NPR Interview with a Single Dad/Deejay

Today, we are interviewing someone I have known for 10 years now. I met him when he was still in high school. He was a ladies man who carried himself in a way that girls flocked to him. Though in getting to know him, I found him to be so much more. He is kind-hearted, funny, smart, ambitious, driven. Later on I found out he is also a good dad, brother, friend, and also loves his mama. He is a single dad to 3 kiddos, a deejay, and is also currently writing a book.

He has been very kind to me in times where all I needed was someone to be there for me and others weren't. He is a good guy and I am grateful to call him my friend.

So today I introduce my friend and now blog partner as he joins No Pants Required as an author, Jordan Burnett.

NPR: Jordan, thanks for being on No Pants Required today! How are things going for you?

JB: Thank you for the great introduction and the time for this interview. I'm doing quite well as much as I can be. Pretty tired but that's to be expected.

NPR: Tell everyone a bit about yourself - favorite color, song, movie, age, etc. We want to hear it all! Lol

JB: My name is Jordan Burnett and I recently turned 28 even though I feel 50. My favorite color is any shade of blue but I feel baby blue brings out my handsome side. As far as movies it would have to be Notorious, which is about Biggie Smalls. I don't know what it is but watching the movie about your favorite rapper being murdered will kind of jerk some tears. If there are any more questions - I would be happy to answer them to my best abilities. I'm an open book and I'm very audacious about everything I say and do. That's the thing about being me; I don't bite my tongue because it hurts too much.

NPR: What is your favorite spare time thing to do to keep yourself busy?

JB: I play in the city volleyball league. We haven't won the championship yet but the team is the 3-year defending 2nd place champs. “Just The Tip” is our team name. Plus the kid’s friends can tell you we throw the best and most bomb sleepovers.

NPR: Describe your "perfect" day:

JB: Perfect day? That's a hard one. It would have to be waking up to my kids not fighting, a clean house and having a relaxing day by the grill with my family. Beer will definitely have to be involved.

NPR: What is the theme song to the movie of your life?

JB: That's easy, Legit Ballers by Speedknot Mobsters. The songs starts out by how the person is living with guilt of all the bad he has done. But that's just how his surroundings are. Second verse explains how he is trying to better himself without leaving the people behind that helped him make his money and protected him. The last verse is finally making it out of that situation, and being able to show off his money and accomplishments without having to worry about going to jail. Everyone where I'm from isn't clean but I feel that I made it out without having to look over my shoulder.

NPR: What is on your playlist while you drive around?

JB: Everyday I get in the car I have to listen to Gold Link by Crew - just to have my gangster lean going. After I mellowed out a bit I usually switch it up to some Pimp C by Ugk. Usually my phone is on shuffle and I never know what's coming up next. It can vary from Cigar by Pink Floyd to Bang Your Head by Quiet Riot.

NPR: Who is someone you look up to?

JB: To be honest my older brother. He has always been there for me even though we didn't see each other throughout our teenage years, we still held that great bond and I have seen him accomplish everything he has set his mind to. From starting and running a record label to graduating college when he hated school. He is an amazing human being and I love him.

NPR: Given the choice of anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would you want to share a drink with?

JB: It would definitely have to be my grandfather on my dad's side. My grandfather was murdered by his wife, which was not my grandmother when my dad was only 13. The last thing my dad told him was he never wanted to see him again and he can live his life without him. The same night my grandfather was woken up by the bullets of a double barrel shotgun going into his chest over some drugs, money and diamonds that weren't delivered in a timely fashion. My only question to him would be was how did you get started in that life?

NPR: What is your greatest accomplishment?

JB: To be honest it hasn't happened yet. Every night I’m kept up with so many ideas. I feel that I could possibly come up with something to help humanity or just do something to change somebody's life.  Seeing my kids succeed would definitely be a great accomplishment to me. The biggest one in the future I would like to see all of my kids graduate and be amazing people, and nothing like their dad.

NPR: What is an event that changed you forever?

