’d never want to come back for more than three years in a row at any place, no matter how dope it was. That’s just my personal opinion.

 

FLH: So with the change of location and everything, there seems to be a lot more first time Gathering goers. What’s the best piece of advice you can give to someone going for the first time?

 

Jumpsteady: As far as giving people advice going for the first time, are you talking about non-Juggalos just trying to come?

 

FLH: No no, just Juggalos that have never been to the Gathering before.

Jumpsteady: I don’t know exactly what advice I could give…be prepared? The main thing is, bring plenty of food if you’re camping. Plenty of food, water, and supplies. I think that’s the one thing that hurts a lot of ninjas is that they don’t come prepared. The ninjas floating around there hungry and stuff, we’ve got a lot of organizations set up like the SCU to help out in those kind of situations but like, you just gotta be prepared. Look at it like a military situation, an X amount of days living in the field, let me bring some of this food in, and you can go shopping to get some cheap ass food, canned food to last you through the weekend, it’s not even that expensive. So I’d just say be prepared.

Sunscreen’s not a bad idea If you plan on being out in the sun for any amount of time, and just be ready for it. If this is your first time coming, it’s a good year, it’s a great location for the Gathering to be. If this is your first time coming, that’s awesome, because I don’t see how you could be disappointed. You got this incredible lineup that everybody knows and the main thing is just being with family for those four days. It’s almost like fuck the outside world for those four days. It’s like, you go through your whole life and people are downing you and stuff like that, for being a Juggalo and judging you, and here’s a spot where you can come and you don’t gotta deal with any of that bullshit.

I was talking to Jason about it, J-Webb, and he said something really interesting to me that I never really thought about, and he said, “Juggalos are the last great subculture in America.” There used to be like punk rockers, and the emo kids, but those have all been commercialized. They found a way to market that and now you see them everywhere. And Juggalos are a group that, one, they don’t understand, and they can’t figure out a way to market it, or commercialize it, because Juggalos aren’t about that. So it’s like this group that they don’t understand and can’t exploit it. Because of that, they naturally gravitate towards not liking Juggalos, and that kind of fuels out to normal society, and you got people hating on juggalos and they don’t even know why. They don’t even know what a Juggalo is and never had a conversation with them, but they’re hating on them, and they don’t realize that they’re the fucking whack ones. They’re the fucking sheep and they’re the ones that are commercialized and just feeding into the bullshit that mainstream corporate America that wants you to buy into. They’re the ones that are the zombies. They’re just sitting back and hating on Juggalos. J-Webb could explain it a lot better than me, but man I was like, “You’re fucking right.” All these people sit back, and if you have a problem with Juggalos, then you’re the whack one. You’re the one that’s brainwashed, and just accepting whatever mainstream wants you to accept. Anything different is to be feared. If you don’t accept this other group, they don’t conform to society, they don’t conform to corporate America, we can’t exploit this group, we don’t understand this group, we can’t tap into this group, therefore hate it. I think there’s a lot of truth to that.  It makes sense to me, anyways.

 

FLH: You mentioned the Scrub Care Unit. How did they catch your attention initially and what made you want to reach out to them to be part of the Gathering?

 

Jumpsteady: Last year, the main guy contacted me and basically told me what he was about, and he sent me an e-mail. I heard about what they were doing from the year before, and their whole focus is to give out food and clothing and stuff to Juggalos in need, and that’s kind of dope! It’s kind of like looking out for Juggalos at the Gathering, and there are other organizations too. I know there was a religious organization there last year, and they’ll be here again this year as well, setting up in the parking lot. For us, it’s a benefit/bone situation. I love what they’re doing, but if they’re giving out free food 24/7, it’s a double edged sword. We wanna help the Juggalos that need it, but at the same time, if you’re just feeding the whole Gathering, then we’re gonna lose our asses again. It’s gonna come to the point where we’re gonna go out of business, won’t be able to do it again the next year.

And I know people said it in interviews and some Juggalos are like “Ahh bullshit.” But honestly, we hardly ever make money at the Gathering. We strive to break even. If you look at that lineup, it’s so devastating, but we don’t have any corporate sponsorship. We don’t have any Pepsi signs anywhere. We have none. We don’t have to walk around with a Red Bull in our hand like that’s the established drink. We don’t get funded by Faygo. None of that. As a musical festival, it’s just really unique. It’s a truly underground event. It’s ran by a small group of ninjas up here at Psychopathic Records putting this shit on every year. It’s like, we create the foundation for the Gathering, but then the magic is created by everybody. But we have to put on the foundation, and its money.  To give you an idea, generators cost up to fifty grand, just for that.

The thing I wanna mention to ninjas coming this year, sneaking in, if you’re fucking broke, broke broke broke, you can’t fucking afford it at all, that’s understandable. But if y’all can afford the Gathering, then please don’t fucking sneak in. When you buy that ticket, you’re supporting everything. You’re supporting what we got going on so we can keep doing it every year.

But the main thing is the fucking spray paint. Y’all gotta cut that shit out, man. To me, the spray paint is just the biggest disrespect ever. It’s like a big “Fuck you!” to us and a big “Fuck you!” to the Juggalos. That’s definitely a big “Fuck you!” to the people that own the property who are allowing us into their home. Can you imagine if you threw a party at your house, and ninjas just fucking spray paint your bedrooms and shit? Do you know how disrespectful that is? I remember at Nelson Ledges, we asked the Juggalos, “Can y’all refrain from the vandalism?” And Juggalos used to fucking gather up, like almost militant. They see anybody trying to do some shit, they would have our backs, we’ve have their backs, they would confront a motherfucker and be like, “Man, y’all gotta stop this shit, that’s some bullshit.” I remember one year at Nelson Ledges, we’ve have these buses going back and forth from the parking lot to the actual venue and somebody used magic marker on the bus, and Juggalos were hunting them down! I wouldn’t know what they would’ve done if they found them, but you know what I mean? They were hunting motherfuckers down, they were gonna beat some ass for doing this. That was just like, respect. That’s fucking love right there. That’s just mad mad respect that they’d have our backs like that. Because motherfucker, if you’re spray painting that shit, you’re jeopardizing the whole Gathering. Last year in particular, it was only a few ninjas that would do it. But we lost so much money last year, on top of that, with all the spray paint going on, it just like, it kind of hurt us. That’s the other thing, y’all just leave the spray paint at home.

