Darren Prince On Overcoming Addictions and working with Magic Johnson & Dennis Rodman | DSH #178

So wait, so how do you how do you actually get addicted to opioids?

It's like it was it's a party or is it like a pain medicine like that?

I needed it for physical pain or like sciatica.

For real.

I really do think this episode will will impact some lives.

I'm really excited to see.

That's why we're here.

See people talking about it.

I mean you motivate, inspire, impact lives.

Yeah.

All right, welcome to the Digital Social Hour.

I'm your host, Sean Kelly, along with our co-host today, Wayne Lewis.

What up, what up?

And our guest today, Darren Prince.

Thanks for having me too.

Thanks for coming.

53 years old.

Man, you gotta teach us some tips on that.

We're looking good for 53.

Well, I know we're gonna dive into the celebrity and the superstar athlete stuff, but it's really my recovery, man.

I'm coming upon 15 years sober in July, and I think things have reversed.

It's so important to be not just physically fit.

I tell people, you have to have the mental and the spiritual component, too.

Right.

And how to, you know, was it just alcohol?

It was just life, you know?

It was alcohol?

No, it was opiates.

Opiates.

Opiates.

And here I get sober, and my girlfriend wound up getting younger.

She just turned 26.

What?

Yeah, literally about a week ago, she was her 26th birthday.

So

if I might have known you put 15 years of recovery together, you can look like this, feel like this, and get a young, beautiful

girlfriend that, you know, she's got even a more beautiful heart.

So I'm going to really get it.

How long have you guys been dating?

About two and a half years.

Oh, nice.

How'd you meet?

Yeah.

Out here.

Actually, at a convention.

And she lives in L.A.

I live in Brentwood.

She's in Hollywood.

Nice.

So she likes older men.

Well, I think it's interesting.

My call from before that was I was I turned fifty and she was twenty eight.

Um but you sometimes hear about this.

It's almost like as you get older you kind of know more what you want.

And we made all the mistakes.

So women don't want to be playing the games either because

they're also getting jerked around too.

And sometimes they're not ready.

So when you're in that fun, playful stage, I get it.

I've been there.

But you get to a point, you want some more stability

and you want somebody that's got their life together.

You know, it works.

Yeah.

So let's dive into the celebrity agent stuff and how you got started there.

What was that first starting couple years like for you?

Like, it must have been hard to get that first client.

Oddly enough, let me take you back to the beginning.

It wasn't because I know we met when at Dan Fleischman's Hundred Million Mastermind event when I had Matrick Johnson and Dennis Rodman there.

So I started a baseball cart business long before you guys were born in 1984.

The company blew up.

I sold it when I was 19.

Started doing autograph signings,

bookings, private signings, appearances with none other than Muhammad Ali, who was the first guy I started working with.

And then Mohammed's agent bought me into the fold, pushed me to get Smoking Joe Frazier because I was an East Coast boy and Joe was an hour and a half away in Philly.

Built a rapport with him.

Eventually got to Magic in Los Angeles through his longtime player rep at the time and business associate Lon Rosen.

And yeah, we were just off to the races, booking all these autograph signing events.

And Chevy Chase came into my life through a mutual friend.

And then Pamela Anderson and then Dennis Rodman right in the middle of the heyday, the Chicago Bulls run.

And I transitioned out of the business, not by choice, but it turned out to be a blessing.

I talk about it in my book, Aiming High, was investigated by the FBI.

One of the merchandise products we were selling was Michael Jordan autographs.

And apparently there was like some enormous fraud scheme going on.

These autographs were questioned about their legitimacy.

And forensic document experts that work for the FBI were actually authenticating it after a couple year investigation.

I literally, first time in my life, wound up having a ton of financial issues.

I offered refunds to customers to get my reputation intact.

The items looked so good, a lot of them didn't even take a refund.

They were just like, well,

they had the Michael Jordan famous slam dunk Gatorade picture with the gorgeous autograph.

You know, a lot of people took it.

But it was one of those transitions in life when, you know, you guys who are young, understand that adversity really rebuilds your character.

Because I was on a fly fishing trip with my dad.

So were the autographs authentic or not?

They weren't were not.

No.

Everything else I had was authentic.

