I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (2003) Movie Script
1
[Tiesto] You can't compare Steve
to any other DJs.
He has his own role in the DJ world.
He's one of the first entertainers
that took DJing to a different spot.
I think Steve is like a force of nature.
That's what made him stand out,
he's a larger-than-life character.
[Diplo] Dance music doesn't really
have a personality.
Steve has an overabundance of personality.
[Travis] It's very much elements
of punk rock shows.
But he's flipped them
and made them his own.
[Diplo]
If you don't know Steve personally,
you're gonna have
a perception of him right away.
I don't know how he can be in a rowboat
in the middle of a crowd and be a DJ.
[crowd cheering wildly]
If you're doing something
that people are afraid of or against,
I think you're doing something right.
That's what EDM is now,
it's more of a big spectacle show.
One... two... three!
[Pete] Everybody asks the question,
"Where is it going?"
And I think the evolution of the scene
will be more about characters
and personalities.
Steve was always more than a DJ.
[Tiernan] I forgot that
your mom moved here without your dad.
How often would you see him in the year?
[Steve] We'd do two trips,
usually like summer and winter time.
I would always look forward to it.
I'd just wait to see him again
and look forward to these trips.
I used to skate right there.
Growing up, my brother and sister
already were in college.
So from eight on,
it was like my mom raising me.
You know, I'd see my dad whenever I could.
My father divorced my mother
when Steven was very young.
So my mother really raised us...
in the Japanese culture...
in American setting.
[in Japanese]
He didn't have any Japanese friends.
[Dan] He was stuck
in this whitewashed world.
He didn't have...
Asian peers of his own
that he could connect with.
[Steve] When I grew up, I was like,
-"Which clique can I be a part of?"
-Yeah.
And I tried a bunch.
Freshman year, I was trying
to find something I could be a part of.
-[Tiernan] Yeah.
-So I joined the football team.
But they were all jocks and big
and I was only, like, 100 pounds.
-Never let me play, no matter--
-Why did they bring you on the team?
Because they have to,
it's like affirmative action.
They have to let everyone have a chance.
I tried other sports,
none of them worked out.
They were always big fails.
[Tiernan] Did you get teased
or picked on a lot?
[Steve] The only real fight I had
was playing badminton,
I was a badminton player,
and there was this one fucking asshole.
He's just saying just a tirade
of racial slurs.
"Hey you, fuckin' Nip!
You fucking gook, you slant eye.
Yeah! You think you're gonna fucking win?"
-So blatant, he was like out of a movie.
-Yeah.
All his friends were laughing behind him.
I couldn't believe it,
and I was sitting there
and kept looking back,
getting, like, so angry, so angry.
Just so angry that his friends
are laughing and they're allowing this.
And no one's doing shit, man.
No one's doing shit.
[Steve] You know, especially
when you're a kid growing up
and you're the benchwarmer,
and you're the kid
that has a hard time making friends,
you definitely don't think you're gonna be
someone of any influence at all.
I wanted to be a popular kid.
I wanted everyone to like me.
I wanted to fit in.
[Chizuru, in Japanese]
Steven never said anything to me...
but he really missed his father.
[Tiernan] I think he's always gonna be
trying to prove himself to his father.
As much as he may not want to admit it,
I think Rocky is the main driving force
behind all of his
passion projects in life.
He had such a major influence,
or lack thereof, in Steve's life,
which drove Steve to want to strive
to be something greater
than any other human being wants to be.
[woman] Without further ado,
I'd like to introduce Steve Aoki.
[crowd cheering]
[Steve] When I think of playing here,
I think about...
this long journey
from when I first started playing music.
Going from small clubs,
to bigger venues, to festivals.
And now to the point where,
as an artist, as an electronic artist,
actually playing at Madison Square Garden
is one of those rare moments.
And I'm just completely humbled by it.
And with that,
I'm proud to announce that I'm gonna
be releasing my two-part album,
"Neon Future," something I've been
working on for over two years now.
New York also is a very special place
for me. It's...
My dad lived here all my life.
So I have a very big heart
for New York City.
And I know how proud he would be
if he was here...
that his son is fuckin' playing
Madison Square Garden.
[sighs] It's fuckin'...
[cheers and applause]
It's fucking crazy, man. I just can't...
Fuck.
-[exhales]
-[indistinct mumbling]
-Yeah!
-[crowd cheering]
Growing up, it was always,
"How do I impress my father?"
How can I show him
I'm gonna be successful?
[Devon] He idolized our father,
as did, you know,
all of my brothers and sisters.
[Steve] He'd always push his kids
to work harder.
There was never a break,
we could never have a break.
He never did help me out.
It's very Japanese.
That kind of drive and ambition
and work ethic.
[Chizuru, in Japanese]
Steven's father had a very big heart.
But he could be selfish too.
He would be so focused
on what he wanted to achieve...
he would forget about his family.
[man] They call him Rocky Aoki.
-Rocky Aoki.
-[multiple voices] Rocky Aoki.
We want Rocky!
Our father first came to the US as
a wrestler on the Japanese Olympic team.
When he was in New York,
he defected from the group
and ended up staying in the city.
With the money he saved
from being an ice cream man in Harlem,
he opened his first Benihana in New York.
I'm Rocky Aoki.
When I came to this country
nine years ago,
I had a dream.
I introduced Hibachi cuisine to America.
The people loved it.
Today Benihanas are everywhere.
If you haven't eaten at the Benihana,
you've missed out
on a great American institution.
[Steve] He was a genius with marketing.
He brought over chefs from Japan
and had them cook right at the table.
He injected entertainment and showmanship
into Japanese cuisine.
[gasping in awe]
His work ethic was unparalleled
to anyone I've met in my life.
[Rocky] I don't have to sleep.
I sleep four hours a day.
I work 16 to 17 hours a day.
Very nice, very nice.
[Steve] It seemed like he knew everyone.
Hanging out with Muhammad Ali,
John Lennon, you know,
all these influential people.
He was right in the middle of it.
Rocky, how you doing?
[Steve] Everything he did
was always focused on one thing,
Benihana.
Besides being a restaurateur,
he was a sportsman.
He was a daredevil.
The guy was fucking crazy like that.
He broke a world record
for hot-air ballooning.
He didn't know what the fuck
he was doing, he just did it.
[Rocky] I'm not afraid of dying.
I don't give a damn.
I'm gonna live forever.
[man] Whoa!
[Steve] I'm not as crazy,
'cause he really was fucking nuts.
Aoki was thrown into the water--
[woman] His speedboat flipped over
in San Francisco Bay--
[man] Oh, my God.
It looks like the boat may go--
[woman 2] He's nearly been killed
on several occasions--
[woman 3] While lying in a hospital bed,
Aoki said he plans to push ahead
with his quest to become
the fastest man on water.
[Dan] His dad was almost like...
a superhero to Steve.
That's probably a huge inspiration
to look up to.
This dad that I don't really know too well
but here he is, just crushing it. [laughs]
[Steve] He had balls bigger
than anyone I've ever seen.
I'm so proud that's my father
who did those things.
[Steve] I had a lot of these photos.
These are like his early years.
Look at his mustaches.
[woman] You have that too, now.
[laughing]
[in Japanese] Do you have
any interesting memories of our father?
I remember the first time
we went in the balloon,
we got caught in a tree and fell.
Six months later,
we were ready to try again.
That's when we flew to San Francisco.
[Kevin] That was the second attempt
to cross the Pacific.
[in Japanese] Did you believe
that Rocky would make it to the US?
[Kojima] To the US?
I thought he would make it.
He said that Mt. Fuji looked
very beautiful during his flight.
Before they got to San Francisco,
the balloon went up too high.
So the balloon froze
and it started descending.
It descended almost
to the ocean's surface.
So they dropped their cameras
and all their belongings...
and the balloon finally
started rising again...
and they made it to North America.
[Steve, in English] Wow.
[Chizuru] He was around 35 years old.
-Like my age.
-Yeah, your age.
Doing all these things, it's insane.
[Kojima, in Japanese] Nobody in Japan
was doing stuff like that back then.
Now Steven is like Rocky.
He's just jumping and I worry about him.
I don't want to be like second Rocky,
you know?
So, I said, "Wow! Another Rocky."
[Steve] It was incredible,
what was happening with just one person.
It makes sense that he did Benihana.
He was trying to create a show
for the American audience,
not just at the restaurant,
but in his own personal life.
He was a showman.
[alarm beeping]
[beeping gets louder]
[Matt] I've been Steve's manager
for over ten years.
I've never seen anyone
that works this hard.
I remember a couple years into it,
people would tell me
I need to get him to slow down,
'cause he can't keep at this pace
and he'll burn out in a year or two.
Here we are, eight, nine years later,
he's only picked up steam.
[Steve] No one asked me about that.
Dillon's shaking his head.
He said there was no miscommunication.
-He's in front of me.
-[Dillon] It's on Google Docs.
It's on Google Docs, he says.
If we can be efficient with the time,
then let's be efficient with the time.
And Matt, you should know that.
You know how we are with LA time.
Yeah, but you're fucking manager,
you need to deal with this shit.
Don't fucking throw it off your hands
and say, "I don't know
what the fuck's going on."
[Matt] This morning we had
an argument with Steve.
He's upset that he flew
from Sweden to Vegas yesterday.
He had a three o'clock set.
Then he had an interview for PBS.
-[man] Wedding cake?
-[Steve] Yeah.
Then he had a set at Hakkasan in Vegas.