If y’all got love and respect for what the Gathering is and I would like to assume that everybody coming does, this is an event they wanna see happen every year. And to the other Juggalos and the rest of the family, I gotta say, please look out. If you see some of that shit going down, then stop it. To me, that’s what a family is, that’s what the love is, everybody’s got each other’s backs trying to help out.

 

FLH: I think that it goes without saying that over the past fifteen years that the Gathering has been going on, you’ve always had the deck stacked against you guys. This year in particular, there seems to be a lot of bullshit news articles about strip searches and bullshit propaganda. What are your thoughts on all of those that are just trying to hurt you guys?

 

Jumpsteady: Yeah, some of those like the whole strip search thing, it’s just frustrating to me. Everything that we do, is just keeping the whole family informed. Every step of the way, like what happened in Kaiser, I know I addressed that and basically wall to wall saying what happened and we kept it real, this is what’s going on. It’s fucked up. And it’s almost like, since that Gathering got cancelled, I feel like there’s a little residual fear floating around. And when something happens, any kind of bad news, ninjas wanna latch on to that, they wanna blow it up. They’re not even really reading what they’re reading. It’s almost like that one article about the strip search, it’s like ninjas aren’t even fucking reading it. They read like a quarter of it then just started tweeting it out, just spreading the fear.

Fear is a motherfucker, man. You can’t let it control you, you can’t let it stop you from doing what you wanna do. If you let it stop you, it’s like you’re a punk. That one article in particular about the strip search, if you really took the time to read that, then you know it’s bullshit. It’s complete bullshit. And one, we would never give out people’s personal information, it’s against the law. Even giving it to the law, you just can’t do that. Even if they requested it, we’d never do that. I think that article in particular is saying that they got all the information and doing background checks and start arresting people at the gate. And two, we don’t ask for IDs when people are coming in the gate. “Take your ticket. And here’s your wristband, and your amulet, and the program.” They’re not questioning people who they are. And three, strip searches? Come on. That’s just pure ridiculousness.

 

FLH: Like you said, if anybody bothered to even read the article, I think the first link to something else on that website was somebody dying from an atomic wedgie, come on, consider your sources.

 

Jumpsteady: Certain people get off on creating fake news stories. They don’t do it for the Gathering, they do it for the buzz. Right now the Gathering has this big ass buzz going. So they do it for stuff like that because they know that they can draw attention to it. A big hoax. They just wanna stir shit up. In some ways, I can respect it in a little bit. But in other ways, when it’s something like that when it’s hurtful or damaging, then that’s just kind of lame. If you’re gonna hoax that’s one thing but if you’re gonna hoax that’s gonna spread fear and possibly keep people from coming, it’s definitely kinda stale.

 

FLH: So the whole time at Cave-in-Rock, we had the Spazmatic Hangout. Will there be an equivalent to that, or a central location for people to meet up at Legend Valley? Because it doesn’t look like there is a spot like that on the time line.

 

Jumpsteady: Yeah, there is. There’s what we call the Bizarro Tent. I’m gonna be straight out with ya, I have no idea how it’s gonna go. My vision of Bizarro World is one of the things I got a lot of love for. Basically what Bizarro World is, is this collection of entertainers that are all coming together every night from midnight to four to show off their craft. I mean, we’ve got fire performers, magicians, jugglers, hoola hoops, dancers, drum circles. Then there’s these bleachers set up outside of it. Then there’s the tent, this big ass tent, where you can sit in and watch it.

But the Bizarro Tent is the equivalent to what the Spazmatic hangout was. It’s right in the heart of the Gathering, and it’s an area where people can go and chill and have tables setup in there with chairs and everything. At some times, there’s gonna be a radio going on during the day. But at night, it’s just a chill area for people to watch the performers and everything. Bizarro World, I know we have like, twenty four performers there. The thing is, it’s encouraged for Juggalos to join in. We want others to come by and see it and if they see some kind of skill or talent, they can just jump in there. It’s a very social, almost spiritual thing going on, where people can get involved, and interact. There’s no stage, just a big circle on the grounds with some bleachers outside of it and the tent on the other side of it, everybody just chilling out either watching or joining in.

 

FLH: Sounds different for sure.

 

Jumpsteady: I’m pretty excited about it. It creates the pulse and the beat of the Gathering at night. Wherever you go, you kind of have to pass by it. So it was really important for it to be the heartbeat of the Gathering. Everybody can get together and hangout together and just chill for a minute, since there’s so much excitement and high energy going on everywhere else, all around it. I kind of wanted that spot where people can chill out.

 

FLH: So you’ve mentioned several things happening at the Gathering this year between Cypress Hill and the Bizarro Tent and everything, what are you personally looking forward to? What event or artist are you looking forward to the most?

 

Jumpsteady: I wanna say this first off, as far as artists go, you know the big names. I’m not even gonna mention them. You know the big names and I’m looking forward to all of them, the headliners and almost the entire roster that’s on the main stage. As far as possibly lesser known artists, I think all the artists we have at the Gathering are awesome. We wouldn’t have brought them in if we didn’t think very highly of them. Some artists I’m really looking forward to this year, one of them is Crucifix. Every video he puts out is like, “What the fuck man? It’s like a million dollar video and shit!” As far as I know, he’s doing everything on his own. He was on the Boondox album, and I called him up, talking to his manager, and they’re some cool ass motherfuckers, they got their shit together. He’s got that shine, he’s fucking glowing to me. He’s ready to pop, in my opinion. Another one is Wildcard.  Now last year, I’m not sure what I was doing, but I saw him at the Gathering and I heard this rapper, this fucking flow. I had to stop what I was doing, and look at the program to see who the fuck it was. I was just so busy, I couldn’t just go over there and actually see the performance, had to look up his name in the program and was like, “Who the fuck is this kid?” He was just like, a chopper style. I looked him up and was like, “Man, that’s Wildcard? Man, if he’s playing during the day on one of the stages.” I was just amazed at what I was hearing, I couldn’t stop and see the performance, so I’m really trying to see it this year, I definitely wanna check him out. Another one is Mister Liqz. I recently became aware of him at the Gathering this year. I think you turned me on to him, actually. I was checking out his videos, and of the 3, he is really the only horrorcore artists. But he’s amazing. He’s got a really unique flow and to me, seems like someone can pop, and can take it to the next level. And I would say Playboy the Beast but unfortunately he backed down this year for some personal reasons. I was really looking forward to him. Maybe next year. One last thing that I’m really excited, and it’s a main artist, I just have to mention this, is La Coka Nostra. To me, the New York style of rap has always been close to my heart, something I really latch on to and they represent that New York style. Everything that they put out, to me, is amazing. Oh and one last thing, Gilbert Gottfried.