So the cars were actually authentic.

The autographs just wasn't.

Yeah, the merchandise itself, but the autographs were not.

But they were so good that it was incredible.

They completely slipped past the FBI.

The FBI literally.

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i literally got involved it started it started with a phone call man i tell you it's the craziest story i'm literally in new york city with muhammad ali and his wife lonnie and

i get home about an hour later it's on a sunday night i'll never forget it and i get a call from an fbi agent in chicago offering me money to come out there and help this investigation because they know I'm an expert in the autograph industry.

So I'm thinking, oh, this is right.

I just left the goat in New York City.

I'm high on life.

I'm this 25-year-old, you know, punk, arrogant kid from the suburbs.

I think I can't do anything wrong in life.

And the next morning is when I knew things got a little weird because this associate called and asked if I had an attorney.

Whoa.

So I called my lawyer, who was local, and he goes, let me call them.

Don't get involved.

And they didn't get me on mail fraud.

It was,

I was very loyal to the guy I built a rapport with.

I actually thought he was legit and he thought they were trying to get him on tax evasion and I sort of gave a false statement on a situation that happened with him and the merchandise and my phone's tapped whoa and it completely conflicted my story so they they couldn't get me on mail fraud because there was no proof and obviously I had all these incredible relationships it was just young and dumb and probably should have been doing more due diligence rather than being so trusting and the incredible thing was Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Rodman, Magic, and his guy, they all sent letters to the judge.

Whoa.

They all had your back?

Yeah, to get my back.

Wow.

But what happened was now transitioning to Prince Marketing Group, I'm on the balls of my ass for the first time financially in my mid-20s.

Right.

And I'm on a fly fishing trip with my dad in Alaska.

I took the last three grand to my name because I wanted to just get out of here.

And

he looks at me on the boat and he goes, what's your next move?

What do you want to do in life?

You're going to go back into the business.

And I was like, dad, you know what?

These haters, I'm starting to learn.

Like, when I'm on top and everybody wants something from me and they all want to pictures and autographs and to meet these men and women, you know, everybody loves me.

Now it's like, I feel like I'm getting kicked when I'm down.

And I want to be an agent.

I was like, I really think I could do it, but I don't have eight years to go to law school.

He drops the fishing pole and he looks at me.

He goes, law school?

Why do you need to be a lawyer to be an agent?

I'm like, I thought all agents are lawyers.

He goes, life is about who you know, not what you know.

Realize the relationships you have right now.

And he starts going down the list.

And because you can go to Ollie's farm in Bering Springs, Michigan, or Magic's house in Beverly Hills, or Chevy's in New Bedford, or go see Pam and Tommy in, you know, Malibu.

And he goes, I would probably start with Magic.

You know, he knows about making mistakes.

He was.

three, four years removed from the whole HIV situation.

And he goes, he's had your back.

And so I was like, all right, about a month later, I was with him in Michigan.

We had an autograph signing appearance.

And he knew I was struggling financially and always concerned about it, trying to help me, you know, make some extra money and whatnot.

I had to get rid of all my staff.

It was a really tough time for me.

The only blessing was I wasn't married and I had no kids.

So I remember

I could get through this a lot easier because I just got me to worry about, you know, and this will be a painful learning experience.

And we're in a hotel sweet in Michigan he asked me to come to his room to go over the plan for that day and it was almost like a godsend like I love telling the story because I come and he goes come here boy sit down because what's happening how you doing how's mom how's dad how's your sister and so he's got that billion dollar smile and he goes how you know how you doing and it was almost like the same question my dad asked like what are you gonna do now

And I'm so nervous.

My hands are clamming up.

I'm like, I got to do it.

I got to do it.

This is that one time in life.

I don't go for it right now.

And I said, I want to be want to be an agent.

I think I could do it.

I really think if I put myself out there with everybody I built relationships with, he put his arm on my shoulder.

He goes, boy, he goes, you know, you're a good dude.

He goes, you made a mistake.

And we all make mistakes.

And God tests great men and women.

And he's testing you.

I said, here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to give you two years

to be my agent.

But if you don't use me to knock down every door to bring in all the celebrities you can, I'm going to fire you before those two years are up because life isn't about how successful I've become.

