Finding Rhythm in Life: The Jeremy Schulz Story

VO 1:

Some of the most epic things ever accomplished began with the phrase, "Hold my beer and watch this." So chill those ice cubes, hop that cork, or crack open that can, because we're about to share an amazing story. Welcome to the Forward Drinking Podcast. Here's your host, John Hutchings.

John Hutchings:

Welcome back to the Forward Drinking Podcast. I'm your host, John Hutchings. Today, we have an incredible guest with a story that could be straight out of a Hollywood movie. Jeremy Schulz was born with a severe speech impediment and was unable to verbally communicate in his early childhood years. It was only through drumming that Jeremy rewired his brain to not only become verbally fluent, but to go on to having an amazing career in the music industry and beyond. His story was so empowering, it prompted him to write a book and even a spot on the Joe Rogan podcast. So grab a beverage. This is one you don't want to miss.

Jeremy, welcome to the show.

Jeremy Schulz:

Hey, thanks for having me, dude.

John Hutchings:

Absolutely, man. I'm stoked. So what are we enjoying today?

Jeremy Schulz:

Oh, today, we're having... It's really special. I believe it's holiday edition. It's freaking straight up ice water, because I'm keeping it anabolic in between training sessions. So yeah. Ice water.

John Hutchings:

I love it. I love it. So one of these days when we get sophisticated enough, we'll have all the fancy videography stuff in here.

Jeremy Schulz:

There you go.

John Hutchings:

For those of you who don't know, for our guest today, Jeremy is in very good shape, unlike the brewer's life myself, I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Jeremy Schulz:

There you go.

John Hutchings:

But in Jeremy's honor, I'm going to be enjoying one of our 12 beers of Christmas today, the Polar Express Cold IPA. So we'll still-

Jeremy Schulz:

Delish.

John Hutchings:

... crack this and-

Jeremy Schulz:

There you go.

John Hutchings:

Cheers to you, buddy.

Jeremy Schulz:

All right. Yeah. Cheers.

John Hutchings:

Thanks for being here.

Jeremy Schulz:

Thank you.

John Hutchings:

So Jeremy.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Tell us about where you grew up.

Jeremy Schulz:

Oh, grew up straight-up Redding, California, man, born and raised.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

My whole family is from Redding. I grew up more on the old Shasta side, and man, yeah, I just love it. Grandparents were here, parents were here. Graduated Shasta High School in '92. Yeah, it is great. I've actually lived all around the region, all the way from when I was younger, lived around Mountain, Bella Vista, Palo Cedro, and then let me see, Montgomery Creek for a little bit, Cottonwood, and then just ended up growing up in Old Shasta.

John Hutchings:

Nice.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah, right off that 299. Matter of fact, back in the day, we used to ride our bicycles to Whiskeytown. Imagine kids doing that nowadays. Right?

John Hutchings:

Yeah. That doesn't happen.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah. Imagine nowadays, no freaking helmets, just like a little BMX bike. Me and my friends, we are the long hairs. We had hair halfway down to our ass, two earrings, and we'd freaking ride our bikes out to Whiskey Town. There's no other way to get out there in the summer.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

That's what we did.

John Hutchings:

I love it.

Jeremy Schulz:

It was awesome.

John Hutchings:

I love it.

Jeremy Schulz:

That's the beauty about growing up. This is a very special place.

John Hutchings:

Absolutely.

Jeremy Schulz:

It's great.

John Hutchings:

Yeah. Actually, there's a certain portion of me that really wishes we could take it back to that, to be a hundred percent honest.

Jeremy Schulz:

Oh. Oh, yeah, for sure.

John Hutchings:

That would be awesome. Well, talking about your childhood, did you face some adversity with growing up here?

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah. First of all, growing up in Redding was... Yeah, man, it was great. The adversity that I had growing up with was I grew up with a massive stutter and Tourettes, I used to freaking hit the bottom of my foot, stuttering big time. This still being 50 years of age, 51 today. Thank you.

John Hutchings:

You look pretty good, dude, for 51, bro.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah, thanks, bro. Yeah, thanks, man. Still being 50 years of age, I still deal with stuttering. It's much more manageable now. But back then, it was, I mean, just saying one sentence took forever. That. Blinked all the time. Man, hit the bottom of my shoe. And it was communicating and speaking was extremely hard. The school system, they didn't really know how to teach me. They just put me in special ed. I had to freaking sit on my hands. But life happens. Life happens for you, not to you. So it was actually the biggest blessing of my life.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

So why was that?