He finishes at, like, 4:30.
Got a 6:00 a.m. lobby call.
[Steve] Barely surviving.
Flies to LA, lands at 9:30.
At 11:30, he has to be
at a music video shoot.
[singing]
-It's a ten-hour shoot.
-[man] Cut!
Then he has a studio session
with Will.i.am.
Tomorrow he's got radio at eight
in the morning.
Steve Aoki, welcome back
to the neighborhood.
Interviews all day long.
One... two... three!
Then he has a flight at six o'clock
back to Ibiza.
-[engine sounding]
-Whoo!
The argument today? He's like,
"When do I sleep?"
[Steve] Last year,
I cracked over 300 shows
across the world.
[Gary] I've never seen anyone play...
as many shows as that guy fucking plays.
His work ethic is amazing.
Oh, Steve is a machine.
He's the quintessential grind of DJs.
[Matt] Guinness Book of World Records
contacted us and said, by miles flown,
Steve was the most traveled musician...
in the world.
[Afrojack] Steve works too hard.
Like, right now, Steve,
I'm telling you right now...
Relax.
[Tiernan] He's so driven
and he's so passionate about his work
that he sort of forgets he needs
to have a bit of a personal life.
[crowd cheering wildly]
Every opportunity he had, he took it.
To do that many shows,
you have to play everywhere.
-We are in Europe.
-We made it to Torren, Mexico.
Traveling around the world.
Came all the way to Beijing
to have this duck.
[Diplo] Steve was the first guy to go,
"I'm gonna go to Vietnam,
everywhere in Asia
that's gonna book me, and I'm gonna
make my name bigger there."
He was the first guy I remember
that went to Kuala Lumpur.
He was just going there to like...
put his flag down.
By doing that for three or four years,
we've become able to tour all the time.
We got three shows on that day.
Three shows on this day.
This day here,
we have to drive a bit anyway.
That walkway just turns
into a really nice bed for the world tour.
He's like a prophet
that actually wants to go out
and go to as many cities as possible
and have as many people
see him as possible.
Every year he's magnifying
what he was doing.
I wish I had done that because
he was putting his name out there.
[Steve] I am addicted to that feeling
of being on the road
and having that connection
with all these fans.
[Tiernan] His fans are everything to him.
I don't think he would ever
say no to someone.
[woman] I'm gonna cry.
Without that energy,
I don't know what he would do.
Steve Aoki is probably the most recorded
human being on the planet.
He has become one of
the largest celebrities in the world
inside of the Internet.
[Pete] He's 24/7 Mr. Entertainment.
Quite an unusual guy to hang around with.
And if you get to mid-30s, 40 years old,
and you're at the top of your game,
it's dangerous to your competition
'cause you're 24/7.
And it's dangerous for the artist himself.
I've never seen him sit still
for longer than maybe a couple of hours.
He can't stop.
It's just not in his nature.
To stop, for him,
and start to be in his head
and think about things
really kind of almost scares him.
He always has to have people around
when I'm not there.
He'll have people in his room
until he goes to sleep
just because he doesn't want to be alone.
[birds squawking]
[Matt] Have you actually not said
a single word in two weeks now?
Have you been able to get
even a whisper out?
[automated voice] I have been taking notes
on my experience
on how I have enriched my life
and made this for the better.
Really? Did you feel this kind of,
sort of coming on
seven, eight years ago?
Not really, because back then
I thought it was natural
that I should lose my voice
after screaming.
That's weird.
-[doctor] How you doing?
-[Matt] Floor is yours.
All right, Steve, you ready?
Everything's going well?
The cough is better?
Good. Not too much irritation?
Tongue out.
Okay.
Look this way.
-[automated voice] Recording.
-[doctor and Steve humming]
[doctor] Big breath.
[doctor and Steve humming]
[doctor] Breathe. Good.
It looks perfect.
[Matt] It looks so much better.
[doctor] It's perfect.
[Matt] It looks like
there was nothing there.
Now I need to make sure
you guys take really good care of him.
In an ideal scenario, when's
the next time he would be able to speak?
Like two more days
of not speaking, no voice lessons,
nothing like that for three weeks.
No singing for a minimum of three weeks.
Very successful.
Thank you for being so disciplined.
-All right.
-Thank you, doc.
[doctor] Pleasure.
[Matt] Ready to go, Steve?
No more screamo bands in your future.
[electric guitar tuning]
[rapid drum beats]
[Steve singing]
You're not the same
Made a violent change
It's in your head
It's in your head
It's in your head
You've got a religion
You've got shit
[Steve screams]
-Whoo!
-[singer] Thanks, Steve.
[Steve] As I was growing up,
I found hardcore as, like, my salvation.
After I graduated from high school,
I chose UC Santa Barbara
because there was a thriving
DIY hardcore community there.
From that moment on, music was my life.
Through the music, I was able
to find ways to express
all my angst and frustration
and insecurities
and actually reclaim my voice.
[song playing]
[Mike] Four of us decided to move into
this two-bedroom apartment.
It was probably like...
five hundred square feet
between two floors.
[Steve] The space was small,
so we cleared it out
and we threw in
as many people as we could.
And we started throwing shows.
We called it "The Pickle Patch."
We did over 450 bands.
[Dan] Steve was having shows there
three, four times a week.
He was developing personal relationships
with these people.
It was easy for him to be like,
"Hey, I really like your band."
I'm gonna start a record label.
I wanna put out a record for you."
And his contribution was starting Dim Mak.
[Steve] The label started when I was 19.
I was delivering greasy food
and doing telemarketing.
I didn't know how to run a label.
One of the most important things
I've learned,
in college and being part
of this community and this scene,
is that you could do absolutely anything.
[song playing]
[crowd whistling and cheering]
All the things I was doing in college,
putting on shows in my living room,
being vegan, living in a co-op
to the political activism
I was doing on campus,
to even graduating with women's studies.
All these things, my father...
he just didn't understand it.
On paper, I was polar opposite
from what my father was.
-[man] How you doing?
-[Rocky] Good. Thank you.
[Steve] He was very much
a flashy symbol of extravagance.
[in Japanese]
He had everything that I didn't have.
That's what attracted me to him.
[Kevin] My dad was running around,
building restaurants,
driving powerboats,
flying balloons across the country.
He had his own way of doing things.
[Devon] There was no family
without my mother and Steve's mother.
They kept the show going.
They kept my father alive.
[Chizuru, in Japanese] I never knew
where he was.
That caused a rift between us,
and we grew apart.
[Rocky] My first marriage was a fiasco.
I have six kids from three years old
to eighteen years old.
I don't see them that much.
I stay away from my family probably
two thirds of my life.
So I feel sorry for my kids.
Business comes number one.
And health comes number two.
And family comes number three.
[Mike] You're dejecting
what your parents stand for.
But, eventually, you presume that he's
trying to prove something to his dad.
Like, "Look, I'm not the kid
that you either wanted to abandon
or just didn't care about. I am somebody."
[Kevin] My dad asked me,
"Hey, put Steven into Benihana. Try it."
And I just remembered
what my dad did to me, and I figured,
look, I'm gonna push him.
Not as hard as my dad pushed me, but...
push him a little bit hard.
And he peeled onions...
all day until he was crying
just to show my father's work ethic.
But he probably realized that
he didn't like the restaurant business
after he worked there for three months.
[clap beats]
I told Steve, "If you're not involved
in the business,
it's risky."
[Steve] At 22, I moved to LA.
And my main focus here was to turn
Dim Mak into a business.
My father...
he didn't really support the idea.
He'd always say, "You need to get a job.
You need to do something with your life."
I wanted to prove to him
that I could be successful with music.
During that time,
I got my first investment
from these two friends of mine.
We both really believed in Steve.
We didn't invest,
we just let him borrow some money.
They are able to pay for an office space
in this, kind of, abandoned house.
[Danny] It was a shithole.
You'd never know that he came from...
any kind of wealth.
[Devon] I find it difficult
when people say,
Steve Aoki, you know, silver spoon DJ.
He got absolutely no help
from our father, financially.
He struggled.
He struggled in the beginning.
[Steve] In 2003, I first heard Bloc Party.
The next year, we released the EP
and it changed the label forever.
Bloc Party put us on the map
in a way that attracted comparable bands.
[Steve] By the time 2005 rolled around,
at least the industry knew
what Dim Mak was and they knew about me.
[music playing on headphones]
I'm not sure what his aspirations
of being a DJ were,
but as far as him being
this huge international, like, DJ,
that was just not even imaginable.
To go and become a DJ
in the LA night scene...
made no sense to us.
[Steve] My friend was throwing
a party called Fucking Awesome.
He was like, "OK, why don't we team up.
You could DJ
and we'll call it the Dim Mak Party."
When I started DJing, I started playing
punk and hardcore records.
I knew nothing about the DJ world.
[Danny] He partnered with Cobrasnake,
who was taking these incredible photos
of these beautiful kids going crazy.
Everything looked like New Years.
Most of the time
he was shirtless, sweating.
Crowd surfing into this tight group,
pouring vodka and Red Bull
in everybody's mouths.
Dim Mak Tuesdays was, like,
my first gig in America.
They had A-Trak, The Bloody Beetroots,
Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk.
The whole headbanger crew from France.
[Matt] It was, like...
Boys Noize's first DJ LA show,
Dirty South's first LA show,
Lady Gaga's first shows.
Justice and MSTRKRFplayed the same night together.
[Steve] The party was entirely free.
We were DJing for free.