I'm going to take it to a level they've never seen with athlete businessmen.

It's how successful I make you and everybody else around me.

And when you get there, you pay it forward to other people.

Wow.

I couldn't believe it.

I'm sitting here.

I was like I said, 25, 26, and he literally just more or less said, go out and exploit him.

And, you know, literally, it was, you know, the next next day I got Chevy I got Joe it was Pam it was Rodman

eventually within a couple years I got Ibo Knibo and then Hulk Hogan and then Reclaire and Ed all your clients so yeah so and most are still to this day and it always starts with magic it is

he's the most selfless human being in the world like it's literally at that point where

he does not need me he never needed Aaron Prince you know my dad at my first and only wedding gave him a big hug because he was there with his wife Cookie and said, father to father, I got to thank you because you needed my son like a hole in the head.

And he goes, no, man, he goes, we, he goes,

you know, it's a very special relationship we have.

And, you know, he lost his dad a couple days ago.

I left a message early in the morning because I know the Johnson family certain right now.

And he had a very special bond with his dad, like I had with mine.

And my dad passed away.

He literally called when he was in the hospital

the next day, called my mom.

He used to call my dad on his 80th birthday.

But I got that with all my people.

They're all like that.

Hulk Holgan, you know, we're on the phone for an hour yesterday.

You know, Jerry West came over two days ago, supposed to be by for 30 minutes.

He left four hours later.

You know, Charlie Sheen, Chevy Chase is coming in town in a few weeks.

And it's no business.

We're going to go to a Laker game.

We're going to

go to dinner.

We're family.

Carmen Electra's dad passed away

about two, three weeks ago.

And, you know, we're texting.

And, you know, thanks, babe.

I love you.

I appreciate you.

Denise Richards, we laugh for both Aquarius's.

There's a love and a bond.

I'm an Aquarius.

This is special.

Ready to go.

February 6th.

Yeah, February 14th.

Okay.

So Valentine's Day.

I'm a Pisces.

Pisces?

So is my girl.

I'm on February 23rd.

Nice.

So, yeah, it's nice that we

know have that with one another.

What makes these celebrities

open themselves up so much to you?

Because there's not many people they feel that way

about.

I just think it's the trust.

I mean, I was out here, last trip I was out here was February, a couple days after Valentine's Day 16th.

We booked Tom Brady for Grant Cardone.

Wow.

That was you.

So now we have a relationship with Tom Brady.

We were the ones that

we booked him for 10X.

I mean, he saw that all over the world.

I was wondering who did that.

He did it.

And interesting enough, you know, he was supposed to do it the year before and then pulled out.

There were some issues with some talent.

And

he gets out of the SCV.

And we're literally just chatting as agent Stevens.

Sweetheart, they've been together forever.

My boy Adam, that helped assist it.

And, you know, Steven, you know, I just prepped him all about me.

One of the first things Tom said, he goes, How's magic, man?

He goes, I love it.

He goes, please send my best.

Love that.

So it always comes back.

And, you know, Larry Bird had been working with Larry for many years.

So

it's just the conversation the love and the admiration and him and Ric Flair spent some time to get out Michigan because Jim Harbor is a mutual friend for for for both of them it's about four or five years he asked about Rick and Hulk so I think just when that happens I'm not a name dropper I'm not sitting here to drop names to impress nobody I don't need to do that this is my life you know

I get text messages phone calls all throughout the day these are legends that you know I just happen to be blessed to be part of a world where you know some of the most iconic figures of all time, I call them friends and family.

But is it is it hard being in that position, you know, dealing with that many people, different problems?

And then also your own, like, how do you have a like how do you balance all the relationships?

Well, I got a great team.

I got a great team.

My boy, Chris Bovolu, just moved down to Tampa literally two days ago, and Hulk and Rick are down there.

Kevin Harrington, the Shark Tank judge, is a business partner.

So, you know, he's in this little 15, 20 mile radius, he has such a great,

you know, situation.

And my boy Steve Simon, who's we go back since I was 10 years old.

We went to high school together and we did our first baseball card show together in 1984.

He's the vice president of my agency.

I've got my girls in my office.

They're dealmakers/slash assistants.