Jeremy Schulz:

Well, it was because of that that my mom, at a very young age, she saw how I interacted with other world and she got me into playing drums, brought a drum set home. I've got an older brother, and she brought it home for my brother and I would. And I would get behind the drums. It was a place where I felt like I could communicate without speaking words. I'd sit behind the drum set, and that became like my sanctuary for so long. I would just sit back there for hours, play on the snare drum, pretend like that was me. And then the Toms and the cymbals were friends at school, and I could just have fluent conversations. And then I fell in love with that.

And then by the time I got into high school, that's when you figure out chicks, like dudes and bands. So you're like, "Oh, wait a second. Yeah." And I start falling in love with music. And then that was my entire identity, man. That's all I did. I didn't care about doing schoolwork. I didn't care about anything. I grew up next to a couple of skateboarders and everything. And it was so cool, because I was so engulfed in drumming. Everybody knew me as that. I would take my drum set and bring it... Our next door neighbor had a half pipe, and he had all these cats that would ride on it. And I would set my drums up on the half pipe and just jam while they were playing. Right?

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

So it was like, that was my whole identity. And then I carried that out into my adult life, became professional drummer, 20 some odd years, yeah, been able to tour and travel the world and get paid, get paid living my dream and playing drums. And then circle back, wound right back up here in Redding, and now have a drum school to be able to give back to the community where I started. So it all comes full circle.

John Hutchings:

Absolutely.

Jeremy Schulz:

Right? Isn't that far out?

John Hutchings:

It's amazing, actually, because, I mean, you... And especially, we have a lot more stuff available today to try to help people.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Although, I believe we could do a lot better, but at the same time, we have a lot of things today to try to help people with speech therapy and whatnot. But I mean, you were your own speech therapist growing up.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

I mean, you taught yourself to rewire your brain through drumming to be able to speak.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

I mean, that's incredible.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah. And I didn't realize that I was doing that until... When the realization came was when I moved up to Seattle, I was right place at the right time. I was able to move up to Seattle right in the early part of the grunge scene in the 90s, '94, '95, I was up in Seattle. And I went up there, and when I started, I was taking lessons at the Seattle Drum School. And then I started teaching there. The owner had asked me to teach there. And when he initially offered me the job to start teaching drums, I didn't go to Berkeley, I didn't do all of that stuff. All the rest of the teachers did. I told him no, because I was like, "Dude, I don't know how to read music. I don't know how to write music. And I stutter some." So it's like I went into my adult world kind of wearing the badge of what school told me I was-

John Hutchings:

Sure.

Jeremy Schulz:

... special ed and stuff like that. And I don't think that anybody... Nobody did that on purpose. There was nobody that was like, "Oh, man, you're a piece of shit." You know?

John Hutchings:

Right.

Jeremy Schulz:

Nobody said that. Because like you said, you only know what you know.

John Hutchings:

Absolutely.

Jeremy Schulz:

Internet wasn't out. So it's like, growing up in a small town, some dude that fucking blinks and hits the bottom of his foot and says Huey a million times, you're like, "What? I don't know what's going on with this dude." Right? I did. "Huey, Huey, Huey, Huey." It was insane.

So I told Steve Smith, I was like, "Man, yeah, I couldn't imagine teaching." And he told me, he's like, "Listen, we're going to work on drumming. When you start to sing the rhythm parts, that's going to rewire the synapses in your brain." I didn't believe him. I was like, "What are you talking about?" So he worked with me, and he did. And the more I practiced and the more I got super disciplined and went into that practice, the more that my speech got better. Like I said, still, it hasn't gone away, but it got better, it got manageable.

And then this incredible thing happened. All of this confidence started coming. Yeah. And then it changed the whole course of my life, because then I got confident on like, "Whoa, man, I could actually teach." And then I became a professional drummer. And then I started... And then I got into business. I had a patented invention, launched this awesome company, and then I just started getting all this crazy belief in myself. I always had it, but working with Steve Smith and with the mentor was pivotal, pivotal in that. And then, so I use a lot of the same techniques that he used to teach me. That's my core curriculum and my teaching now, and just give that away to the world. You know?

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Unbelievable.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

So backing up a little bit to high school, you just took a leap of faith, "I want to be a drummer." It's the beginning of the Seattle grunge scene.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

I'm still a huge grunge fan. I mean, I'm listening to-

Jeremy Schulz:

Oh, it's the best, bro.

John Hutchings:

Yeah. I still listen to SiriusXM and Lithium and-

Jeremy Schulz:

Oh, yeah.

John Hutchings:

... some of the older stuff.

Jeremy Schulz:

Soundgarden, right?

John Hutchings:

Oh, dude, totally. Yeah, right.

Jeremy Schulz:

Dude, huge. Dude, Temple of the Dog?