It was like the Pickle Patch.
[Will.i.am] It was an amazing scene.
Since then, there hasn't been
anything like it.
Steve brought a rock and roll attitude
to dance music that didn't exist.
One, two...
[Steve screams]
[Autoerotique] That night really started
the electro movement in LA.
No one had seen it before.
It was cutting edge for that time.
[The Bloody Beetroots]
It was crunchy, over-compressed,
and it was all about punk rock.
[Jason] You saw the DIY ethic
that he had grown up on
with straight edge punk rock.
He saw that imbued in this new movement.
"This train is leaving the station
and I'm gonna be on it."
At that same time, I befriended DJ AM.
He became a big role in my life.
You want more
Okay
[Travis] He was the king
of DJing the mashups.
He was so technically skilled
with turntable tricks.
All the DJs were going there
to watch and learn.
You couldn't help but look up to AM.
He was a real friend.
AM was many things to me.
He defined what a friendship should be.
He became a guru to me as a DJ.
He brought me into understanding
the philosophy of being a DJ.
[Matt] They did tons of shows together.
They traveled together
and they just built up
a really close bond.
[Steve] I never thought
about myself as a DJ.
I always thought of myself
as a promoter and record label guy.
In 2005, this magazine
called BPM comes to me
and was like, "We wanna put you
on the cover of our magazine."
A DJ magazine wants to put me
on the cover?
Oh, shit. This is real. This is happening.
To me, Steve was successful
even if he just stood doing
Dim Mak Tuesdays and Banana Splits.
Those were great cultural destinations
in Los Angeles.
Shit was fresh.
When people come and go,
they're gonna look back.
Steve Aoki's gonna have
a huge impact on what happened.
Even though you may not say
Steve Aoki made EDM huge,
Steve Aoki was one of the step stones.
[Will.i.am] When it comes
to passionate people,
go-getters, hustlers, manifesters,
whatever you wanna call them,
Steve Aoki is that guy.
There's a wall in front of him?
He's a hustler. He goes around it,
over it, under it, through it.
Everyone else are hating
because they don't know how to do that.
I try not to live in the world
of the YouTube comments
or the Instagram comments.
I'm a human being too,
though, you know, so...
as much as I want
to not let it affect me,
if I read it or see it, it does.
[Will.i.am] If I listened to the haters,
I'd be working at some record shop
telling you what I really like
and why everything else sucks.
If the haters had their way,
Black Eyed Peas would have stopped
at Joints & Jam, and that's it.
[Jason] I was excited by everything
that he was doing as a DJ and curator,
with the mashups
and with indie rock and punk ideas.
[Gary] As he got bigger,
he kinda changed his sound
and his style.
I don't know why.
[Afrojack] People are gonna say,
"Yo, man, you're a sellout.
You suck, man.
Why you change?"
I mean, there's definitely times
when I think,
"OK, I've caked...
over 1,500 people, maybe more."
But then, when you go on stage
and you see the signs,
and you see people that want it so bad,
it's hard to change that.
In the given moment,
I don't really think about anyone
outside those four walls.
[Diplo] No matter what
you think about his music
or what you think about
what he does in the scene,
nobody can ever deny
that Steve loves what he does.
They get the criticism for collaborating
outside of your scene,
outside of your world,
but it doesn't bother me what people say
'cause as long as I believe in the music
that's coming out of my studio,
with the people I'm working with,
that's all that matters.
All these voices in my head
Voices in my head
Head
Voices in my head
Mo here on Z100.
Welcome to the studio with Steve Aoki.
[Steve] I have so much stuff
going on in my head.
I've finally announced
that I'm playing Madison Square Garden.
-Yes. That's kind of a big deal.
-My big show.
[Steve] Yeah. Massive show.
Biggest show of my career.
And releasing my album one week before.
I just can't believe this is real.
[feedback]
I've been touring nonstop lately.
So the hardest part is carving out
enough time to finish my album.
[Steve] And when you sing it, imagine...
[Steve] You wanna go over the lyrics?
It's definitely call and response,
so it's like, "Something for a ride,
-I'll take you to the sky high."
-Let me try it.
I'll take you to the sky high
-Did you get that?
-Yeah. That's cool.
[Steve hums]
[song begins]
Give me some of that
Out till the sun up
Twisting and burn up
Ain't nobody stop us
Hey, let me hear that.
I'm the worst rhymer
in the history of rhymers.
[Steve] That's why I'm not a rapper.
Everybody go, OK!
[rapid beats]
[Steve] Fucking dope.
This is fucking dope.
Give me some of that
Everybody go
[song playing]
Make some fucking noise!
[crowd cheering and whistling]
[indistinct voice from radio]
[Diplo] I don't think
Steve ever expected to
make it to Vegas,
make it to have a whole set at Ibiza.
Everywhere you think Steve won't go,
he was there.
[Steve] I first started coming to Ibiza
in 2007.
The fringier, like,
louder sounds of dance music
were not really embraced.
[Michael] There are certain DJs...
that we won't mention
that would give him a bit of a hard time.
I've never felt so not wanted.
[Diplo] No one was doing what he was,
bringing a show to Ibiza.
He got smart with what he was doing
and it clicked last year.
[Diplo] You can't underestimate this guy.
He's gonna win. He's determined.
He definitely was
the place to be last summer.
[disco groove beats]
When I think about
all of the festivals out there,
there's no other festival that makes me
so nervous than Tomorrowland.
[funky vibration]
I know how influential the festival is.
So, when you're standing up there
and DJing, and you're looking out,
you can't not get nervous.
[Michael] There are certain shows
that Steve's done in his career
that changed how people
looked at him overnight.
Closing Tomorrowland
was a massive milestone for Steve.
That festival is the quintessential
European dance music festival.
[Pete] It's such an achievement in itself
to get actually on the bill
and elevate yourself
to one of the big slots
on the key stages.
[crowd cheers]
[fireworks]
[Pete] You can see in his head
that he's really trying to concentrate.
He can get a little bit nervous,
which is cool.
It's cool that he still gets like that.
[Steve] I've been very lucky to be able
to close the main stage
for the last three years.
It's one of the most epic feelings
I've experienced.
Closing up main stage anywhere
at a festival is insane.
[crowd cheering wildly]
That's such
an incredible performance space.
It was obvious to me
that he was gonna smash it.
[crowd roaring]
[music playing]
Tomorrowland, put your hands up!
I love it when you cry
[mouthing]
It shows that you're alive
I love it when you cry
The tears bring out your eyes
Do you feel this love?
Everybody fucking scream!
[crowd cheering]
The tears bring out your eyes
[crowd applauds and whistles]
[automated voice] Eighth floor.
[Matt] Anyway, I wanted
to quickly go over MSG.
So the news isn't great.
The short answer is that
it took us a year to get that hold...
and, to jump to the end,
it's gonna take us that long
to try and get one back.
We tried to get one for this year,
nothing's available--
You're saying MSG is totally out?
MSG is out for the foreseeable future.
Basically, we can get back in line.
The next foreseeable option
would be next summer.
But then you go to Europe.
By then, both albums are out.
As far as album one goes,
it would be a full year later.
I just don't understand
how there's no other--
[Matt stammers] Because, I mean--
Obviously, this is our first time doing
something of this size and scale.
People book this stuff out
a year and a half out.
There was a date in January,
there was a date in February
and a date in April.
All of them fell through.
We lost our bid to whatever other...
Ice Capades or, you know,
Bieber concert was happening.
I wish I had better news.
I know this show meant a lot to you.
[Matt] With his dad, from day one,
it was always about, "Look what I did.
Look what I'm accomplishing."
Everything he accomplished,
"Send it to my dad.
Can you frame this and send it to my dad?"
I think it was about showing his dad that,
"Look, in many ways,
I can uphold the Aoki legacy."
[Steve] By '06-'07,
I started making money.
I would show him,
"Look, I made my first $10,000
and I'm working this much this month
and I'm getting booked here and there."
[Matt] I remember during
the summer of '08,
by then he had become a popular DJ,
by no means a household name.
And then his dad's health started failing.
[Steve] We found out
that he got hepatitis C.
We realized that this is something
that's very difficult to walk away from.
He later got diabetes
and then liver cirrhosis,
and liver cirrhosis,
which led to tumors.
[Dan] Steve definitely, at that time,
made it a point to go and see his dad
and spend more time with him.
And really get to know his dad
because he didn't really have much
of an opportunity to do that growing up.
[Kevin] The last few years
of my father's life,
all of us kids were always trying
to rally together.
When we all got together,
Steven would always try to bring
a positive note to all his kids.
He had this thing called
"positive go," and he would point.
Even to this day, I remember my dad,
remembering that "positive go"
that Steven has.
[Steve] I remember being
in the hospital and...
This is like his last couple of days.
There was one moment
when I finally had time with him.
It was just me and him.
It was actually the first time when
I ever cried so much.
I never cried in front of my dad.
I never did that, and...
And, I just...
Like, all those years...
I think everything all came out.
'Cause he's not the kind of guy to--
You don't cry with him. He doesn't--
He's very much a patriarch,
very masculine.
He's very Japanese in that way.
You know, you don't...
You just can't show that side
if you're a guy.
If you're the daughter--
If you're Devon, Echo or Grace,
you could do that but...
You can't do that with him as a son.
And...
[stammers] I'm just so happy
that I was able to show him that.
It was really...
It was really...
one of the most emotionally connected
moments I ever had with him.
And there's...
There's no words exchanged at all.
It was just...