I've got a handful of other people, probably two, three, but Matt Marshadies.

I'm trying to think my boy Frankie.

Everybody kind of knows where to pick up the slack.

But there are are days where I

will need to move myself away from PMG because ultimately recovery comes first.

I've been given a gift.

And, you know, when I was on my knees after multiple overdoses on July 2nd, 2008, I screamed out to God, take the money, take the notary, take the business.

If you give me a single day of freedom to take me out of hell, I'll spend one day at a time taking others out with me.

You want to talk about ego crushing?

I had that white light moment and I heard a voice, I've got you and you're ready.

And for the better part of 15 years, I don't care what it is.

If somebody DMs me, I've got my own foundation.

I work for bandion treatment centers or 16 properties, 1,800 employees around the country.

Nothing's coming forward before giving somebody the potential to have a brand new life.

My clients even understand that.

Nothing.

It's crazy.

Nothing could be.

So who helps you with your mental battles and the things that you go through?

Who's your go-to person or your your go-to guy, or therapist, or like it's a great question.

I mean, I have a lot of spiritual brothers and sisters.

I was with Jay Shetty last night, he's my boy.

I just posted on Instagram.

I was with Lewis Howes.

Lewis and I go way back, and you know, we're hugging each other.

We haven't seen each other in such a long time.

I've also got my own network of spiritual brothers and sisters, and you know, we call it like a sponsor, but my boy Steve's like my big brother.

A lot of very well-known recovery advocates, Brendan Novak from Jackass.

You know, it's it's good to have some that,

have a level of recognition and fame too, because it's kind of the world that I mean, because it's not easy when you think about it sometimes.

Like,

I think it's a common question.

How did you get back into the aging good sense?

How do you go to events?

How do you network?

How do you eventually put one front of the other?

We all have our own level of trauma and issues that have caused character defects as we get older.

You address them, you're accountable.

Don't point the fingers at nobody but the person you're looking at.

Do you actually recommend therapy?

Like actually seeing a therapist or do you feel like it's easier for certain people to actually use their friends in their core, like their

real friends ask their therapy sessions?

Like are you like

brutally honest with

what you're going through to your people or there's like, you know, like, are you selective about who you tell what when it comes to

like, I know I'm feeling right there.

I know you're not.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, a lot of people, you know, just can't believe my transparency and my vulnerability.

I know no one.

I don't care.

I can walk into

the biggest Fortune 500 office in the world.

We're working on a big project for magic with Johnson Johnson a few years ago during the pandemic.

And I remember this woman was talking about some struggles she was having.

And bam, I just get it out there because there's never a time where I've ever not opened up where somebody

doesn't know someone else that could benefit from my story and my struggle.

And that's what not only keeps me sober, with all due respect, I mean, you can see all the pictures with Ollie and Fridge and everybody in my book, that's not what made me me.

That's not what gave me self-worth.

That's not what gave me self-esteem.

Everything today is about the cars and the jewelry and everyone else, the houses and the posting and the filters.

I didn't grow up in that ever, you know, and

that was never me.

I just, I grew up having a learning disability.

I was verbally teased.

I was told I was an idiot, all those names.

So that's where that addiction kind of played in, where eventually I was able to numb.

At the same time, my business started blowing up.

So I needed that validation for myself, not just people telling me, but I needed to feel it.

And that's where the substances came in.

But truthfully, I tell people all the time, my self-esteem now comes from doing esteemable acts, being there for people that are sick and suffering, being there for people that are struggling with mental health, not just substance abuse to say it doesn't discriminate.

Don't matter if you've been

to Yale or jail or Park Avenue or Park Bench, everybody's up for grabs and it's tough out there for a lot of people.

What made you want to

write a book?

What was the thought process behind it?

Did you wake up and it's like, I'm going to write a book?

Or what was the feeling behind it?

So I really never had a plan for my dad when he was alive.

He passed in February of 2017.

He always wanted me to write one about Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

He wanted you to write a book about Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

Well,

the intro to the book

was this moment right here, one of the most historic moments of my life.

And the one

younger you.

Yeah, that was the younger.

Wow, it looks totally different.

So

me and my good friend Harlan, we finally were able to get Ali and Frazier together to make peace.