 

FLH: I can’t believe you guys booked him, but thank you so much for booking that guy. I’m a huge fan of his.

 

Jumpsteady: It’s just weird he’s doing the Gathering. It just came together so easily.  He did that episode of ICP Theater, we already had that rapport going with him, so it was like, he was super down to do it. I definitely don’t wanna miss that. He does the Comedy Roasts and every time he comes on, you’re just rolling at that point. He’s very much engaged in the Gathering too.  His management keeps calling us, setting up interviews. He’s really proactive about the Gathering. It’s really cool to have him a part of that.

As far as events go, one of the main things I have a lot of love for, and I almost feel hesitant about bringing more heat to it is the Ninja Olympics. The Ninja Olympics is a competition where Juggalos square off and one versus one in the ring. Like the first round is a knife fighting competition, the second round is sumo wrestling, the third round is martial artists, wearing protective vests and the final round is pugil sticks. There will only be 2 competitors that make it to the final round and basically have to endure a three versus one pugil stick battle, whoever can last the longest, without getting knocked off their feet or hitting the ropes, wins.

As kids, me and Joe, used to do this shit all the time. We lived and breathed the ninja. We used to do these games where we’d go up to 7/11 and which might be a mile away, and we’d go there at night with objective of not being seen by anybody. Just going through people’s backyards and shit, and just waiting for traffic to clear, we’d dress in all black. And we used to battle each other, we’d just fight in the streets, we’d set up competitions like this. Then when I was in the military, I was in Saudi Arabia, we used to fight in the desert, on these giant plateaus that came up, like thirty foot in diameter. They used to just jetted out and just flat on top. We used to go up there, a bunch of us, and there’d be like twenty people up there, and bring a bunch of bottled water and canteens, and we’d stay up there for like five hours straight. We’d have flak vests on, because at the time that was military issued because we were in a war. We used to just go all out, kicking and punching and fighting hard as you can. It was all to the vest though, so nobody would get crippled or seriously hurt. We used to do mock combat with that all the time.

So I kind of took a combination of everything from those few things and the Ninja Olympics is totally with mad respect, my idea and I was pitching it to everybody. Some people were feeling it, some people weren’t. But when we announced it, I’ve gotten phone calls and people e-mailing me basically saying, “I’ve been training for this! I’ve been buying pugil sticks and been fighting!” And other ninjas been like, “Can I use smoke bombs? Can I use these tricks?” And I’m like, “Yeah man! As long as you don’t hurt your opponent.” Because that’s not what it’s about. Don’t hurt your opponent man, that’s all family. That’s your fucking brother or sister in there, don’t try to harm them. But if you have some sort of distraction in the middle of the fight, then that’s totally legit. That’s what ninjas are all about. It said in the program only sixteen people can perform. But if we get thirty two competitors, then we’ll run thirty two. It has to be set up on the pyramid style. It’s kind of got to be in that format in order for it to work. So far, it’s getting a lot of heat, Juggalos are really excited about it.

 

FLH: For those that are going, it looks like it’s happening on Saturday at noon at the JCW stage.

 

Jumpsteady: It’s something we’ve never done at the Gathering people, so I’m curious to see how’s it gonna go. Another thing I really like is the Juggalo Gong Show, put a lot of love into that. I’m not gonna really say anything about that, but we did put a lot of love and effort into it and I think it’s gonna be very entertaining. We have Chuck Bareass from the infomercial, he’s gonna be hosting it. I would like to see that as well.

 

FLH: Speaking of events, the Miss Juggalette Pageant was revamped last year.  What can see from the pageant this year and what are you looking forward to about it?

 

Jumpsteady: So last year with the Miss Juggalette pageant, I was dealing with Lette’s Respect and they were kind of fed up with everything that was going on, I totally feel what they’re talking about. I respect what they’re about. There are these organizations like Lette’s Respect and SCU and I respect what they’re about. I want to show respect for them and what they got going on, because I really like what they’re doing, because they’re helping out family and in the case of Lette’s Respect, they’re trying to elevate the status of Juggalettes. They’re trying to change the image, in other words. I respect what they’re doing, I see what they’re doing. And there’s a place for wet t-shirt contests and in all aspects, it doesn’t need to be that.

The thing is, what the Miss Juggalette pageant used to be back in the day, it was very much what it is now. It was a real contest. It had three rounds, there’s a round where they ask the question, then there’s a talent round, then there’s a swimsuit round. Somewhere down the line, the pageant has evolved into this thing where they all just get naked. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if a Juggalette wants to get up there and that’s what they wanna do for their talent, strip or something like that, we’re not gonna say no. Do whatever talent you wanna do. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with stripping but in years past, it was just pressuring the girls to do that. It was almost like evil. So that’s one thing I don’t wanna see happen, one thing I’m against.

When they contacted me, I already had the contest back to what it was before. I was listening to all of their concerns, but I was already changing it back to that anyway. There’s still a lot of sexy ass Juggalettes that are going to be getting up there and doing their thing, but it shouldn’t be to the point where they’re getting pressured to doing stuff they don’t wanna do. They should be able to go up there and do whatever talent they wanna do. And some questions are risque, some questions are R rated or borderline X rated but they’re not all that.