Yeah, it was...
Something that...
I'm so happy that happened.
Just so he could...
feel how much he meant to me.
It affected Steve really, really badly.
We never really believed
that my dad could be...
taken down by anything.
He was such a challenger,
I thought he was indestructible.
Thought he would live forever.
I believed that up until the day he died.
The last thing that he did was...
he wrote the words,
"I'm going to challenge this"
on a piece of paper.
[Diplo] When I first met Steve,
I spoke to him almost
every night about his dad
because I was fascinated by it.
I was like,
where you come from is fucking crazy.
I think he's motivated
by whatever weird...
passion his father had. His father seemed
like an insane person too.
[Matt] He's an adrenaline junkie.
Whether he is competing
as a snowboarder to cliff diving,
skydiving,
he just loves adrenaline.
And the biggest high he gets
is the live performance.
[Steve] Performing your music
and having that connection,
with those thousands of people,
that is the ultimate rush.
And that is the truest of addictions.
[Matt] Steve's a relentless addict.
He jumps from addiction to addiction.
He gets obsessed with things.
Right now, it's health.
Thank God.
I'd much rather be yelling at promoters
for not delivering alkaline water
than yelling at promoters because
he needs another bottle of vodka.
For a while, he was a big drinker.
[Steve] I was always nervous
when I would start DJing,
and I would get drunk all the time.
I mean, I was drinking all the time.
[Matt] To the point
that me and Adam talked about
just a step below an intervention.
Adam had been sober for a dozen years.
He was like the king of sobriety.
He's gotten so dark in his life
from being so controlled
and consumed by drugs
that he tried to take his life.
In one instance
that he did put the gun to his head,
the latch didn't go.
It spoke to him in a way
that he needed to completely change.
It's crazy that you have to get
to that dark, deep place...
in order for you to change.
I get this BBM
from a poker friend of mine.
"Yo, did you hear about AM?"
It hit me pretty hard.
I remember closing the door
to my office and calling Steve back.
And I just said that...
"You know, Adam's dead."
It was... [sighs]
[Travis] After he passed away,
it was like...
I can't believe I lost him.
You know, it was like...
Uh...
[Matt] I remember
Steve had a show that night.
[Steve] I didn't understand
how to express myself.
How to, like, to deal with it.
But there was this really dark place.
And then I just played.
And 30 minutes in,
I played this Daft Punk record.
And Daft Punk was the artist
that me and AM, we bonded over.
That's when I just broke down.
I just broke down.
I was crying like... I couldn't believe
I was crying and playing it and...
I had a hard time DJing,
I couldn't... I had to cut my set short.
That same moment with my father,
it was like it all kinda came out.
He took it harder than almost
he took his father's passing.
[Steve] That was it for me
as far as drinking. I was done.
There's no reason why
the two very close people of my life died.
I think about it still,
it's so shocking that he's gone.
He's one of the best human beings
I actually ever met.
So I feel very grateful
to have had someone like that in my life.
[Travis] There were so many other people
that he touched.
He was always so positive
and always helping everyone around him.
[Steve] He always said one thing,
"Starve the ego, feed the soul."
I mean, that's one thing
everyone can live by.
[Steve] I needed to go through a disaster
like MSG not happening
in order to see why
and what makes Steve Aoki.
And that's LA. That's going back to LA,
going back to my roots.
All the people supporting me,
those are the people
I really need to be cherishing
and I really need to be investing my time
and, you know, obviously,
this is a big show tour.
[Eric] What I loved when we collaborated
together when I was running...
It was the most hilarious
fund-raiser I've ever done
because half of the people were your fans,
who had no idea who I was.
The others were a bunch of my supporters
who probably had never heard
of Steve Aoki.
And it was this mix of
the craziest combinations of people
suddenly finding champagne on their face
and cakes in their hair
and it's not just politics,
but getting involved in the city.
I love this friendship to do that.
-Absolutely.
-If we can get your fans
to help be part of their city,
they're gonna love it.
That's exactly the vibe.
I don't want this to be
an ordinary Aoki show.
I want this to be on the streets of LA.
I want it to be free.
Downtown would be a hot place to do it
because the revitalization
that's going on,
especially in the old corridors.
Spring Street,
where you guys have your office.
Broadway, which is--
Broadway has all those old theaters.
I don't know.
I think it would be a great place.
That would be amazing.
That's a win-win for everybody
and a homecoming for you.
Yeah, big time.
Do you want me to call New York
and tell them the bad news?
I'm happy to if you need me to.
My friend Bill de Blasio--
[Steve] If anyone can, you can.
He's a great mayor,
but I can call and let him know
it's going to be LA this time.
-Yeah. Good stuff.
-All right.
Mayor, thanks so much.
-All love, man. Really excited to do this.
-It's gonna to be great.
I'm Mayor Eric Garcetti,
and I approve of this show.
Killed it.
[man] The famous DJ partnered
with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti
as a way to celebrate the city.
A free concert with a civic-minded twist.
They are calling it LAoki.
-Steve Aoki's here.
-Steve Aoki.
-We're talking to Steve Aoki.
-Steve Aoki.
-Steve Aoki.
-Steve Aoki!
My album came out Tuesday.
His album's called Neon Future.
-Neon Future.
-Number one on iTunes already.
This guy's created a global movement.
[man] Steve, thanks for coming.
[man 2] Thanks for being on AMP radio.
Thank you for coming by, my G.
Steve Aoki, everybody.
[man 3] Steve Aoki, ladies
and gentlemen...
[Steve] This is 100% the most unique place
I've ever done a show.
Every significant milestone
in my music career
all stemmed from being in LA.
Whether it was Dim Mak Records,
to me starting to DJ,
starting to produce electronic music,
that was all just being here.
This is about the culture that I represent.
Bringing back the parties that we did
at Cinespace, at Dim Mak Tuesdays,
at Banana Splits,
and that underground element.
AM would absolutely love
to be part of this
because he was all about giving back
to the community.
As a parallel with that
and what we're doing here,
we're taking over the streets.
That's punk rock, man.
[Matt] Man, this is kind of crazy.
[Steve] What? What's happening?
[Matt] It's pretty crazy.
Shutting down the middle of downtown.
-You're happy with the productions?
-[Steve] Yeah.
[Matt laughs]
When you go out there, it's pretty cool.
If you stand on the stage, you can see
five sets of streets lamps
all blinking red
and yellow intermittently.
[Steve] Yeah, that's very cool.
-[Matt] It's like a street rave.
-Yeah.
[music plays]
[women laughing]
[Steve] Hey, mom.
It's okay, mom. Don't worry.
Don't worry.
[electronic voice] Ten...
nine...
eight...
seven...
six...
five...
four...
three...
two...
one...
[crowd cheering wildly]
[chanting] Aoki! Aoki! Aoki!
Aoki! Aoki!
[chanting continues]
[Steve] Los Angeles!
We took over
the motherfuckin' streets tonight!
[punk rock beats]
How you doing out there, Los Angeles?
This is crazy.
Three city blocks in LA for us.
Hi, mom.
[Chizuru, in Japanese] At first,
I was shocked when I saw him perform.
We never imagined
that Steven would become so famous.
I think that Rocky
would be so proud of Steve.
I'm sure that Steve would also...
want Rocky to see his accomplishments.
[song playing]
I go to Steve's concerts and,
as his little sister,
I... I'm so proud of him.
I can't even begin to imagine
what it would be like for my dad.
[Matt] You look at all the kids
in that family.
Somehow the black sheep, so to speak,
is the one that is carrying
the Aoki name on.
[song continues]
You'll never die
You'll never die
You'll never die
You'll never die
You'll never die
You'll never die
[Steve] Thank you so much, Los Angeles.
We did it, man.
LAoki! All of us!
[Grace] That was amazing. I can't...
Look at this.
-Daddy
-I know! I remember!
-I wish he could have seen you.
-Yeah. It's OK.
But he sees you. Right?
I can feel your heart.
Your heart is really there.
I don't really like to think about it
because then I start crying too.
[Chizuru, in Japanese]
Rocky would probably say...
Rocky would probably say,
"That's my son."
Would you raise your son or daughter
the same way your dad raised you?
[Steve] It's hard, you know.
The tough love bit... that's his make-up.
That's how he is as a human being.
I feel like I'm a big kid already,
so I'd actually...
I think I'd be a good dad.
You know, I'll just be like
my little kid's best buddy.
[Dan] I definitely do see how
Steve considers his dad a hero.
The same drive that his dad had,
Steve inherited.
At the same time,
Steve has a massive heart
and he got that from his mom.
You know, I have this inherent drive
to prove something to my father,
but, over the course of my life,
when I think about
the most supportive person...
it would have to be my mother.
When I was seventeen
My mother said to me
Don't stop imagining
The day that you do
Is the day that you die
[Steve] If I needed that reassurance
and that motherly love,
I went back to my mom.
I made some
pretty wild decisions in my life
that a parent would, you know,
probably walk away from
but she kind of stuck by me.
[Devon] When he became a DJ,
she was hugely supportive of him.
He was living in this crappy apartment.
There wasn't really that much progress
and she never doubted him for a second.
She had such blind belief in him,
in his potential.
[Steve] My mother was always
allowing her blessing.
You know, "This is what
you really believe in?
Let's take over the world together,
one little step at a time."
You know, as a kid you need
your parents to reinforce your ideas.
Can't always be a tough guy.
I guess that's the hard part
about being a parent.
You know, you got to make
that decision, and it's...