You know, the greatest rivalry in sports, everybody in the world.

So wait, Ollie and Fraser were like really beefing, like they hated each other.

Oh, it was no joke.

Bad?

Bad.

Like on site.

Yeah.

For real?

It was always that way in real life.

So even if they seen each other at the grocery store, they would have to separate them.

Yeah, it was bad.

For real?

Yeah.

Yeah, there was a roast one, Tommy.

I remember Larry Holmes had to step in, and yeah, they had to sit on the other side of the dais.

And so, you know, here I am at this moment, and my dad always wanted me to write about the whole Ollie Frazier experience, having dinner with them the night before the NBA All-Star game in 2002 in Ollie's suite.

But I was like, I don't want to write about the ancient life.

That's not who I am.

At that point, it was, you know, eight and a half years sober.

But when he passed, all these crazy, weird spiritual awakenings started happening.

I was thinking how lucky I was that my dad had a sober son back for eight and a half years.

And I got to go through all that feeling so comfortable.

during what should have been the most uncomfortable time of my life and never thinking about picking up with

drink nothing knowing that you know these are the moments that take my spirituality to another level where I need to suit up and show up for life and I got a call from New Jersey's largest Apple Reap Center they wanted to honor me I studied with the speech coach for six months did the speech the next day dr.

Oz's producer calls the rehab they so we saw this guy Darren Prince on Facebook live I'm in New York City the next day on his show with Dr.

Oz

two days later Rona Graff from Donald Trump's office who I had a relationship with from Celebrity Prentice calls and says I'm I'm so blown away by what I saw on Facebook Live in your speech.

The president would like you to be in the White House next week.

He's signing an $8 billion opiate epidemic bill to help fight.

Wasn't there a big lawsuit that happened?

Well, yeah, against the big pharmaceutical companies.

They're like addicted, right?

So all three of those things happen.

And I'm on Instagram, maybe about a week after the White House, because I'm posting stuff about being there and being honored to be a part of it and this publisher in LA and she happened to be in recovery.

So I don't I call these things GMCs because everybody has them.

God-managed coincidences.

And we're sitting in an office just like this.

And she's like, I was in LA.

I went to see her and she goes, you're really passionate about your story.

She goes, and you're just so authentic.

You ever think about writing a book?

And I told her, I was like, yeah, my dad wanted me.

She goes, look, I have a publishing company.

You got to look at it this way.

If you could take people to be a fly-on-the-wall journey of the so-called super agent life, but what it it was like to go deep and come out of the other side this book would be your legacy you will change and save lives around the world more than anything you've ever done in your life and that was it and it's incredible me and my writer kristen mcginnis uh can't wait sat down and and it came up with the name i mean the book's already four and a half years old i'll have another one coming out but it's just so pressing i think after the pandemic it it it really hit home for a lot of people and yeah a lot are suffering and struggling with mental health and substance abuse you know

What would you tell someone dealing with, whether it's alcohol abuse, opioid abuse, antidepressant, substance?

What would you do?

I just think it's about

being transparent and asking for help, but asking for the help is where the strength comes in.

There's got to be somebody in your life.

There has to be.

And I've had some incredible moments too where people contact me on Instagram and say, hey, I saw your Jay interview or I saw you on Jordan Harbiger or this show or extra.

And first thing I do, I drop everything.

I don't care if I have interviews set up that day in my office knows.

I'm like, that's my, you know, I feel like I'm an ambassador for God now, you know, because there's so many out there.

And I need to be a voice and I need to show people that you could be comfortable

and talk about your deepest, darkest times in life.

Because when you come out of the other side, I feel it's an obligation.

that you owe to society to help so many of their sick and suffering, you know?