John Hutchings:

Temple of the Dog. Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

I mean, one of the best, dude.

John Hutchings:

Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. And what's the one that was... It's Alice in Chains as well as-

Jeremy Schulz:

The Mad Season?

John Hutchings:

Mad Season.

Jeremy Schulz:

Right.

John Hutchings:

Right?

Jeremy Schulz:

Right. Yeah. Bro, I was in Seattle in the time when Seattle was a very special place where all those bands... So everybody, it's like it was a really small friends community. No matter how big or small the band would be, we'd be playing a show, and the weird thing about in Seattle, all the other bands, all the other musicians went out to go see all the other bands.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

It is almost like nobody else was into music except for the people who actually played it. So you're playing, and there's Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff. I mean, yeah, it's like loading on and off gear, your band is up next after Queensrÿche on a Tuesday night in a freaking bar, right?

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

There's people fucking playing darts, and Queensrÿche just got off tour with Metallica or something. You're like, "Fuck." Right? It was a crazy time to be there. So cool, man.

John Hutchings:

Yeah. I had a buddy of mine from high school that went to school at UW, and he's like, "Dude, you got to come visit me."

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

That was my first time ever going to Washington. And I remember we were walking downtown, and it was probably a little after the popularity of The Presidents of the United States of America.

Jeremy Schulz:

Oh, yeah.

John Hutchings:

But I remember walking downtown-

Jeremy Schulz:

Peaches. Right.

John Hutchings:

... and they... And I was like... They're playing in front of a Starbucks on a street corner.

Jeremy Schulz:

Right? Yeah.

John Hutchings:

And I was like, "What the hell?" We're out there jamming to the street watching this. I was like, "This is gnarly."

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah, Seattle is great.

John Hutchings:

So of these bands, I mean, you get up there to Seattle, I mean, basically just leave, "Hey, I know I'm going to be a drummer." You peace out of Redding.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Head to the Seattle grunge scene. You get involved in teaching at a school and being a student to a teacher, and then you foray into playing with these bands. How did you get in with playing with these bands and touring?

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah. So like you said, right after, shortly after graduating high school, I was lucky, I've had a very encouraging mother. Hey, mom, if you're listening to this. And she was always like, "Yo, you got one chance." You know?

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

She was like, "Don't knock anybody up and freaking get on it, because blink of an eye, it's over." So I put my drums in the back, I have a Ford Courier, put my drums in the back of my truck, drove up to Seattle and ran out of gas at the freaking Space Needle. Yeah. Getting up there, everybody was touring up there. You could... Every band up there was touring. And it's just so, like you said, yeah, I started working at the Seattle Drum School. And then I would get into a band, and we'd just do local tours around Washington, Idaho, Oregon.

And then I got into a nationally touring band, this old school legendary band called Barbie Car. And there was a couple of professional snowboarders, and there were these old school dudes. And we went all around the country. We'd go out for eight or nine weeks, just sleeping in the van all the time. And tour life, a lot of people don't like it. I fell in love with it, man. I was like, "Oh, dude, this is great." And then just like anything else, I just kept at it, and then the bands got more professional and more professional, and the next thing you know, I would be out playing with bigger bands. And then I got to go on these dropout tours where if a drummer would bail off of a show, I would come in and jump in on that band. Sometimes they'd be playing big stadiums or whatever, big festivals. And yeah, man, it was really cool.

And then I would fly back home, and then I'd have a whole bunch of students. And that's also how it actually made me accidentally get into online teaching. I got into online teaching at a very, very early part of the game. I had a whole bunch of students at the Seattle Drum School, and then I branched off and I started teaching out of my place, because the school needed me more than I could commit to be there. So I was touring enough, and then I was teaching out of the studio in my house. And I was teaching a bunch of these Amazon cats, and I would be... Yeah, yeah. I'd go on tour, and they were all techie, and they were like, "Hey, let's just have a video lesson." So I'd be in the back of the van with my practice pad and my selfie stick and giving lessons out while we're driving down the freaking I-5 or across out the country. I'm giving lessons to people all over the United States, working while everybody else is broke, don't got a pot to piss in. I'm back there making money and doing that.

And then it just got bigger and bigger. Then social media came out, and I would be like-

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

I'd be like, "Hey, I'm playing South by Southwest. Let's have a group drum lesson." People would show up. I'll be in Chicago, group drum lesson," people show up. So it was just freaking amazing.

John Hutchings:

Oh, man.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Talk about one thing that's cool, and I love about these stories is that, it just goes to show that anybody that has passion and anybody that can just become really good at a skill, you can monetize anything, right?

Jeremy Schulz:

Isn't that the truth?

