(upbeat music) - There's so much bad things that's going on in this world it's easy to focus on that, but it's so much more satisfying to see things with a positive outlook.

Just like anybody else, I have the heaviness of life, but instead of having that weight drag me down It's balancing that weight and that PMA, positive mental attitude.

My parents were always playing gospel music in the household.

It was a big part of my growing up.

My sister was more into R&B and my brother, he was into punk.

Music was very powerful.

It made me curious, so I just started looking for things that I didn't hear at home.

I remember seeing things about punk music.

I thought, oh, these guys look kind of badass.

Most of the kids I grew up with didn't get why I was into it.

Things were a lot different then.

You're a black kid, you listen to black radio, white kid, you listen to white radio.

So I got a lot of why you listening to that whiteboard music?

I was like, it's not necessarily whiteboard music.

Like, yeah, I don't see any black guys out there doing it.

And honestly, initially I didn't either and I remember that all changed Bad Brains.

And I was like, whoa, this band of black dudes are all playing this music and they were playing it better and better than anybody else.

It made me open up about how I felt about this music and maybe want to be more of a part of it.

'Cause I realized I wasn't that different.

I wasn't that much of a freak.

I was working with this dude Brian Perfume.

I told him my band just broke up and he was like, dude, seriously, my band broke up.

So I was just like, hey man, well why don't you bring your stuff, little jam tonight?

The first song we wrote was called Java Man which actually turned out to be the first song that was on our first album.

We're like, alright, this up in here.

Let's keep at it.

We would practice for hours on end.

Writing songs.

Writing songs.

Staple Gun Records took interest in us and we met the guy once he saw us play and he was like, hey, I want to put out a record.

We were getting really good reviews and they were pushing it hard and they asked if we'd like to do a music video.

We were like, well, yeah 'cause that's what bands did back then.

You did a music video.

It was Buck's idea to approach Norwood Cheek and he shows up with his crew and a bunch of boxes of costumes and stuff.

He goes, what do you want to wear?

And I'll figure out what we're gonna do.

Well, of course we saw Monkey Suit.

He was like, well, we wanna wear monkey suits.

So he is like, all right, I got an idea.

He pretty much came up with everything on the spot, had a little story, and we shot this video.

It was a lot of work, but we had a ton of fun doing it.

We got a call from our management saying MTV's gonna play your video.

And we all watched it together and we were just elated.

It wasn't in huge rotation or anything, but at that time it's like, wow, I made it.

This is really what I want to do.

We never officially broke up.

We just stopped playing.

Things kind of deteriorated and we said, let's take a break.

And that break lasts about 30 years.

(gentle music) I've always been into drawing and painting.

Well, not so much painting.

I stopped painting for the longest time.

Of course, when I started riding, the first thing I did was like, well, I don't want a stock helmet like everybody else.

I'm gonna paint something on my helmet.

And it's something I realized, oh, I really enjoyed this.

'Cause it's just bringing two things I really dig together, motorcycles and art.

- When you do what I do for a living, you have to have a positive mental attitude.

- As a kid, I was a huge fan of Evel Knievel, but I never had a motorcycle.

Then I started getting a little bit older so I was like, you know what?

It's time to get one.

I immediately fell in love with riding and I had no idea it was gonna be so life-changing.

One of the things I found is how quiet my mind would get when I ride.

I would think much clearer on my bike than anytime out and I started realizing like, you love art, why aren't you painting more?

You love music.

Hey, that's cool.

Still do your band, and that's one thing that never faded for me, that desire to play live music.

(punk music) I've been lucky over the years of finding people who I respect and love and were able to play music with.

The cool thing about Song of Praise is someone will come in with an idea and in their head thinking it's gonna sound this way, but somebody else will hear it.

And the way they approach music is gonna do something completely different, but it makes us sound the way we do sound.

That's the beauty of it.

Three people adding their flavor to this soup.

Now I'm playing in a punk rock band again, and I love it.

It's very gratifying to still be able to play music that I feel honest about playing.

I'm not seeking anybody's approval, just doing what I wanna do because it's what I wanna do.

I found over time, if I'm doing anything creative, it feels more rewarding to me if I've shared that with somebody and it's not sharing it with somebody to get a compliment.

It's seeing, oh wow, they find joy out of that as well.

I feel maybe this is part of the equation of why you're here.

All of these creative outlets that I do day in and day out really are the root of that PMA I've been talking about.

My music, my art, the motorcycles, all of it.

That's me.

That's my gift.