Yeah, so I had agoraphobia at one point, and the reason was it started off as depression but i was too scared to admit that to other people

and it just turned into agoraphobia so i couldn't even leave my house wow it was called it's called agoraphoraphobia agoraphobia if i stepped out of my house i would have a panic attack and collapse on the sidewalk like it was really bad crazy so i had to just start opening up to people and once i started doing that everything got so much better once i started admitting good for you what was going on good for you that's not easy a lot of people would have hibernated in their house and just stayed there and then that's i thought that was i thought that was

life you know yeah it was not bad there's people that are like that for years mine was about four or five months they don't snap out of it at all even four or five months is a long time long time man yeah that's it was good living that way

yeah you know but you know i was isolated thing too you know when i was playing the double life people didn't realize they look on the outside and they all thought i had the you know greatest life in the world and right because they see the photos all i wanted to do

so wait so how do you how do you actually get addicted to opioids it's like it was it's a party or is it like a pain medicine like I needed it for I needed it for physical pain uh more like sciatica um working out and traveling but but but the reality is

there's other things I could have taken I also knew that opiates were my favorite and

after I got past the whole

before I was an agent all the illegal once I became an agent I knew I had a all these morality clauses.

I had to be super careful.

So I didn't go, I never went near illegal drugs, but it was so easy when these doctors saw who I worked for.

I mean, there was times I'd bring Smoking Joe Frazier with me to my doctor's office in New York City.

I'd get Hulk Holgan on the phone to say what's up to the doctor, one of my doctors.

And they'd just give me,

I don't have no problem.

So I'd get all the Percocets, Vicodins, and OxyContins.

I needed, you know, for years it works.

It did work.

And I'm very careful when I go to high school.

I've done hundreds of keynotes

because I don't want these kids getting the wrong idea.

But

at some point, what was once living to use turned out to using to live.

And my superpowers were gone.

Were you living to use, but now using to live?

That what?

You said living to use, but living to live.

Yeah, I was living to use and eventually turned out to using to live.

Immediately flipped.

So I was that guy that walk into a room.

I remember the mantra in 1997 in L.A.

LA.

I see Kobe Bryant.

I did a little project with him six months before me.

He rest in peace and all his families.

I mean,

and

my boy Dave's with me, and he's just laughing.

I said, What?

And I turn around.

He goes,

You're like a machine, but in such a non-offensive way.

I see him, he's on the phone.

He, you know, put, he tells one of his boys, hey, yo, I gotta, I gotta call you back.

He goes, one of my boys is here.

He gives me the hug, and we're just shooting this shit.

So it gave me superpowers for probably five or six years because here I'm still this broken, insecure, uncomfortable, learning disabled kid that was never going to go anywhere in life, surrounded by the biggest stories in the world.

So I'm more or less just trying to survive this fake it till you make it.

But like Jay Shetty said to me when I was on a podcast, it's funny because you actually made it.

And you're looking backwards

because that's where they on came from.

So I want everybody to say, look at me, and look at you.

I'm the dumb one, right?

I wasn't gonna go nowhere.

You know, look at me now, ringsided every Tyson fight, and on the sidelines at the Super Bowls, and walking the VMA red carpet, and all these things.

You know, look at me, look at you, but

where did that get me?

You know, where did that get me?

I think we all suffer from that, though, because I can honestly say that I'm a walking testament of that.

I think we all kind of deal with those certain insecurities or those kind of words we remember.

And it's like, you know, you want to show those people like i'm here right and you're there but i think that's in all of us in a in in a way probably well i don't even know if it's as much of an insecurity sometimes it could be like a competitive type of well yeah i think it's i just it's a little bit of both the reason why it's the insecurities because you you're doing you're doing that obviously you're sitting here for security makes you feel like you're somebody and there no nobody so that's where the insecurity comes in the ego aspect it's a fine line

here's the thing if you get there,

then I don't have as much of an issue with it.

Right.

Because

if you're faking that you're there, that's where the issue issues is.

That's why there's too many issues.

We know a lot of freaking people on social media

that you want them to think they got the greatest life.

I got to a point where

it was funny because.

But is the fake it till you make it?

Concept

belief

that's kind of needed in all of us, right?

Because it's in the imagination.

It worked for me, but most people go too extreme, I think.

Okay, so that's it.

If you go to the extreme, no, you can coast along.

Is extreme staying there too long?

Is extreme staying in the imagination aspect of it too long?

Well, if you don't have a plan to execute,

it's along the way.