John Hutchings:

Right?

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

I mean, people figure out how to take pictures of their freaking feet.

Jeremy Schulz:

I know. I know.

John Hutchings:

And make it work.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah. Yeah.

John Hutchings:

But you've got to have some sort of a passionate drive. And I think it's absolutely freaking incredible, especially too, given the stuttering and the Tourette's and everything that you did to rewire yourself, and then just the rags to rock star story that we all, I think, dream of.

Jeremy Schulz:

Right. Yeah. It's like I got really high up into it, and then freaking, it all came crashing down, literally lost it all. Lost everything. And now, like I told you, I just turned 51 today, and I'm four years into my rebuild, and now I have everything, I've rebuilt bigger, better, and just way smarter this time.

John Hutchings:

No good story comes without a fallout.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

I could tell you that.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Because nobody wants to hear about the person that just killed it and never stumbled. And it's not that we ever root for people that have problems in their lives, but I can tell you, even the little bit that I've done too, I've had massive failures.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

And I think it's just part of the game.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

And it's those that know how to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and keep going, and not get in the fetal position and cry like a bitch are the ones that are able to really win.

Jeremy Schulz:

Right. Yeah.

John Hutchings:

So yeah, walk us through it.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah. And that's what brought me back here in Redding. One of the reasons why you have me on this podcast is like, yeah, I have the drum school and I've played some good shows. But the recognition is from the Walk Across America.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

So I was up there in Seattle, everything was going good, man. I'm a couple decades into my career, and by that time, I was married, had a stepson. And I was a few years into this legendary company that I had founded. I made these things called downloadable album T-shirts.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

You scan the shirt, it downloads the music right into your phone, and Snoop Dogg and Redman had it, and New York Knicks, and it was awesome. And I was out and touring and blah, blah, blah. And yeah, one day, I was out on other road and I went to go step out on stage in Dallas, and I got this text on my phone, one word text that just said Divorce. And the lifestyle had caught up with me. Reflecting back, it takes two to tango.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

It wasn't like, "Oh, I'm being the perfect husband, and my rotten wife divorced me." It took two to tango.

John Hutchings:

Right.

Jeremy Schulz:

I was not pulling my weight. I'd have divorced me too. But at the time, that's not what it felt like.

John Hutchings:

Oh, sure.

Jeremy Schulz:

So that was the starting of the unraveling. Flew home, and everything was gone. And then fast-forward a couple months later, I'd lost everything, man. I lost my business, lost my career, my band and everything. So I left Seattle in 2016, and I had a few years of soul-searching, travel around the world. I was solo by myself. And then I wound up in New York City. I already had a handful of students there, and I had a bunch of work there. I had an apartment in Brooklyn. And I woke up just feeling the most amount of emptiness and lack of purpose and everything. And I was like, "I'm going to walk home. I'm going to walk out to Redding." I called one of my best friends and told them, and I said, "I'm never going to play drums again." And I gave away every single thing that I owned. I gave away snare drums, I gave away all my kit, computer, every single thing. No car, nothing. Gave up my New York City apartment. And on April 22nd, 2019, I walked off the Brooklyn Bridge and walked 3,100 miles to the Sundial Bridge.

John Hutchings:

Wow.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Absolutely incredible.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Well, I'll tell you what, we're going to take a break here for a second. I'm going to grab another beer. We're going to freshen up Jeremy's ice water. When we come back to you, we're going to hear about this.

Jeremy Schulz:

Do some push-ups.

John Hutchings:

This modern-day Forrest Gump visionquest.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah, let's do it.

John Hutchings:

We'll be right back. Hang in there.

VO 2:

Inspired by the unspoiled nature of the Fall River Valley, our craft beer community is always open to adventure. It's the spirit of innovation and exploration that move us forward. We push through tough times, step beyond our boundaries, and expand our horizons at every opportunity. Our beers have scaled mountains, floated downstream, been fireside, and a part of all the little moments that make up a life well-lived. From small beginnings to big ideas, it's our passion for craft beer and the community that we've created to keep the heart of Fall River, well, brewing, whether it's the crack of a can, the rush of a tap, or the clink of a glass, these are the sounds that pull us forward toward connection, connecting to nature, connecting with friends, and connecting the memories you make with Fall River Beers.

Fall River Brewing Company is proud to sponsor the Forward Drinking Podcast. We hope these stories motivate you to think creatively, take risk, and put a plan into motion. Fall River Brewing Company, Redding, California. Please enjoy responsibly.

John Hutchings:

All right. Welcome back to the show. Grabbed a fresh beer here. So Jeremy, you were just telling us about getting ready to go on your Forrest Gump quest across the US.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yes. Yes.