The decision that you make can affect
your child for the rest of their life.
[man] And they're puttin' it to him now.
He's got the hammer down,
and he's really going for it.
I don't think I was
supposed to succeed as a DJ.
And somehow I'm in a place where
I've kind of made it, but I feel like
there's a lot more to go for me.
[man] Rocky Aoki
in his first comeback race since 1979,
when he was almost mortally injured
in San Francisco in a bad accident.
I don't really know if I can chill out.
I don't know if I have the capacity.
I'm always thinking,
"I got a lot more to go.
I got a lot more to do."
[man] They told him he'd never do it.
They said he was crazy.
The man with nine lives.
[Steve] I'm 35 years old right now
and I just don't want to waste any time.
[man] I think he's gonna go on to win
his own race today, ladies and gentlemen.
I just feel so fucking fortunate
and lucky that I'm in this position.
And I don't wanna... sleep on it.
[Tiesto] You can't compare Steve
to any other DJs.
He has his own role in the DJ world.
He's one of the first entertainers
that took DJing to a different spot.
I think Steve is like a force of nature.
That's what made him stand out,
he's a larger-than-life character.
[Diplo] Dance music doesn't really
have a personality.
Steve has an overabundance of personality.
[Travis] It's very much elements
of punk rock shows.
But he's flipped them
and made them his own.
[Diplo]
If you don't know Steve personally,
you're gonna have
a perception of him right away.
I don't know how he can be in a rowboat
in the middle of a crowd and be a DJ.
[crowd cheering wildly]
If you're doing something
that people are afraid of or against,
I think you're doing something right.
That's what EDM is now,
it's more of a big spectacle show.
One... two... three!
[Pete] Everybody asks the question,
"Where is it going?"
And I think the evolution of the scene
will be more about characters
and personalities.
Steve was always more than a DJ.
[Tiernan] I forgot that
your mom moved here without your dad.
How often would you see him in the year?
[Steve] We'd do two trips,
usually like summer and winter time.
I would always look forward to it.
I'd just wait to see him again
and look forward to these trips.
I used to skate right there.
Growing up, my brother and sister
already were in college.
So from eight on,
it was like my mom raising me.
You know, I'd see my dad whenever I could.
My father divorced my mother
when Steven was very young.
So my mother really raised us...
in the Japanese culture...
in American setting.
[in Japanese]
He didn't have any Japanese friends.
[Dan] He was stuck
in this whitewashed world.
He didn't have...
Asian peers of his own
that he could connect with.
[Steve] When I grew up, I was like,
-"Which clique can I be a part of?"
-Yeah.
And I tried a bunch.
Freshman year, I was trying
to find something I could be a part of.
-[Tiernan] Yeah.
-So I joined the football team.
But they were all jocks and big
and I was only, like, 100 pounds.
-Never let me play, no matter--
-Why did they bring you on the team?
Because they have to,
it's like affirmative action.
They have to let everyone have a chance.
I tried other sports,
none of them worked out.
They were always big fails.
[Tiernan] Did you get teased
or picked on a lot?
[Steve] The only real fight I had
was playing badminton,
I was a badminton player,
and there was this one fucking asshole.
He's just saying just a tirade
of racial slurs.
"Hey you, fuckin' Nip!
You fucking gook, you slant eye.
Yeah! You think you're gonna fucking win?"
-So blatant, he was like out of a movie.
-Yeah.
All his friends were laughing behind him.
I couldn't believe it,
and I was sitting there
and kept looking back,
getting, like, so angry, so angry.
Just so angry that his friends
are laughing and they're allowing this.
And no one's doing shit, man.
No one's doing shit.
[Steve] You know, especially
when you're a kid growing up
and you're the benchwarmer,
and you're the kid
that has a hard time making friends,
you definitely don't think you're gonna be
someone of any influence at all.
I wanted to be a popular kid.
I wanted everyone to like me.
I wanted to fit in.
[Chizuru, in Japanese]
Steven never said anything to me...
but he really missed his father.
[Tiernan] I think he's always gonna be
trying to prove himself to his father.
As much as he may not want to admit it,
I think Rocky is the main driving force
behind all of his
passion projects in life.
He had such a major influence,
or lack thereof, in Steve's life,
which drove Steve to want to strive
to be something greater
than any other human being wants to be.
[woman] Without further ado,
I'd like to introduce Steve Aoki.
[crowd cheering]
[Steve] When I think of playing here,
I think about...
this long journey
from when I first started playing music.
Going from small clubs,
to bigger venues, to festivals.
And now to the point where,
as an artist, as an electronic artist,
actually playing at Madison Square Garden
is one of those rare moments.
And I'm just completely humbled by it.
And with that,
I'm proud to announce that I'm gonna
be releasing my two-part album,
"Neon Future," something I've been
working on for over two years now.
New York also is a very special place
for me. It's...
My dad lived here all my life.
So I have a very big heart
for New York City.
And I know how proud he would be
if he was here...
that his son is fuckin' playing
Madison Square Garden.
[sighs] It's fuckin'...
[cheers and applause]
It's fucking crazy, man. I just can't...
Fuck.
-[exhales]
-[indistinct mumbling]
-Yeah!
-[crowd cheering]
Growing up, it was always,
"How do I impress my father?"
How can I show him
I'm gonna be successful?
[Devon] He idolized our father,
as did, you know,
all of my brothers and sisters.
[Steve] He'd always push his kids
to work harder.
There was never a break,
we could never have a break.
He never did help me out.
It's very Japanese.
That kind of drive and ambition
and work ethic.
[Chizuru, in Japanese]
Steven's father had a very big heart.
But he could be selfish too.
He would be so focused
on what he wanted to achieve...
he would forget about his family.
[man] They call him Rocky Aoki.
-Rocky Aoki.
-[multiple voices] Rocky Aoki.
We want Rocky!
Our father first came to the US as
a wrestler on the Japanese Olympic team.
When he was in New York,
he defected from the group
and ended up staying in the city.
With the money he saved
from being an ice cream man in Harlem,
he opened his first Benihana in New York.
I'm Rocky Aoki.
When I came to this country
nine years ago,
I had a dream.
I introduced Hibachi cuisine to America.
The people loved it.
Today Benihanas are everywhere.
If you haven't eaten at the Benihana,
you've missed out
on a great American institution.
[Steve] He was a genius with marketing.
He brought over chefs from Japan
and had them cook right at the table.
He injected entertainment and showmanship
into Japanese cuisine.
[gasping in awe]
His work ethic was unparalleled
to anyone I've met in my life.
[Rocky] I don't have to sleep.
I sleep four hours a day.
I work 16 to 17 hours a day.
Very nice, very nice.
[Steve] It seemed like he knew everyone.
Hanging out with Muhammad Ali,
John Lennon, you know,
all these influential people.
He was right in the middle of it.
Rocky, how you doing?
[Steve] Everything he did
was always focused on one thing,
Benihana.
Besides being a restaurateur,
he was a sportsman.
He was a daredevil.
The guy was fucking crazy like that.
He broke a world record
for hot-air ballooning.
He didn't know what the fuck
he was doing, he just did it.
[Rocky] I'm not afraid of dying.
I don't give a damn.
I'm gonna live forever.
[man] Whoa!
[Steve] I'm not as crazy,
'cause he really was fucking nuts.
Aoki was thrown into the water--
[woman] His speedboat flipped over
in San Francisco Bay--
[man] Oh, my God.
It looks like the boat may go--
[woman 2] He's nearly been killed
on several occasions--
[woman 3] While lying in a hospital bed,
Aoki said he plans to push ahead
with his quest to become
the fastest man on water.
[Dan] His dad was almost like...
a superhero to Steve.
That's probably a huge inspiration
to look up to.
This dad that I don't really know too well
but here he is, just crushing it. [laughs]
[Steve] He had balls bigger
than anyone I've ever seen.
I'm so proud that's my father
who did those things.
[Steve] I had a lot of these photos.
These are like his early years.
Look at his mustaches.
[woman] You have that too, now.
[laughing]
[in Japanese] Do you have
any interesting memories of our father?
I remember the first time
we went in the balloon,
we got caught in a tree and fell.
Six months later,
we were ready to try again.
That's when we flew to San Francisco.
[Kevin] That was the second attempt
to cross the Pacific.
[in Japanese] Did you believe
that Rocky would make it to the US?
[Kojima] To the US?
I thought he would make it.
He said that Mt. Fuji looked
very beautiful during his flight.
Before they got to San Francisco,
the balloon went up too high.
So the balloon froze
and it started descending.
It descended almost
to the ocean's surface.
So they dropped their cameras
and all their belongings...
and the balloon finally
started rising again...
and they made it to North America.
[Steve, in English] Wow.
[Chizuru] He was around 35 years old.
-Like my age.
-Yeah, your age.
Doing all these things, it's insane.
[Kojima, in Japanese] Nobody in Japan
was doing stuff like that back then.
Now Steven is like Rocky.
He's just jumping and I worry about him.
I don't want to be like second Rocky,
you know?
So, I said, "Wow! Another Rocky."
[Steve] It was incredible,
what was happening with just one person.
It makes sense that he did Benihana.
He was trying to create a show
for the American audience,
not just at the restaurant,
but in his own personal life.
He was a showman.
[alarm beeping]
[beeping gets louder]
[Matt] I've been Steve's manager
for over ten years.
I've never seen anyone
that works this hard.
I remember a couple years into it,
people would tell me
I need to get him to slow down,
'cause he can't keep at this pace
and he'll burn out in a year or two.