If you're looking at a three, four, five-year period and faking it till you make it, but you're evolving,

you're making more connections, there's real growth.

that has to happen right if you're stagnant and all it is is that dopamine hit for your ego or your insecurity no you gotta agree you gotta call yourself out on your own

sorry kind of bit you know you gotta be doing that you're not gonna get nowhere

i i fortunately didn't have to do that i i probably say my more fake it till you make it came from the addiction you know i was like how the am i gonna get out of this like i was trying to show everybody that i was calm cool, collected.

So you were hiding the addiction.

Yeah.

Yeah.

How did you break it?

It wasn't even break it.

It was literally, I was at my wit's end, and I kind of shared about it earlier.

My uncle, who may he rest in peace and his then-girlfriend visiting, visited my mom in New Jersey.

And I'm like,

I literally had an overdose out here at the 2007 NBA All-Star Game in February.

At the game.

Rodman, me and my boy Steve,

we were celebrating a TV show deal that we did with Mark Cuban, geeked freak for his HD net, and I had a horrible case of bronchitis, and one of my favorite things was Tussian X Coff Syrup, which was a heavy opiate-based coffe syrup.

It tasted like pineapple juice.

And so I called the doctor to the room.

Gives me a prescription for that, about 100 biconins of antibiotic.

I go to one of the World Groons and I'm driving back in a tax.

There was no Uber back then.

And I called my then-wife.

I was married.

I said, order me three, four Baca Red Walned Cranberries.

I'm getting ready to go out and you know I chopped up four or five Viking snorted them half a bottle of Tussinix two three

Vaca red wool cranberries

and that's for one person yeah just for my and that was just for you to go out to the club just to have a good time yeah that was just to get ready to go out but now is it a high feeling or is it just like a mellow you out like what feel is it like a

at that point it was balancing me out I needed to get at it self so you were it wasn't like like oh I'm high on life or anything it was like, I'm here, I'm present.

Yeah, no, I was present.

Exactly.

And I wasn't feeling good to begin with, so I just got to like shock my system.

And normally I could handle something like that, but I think, I don't know what it was, but within a matter of five minutes, man, I'm on the ground.

My hands are sweating.

I'm freezing.

I've got the chills.

I feel like I'm foaming out of the mouth.

My wife goes crazy.

Calls 911.

The paramedics come up to the room, and I'm literally like, my God, don't take me.

I don't know what the hell I did.

I'll never do this again.

And the paramedics came into the room and needle in my arm, oxygen mask in my face, EKG machine everywhere.

And

I never made it out that night, clearly.

And, you know, this is a definition of insanity.

So I wake up about three in the morning.

Steve took Dennis to wherever they had to go.

And I look in the mirror and I look at myself, man, bags under my eyes.

I'm bloodshot.

just really pale white and bloated, a lot heavier than I was now.

And I'm like,

you sick bastard, man.

Who does this?

Like, you're out here for NBA All-Star Weekend.

Like, you have so much going on.

And literally, with that,

I chopped up two or three more Vicodins.

I snorted them and I took the other half bottle of Tustine X Cough Syrup and I drank it and I went back into the bed.

And they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results.

And, you know, so I went to an addiction psychiatrist three days later and I got back to New Jersey.

That's where I was living at the time.

So, wait, what happened that day?

Like, were you just fine?

Did you get floating?

Because I'll tell you what happened.

My sick, diseased, traumatic brain said it was the vodka, Red Bull, and Cranberry that did it.

That's what it was.

Because I always would do Tuss CNX and bike in it.

So you just did it.

Just the fact that I mixed it with the Red Bull Vodka.

So the day before, right, that happened.

But then you went in the bathroom the next day, and then you took that, you chopped up, and you just lay down, and you

laid down, and I was just my normal floating and relaxing, and eventually passed right out and went to bed.

You know, so again, you know,

we're just very deranged people and I thought it was the baca red bone cranberry.

That's what put me over the edge and quite possibly did because of the Red Bull and the alcohol combination.

But I wound up getting home that week, started with an addiction psychiatrist.

He put me on Suboxone, which is an opiate blocker.

I'm also taking...

I'm on an antidepressant, anxiety pills, a mood stabilizer.