John Hutchings:

So you'd been doing a little bit of traveling and some soul-searching after the loss of the wife and the fall out of your business, and you just found your calling one day to walk from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Sundial Bridge back here in Redding, which I've heard about this on the Joe Rogan podcast.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yes, sir.

John Hutchings:

This is... Listen up, folks.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

This is no shit right here. So lay it down for us.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah. Well, everybody asked where I got the inspiration to even do it, and I was going back and forth. I had a place in Bangkok, a little Airbnb that I rented out in Bangkok. And then I was going in between Bangkok, Dallas and New York for a while. And when I was in Bangkok, there was this guy that was running across Thailand. And it was so captivating. He had the news, all the media outlets were just glued to what he was doing. He was raising money for these children's hospital, and they would interview him at night after he'd get done running, and he would just talk about how much joy it brought him. And I was so void of joy. I was searching. I talked about in my book, my book is called Way of the Wandering Monk Walking Home, and I was in search of this answer to a question that I didn't know how to ask, and I didn't know where to find out the answer. And he was talking about how much joy he felt.

And I remember waking up in the morning in my apartment there in Brooklyn, and New York is a lonely, lonely place. Millions of people are so lonely. Neighbors don't talk to each other, and everyone just keeps their head down. New York is great. I love New Yorkers. It is very lonely place. And I remember just being like, "Man," I would think about that walk, his name was Toon and the walk that Toon would do. And I'd be like, "Man, I wonder if I tried walking home, walking out to Redding. I wonder if I could find that same joy."

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

It was like my heart, my soul was so thirsty for something other than complete despair. So I just decided one day that I was going to, and I called my best friend at the time, John Kerry, rest in peace, John, love you, called him. He and his family, they lived in Virginia. And I told him, I said, "Hey, listen, I got this idea. I need to go soul-searching, and I'm going to walk."

And at first, I wasn't going to tell anybody. I was going to tell him. I was just going to do it by myself and just... Well, I did do it by myself, but is what I mean is I wasn't going to even announce it, as morbid and weird as it sounds is like I kind of sorta also... I had a little bit of hopes too that maybe I'll just walk and disappear.

So John and his family, they were really worried about me, and he said, "Hey, tie it to a foundation so that way you can tie it to more of a purpose, rather than walking kind of purposeless to try to find something, do it, you'll have a bit of a community and you'll be doing something good at the same time."

John Hutchings:

Absolutely.

Jeremy Schulz:

And from having my own drum school already and teaching up for so long, I know that that was one thing that just always lit me up was being able to provide somebody with some sort of happiness or stoke. So I was like, "That's a great idea." So I decided to link my walk to the anti-bullying campaign that I had heard Justin Wren, Justin Wren was on Joe Rogan.

And right after I got done telling my buddy John about my walk, just like an hour later, Justin Wren was on a Joe Rogan show. And as soon as I listened to the show, right afterwards, I freaking emailed him. I was like, "Bro, I'm going to do this, and I'm going to tie..." And I didn't care if he got back to me or not. "I'm going to tie my walk out to your anti-bullying campaign." And then he and his crew, they got ahold of me, and then I linked it up, and it was great. I'm glad that I did it, because it instantly started providing some happiness and some joy to me.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

And then by the time I made it to Redding, I was able to donate $10,500 to their anti-bullying campaign.

John Hutchings:

Heck yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah. And then I found the answer to my question and was a completely new man after walking for 178 days with a 52 pound pack and six near death experiences.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

I mean, I was going to ask you about how much time it took you, but I mean, there had to be some crazy stories along the way, walking across the United States.

Jeremy Schulz:

Oh, man. Yes. Enough to work... I have a book coming out. My book is literally in the editing process right now. But yes. So there's a handful of people that walked across the US, and most all of them have a crew. I didn't. It was just me. I had a solo, and I had a right around 52 pound pack on my back. And I remember the press being at the bridge when I was leaving, and they were asking me like, "Hey, what about your crew?" And I'm like, "What the fuck are you talking about? I'm just going to walk." So they were asking me like, "Hey, what's your route?" Bro, I didn't even have a route. I was like... The day right before I left, I decided I was going to walk 500 miles out of my way, go up to Niagara Falls first. So I had a good buddy that walked with me for about a week on the way up to Niagara Falls. So I didn't even have a route. I just kind of winged it.