To me, it’s a reflection of what the Juggalette queen should be. Does she have personality? Does she have talent? Is she hot? It’s all things personified of that title. To me, the contest is a direct reflection of that. I like what it is, and I would like to look out for our Juggalettes. It’s an awesome thing, how the contest is now.

 

FLH: Why isn’t Legz Diamond and the Purple Gang on the timeline for this year’s Gathering?

 

Jumpsteady: Originally, we totally had it set up for Legz Diamond and the Purple Gang to perform at the Gathering. I mean, you’ve all seen it in the infomercial. But unfortunately due to personal reasons, he’s unable to perform at the Gathering this year. It’s very upsetting to me. Since we put the Gathering together there have been a few artists that had problems and had to switch around the dates or whatever. And believe me, we accommodate in every way we can. The last thing we wanna see is somebody not show up that was supposed to perform. Everybody right now is one hundred percent confirmed and locked in, the timeline you see is one hundred percent locked in. But if somebody were to back out, and believe me we try everything in our power to do whatever we can to keep them in the lineup to keep them there. But unfortunately for Legz Diamond that wasn’t even possible and he’s just not gonna be able to make the Gathering this year. It was kind of like a bomb dropped on us late into the game, after the infomercial was filmed. He’ll be back next year I’m sure, but he just couldn’t make it. Certain things just crop up that make it impossible to show up. It’s such a huge event, that it happens each year for somebody who wasn’t to make it.

 

FLH: There is also no mention of Deadly Medley, which is what the Gathering typically closes out with. Was there any reasoning behind that?

 

Jumpsteady: We talked on our own about the Deadly Medley this year and because the way we got it lined up, we kind of look at it like Bloodymania 8 is the final conclusion. I’m not saying that’s fresh, I’m not saying we’ll never do the Deadly Medley again, we wanna do it again. But it’s like, we kind of listen to everybody and have big meetings about stuff, and just how it came out to be this year. I agree, I was voting for it this year.  That’s kinda how I had foreseen things ending.

The weird thing about the Deadly Medley is that we had it on Sunday and people were gone already. It was a much smaller crowd, much more intimate. I think that’s why Juggalos really liked it. To be honest with you, I don’t even remember all the final reasons behind it, it just kind of got let off this year.  Bloodymania 8 is kinda the final sendoff for the Gathering this year.

 

FLH: We got quite a few questions about the unofficial start of the Gathering, which is the parking lot parties, the day before the Gathering officially starts. Are we gonna have any issues having that at Legend Valley this year?

 

Jumpsteady: The parking lot parties are very problematic for us on the logistics side of things. We do not encourage ninjas to show up for this thing. But every year it happens, and there is a parking lot as you’ve seen on the map and the only thing officially I’ll say about that, I can’t reveal everything, I just really discourage people from doing that. It creates a lot of problems for us, and we definitely discourage it. But at the same time, we’re not trying to give people the bone either. It’s one of those things where you try to do the best you can. I discourage people from showing up early that weekend.

 

FLH: That pretty much covers everything about the Gathering, but I do have some non-Gathering related questions for you. A lot of people wanna know where you are as far as your musical career. Are you gonna be doing another Legz Diamond album? How about a Jumpsteady solo album, etc.?

 

Jumpsteady: My intention was to do an album last year and then I almost did it. It’s just a sheer amount of work and keeping everything going on right now. This year in particular, we’ve got the boxset coming out, Psychopathic the Videos Volume Two coming out, we’ve got Dark Lotus coming out, we’ve got super groups coming out. It’s just crazy the sheer amount of work. There’s just physically no time and on top of that, it’s always real hard for me to do music. It doesn’t come naturally, I just can’t go on and write a song and record it in an hour. I don’t have that skill set. It’s never been my super ambition to be an artist.

I love the albums I put out because I felt like I had something to say. Especially Master of the Flying Guillotine, I feel like that was a representation of who I am. I touch upon different things from like roleplaying to revenge and stuff like that. The song “If” where I talk about where you can’t really second-guess everything you do in life. Don’t dwell on it, it’s crippling. You can’t sit there thinking “Aw I wish I would have done this” or “Aw I wish I would have done that.” You just gotta accept how life unfolds and push ahead. So it was really like stuff I had to say on those albums and I loved doing them. But my ambition has never to be on the stage.

My ambition has never been to even be doing what I am doing right now, shooting these interviews and stuff.  I appreciate it, and I think it’s important to keep everyone informed and appreciate you taking the time to do this, but it’s never really been my driving force. I would like to do another album, I feel like there’s a lot I would like to put down on to songs. But it all comes down to when am I gonna have the time? Master of the Flying Guillotine, that took me about half a year to do. That was like, working pretty seriously on it. At least four days out of the week, I would sit down and try to write, record songs, scrap songs, try to come up with some beats and stuff. It just doesn’t come easy to me. I’m such a perfectionist, everything has to be perfect in order for me to feel good about it, you know?

As far as another album, I’d love to do it. But I don’t know when I’m gonna have the time to actually sit down and do it. At this point, I’d like to say it’s questionable that I would ever do a full on album. Something would have to change. When I did Master of the Flying Guillotine, technically I wasn’t at Psychopathic at that time. It was kind of the period when I left, and all of a sudden I had all this free time, so I was working on that and other projects for Psychopathic, like writing for them and other stuff like that. I was very much outside of the loop at that point when I did that album. And because I was on the outside, I was able to have the time to do a project like that.

 

FLH: What do you think about another spoken word album like The Road? It’s like an extension of the story in Behind the Paint. It was really cool to hear it from your perspective.

 

Jumpsteady: I know my brother has a lot of love for that album and I have love for it too. But it was hard to do because in the past, those stories, all of the stories I have…amongst my closest friends, I’m renounced as a storyteller. Especially when we were doing a long drive, when I feel like it, I could start flowing with stories. I’ve lived my life with that in mind, just try to experience as much as I can. It’s one of the reasons I joined the Army, one of the reasons I wanted to be an EMT, one of the reasons I love working at Psychopathic because there’s so many experiences that happen to you, that just stand out in your head that are a page in the book of life.