Still probably drinking a couple days a week.

i'm taking ambient at night and i lived that way for about eight nine months i was just a shell of myself and isn't it weird that they treat addiction with more

like more looking back at it well

now let me let me rephrase that he didn't know about all the other stuff he gave me suboxone so i'm lying to my psychiatrist on top of it

you know he couldn't even help you drive with it he's helping me with the opiate part by giving me suboxone i'm just not telling him that i'm taking ambient at night I'm still taking Xanax for my nerves.

I'm on a mood stabilizer, drinking a few days a week, all the other things you're not supposed to be doing because I was just miserable.

And that's when my uncle and his then girlfriend came to my parents, my mom's place to see them.

And they paid me a surprise visit.

I was just done.

I was spent.

My ego is too big to do it a rehab because the agency was too big.

And this woman, Andrea, I never met her before, looked at me and she's like, are you okay?

And I opened up to her.

First person, you just talked about vulnerability.

I was never this way.

That was the first time I told her everything that was going on.

And she's like, Do you realize you're an addict?

Your life's unmanageable.

And I said, Yeah, she goes, Do you realize that you know you're powerless and you have a disease?

And I said, Yeah.

And she's like, Do you realize that it doesn't discriminate as well?

And that's what broke my soul and made me start to cry.

And she goes, I can help you.

And it was about 24 hours later on that detox where I had that God moment where I ran into the bathroom.

I told them I couldn't do it.

I was looking for anxiety meds and out came three Bicodins and

it was such a relief.

I was exactly what I needed because all the opiates were gone in the house at that point, we thought, except these last three.

And

I guess I wanted to, I had to get to desperation, man, because I fell on my knees and called out to God.

And 30 minutes after that moment happened, I'm in a taxi on a beautiful night in New York City, July 2nd, 2008.

I walk into a church basement with 150, 200 addicts and alcoholics who were all once of a hopeless state of mind.

And I put my hand up and they said, is anybody new coming back or sick and suffering?

And this so-called super agent was a big-time fraud because I couldn't stay sober for one or two hours at a time.

I had these spiritual brothers and sisters changed my life one day at a time.

and poured love into me when I never knew how to love myself.

They taught me about the five A's, attitude adjustment, accountability, action, and acceptance.

And little by little, I started doing the work on myself and became whole.

And then the real gift came and I got to start helping other people.

Nice.

You have an incredible story, man.

We could talk for hours

for real.

I really do think this episode will impact some lives.

And I'm really excited to see it.

That's what I've heard.

See people talking about it.

I mean, you motivate, inspire, impact lives.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, I think you guys are blessed and gifted to have this platform that you have and get the guests that you have and have the voices that you have.

And

I get it, entrepreneurship is important.

But where can I get your book?

And anybody can get it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

I mean, it's been out forever.

And if you have any viewers that are watching, I know it's tough out there for people.

Just message me at agent underscore DP

on Instagram.

We send them out for free.

Wow.

And, you know, shout out, like I said, Banning Treatment Center.

They've always supported me.

And my guys at Bridge Therapeutics.

I'm also on the commercial body

where we have an amazing product out there that's going to eventually get to market and help opiate addicts transition into the life that they deserve.

And, you know, here I am as an agent and these opportunities are now coming to me.

So I tell a lot of people like the agent life is a byproduct to eventually be a voice to get, you know, messages and products and whatever is out there to help people get the life that they deserve.

The greatest feeling in the world.

It's got nothing to do with money.

You know, this is like, I could lose the agency tomorrow.

You guys would still have Darren Prince sitting here.

I'd sit back and I'd be like, man, I've been blessed for 30 years.

I got so many stories for you guys.

You have no idea.

I love your mindset.

I'd still figure life out, you know.

Darren, it's been a pleasure.

It really has.

Where can they find you in?

At agent underscore DP on Instagram.

My Facebook is Darren Prince.

I think it's Brentwood, California.

And then the agency website is www.princemarketinggroup.com.

And one more shout out.

If anybody

got the resources, my aiminghivefoundation.org, 100% of the proceeds goes to scholarship people that can't afford treatment for mental health and substance abuse.

Amazing.

Wayne?

My Instagram is at the creators.

T-H-E-C-R-3-8-T-O-R.

Sean Kelly.

Thanks for tuning in this week on the Digital Social Hour.

That was a great episode.

See you guys next week.

Peace.

Sick.