Here we are, eight, nine years later,
he's only picked up steam.
[Steve] No one asked me about that.
Dillon's shaking his head.
He said there was no miscommunication.
-He's in front of me.
-[Dillon] It's on Google Docs.
It's on Google Docs, he says.
If we can be efficient with the time,
then let's be efficient with the time.
And Matt, you should know that.
You know how we are with LA time.
Yeah, but you're fucking manager,
you need to deal with this shit.
Don't fucking throw it off your hands
and say, "I don't know
what the fuck's going on."
[Matt] This morning we had
an argument with Steve.
He's upset that he flew
from Sweden to Vegas yesterday.
He had a three o'clock set.
Then he had an interview for PBS.
-[man] Wedding cake?
-[Steve] Yeah.
Then he had a set at Hakkasan in Vegas.
He finishes at, like, 4:30.
Got a 6:00 a.m. lobby call.
[Steve] Barely surviving.
Flies to LA, lands at 9:30.
At 11:30, he has to be
at a music video shoot.
[singing]
-It's a ten-hour shoot.
-[man] Cut!
Then he has a studio session
with Will.i.am.
Tomorrow he's got radio at eight
in the morning.
Steve Aoki, welcome back
to the neighborhood.
Interviews all day long.
One... two... three!
Then he has a flight at six o'clock
back to Ibiza.
-[engine sounding]
-Whoo!
The argument today? He's like,
"When do I sleep?"
[Steve] Last year,
I cracked over 300 shows
across the world.
[Gary] I've never seen anyone play...
as many shows as that guy fucking plays.
His work ethic is amazing.
Oh, Steve is a machine.
He's the quintessential grind of DJs.
[Matt] Guinness Book of World Records
contacted us and said, by miles flown,
Steve was the most traveled musician...
in the world.
[Afrojack] Steve works too hard.
Like, right now, Steve,
I'm telling you right now...
Relax.
[Tiernan] He's so driven
and he's so passionate about his work
that he sort of forgets he needs
to have a bit of a personal life.
[crowd cheering wildly]
Every opportunity he had, he took it.
To do that many shows,
you have to play everywhere.
-We are in Europe.
-We made it to Torren, Mexico.
Traveling around the world.
Came all the way to Beijing
to have this duck.
[Diplo] Steve was the first guy to go,
"I'm gonna go to Vietnam,
everywhere in Asia
that's gonna book me, and I'm gonna
make my name bigger there."
He was the first guy I remember
that went to Kuala Lumpur.
He was just going there to like...
put his flag down.
By doing that for three or four years,
we've become able to tour all the time.
We got three shows on that day.
Three shows on this day.
This day here,
we have to drive a bit anyway.
That walkway just turns
into a really nice bed for the world tour.
He's like a prophet
that actually wants to go out
and go to as many cities as possible
and have as many people
see him as possible.
Every year he's magnifying
what he was doing.
I wish I had done that because
he was putting his name out there.
[Steve] I am addicted to that feeling
of being on the road
and having that connection
with all these fans.
[Tiernan] His fans are everything to him.
I don't think he would ever
say no to someone.
[woman] I'm gonna cry.
Without that energy,
I don't know what he would do.
Steve Aoki is probably the most recorded
human being on the planet.
He has become one of
the largest celebrities in the world
inside of the Internet.
[Pete] He's 24/7 Mr. Entertainment.
Quite an unusual guy to hang around with.
And if you get to mid-30s, 40 years old,
and you're at the top of your game,
it's dangerous to your competition
'cause you're 24/7.
And it's dangerous for the artist himself.
I've never seen him sit still
for longer than maybe a couple of hours.
He can't stop.
It's just not in his nature.
To stop, for him,
and start to be in his head
and think about things
really kind of almost scares him.
He always has to have people around
when I'm not there.
He'll have people in his room
until he goes to sleep
just because he doesn't want to be alone.
[birds squawking]
[Matt] Have you actually not said
a single word in two weeks now?
Have you been able to get
even a whisper out?
[automated voice] I have been taking notes
on my experience
on how I have enriched my life
and made this for the better.
Really? Did you feel this kind of,
sort of coming on
seven, eight years ago?
Not really, because back then
I thought it was natural
that I should lose my voice
after screaming.
That's weird.
-[doctor] How you doing?
-[Matt] Floor is yours.
All right, Steve, you ready?
Everything's going well?
The cough is better?
Good. Not too much irritation?
Tongue out.
Okay.
Look this way.
-[automated voice] Recording.
-[doctor and Steve humming]
[doctor] Big breath.
[doctor and Steve humming]
[doctor] Breathe. Good.
It looks perfect.
[Matt] It looks so much better.
[doctor] It's perfect.
[Matt] It looks like
there was nothing there.
Now I need to make sure
you guys take really good care of him.
In an ideal scenario, when's
the next time he would be able to speak?
Like two more days
of not speaking, no voice lessons,
nothing like that for three weeks.
No singing for a minimum of three weeks.
Very successful.
Thank you for being so disciplined.
-All right.
-Thank you, doc.
[doctor] Pleasure.
[Matt] Ready to go, Steve?
No more screamo bands in your future.
[electric guitar tuning]
[rapid drum beats]
[Steve singing]
You're not the same
Made a violent change
It's in your head
It's in your head
It's in your head
You've got a religion
You've got shit
[Steve screams]
-Whoo!
-[singer] Thanks, Steve.
[Steve] As I was growing up,
I found hardcore as, like, my salvation.
After I graduated from high school,
I chose UC Santa Barbara
because there was a thriving
DIY hardcore community there.
From that moment on, music was my life.
Through the music, I was able
to find ways to express
all my angst and frustration
and insecurities
and actually reclaim my voice.
[song playing]
[Mike] Four of us decided to move into
this two-bedroom apartment.
It was probably like...
five hundred square feet
between two floors.
[Steve] The space was small,
so we cleared it out
and we threw in
as many people as we could.
And we started throwing shows.
We called it "The Pickle Patch."
We did over 450 bands.
[Dan] Steve was having shows there
three, four times a week.
He was developing personal relationships
with these people.
It was easy for him to be like,
"Hey, I really like your band."
I'm gonna start a record label.
I wanna put out a record for you."
And his contribution was starting Dim Mak.
[Steve] The label started when I was 19.
I was delivering greasy food
and doing telemarketing.
I didn't know how to run a label.
One of the most important things
I've learned,
in college and being part
of this community and this scene,
is that you could do absolutely anything.
[song playing]
[crowd whistling and cheering]
All the things I was doing in college,
putting on shows in my living room,
being vegan, living in a co-op
to the political activism
I was doing on campus,
to even graduating with women's studies.
All these things, my father...
he just didn't understand it.
On paper, I was polar opposite
from what my father was.
-[man] How you doing?
-[Rocky] Good. Thank you.
[Steve] He was very much
a flashy symbol of extravagance.
[in Japanese]
He had everything that I didn't have.
That's what attracted me to him.
[Kevin] My dad was running around,
building restaurants,
driving powerboats,
flying balloons across the country.
He had his own way of doing things.
[Devon] There was no family
without my mother and Steve's mother.
They kept the show going.
They kept my father alive.
[Chizuru, in Japanese] I never knew
where he was.
That caused a rift between us,
and we grew apart.
[Rocky] My first marriage was a fiasco.
I have six kids from three years old
to eighteen years old.
I don't see them that much.
I stay away from my family probably
two thirds of my life.
So I feel sorry for my kids.
Business comes number one.
And health comes number two.
And family comes number three.
[Mike] You're dejecting
what your parents stand for.
But, eventually, you presume that he's
trying to prove something to his dad.
Like, "Look, I'm not the kid
that you either wanted to abandon
or just didn't care about. I am somebody."
[Kevin] My dad asked me,
"Hey, put Steven into Benihana. Try it."
And I just remembered
what my dad did to me, and I figured,
look, I'm gonna push him.
Not as hard as my dad pushed me, but...
push him a little bit hard.
And he peeled onions...
all day until he was crying
just to show my father's work ethic.
But he probably realized that
he didn't like the restaurant business
after he worked there for three months.
[clap beats]
I told Steve, "If you're not involved
in the business,
it's risky."
[Steve] At 22, I moved to LA.
And my main focus here was to turn
Dim Mak into a business.
My father...
he didn't really support the idea.
He'd always say, "You need to get a job.
You need to do something with your life."
I wanted to prove to him
that I could be successful with music.
During that time,
I got my first investment
from these two friends of mine.
We both really believed in Steve.
We didn't invest,
we just let him borrow some money.
They are able to pay for an office space
in this, kind of, abandoned house.
[Danny] It was a shithole.
You'd never know that he came from...
any kind of wealth.
[Devon] I find it difficult
when people say,
Steve Aoki, you know, silver spoon DJ.
He got absolutely no help
from our father, financially.
He struggled.
He struggled in the beginning.
[Steve] In 2003, I first heard Bloc Party.
The next year, we released the EP
and it changed the label forever.
Bloc Party put us on the map
in a way that attracted comparable bands.
[Steve] By the time 2005 rolled around,
at least the industry knew
what Dim Mak was and they knew about me.
[music playing on headphones]
I'm not sure what his aspirations
of being a DJ were,
but as far as him being
this huge international, like, DJ,
that was just not even imaginable.
To go and become a DJ
in the LA night scene...
made no sense to us.
[Steve] My friend was throwing
a party called Fucking Awesome.
He was like, "OK, why don't we team up.