So I have all these stories, and when I get to talking I’m just like “duhduhduhduh” nonstop. Like ten hours straight. Like when I drive out to the Bronx, my family out there, my wife and daughter and stuff, it’d be nonstop. So I’m kind of renowned for that. But it was difficult sharing those stories in that setting. Like having to go in the studio, and not really talking to somebody. You almost have to visualize that you’re talking to somebody, in order for that story to come across. It was very difficult for me. We had to turn all the lights out in the studio and I lit a bunch of candles, trying to get a mood set in order to tell those stories. But I was worried about it, because at some points, we kept having to retake it because it just wasn’t natural. I had to really get into a mindset that I was sharing it with somebody because typically, I only share personal stories like that with somebody that I love, somebody I knew that was listening, and cared about what I had to say.

The thing is, with The Road, I was able to do that because there’s this universal love amongst Juggalos. It was my hope that my stories have some kind of weight and Juggalos would hear that and feel those stories. Because in some ways, they either know me or met me or they feel they know me so it’d create a weight for them. That was my motivating factor and the only reason I was able to do that. Like, if I was just putting out that album, for just, whoever, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. But with that in mind, it was still difficult because I wasn’t actually seeing the person I was talking to. Any good story is like a conversation that kinda builds. You’re saying something and someone contributes in and that fuels you in another direction and there was none of that. It was just quiet. It’s hard to explain.

But yeah, as far as doing another one, I could definitely see doing that. And it’s not something that’s very crazy time consuming. A lot of the work was done in post afterwards. Usually it’d be done after work. I’d go in there and set a time and tell a story. Then Joe would work his magic with Kuma and put in those sound effects and all that devastation you hear.  They’d add all that and then I’d come down and listen to it, and put my two cents in here and there, and then you’d get the end result. I wasn’t sure if ninjas were feeling it or not because I didn’t get a lot of feedback.

 

FLH: I really dug it and I think you need a podcast or something, bro. Because it sounds like there’s a lot you’ve got to say.

 

Jumpsteady: Yeah no doubt. Like this whole thing with the Juggalo Show, as soon as we get the radio up again, that was basically the mindset of me and Rude Boy basically running a show, at least two weeks or so. Again it’s something very alien to me, I’ve never done it before, but I’ll give it a try.

 

FLH: Because you brought up Psychopathic Radio, what is the status of it? It’s been pushed off several times and people want to know.

 

Jumpsteady: Yeah the status of it right now is that it’s unfortunately on hold. With everything going on this year, we just don’t have the people to do it. We don’t have ninjas to sit down and dedicate the time to that. I don’t know if ninjas even realize it but the extent of our Gathering hit last year, we’re steadily paying off the debts from that Gathering. It was a pretty big loss last year. Because of that, we kind of had to downsize Psychopathic Records a little bit. We have the people to run it now, a really efficient and good team, super heart and super dedicated ninjas right now. But because of that hit we took at the Gathering last year, we had to make some changes. But now everything is on the upswing. This year is turning out to be extremely good. Financially, we’re in a really good place right now. The Gathering this year is not going to be hurting and like I said, presales have doubled and ticket sales have doubled since last year so I’m extremely happy with that. And with all these releases coming out, Boondox and Axe Murder Boyz and Dark Lotus, everything is going really good right now, so we’re now in a stage where we’re hiring people back.

We’ve been talking about the radio station extensively and we realize we need to get it up, we want to get it up, because it’s a really good way to stay connected to the family. When you get calls and stuff, and just keeping everybody informed, it’s just a really good tool. It’s one of those things that’s a loss for us financially, we never really made any money on it, it’s one of those things you have to do. It’s such a cool thing to stay connected to the family, to give back to the family.

The radio room is one hundred percent ready to go, by the way. We’ve got the new radio room up and running, but it still takes somebody to actually organize it to set up the shows every day.  The show that we have in mind is like a production. We want to run the Weekly Freakly type thing, like every time we run the show, Sugar Slam doing the news. We want people out there to be live reporters on the streets doing interviews and stuff. We’ve got a lot of ideas for it, it’s all right there, just takes somebody with the time to just sit down and run it.

And I apologize it’s been taking this long but a lot of the things we keep saying like, since we’re putting so much effort into the Gathering, like after the Gathering, this is happening. After the Gathering, it’s gonna alleviate a lot of the pressure that’s on us as a companyright now. We’ll be able to move ahead and do all these things. It’s very important to us. Shortly after the Gathering, the radio should be up and running. Like a month after the Gathering, it should be up and running.

 

FLH: I did wanna cover the time in your life when you left Psychopathic to pursue being an EMT. What made you leave the label to pursue that, and what made you want to come back to the label?

 

Jumpsteady: So what happened was, with me leaving the record label, it was when Alex Abbiss was still the CEO of Psychopathic Records. He came into my office and he asked me, “Look. We have this sister company we’re trying to start up called Psychopathic Europe. Would you head it up?” The whole thing, heading up to Europe and all that. I thought about it for like a day, and I said “No.” At the time, my daughter was real young, and I didn’t wanna be gone for a year. The plan was to send somebody over there for a year and just freak it.Just nonstop, get it up and running. I knew something like that would be all consuming and super hard.  I didn’t wanna be away from my family for a year, so I told him no. And so there was this other ninja working for us, I’m not gonna say his name…but he started heading it up. He set it all up. He actually hired European employees, he got a warehouse over there, an office, very similar to the building we have over here, just a little bit smaller. He was working on distribution and everything else over there. He pretty much spent a year getting it all situated. The day finally came when he was gonna go over there and start running it.