And during that 178 days, man, I fell off a 40-foot cliff in the Pocono Mountains. That was a week and a half into the walk. I had my backpack on and stepped over the guard rail to go piss. And the road breaks off and in mid piss, boom. Yeah. Head over heels. Boom, boom, boom. Got pee all over me, man. And then backpack is a strew everywhere. And I get up, and I don't know how, but I did not break anything. I was mad sore. Got everything back into the backpack. And then I looked up, and then it started freaking raining. So it took me about another hour to go up the hill, because it was mud sliding down. Slept in the woods that night. And then, so I fell off a 40-foot cliff.

I got caught in a flood in Indiana where this bridge had broke, and the water came down and it took me away. And this guy comes down in a jeep and saves me. That was terrifying. Just absolutely terrifying. And then I got lost in the Shawnee National Forest for four nights, and that was brutal. Fell asleep up against a tree with a whole bunch of ants in it. So imagine second or third night in the forest, totally lost, and then getting covered with ants, because there was, I think I sat on an ant hill or whatever. So they were everywhere, bro. They're in my beard and all over in my clothes. And that was brutal.

And then I got lost in the Oklahoma Panhandle where I almost died and ran out of water. That was the first time I ever prayed to God. I prayed in the middle of the Panhandle. And then I actually found God on my walk, and then prayed for water, water showed up, completely saved me. And then a few nights earlier, I had gotten camped out and unbeknown to me, there was a prison break. This is what they talk about on the Joe Rogan show-

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

... is there was a prison break in the middle of when I was camping out in this field. And they said, "Hey, if you hear prison sirens, you got to stay in your tent. But if you hear tornado sirens, go run to the..." So there was tornado sirens going on at the same time that there was this prison break, and there are branches coming down on me. Man, I was getting flooded out, and it was fucking just super terrifying.

And the road that I had almost died on in the Panhandle, I had this group of coyotes that would surround my tent at night, and it was, yeah, as if I got stalked.

And then in Nevada, I freaking bear maced myself and walked for three days with bear mace. Sprayed myself right in the face. I don't know if you've ever seen bear mace, but it's gnarly.

John Hutchings:

Oh, yeah. Pack it elk hunting.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Ward off grizzlies.

Jeremy Schulz:

Well, you ever sprayed yourself on accident?

John Hutchings:

No. No.

Jeremy Schulz:

Bro-

John Hutchings:

I've practiced spraying it, but yeah, I've never... I can't even imagine.

Jeremy Schulz:

No, the safety came off and my elbow hit it, because it was on the side of my pack, and it just shot me right in the face. And it was... Dude, it got... So the KOA was three days away, like a three-day walk through Nevada. And then so I had to walk to shower it off. Because after a couple days of walking, after a while, I'm not saying you get used to it, but you forget. I'm like, "Oh, it's off my hands." So of course, I had to piss.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

Right?

John Hutchings:

Right.

Jeremy Schulz:

But I still had... That freaking bear mace, man, gets all over you. Yeah. But anyways, yeah. And then I had the bottoms, the skin on the bottom of my feet literally came off after walking through a week of rain when I was in Missouri. And then it dried out and cracked. And bro, yeah, it was gnarly. One of the coolest things I ever did. But I completely... It was like a spiritual quest, and I wasn't much of a believer of God before the trip, and literally found him on that trip. And it's changed my whole entire life.

John Hutchings:

Absolutely. And I think there's something to be said about spending time alone and rewilding yourselves.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Actually, one of our employees has walked the Pacific Crest Trail twice.

Jeremy Schulz:

Oh, yeah.

John Hutchings:

[inaudible 00:31:11] she's done the Continental Divide, she's done Appalachian Trail. Jen loves the podcast. Hopefully, she's listening. Jen, Jen.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

But she said the same thing. She talks about it, and she's been here and gone a lot because of that calling for the wild. You know?

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

And the little bit of time I spend back country, hunting, I totally get it. I mean, there's something to be said about rewilding yourself and getting out there.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah. Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Unplugging from the shit that we're plugged into all the time.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah, exactly. That's where all the truth resides. It's like, I realized going for my walk, I was running from a lot of stuff. And then you get in these bouts of isolation, and that isolation, man, you're forced to tap into... My phone would die, so I couldn't listen to music. I was in the middle of nowhere. Most of the US is completely desolate.

So it's like, I was walking through the middle of nowhere most of the time, and I had these bouts of isolation where it was the sound of my footsteps and then my breath, and then I would hear what I thought was the sound of God's voice clear as day, just like our voice is talking right now. And we would conversate for hours, man, and just hours and hours and hours. And it was incredible. And pain in my feet, while I was in that state, nothing hurt. I wouldn't get tired. People would be like, "Oh, how could you walk for 11 hours," or whatever. I didn't feel anything. Now, afterwards, I was sore as shit, right?

John Hutchings:

Yeah. Right.