You could DJ
and we'll call it the Dim Mak Party."
When I started DJing, I started playing
punk and hardcore records.
I knew nothing about the DJ world.
[Danny] He partnered with Cobrasnake,
who was taking these incredible photos
of these beautiful kids going crazy.
Everything looked like New Years.
Most of the time
he was shirtless, sweating.
Crowd surfing into this tight group,
pouring vodka and Red Bull
in everybody's mouths.
Dim Mak Tuesdays was, like,
my first gig in America.
They had A-Trak, The Bloody Beetroots,
Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk.
The whole headbanger crew from France.
[Matt] It was, like...
Boys Noize's first DJ LA show,
Dirty South's first LA show,
Lady Gaga's first shows.
Justice and MSTRKRFplayed the same night together.
[Steve] The party was entirely free.
We were DJing for free.
It was like the Pickle Patch.
[Will.i.am] It was an amazing scene.
Since then, there hasn't been
anything like it.
Steve brought a rock and roll attitude
to dance music that didn't exist.
One, two...
[Steve screams]
[Autoerotique] That night really started
the electro movement in LA.
No one had seen it before.
It was cutting edge for that time.
[The Bloody Beetroots]
It was crunchy, over-compressed,
and it was all about punk rock.
[Jason] You saw the DIY ethic
that he had grown up on
with straight edge punk rock.
He saw that imbued in this new movement.
"This train is leaving the station
and I'm gonna be on it."
At that same time, I befriended DJ AM.
He became a big role in my life.
You want more
Okay
[Travis] He was the king
of DJing the mashups.
He was so technically skilled
with turntable tricks.
All the DJs were going there
to watch and learn.
You couldn't help but look up to AM.
He was a real friend.
AM was many things to me.
He defined what a friendship should be.
He became a guru to me as a DJ.
He brought me into understanding
the philosophy of being a DJ.
[Matt] They did tons of shows together.
They traveled together
and they just built up
a really close bond.
[Steve] I never thought
about myself as a DJ.
I always thought of myself
as a promoter and record label guy.
In 2005, this magazine
called BPM comes to me
and was like, "We wanna put you
on the cover of our magazine."
A DJ magazine wants to put me
on the cover?
Oh, shit. This is real. This is happening.
To me, Steve was successful
even if he just stood doing
Dim Mak Tuesdays and Banana Splits.
Those were great cultural destinations
in Los Angeles.
Shit was fresh.
When people come and go,
they're gonna look back.
Steve Aoki's gonna have
a huge impact on what happened.
Even though you may not say
Steve Aoki made EDM huge,
Steve Aoki was one of the step stones.
[Will.i.am] When it comes
to passionate people,
go-getters, hustlers, manifesters,
whatever you wanna call them,
Steve Aoki is that guy.
There's a wall in front of him?
He's a hustler. He goes around it,
over it, under it, through it.
Everyone else are hating
because they don't know how to do that.
I try not to live in the world
of the YouTube comments
or the Instagram comments.
I'm a human being too,
though, you know, so...
as much as I want
to not let it affect me,
if I read it or see it, it does.
[Will.i.am] If I listened to the haters,
I'd be working at some record shop
telling you what I really like
and why everything else sucks.
If the haters had their way,
Black Eyed Peas would have stopped
at Joints & Jam, and that's it.
[Jason] I was excited by everything
that he was doing as a DJ and curator,
with the mashups
and with indie rock and punk ideas.
[Gary] As he got bigger,
he kinda changed his sound
and his style.
I don't know why.
[Afrojack] People are gonna say,
"Yo, man, you're a sellout.
You suck, man.
Why you change?"
I mean, there's definitely times
when I think,
"OK, I've caked...
over 1,500 people, maybe more."
But then, when you go on stage
and you see the signs,
and you see people that want it so bad,
it's hard to change that.
In the given moment,
I don't really think about anyone
outside those four walls.
[Diplo] No matter what
you think about his music
or what you think about
what he does in the scene,
nobody can ever deny
that Steve loves what he does.
They get the criticism for collaborating
outside of your scene,
outside of your world,
but it doesn't bother me what people say
'cause as long as I believe in the music
that's coming out of my studio,
with the people I'm working with,
that's all that matters.
All these voices in my head
Voices in my head
Head
Voices in my head
Mo here on Z100.
Welcome to the studio with Steve Aoki.
[Steve] I have so much stuff
going on in my head.
I've finally announced
that I'm playing Madison Square Garden.
-Yes. That's kind of a big deal.
-My big show.
[Steve] Yeah. Massive show.
Biggest show of my career.
And releasing my album one week before.
I just can't believe this is real.
[feedback]
I've been touring nonstop lately.
So the hardest part is carving out
enough time to finish my album.
[Steve] And when you sing it, imagine...
[Steve] You wanna go over the lyrics?
It's definitely call and response,
so it's like, "Something for a ride,
-I'll take you to the sky high."
-Let me try it.
I'll take you to the sky high
-Did you get that?
-Yeah. That's cool.
[Steve hums]
[song begins]
Give me some of that
Out till the sun up
Twisting and burn up
Ain't nobody stop us
Hey, let me hear that.
I'm the worst rhymer
in the history of rhymers.
[Steve] That's why I'm not a rapper.
Everybody go, OK!
[rapid beats]
[Steve] Fucking dope.
This is fucking dope.
Give me some of that
Everybody go
[song playing]
Make some fucking noise!
[crowd cheering and whistling]
[indistinct voice from radio]
[Diplo] I don't think
Steve ever expected to
make it to Vegas,
make it to have a whole set at Ibiza.
Everywhere you think Steve won't go,
he was there.
[Steve] I first started coming to Ibiza
in 2007.
The fringier, like,
louder sounds of dance music
were not really embraced.
[Michael] There are certain DJs...
that we won't mention
that would give him a bit of a hard time.
I've never felt so not wanted.
[Diplo] No one was doing what he was,
bringing a show to Ibiza.
He got smart with what he was doing
and it clicked last year.
[Diplo] You can't underestimate this guy.
He's gonna win. He's determined.
He definitely was
the place to be last summer.
[disco groove beats]
When I think about
all of the festivals out there,
there's no other festival that makes me
so nervous than Tomorrowland.
[funky vibration]
I know how influential the festival is.
So, when you're standing up there
and DJing, and you're looking out,
you can't not get nervous.
[Michael] There are certain shows
that Steve's done in his career
that changed how people
looked at him overnight.
Closing Tomorrowland
was a massive milestone for Steve.
That festival is the quintessential
European dance music festival.
[Pete] It's such an achievement in itself
to get actually on the bill
and elevate yourself
to one of the big slots
on the key stages.
[crowd cheers]
[fireworks]
[Pete] You can see in his head
that he's really trying to concentrate.
He can get a little bit nervous,
which is cool.
It's cool that he still gets like that.
[Steve] I've been very lucky to be able
to close the main stage
for the last three years.
It's one of the most epic feelings
I've experienced.
Closing up main stage anywhere
at a festival is insane.
[crowd cheering wildly]
That's such
an incredible performance space.
It was obvious to me
that he was gonna smash it.
[crowd roaring]
[music playing]
Tomorrowland, put your hands up!
I love it when you cry
[mouthing]
It shows that you're alive
I love it when you cry
The tears bring out your eyes
Do you feel this love?
Everybody fucking scream!
[crowd cheering]
The tears bring out your eyes
[crowd applauds and whistles]
[automated voice] Eighth floor.
[Matt] Anyway, I wanted
to quickly go over MSG.
So the news isn't great.
The short answer is that
it took us a year to get that hold...
and, to jump to the end,
it's gonna take us that long
to try and get one back.
We tried to get one for this year,
nothing's available--
You're saying MSG is totally out?
MSG is out for the foreseeable future.
Basically, we can get back in line.
The next foreseeable option
would be next summer.
But then you go to Europe.
By then, both albums are out.
As far as album one goes,
it would be a full year later.
I just don't understand
how there's no other--
[Matt stammers] Because, I mean--
Obviously, this is our first time doing
something of this size and scale.
People book this stuff out
a year and a half out.
There was a date in January,
there was a date in February
and a date in April.
All of them fell through.
We lost our bid to whatever other...
Ice Capades or, you know,
Bieber concert was happening.
I wish I had better news.
I know this show meant a lot to you.
[Matt] With his dad, from day one,
it was always about, "Look what I did.
Look what I'm accomplishing."
Everything he accomplished,
"Send it to my dad.
Can you frame this and send it to my dad?"
I think it was about showing his dad that,
"Look, in many ways,
I can uphold the Aoki legacy."
[Steve] By '06-'07,
I started making money.
I would show him,
"Look, I made my first $10,000
and I'm working this much this month
and I'm getting booked here and there."
[Matt] I remember during
the summer of '08,
by then he had become a popular DJ,
by no means a household name.
And then his dad's health started failing.
[Steve] We found out
that he got hepatitis C.
We realized that this is something
that's very difficult to walk away from.
He later got diabetes
and then liver cirrhosis,
and liver cirrhosis,
which led to tumors.
[Dan] Steve definitely, at that time,
made it a point to go and see his dad
and spend more time with him.
And really get to know his dad
because he didn't really have much
of an opportunity to do that growing up.
[Kevin] The last few years
of my father's life,
all of us kids were always trying
to rally together.
When we all got together,
Steven would always try to bring
a positive note to all his kids.
He had this thing called
"positive go," and he would point.
Even to this day, I remember my dad,
remembering that "positive go"
that Steven has.