JB: Being a father at such an early age my kids changed me. The biggest I would have to say is seeing my two-year-old almost die. It was time for bed and she wanted to watch my movie with me. So I told her to go get her sippy cup from her room. Next thing I know there was a huge crash from her room. I ran down the hallway and there was my 2-year-old daughter knocked unconscious by a 127-pound TV that fell 4 feet from the air. That definitely changed my whole outlook on everything I wasn't sure if she was going to make it for a week and a half. She was in a coma but she made it through and now she is almost 10-years-old and number one ranked in her class - can't get any better than that.

NPR: So you're a single dad, how do you balance home life, work life, and a social life?

JB: Home life is easy - I'm a big kid myself so when I have the Saturdays or Sundays off I will just sit and watch cartoons in the morning, eating cereal running around in our PJs doing nothing. That's literally the best thing ever. My son and my daughters are some unique CHARACTERS. Kailen is the oldest daughter and she acts like everyone's mama. No matter if it's me her sister or her little brother. As far as my work life I feel I work too much I feel like I never get to see my kids even though I do there's a big side of me that feels I could spend a lot more time with them even though I don't miss out on programs or anything with my oldest. The things I do miss out on are special events with my middle daughter that I only get to see a few times a year. I'm sure she feels sad but we did have a great heart to heart last time we saw each other and I try to make her understand as much as I could. I love her to the farthest galaxy and back. As far as social life, I really don't have one if I'm not working then I'm with my kids. If I'm not with my kids I'm working. I only get to go out maybe 3 times a year. Rally, Halloween, and St. Patrick's day. That's when I get to break out my kilt and have some fun.

NPR: Do you believe in the saying "it takes a village to raise kids"?

JB: It definitely does. I'm just one person and I've learned that you can't do everything on your own. I do have some friends I met since moving to South Dakota that will take my kids and love them as much as I do. Their mother isn't too much involved considering that the situation she's in but I have plenty of positive women influences in their life to where they get the both the best of both worlds. They get the strong dad at home and they also get the loving and comfort women from my best friends Crystal, Jeanny and my stepmother Josie oh and of course they just can't get enough of their Aunt Kelly at all.

NPR: As a dad with a couple girls, do you find yourself enjoying doing their hair, painting their nails, and all those other "girl" activities?

JB: Having two girls is definitely a life changer. Having to learn how to braid and do hair at 18. Painting nails? I still suck at that. I can't do a manicure to save my life but they deal with it and they're happy that Dad can do it at all. My oldest daughter's passion is being a girly-girl; I have to do her hair every morning before school. My middle daughter loves any type of physical sports, which I can get behind that for sure. If they ever need to learn how to get their dance moves down I can teach them, which brings a type of joy to me and also watching them fight their boy cousins makes me smile too knowing that my daughter's can keep up with the boys in my family.

NPR: Where do you see yourself in 10 or 20 years?

JB: As far as 10 years from now, I really hope that my kids are successful and that I'm somewhere relaxing in a big house, letting them live off me, and enjoying life as much as I can. In 20 years I just want to be an amazing grandfather so I can just hope to be like my dad. As grandpa if it comes down to it, it’s nothing for him to grab the PlayStation 4 controllers and school his grandson's on Tekken 5.

NPR: What drew you to deejaying?

JB: Just a love for the music. I have a uncle, Fuzzy Barber that had an amazing group back in the sixties and seventies and he has also taught my brother how to play the piano. He showed my brother and I the ropes of how to play the trumpet also. My music range varies from opera, rock, R&B, hip-hop and because of living in a small country towns, bluegrass to country. I like to hear how people's minds work differently. How they put certain notes to certain tones and certain rhythms with vocal variations mixed to make some amazing music.

NPR: Is it something you would like to make a long-term career out of?

JB: I really can't think of anything this long-term concerning music. it just changes so rapidly so fast that as soon as you feel like you have a grip on one type of genre it will do a complete 360 on you. It changes every day and it's something that we've seen since old Negro spirituals to Edm. But, the love I have for my music I can definitely see trickling down to my kids. Everyday when I take them to school the music will go from Taylor Swift to Kendrick Lamar to Kane Brown to Florida Georgia Line. Just a variation and if I can keep that going through my bloodline I guess you can call that long term.