The idea was to build it, like over here how we got it popping. There was already a really good buzz over there. So he went over there, and he lasted one day. Next thing you know, he’s on a plane coming back. And we’re like, “What’s going on?” He came up with some bullshit story that his girlfriend was pregnant, he just found out, and he had to come home. My response to that was, “Okay your girlfriend is pregnant but she isn’t giving birth for nine months. Couldn’t you just give us a couple weeks to find somebody before you head back?” He was like, “No I gotta come back right now.” So he was on a plane straight back, and we found out the truth later, talking to the European Juggalos over there, it was Paul, Steve, and Peter. We were talking to them over there, and they said that as soon as that guy got off the plane, all he could talk about was drugs.  He was trying to find a hook up. And they were like, “Man we don’t know nothing about no drugs.” So basically he was just a crackhead, and we didn’t know this, but he was addicted to drugs.  I don’t remember what drugs he was on, but when he found out he couldn’t easily get them over there in Europe, he came straight back to get his fix. It all fell apart, and next thing I know, Alex pops into my office and he was like, “You have to go.  You HAVE to go to Europe.” So I’m like, “Alright. I can’t let everybody down after hyping it and stuff.” And I was the only one remotely qualified to take that position. Believe me, I’m not saying I was qualified, I was just like, I’ll do my best.

So I went over there and I spent about eight months trying to keep that company up and running. If you could imagine the pressure of starting a brand new company from scratch, the pressure and the work and dedication you have to put into that.  Now add on the complexity that you’re in a foreign country. You don’t know how shit works over there.  Everything is new. Even like how they do taxes, it’s all so difficult. It was just nonstop work, kind of like how I’m working now on the Gathering.  I would work nonstop until it was time to go to sleep, wake up, and start working again. I was trying to figure shit out, how things work.  I had a really good group of ninjas over there, we hired all European Juggalos, super down for the cause and had a lot of motivation. That’s really the only thing that kept my sanity, leaning on them a little bit. But the problem was Psychopathic Records at that time was not supportive of Psychopathic Europe. In other words, I would call to try to talk to Alex and I started getting “Alex is in a meeting.” Or “Alex stepped out of the office.” I’m like, “What?!” I started getting “No’s” all the time and the problem was, in America, they had so much going on, that they didn’t have time for Psychopathic Europe.

That’s the truth of it. They didn’t have time for me. And Alex, he was kind of like the brain behind Psychopathic, building it up to what it was. He was always the business man. I was like, the guy creating events or putting in ideas or tour managing and stuff like that.  I was more creative and always looking out for the Juggalos like, “How can we make this event fresher? How can we make this better for the Juggalos and the family?” And Alex was like, “How can we make money? How can we do this business?” And those two extremes we worked really well as a partnership, we met in the middle somewhere. If we would’ve done shit my way, we would’ve been out of business. If we would’ve done it completely Alex’s way, there would’ve been no heart. So together, we met in the middle, and Joe was there too and he was like, seeing all sides and busting our ass, making shit happen.

So anyway, I was over there, and nobody was returning my calls so it got really difficult, because I needed a lot of advice.  I was kind of lost over there. So as time was going on, it was a big money pit, because we were trying to put on shows and promote that we were over there, and do all these things which was taking money. The beginning of any business, it takes money to make money. You have to keep putting it in. That’s one of the reasons why Psychopathic was so successful, and still remains successful, is because we know this, we keep putting money back in. It’s not like we’re buying cars and shit and walking around with gold toilets or something. We get money in and we’re like, “Okay we got this money, now let’s do a video.” Then it goes right back out again. That’s why there’s so much going on at Psychopathic, because there is. We take all the money coming in and put it right back out for entertainment.

So anyway, it got to the point where Alex didn’t want to send me any money, at all. And when he did send money, but it was sporadic. I was like, “Okay I need twenty thousand pounds, which is like forty thousand dollars because it’s the projected expenses for the month.  I got payroll and everything else.” Weeks, sometimes months would pass, and he would send like half of it. When it got to its worst, was at one point, I actually had to borrow money from my employees just so I could get something to eat. Because Alex, man, he just abandoned me over there. And he’s like my childhood friend and stuff, and I have a lot of love for that kid and a lot of respect but I swear, I don’t know what happened over there, but I got left hanging.

The only people that really supported what I was doing was my brother, he spent about a month over there, he was just like how he was over here, just super schooling it and trying to do everything he could, come up with fresh ideas. He’s incredible! The creativity and the energy of my brother, I’ve never ever to this day met anybody like him, I’ve yet to meet anyone like him, that has his level of motivation and dedication. And then Tom Lumberg came out for awhile, and he was awesome. So those two ninjas were really the only ones that really supported what we were doing over there. But other than that, I felt like Psychopathic kind of left me out to dry over there, and it was all because of Alex.

The straw that finally broke the camel’s back for me was, the game Quest for Shangri-La. I made a prototype for that game, the Quest for Shangri-La, and sent it to Psychopathic and I was like, “Look. You guys gotta play test this game.” Because at the time, there was a lot of nerdies up in the office, gamers. So I was like, “You gotta play test this game and tell me how to make it better.” So I sent it over there, and a week passes, and I call up and asked, “Hey have you guys got a chance to play test it?” “Aw no, we haven’t got around to it yet, we’ll get to it, we’ll get to it.” So then, a month passes, and I keep calling up, “Look man, I just need to know what needs to be changed, and I plan on putting this game out.” I had a super passion for it. So anyway, about three months passed, and I finally gave a call to this one guy that used to work for our company, and we had a big falling out because he finally told me, not only did they not play test it, he never even brought it to anybody’s attention. It had been sitting under his desk for three months. He didn’t bring it to anybody’s attention, he just didn’t give a fuck. Man, I was so irate! That was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was the pressure of being over there. We’re trying to run a company, in a foreign country. No money and literally no support from Psychopathic.

Brother, I just cracked like an egg. The next week, I just cracked. It was way too much. I was letting employees go. It came down to just me and Steve. It was just me and him every day, putting in twenty hours a day. Finally I called Alex up and was like, “Man, this is what it is. We’ve got two employees over here, you’re not supporting anything that’s going on, it’s a big money pit and it’s gonna be that way for another year, what do you wanna do?” And he finally pulled the plug on it and I came home.