Jeremy Schulz:

But you would tap into that flow state.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

To that flow state. And that's where I figured everything out, man. That's where I figured out that every single thing that I needed was already resided within me. So when I say my book is called Walking Home, it's literally, I grew up in Redding, so I was walking home, but I had also realized that I had abandoned myself, and I was looking outside of myself, even as everything was coming, as my life imploded. That was due to, I was seeking all of this external stuff, external partying, and just blah, blah, like that. And I wasn't coming home. I wasn't getting in touch with my inner self to find these answers and to find out how I should react to certain situations or whatever. And I completely abandoned that.

Now, on my walk, there was nothing else for me to do except for return home.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

And then once I returned home, then it was cool, because I had that literally the coming to Jesus part in the Panhandle. And it was after that, I started walking, and I started thinking about, "Wow, man, if I'm going to rebuild... Old Jeremy is completely dead and gone. It was completely, completely dead, burnt to ash, the ash was turned into wind." So I said... Some people might find that sad, but I started getting really excited, and I was like, "Man, I could rebuild. I could rebuild a whole new man." So when I was walking, I would just imagine in my mind, "What's this new person going to be like?" And then I was thinking about the kind of wife I'd get, and then I was like, "Oh, yeah, I want to be a man of substance in my community. I want to be able to have purpose rather than beyond just playing a big ass show and just get my picture taken and doing this."

And then by the time I made it to the Sundial Bridge, I like to say I walked 3,100 miles to the starting line and not to the finish line.

John Hutchings:

Right.

Jeremy Schulz:

And then that's when it all hit me that that was the beginning of my new life. And now, fast-forward four and a half years later, I've been able to take all of that and apply it. And it's almost like I live in fairy tale land, man.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

I got the raddest wife and an amazing business downtown. I'm training 45 and 50 year olds all over the US on how to get super shredded. I've got my book coming out, a film, an album. Freak.

John Hutchings:

Heck yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

Awesome, bro.

John Hutchings:

I love it. I love it. So tell me about your drum school here in Redding, because that was what brought us together to get on the show.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah. Exactly.

John Hutchings:

Give me the breakdown on that.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was a culmination of like, I realized when I was on my walk, found that it was my calling to be able to teach others the way, to be able to help people be able to access the power within themselves. And the language that I spoke that I've speaking most fluently in my life was the language of drumming. So it was something I already knew how to do. Like I said, I had quit drums. When I showed up... I got rid of drumming, but drumming never got rid of me. Because when I showed up to the Sundial Bridge, I had people there waiting with drums that knew that I had given mine away, not little toy drums. I'm talking like thousand dollars freaking snare drum, hand hammered brass, freaking wood hoops, man, just like, "Bro, here."

So the girl that I was dating at the time flew out, boom, we got married. And then she loves it here in Redding. And then I was like... Man, a couple years ago, I was like, "Okay, I need to really get going on my purpose and my mission." So I decided to open up Beats From The Core. Beats From The Core was already a drum school, but it was online. But I said, "I want to be able to give it to the community." So we decided that we had open up a music school that teaches drums through these four core principles. So connection, discovery, empowerment, and transformation. And our mission would be to transform lives and impact communities through drum lessons, one beat at a time.

So I decided that we'd find a place. We looked all over Redding, and I tell people, "Yeah, drum school." They're like, "Not here, bro." And then we found this great place there, right there in downtown on Market Street, and our landlord, man, she's so great, man. She was amazing. I called her, told her what we were going to do. She was like, "This community needs you guys." We signed the lease, and we've been there for... October was our one year.

And we decided that we were going to open up a drum school that was a little bit different. It was more for other people. Instead of having a school that is for prodigies, where you try to get everybody to go to Berkeley and all of this stuff, you get anybody who has an interest in finding their own rhythm, or maybe the rhythm of a community. That's our customer. That is the fit of the drum school. We have people that have come in that have never even held sticks, and next thing you know, dude, they're playing songs, they're playing in our ensemble programs.

And then I have a couple of employees, and I wrote a teacher training program that teaches them how to be able to teach through these four core principles. So I've had people come in that wanted to work there, and they might be good drummers, they might be like that, but that's actually the very last requirement. It's not even the first, second, or third requirement. They have to be able to come in and buy into the mission statement, to be able to use drums as a vehicle to build up other people. Like I was telling somebody the other day, we could have a sign out in front of our place, instead of saying Beats From The Core Drum School Redding, we could have a sign that said "People Building Factory." But nobody would understand what that is. We just use drums as a vehicle to be able to build communities and individual people.