NPR: Is this the direction you saw yourself going?

JB: Not really, to be honest. When I was in middle school, I was doing pre-law classes and extra stuff like that. When I hit high school I wanted to be a lawyer right out of the gate. Being a defense attorney was something I always felt I could be good at. When I was a teenager with my two older brothers the way we would get our groundings lifted faster was to present a good case to my mom. For example: when she caught us with a pack of cigarettes we would present to her the reasons we wouldn't smoke again and if we got to go to a party we will be better kids for the next month. I would also draw up petitions too.

 We would get worse punishments if we broke our bond rules. She would always tell us she was the judge the jury and prosecutor, if you could change my mom's mind you could definitely go far. After getting in trouble and realizing my family could never pay for law school I leaned towards psychology. I won a lot of cases with my mother so I figured if I could present a good case and change her mind with certain persuasions that psychology might have been my way to go. I was on my last semester when my daughter had her accident and I had to drop out of school.

NPR: Do you get nervous before you do a DJ gig?

JB: Not at all I was born in 1990 so all the music from that era on up until about 2015 was a great time to play and produce music. I literally follow that guideline and I'll start off of with Rump Shaker by Wreckx-n-Effect and ending with G-Eazy No Limit, which gets the crowd going crazy the whole time. The difference between the DJ’s now and me is that they will play some music with not one slow song. I don't get what it is with guys now days in my generation. Guys now will watch the girl that they want to talk to dance with her friends all night and then try to approach them when the club is closing. When I was in the skating rink or at school dances if I saw a girl that I liked I would talk to her and ask her to dance. No matter what the social standing, if you thought you were a nerd or not a popular person when the lights went dim and the music started playing, I just went for it. I have deejayed a lot and these guys nowadays just sit and watch and then get disappointed when the girl doesn't want to talk to him after the club closes. I guarantee if I had seen a girl that I thought was cute then I'll catch her when dilemma by Nelly and Kelly come on. Put my smooth dance moves on her just to see what was going to happen at the end of the night. Also when I go out I'm requesting songs for the DJ to play. When I see a dance floor empty I request songs that will have the dance floor full from the time I walk into the club until the time I leave. So even if I'm not working I still am. Don't give me the aux cord either because I will take over the music duties all night.

NPR: So you have started a book, tell us a bit about the premise of it:

JB: The book is about my father, my oldest brother and me dealing with the same type of circumstances that we all have been through. It starts off with my dad in the 1970s then shoots over to my brother in the 1990s then going to me in the mid 90s. We never thought we would have to deal with some of the same things. But all three of us have dealt with everything but had three different ways of handling it. My dad was a pimp, drug dealer, hustler, and fighter and my brother and I did the same things. Just showing how some cycles can be broken and some can't. Just because of the bloodline you have some tendencies can't be broken. For the most part it's a autobiography but some of its fiction because of statute of limitations. Almost all the names have been changed besides some of our fallen friends.

NPR: Are you enjoying getting all of the words down?

JB: It is fun to get the history of my dad, getting to know who he was before I was born. Then how the person you're so much alike has a different mindset because he's older and handles things differently. In a full circle it's pretty much all the same and it cracks us all up when we hang out and talk about stuff have almost the same outcome from different timeframes.

NPR: Any words of wisdom you'd like to share with our audience?

JB: It might sound cliché but really enjoy everyday to the fullest. I live every single day like I have no idea what tomorrow will bring and it's funny most people don't have fun in their life. What's a life with no fun? You haven't lived if you haven't taken a chance, falling back, taking a loss and then coming back 10 times stronger. There's nothing like sitting back in your house in your recliner or taking a drive just thinking that you're a totally different person from what you were just last year.

NPR: Thank you for doing this interview for me today! Good luck in all you are doing and also thank you for being a good friend to me, I am grateful!

JB: Of course anything for you, this friendship is over a decade old, so whatever you need I will always be here. Once again thank you for your time.