Now when I came home, they were working on MC Breed. I was shocked because nobody ran anything by me. At the time, I very much looked at Psychopathic like, “That’s my company too.” I’m a Don. Back in the day, we had a rankings system. There were five dons, the main people running the label and I was one of them. And when I got back, it was like, “Yeah okay, we’re spending this ridiculous amount into MC Breed.” And I said, “Why?” But mad love to MC Breed, super respect and Rest in Peace. I have super love for him as an artist. But at the time, he had a radio hit out, it was all over the radio, it was called “In the Club” or something like that, a super hit. It was on every radio station, especially the Michigan area. Yet, he was still flopping. Nobody was buying his album. And I was like, “Why do you think this is gonna work?” On top of that, I don’t even wanna tell you how much money they put into that project. I was like, “You’re sticking all this money into it, and nobody even ran it by me.”  The way I was kinda looking at it was like you’re spending this money, which is my money too, I should have a say on how we’re doing this and where our resources are going. It’s my company as well. So everybody kind of took a stand and said “We’re doing this.” And along with everything that happened in Europe, I was already really mentally unbalanced, I just bounced.

I had a meeting with everybody, it was very respectful, and I was like, “Look. Psychopathic Europe was not my dream, not my idea, I went over there. Alex basically left me hanging over there for a year without no support. You’re the one that sent me over there.” And it was all Alex’s vision. He brought it up, and we decided that we were gonna do it. But it was really his thing until it got in my hands. It’s like, he passed the ball, and just shut the door on me. So I just cracked.

When I got back, and the MC Breed thing was going on, that was really the final straw. And sure enough, MC Breed came out and unfortunately, he flopped. He was like one the worst sellers of all time for us as an artist. And I was trying to use logic like, “If you have this super hit all over the radio but it didn’t sell, what makes you think we’re gonna be able to do anything with him?” I just didn’t understand it.  But mostly, I spent close to a year in Europe, and I cracked like an egg.

So then, I started thinking what I wanted to do next, and EMS was a dream of a mine from way back when I was a kid. Something I always wanted to do, so I looked into that. Next thing you know, I’m going to school for it. Next thing you know, I’m on the road, and a whole other million stories. I can talk for hours about that.

Now, what made me decide to come back.  There were three things that really made me want to come back.  I was never one hundred percent gone, I want you to know that. Like when I left, I gathered everybody together and explained why I was leaving, it was very respectful, and I had to step away from it. Mentally, I was very unbalanced and it was hard to look at certain people in the eyes, I had trouble interacting with people at the office. I had so much anger, and unfortunately, Alex was one of them. I was like, “I have to step away from this right now. I don’t have the one hundred percent heart.” When you’re doing something at Psychopathic, you gotta have one hundred percent heart. There’s so many ninjas and Juggalos relying on you. On top of that, just being in this environment, you’ve gotta pull your weight, because everybody you’re working with are your friends. For me, it’s a very closeknit group up here, we’re all homies. You have to have one hundred percent heart or you’re dishonoring yourself and everyone else.

So anyway, what made me decide to come back, was when we did Big Money Rustlas. We did the movie premier in Detroit. We had every actor come out on stage, one at a time, before the movie premiered, before we even showed the movie. Maybe it was my imagination, but when they called out my name, Jumpsteady, I feel like I got as big of a pop as anyone else there. The crowd went crazy. I was shocked. For me, it was such a hitting home of “This is fucking for real. This is fucking family.” In family, you are never forgotten. In a true family, you just don’t forget somebody because they went to jail for five years or they went off somewhere. There’s always that love and it’s eternal and it remains. When they called my name out there I was like, “Does anybody even remember who I am?” There were so many new faces, I wasn’t even sure what to expect. They hadn’t even seen the movie yet. And it was a super good pop!  I don’t know, that just really moved me. It was incredible, and that whole night was incredible. The whole thing with Big Money Rustlas that was a dream of mine, I just really wanted to do a part two of that movie. I was always pushing it. And the big factor was, it costs millions of dollars to do a movie like that, and there’s no way it’s going to make money back.  So it was always a hurdle to do this movie.

To be a part of that and even filming the movie, it was awesome because I was with my brother again and it was mad respect and love and I kind of took a director’s role on that. I wasn’t a director but I was almost like an assistant director. I was always behind the director, making sure everything is shot right. Because that’s how Joe is. He wants me to oversee that, and make sure they’re not trying to film something whack. I was always up at the crack of dawn while everyone was still sleeping, going behind the camera, sometimes coming up with ideas or saying, “No don’t do that.” It was mostly Paul’s vision, he did most of it. But if I saw something going wrong, I was right there.

The other thing that made me want to come back was doing the Gatherings again. I came back and I did two Gatherings before I came back to Psychopathic.  I’m not good with years, but I know it was like four or five years ago now. I did a Gathering, I had nothing to do with it, I didn’t put it on or anything, I was hosting a stage. I was just walking around, and it was overwhelming, the love, just being at that event. There’s something magical about the Gathering. They just kind of school you. It changes the way you perceive life. I’ve always said this, Juggalos are the coolest people on the planet. When you’re there with that many at the same place, you’re just schooled with freshness. It just rules you, spiritually and emotionally. And hosting that stage, one of the hardest things was announcing that DMX didn’t show up, and The Game.  Back to back, they didn’t show up. I don’t know why, but I suspect that they were kind of scared. Maybe they heard some things, and decided at last minute they didn’t wanna come. But I had to go out on stage and announce they weren’t coming, back to back. It was one of the hardest things I had to do, but there was no hate. I know people were upset, but they didn’t target me.

 

FLH: They realize that it wasn’t your fault, either. They were the ones that backed out, not you.

 

Jumpsteady: Right. That’s just a showing for respect right there. If I was just anybody going out there, I would’ve just been pelted or stomped to death or something. If it was some guy they didn’t know anything about. The way I was able to come out there and just talk to the crowd about what was going on, it was just a massive show of respect. Again, that just moved me a lot. I couldn’t believe it. It was a really positive experience at both of those Gatherings. And then the ideas started to come to me again. I sat down with my brother and had a long talk with him, and the whole time he was trying to get me to come back. So I sat down and was like, “Look man, this is what I’m thinking about doing, I’m thinking about coming back.” I had to talk to my wife and everything and was like, “You know what this is. If I go back, you know how it was before.”