And that's branched out. Doing it through the community, I work with the MLK Center here, a lot of special needs here. And then also do corporate team building workshops. I was just down in San Francisco last week where these corporations, these tech companies or whatever, they'll hire me to come in and do a team building workshop. Imagine your team, you got a team of 30 people, and I show up with 30 freaking drums, not a little bongos. I'm talking like floor toms, Neil Peart style drums, like that.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

And we all get together in a circle, and we freaking jam. And then I talk about my talk, and then we end. And everybody, you just jam as a big freaking tribe. So yeah, that's literally... That's my calling. That's my calling. And the community has been amazing for us. We got hooked up with all the charter schools here. So this is going to be our second summer. We're going to be going in to summertime. I just can't wait, because we're going to have camps and workshops and all that. It's fulfilling. I get to freaking wake up and run a drum school all day.

John Hutchings:

Yeah. Do what you love.

Jeremy Schulz:

Bro.

John Hutchings:

And it helps people.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Heck yeah. Dude, it's so awesome. Well, I'll tell you what, before we wrap up here, I want you to give us a little bit of a plug. Give us a full-blown plug on this book, because I'm stoked.

Jeremy Schulz:

Okay.

John Hutchings:

So when is the hardback versus the audiobook-

Jeremy Schulz:

Yeah.

John Hutchings:

... which I'm kind of stoked about, because you told me a little bit about the audiobook. So tell me a little bit about that and what you're doing, what's going to make it so incredible?

Jeremy Schulz:

Okay. Oh, yeah. I was just telling my wife, writing this book has been twice as hard as walking. Walking... Retrospectively, walking was easy. So now, it's like the book is finally... I finally finished writing it. It is in the editing process right now. So because I'm me, the way that I do shit, it is like my biggest pro and my biggest con, biggest plus and curse at the same time is I'm a dude that's either on zero or 11. It's like I have a hard time fucking halfway doing anything.

So this is the normal way. You make a book, and then you get it published, and then they take care of the audiobook, and it goes out. Well, this is how Jeremy does it. So it's like I write this book, and then I go and I'm going to be doing the audiobook myself, but because I'm a musician, I'm going into the recording studio. And we're going to do what they call the very first ever Sonic audiobook. So we're going to have a full movie soundtrack that's going to follow along while the author, myself, narrates the entire book. And then each chapter, there's going to be six chapters of the book, and each chapter is going to have a corresponding song. And I'm doing that with a local dude here in town. And this local dude is absolute freaking legend. You know Jesse Lawson from Sundial Studios? And Jesse is a two-time, gold-winning recording artist. I think he might've had a Grammy nomination.

John Hutchings:

Yeah.

Jeremy Schulz:

So he and I we're actually going to be submitting this to the Grammys. And right now, we actually have a Crowdfunding thing going, where you guys... If you guys get to my Way of the Wandering Monk Instagram, you guys just click on the bio, and you guys could help donate to being able to get this out. This has to come out by April, because April will be my five years. And we want to have the launch at the Brooklyn Bridge. And Jesse and I will probably probably perform whatever music we're going to come. We're going to have some heavy hitters on this album, like some real deal, like big-time dudes. I'm hoping, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for maybe, I don't know if I should say, but some big-time dudes. I'll tell you off air.

But yeah, this book, it may seem like it's about a walk across America, but this is one of the most important books that I feel like is going to be coming out in 2024.this is a book of loss, hope, redemption. This is a book that also talks about the unbelievable discoveries, discovering about how beautiful people are going across the United States, man, 178 days of absolute love and compassion from complete strangers.

John Hutchings:

Awesome. Well, Jeremy, your story is incredible.

Jeremy Schulz:

Thanks, bro.

John Hutchings:

Thank you for sharing with us here on the Forward Drinking Podcast. Thanks for being here today, man.

Jeremy Schulz:

Yo, thanks, man.

John Hutchings:

It was freaking awesome.

Jeremy Schulz:

On my birthday too, bro.

John Hutchings:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Jeremy Schulz:

Fucking... Yeah, dude, 51, got to go have some fucking steak and lobster at Kobe's tonight. Yeah.

John Hutchings:

Kick ass. Well, brother, I appreciate it. And thank you guys for joining in. Stick around for the next episode of the Forward Drinking Podcast. If you haven't already, please like and subscribe to our social media, both Facebook and Instagram. And here's to the next one. Cheers.

Jeremy Schulz:

Bro, great. Thanks for having me.

VO 1:

Thanks for listening to The Forward Drinking Podcast, hosted by John Hutchings. Has this episode motivated you to create your own amazing story? Then please subscribe and leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the Forward Drinking Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok at Forward Drinking Podcast. Thanks again for listening. Until next time.