I’ve said this before in interviews, but with like Hopsin, he says he threw his life away to get his foot up in this bitch. And that’s so true, you have to sacrifice so much to be in the entertainment business. Doing what we do every day, you have to throw your life away and believe me, it’s a sacrifice. All the long hours being on the road, just working on projects, and just putting everything into it, because you don’t wanna see it fail. When you’re running your own business, you don’t wanna see that fail. It’s not like a normal job working at McDonald’s or something, because you don’t really give a fuck. You can put your effort into it, but you don’t really give a fuck about that job. You need that job, you’re not really thinking about that job. That’s the last thing you wanna think about. But when you’re running your own business, it’s very personal, everything is very personal, you never wanna see it fail. So you’re constantly struggling and busting ass and doing everything possible to keep the whole thing running and keep everything built. Everything requires a great deal of sacrifice. Time away from your families and loved ones, just the stress of it all. Putting out albums and doing shows and doing Gatherings, it’s just an incredible amount of work. Basically, I had a talk with my family, and they backed me on it. I had to regain my heart.

All of the people I had trouble with were gone, they weren’t working at the company anymore.  Like Alex, and a few others that I had problems with were gone. And so the Psychopathic that we have now is like a close-knit group of homies. We’ve got some super fresh Juggalos working up here, schooling it. We’re all Juggalos, but they actually submitted resumes and shit. We’re looking at it like, “Oh man this guy has a super fresh skill set.” We brought them in for interviews, but I just really love where Psychopathic is right now. I just feel really positive, like everything is on the rise. And we’re not trying to sell millions of albums, we don’t really give a fuck about that. We just wanna get to that place where we’ve got our fucking family and we’re able to keep doing what we do for our family. We’re at a nice spot. We can come in and do a Gathering. Put that bitch on, even though the expenses are ridiculous, we have the resources to do all that, to provide that flavor.  It’s like motivation for everything we do. It’s definitely motivation for everything that I do. Everything I consider is like, “How can I make this super fresh for the Juggalos, for our Family?  How can I make this super fresh for us?”

 

FLH: What an incredible story, I appreciate you sharing that with us. Just shows your love and dedication to the whole Juggalo nation. On behalf of everybody, we definitely appreciate it. I was intrigued the entire time and I’m sure everybody listening will be too. I don’t think there’s a better spot to end this so I’ll let you have the final word about the Gathering and anything else you want to say.

 

Jumpsteady: I just really really really love the Gathering this year. I just think everything is super on point, everything has come together, I really feel that we’re ahead of the game. Like last year, everything was kind of fucked up.  But this year, because of the amount of work everybody has been putting in, we’re really trying hard to make sure everything is super on point and everyone has a super good time. I just feel like if you’ve never been to the Gathering, then this one is the one to go to. It’s got a super good buzz and there’s been nothing but love, and I’m super looking forward to it.

 

FLH: Yeah, as am I!  It’s the fifteenth year, it’s gonna be absolutely magical, brand new spot, killer lineup. I know that everybody is just incredibly hype about it.

 

Jumpsteady: And I wanted to end with a Bruce Lee quote. I’m reading this, I actually brought it up here. “If you always put a limit on everything you do, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits.  There are only plateaus. You must not stay there, you must go beyond that.” What that’s saying is, there are no limits. I’m looking at the Juggalo world, and there are no limits to what we can do. People look at us and they’re like, “Aw what the fuck, you guys are fighting the FBI. There’s no way you can win that” or “You’re doing a Gathering? There’s no way you can do that again.” People last year were looking at the Gathering, and I don’t know why, maybe it was kind of fucked up, but they’re like “Aww it’s the last Gathering.” I kept hearing that, and nah, fuck that. This will never end. There’s that plateau and we keep going. Keep striving to get to that next level. You never wanna be stagnate, and that’s kind of where we’re at right now.  That’s where we’re at with Psychopathic, and that’s where Juggalos are at. There’s no limits to what we can do, especially if we stick together and keep moving ahead together. It’s a super beautiful thing and it’s something I’m very happy and proud to be a part of. Life has afforded me this opportunity to be able to provide for our family like we do. All we do is set up the foundation.

At one time, the Juggalos, were just like, fans of ICP.  Before it evolved into what it really is. I’m talking at the very very beginning of it. Then it evolved into a family, then it evolved into something much bigger than us. It’s much bigger than ICP or Psychopathic. It’s amazing to be a small part of it. Because all we do up here at Psychopathic is provide entertainment for our family.  That’s just one small part of it. Just like, how you guys provide news for the family. We’ve got the SCU that provides clothing and food for the family in need. Like, we’re all doing something for the family, we’re all contributing to this greater whole of what we are, and it’s amazing to be a part of it. It’s an honor to keep putting in work for y’all and for us.

 

FLH: Jumpsteady, I’ve gotta thank you for your time!  I know it’s been an extremely long interview, but I think people are going to really dig it!  That’s all we’ve got to cover!  So for Faygoluvers.net, this is Scottie D, and Jumpsteady, and we’re out!

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    Faygoluvers Comments

  1. Violentdope

    Violentdope

    Comment posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2014 12:30 am GMT -5 at 12:30 am

    Great interview Scottie!! Jumpsteady!! hit me up about a job, I would work for free man!!

  2. scruffy

    scruffy

    Comment posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2014 07:08 am GMT -5 at 7:08 am

    good stuff, that.

  3. ganjadude

    ganjadude

    Comment posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2014 11:25 am GMT -5 at 11:25 am

    great interview guys. i have always loved jumpsteadys ability to tell a story. I always though he should do narating jobs. Can you imaging jumpsteady narating cosmos for example? that shit would be fresh as fuck!

  4. Tha Wind

    Tha Wind

    Comment posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2014 03:58 am GMT -5 at 3:58 am

    Fresh! WHOOP WHOOP!

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