[Steve] I remember being
in the hospital and...
This is like his last couple of days.
There was one moment
when I finally had time with him.
It was just me and him.
It was actually the first time when
I ever cried so much.
I never cried in front of my dad.
I never did that, and...
And, I just...
Like, all those years...
I think everything all came out.
'Cause he's not the kind of guy to--
You don't cry with him. He doesn't--
He's very much a patriarch,
very masculine.
He's very Japanese in that way.
You know, you don't...
You just can't show that side
if you're a guy.
If you're the daughter--
If you're Devon, Echo or Grace,
you could do that but...
You can't do that with him as a son.
And...
[stammers] I'm just so happy
that I was able to show him that.
It was really...
It was really...
one of the most emotionally connected
moments I ever had with him.
And there's...
There's no words exchanged at all.
It was just...
Yeah, it was...
Something that...
I'm so happy that happened.
Just so he could...
feel how much he meant to me.
It affected Steve really, really badly.
We never really believed
that my dad could be...
taken down by anything.
He was such a challenger,
I thought he was indestructible.
Thought he would live forever.
I believed that up until the day he died.
The last thing that he did was...
he wrote the words,
"I'm going to challenge this"
on a piece of paper.
[Diplo] When I first met Steve,
I spoke to him almost
every night about his dad
because I was fascinated by it.
I was like,
where you come from is fucking crazy.
I think he's motivated
by whatever weird...
passion his father had. His father seemed
like an insane person too.
[Matt] He's an adrenaline junkie.
Whether he is competing
as a snowboarder to cliff diving,
skydiving,
he just loves adrenaline.
And the biggest high he gets
is the live performance.
[Steve] Performing your music
and having that connection,
with those thousands of people,
that is the ultimate rush.
And that is the truest of addictions.
[Matt] Steve's a relentless addict.
He jumps from addiction to addiction.
He gets obsessed with things.
Right now, it's health.
Thank God.
I'd much rather be yelling at promoters
for not delivering alkaline water
than yelling at promoters because
he needs another bottle of vodka.
For a while, he was a big drinker.
[Steve] I was always nervous
when I would start DJing,
and I would get drunk all the time.
I mean, I was drinking all the time.
[Matt] To the point
that me and Adam talked about
just a step below an intervention.
Adam had been sober for a dozen years.
He was like the king of sobriety.
He's gotten so dark in his life
from being so controlled
and consumed by drugs
that he tried to take his life.
In one instance
that he did put the gun to his head,
the latch didn't go.
It spoke to him in a way
that he needed to completely change.
It's crazy that you have to get
to that dark, deep place...
in order for you to change.
I get this BBM
from a poker friend of mine.
"Yo, did you hear about AM?"
It hit me pretty hard.
I remember closing the door
to my office and calling Steve back.
And I just said that...
"You know, Adam's dead."
It was... [sighs]
[Travis] After he passed away,
it was like...
I can't believe I lost him.
You know, it was like...
Uh...
[Matt] I remember
Steve had a show that night.
[Steve] I didn't understand
how to express myself.
How to, like, to deal with it.
But there was this really dark place.
And then I just played.
And 30 minutes in,
I played this Daft Punk record.
And Daft Punk was the artist
that me and AM, we bonded over.
That's when I just broke down.
I just broke down.
I was crying like... I couldn't believe
I was crying and playing it and...
I had a hard time DJing,
I couldn't... I had to cut my set short.
That same moment with my father,
it was like it all kinda came out.
He took it harder than almost
he took his father's passing.
[Steve] That was it for me
as far as drinking. I was done.
There's no reason why
the two very close people of my life died.
I think about it still,
it's so shocking that he's gone.
He's one of the best human beings
I actually ever met.
So I feel very grateful
to have had someone like that in my life.
[Travis] There were so many other people
that he touched.
He was always so positive
and always helping everyone around him.
[Steve] He always said one thing,
"Starve the ego, feed the soul."
I mean, that's one thing
everyone can live by.
[Steve] I needed to go through a disaster
like MSG not happening
in order to see why
and what makes Steve Aoki.
And that's LA. That's going back to LA,
going back to my roots.
All the people supporting me,
those are the people
I really need to be cherishing
and I really need to be investing my time
and, you know, obviously,
this is a big show tour.
[Eric] What I loved when we collaborated
together when I was running...
It was the most hilarious
fund-raiser I've ever done
because half of the people were your fans,
who had no idea who I was.
The others were a bunch of my supporters
who probably had never heard
of Steve Aoki.
And it was this mix of
the craziest combinations of people
suddenly finding champagne on their face
and cakes in their hair
and it's not just politics,
but getting involved in the city.
I love this friendship to do that.
-Absolutely.
-If we can get your fans
to help be part of their city,
they're gonna love it.
That's exactly the vibe.
I don't want this to be
an ordinary Aoki show.
I want this to be on the streets of LA.
I want it to be free.
Downtown would be a hot place to do it
because the revitalization
that's going on,
especially in the old corridors.
Spring Street,
where you guys have your office.
Broadway, which is--
Broadway has all those old theaters.
I don't know.
I think it would be a great place.
That would be amazing.
That's a win-win for everybody
and a homecoming for you.
Yeah, big time.
Do you want me to call New York
and tell them the bad news?
I'm happy to if you need me to.
My friend Bill de Blasio--
[Steve] If anyone can, you can.
He's a great mayor,
but I can call and let him know
it's going to be LA this time.
-Yeah. Good stuff.
-All right.
Mayor, thanks so much.
-All love, man. Really excited to do this.
-It's gonna to be great.
I'm Mayor Eric Garcetti,
and I approve of this show.
Killed it.
[man] The famous DJ partnered
with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti
as a way to celebrate the city.
A free concert with a civic-minded twist.
They are calling it LAoki.
-Steve Aoki's here.
-Steve Aoki.
-We're talking to Steve Aoki.
-Steve Aoki.
-Steve Aoki.
-Steve Aoki!
My album came out Tuesday.
His album's called Neon Future.
-Neon Future.
-Number one on iTunes already.
This guy's created a global movement.
[man] Steve, thanks for coming.
[man 2] Thanks for being on AMP radio.
Thank you for coming by, my G.
Steve Aoki, everybody.
[man 3] Steve Aoki, ladies
and gentlemen...
[Steve] This is 100% the most unique place
I've ever done a show.
Every significant milestone
in my music career
all stemmed from being in LA.
Whether it was Dim Mak Records,
to me starting to DJ,
starting to produce electronic music,
that was all just being here.
This is about the culture that I represent.
Bringing back the parties that we did
at Cinespace, at Dim Mak Tuesdays,
at Banana Splits,
and that underground element.
AM would absolutely love
to be part of this
because he was all about giving back
to the community.
As a parallel with that
and what we're doing here,
we're taking over the streets.
That's punk rock, man.
[Matt] Man, this is kind of crazy.
[Steve] What? What's happening?
[Matt] It's pretty crazy.
Shutting down the middle of downtown.
-You're happy with the productions?
-[Steve] Yeah.
[Matt laughs]
When you go out there, it's pretty cool.
If you stand on the stage, you can see
five sets of streets lamps
all blinking red
and yellow intermittently.
[Steve] Yeah, that's very cool.
-[Matt] It's like a street rave.
-Yeah.
[music plays]
[women laughing]
[Steve] Hey, mom.
It's okay, mom. Don't worry.
Don't worry.
[electronic voice] Ten...
nine...
eight...
seven...
six...
five...
four...
three...
two...
one...
[crowd cheering wildly]
[chanting] Aoki! Aoki! Aoki!
Aoki! Aoki!
[chanting continues]
[Steve] Los Angeles!
We took over
the motherfuckin' streets tonight!
[punk rock beats]
How you doing out there, Los Angeles?
This is crazy.
Three city blocks in LA for us.
Hi, mom.
[Chizuru, in Japanese] At first,
I was shocked when I saw him perform.
We never imagined
that Steven would become so famous.
I think that Rocky
would be so proud of Steve.
I'm sure that Steve would also...
want Rocky to see his accomplishments.
[song playing]
I go to Steve's concerts and,
as his little sister,
I... I'm so proud of him.
I can't even begin to imagine
what it would be like for my dad.
[Matt] You look at all the kids
in that family.
Somehow the black sheep, so to speak,
is the one that is carrying
the Aoki name on.
[song continues]
You'll never die
You'll never die
You'll never die
You'll never die
You'll never die
You'll never die
[Steve] Thank you so much, Los Angeles.
We did it, man.
LAoki! All of us!
[Grace] That was amazing. I can't...
Look at this.
-Daddy
-I know! I remember!
-I wish he could have seen you.
-Yeah. It's OK.
But he sees you. Right?
I can feel your heart.
Your heart is really there.
I don't really like to think about it
because then I start crying too.
[Chizuru, in Japanese]
Rocky would probably say...
Rocky would probably say,
"That's my son."
Would you raise your son or daughter
the same way your dad raised you?
[Steve] It's hard, you know.
The tough love bit... that's his make-up.
That's how he is as a human being.
I feel like I'm a big kid already,
so I'd actually...
I think I'd be a good dad.
You know, I'll just be like
my little kid's best buddy.
[Dan] I definitely do see how
Steve considers his dad a hero.
The same drive that his dad had,
Steve inherited.
At the same time,
Steve has a massive heart
and he got that from his mom.
You know, I have this inherent drive
to prove something to my father,
but, over the course of my life,
when I think about
the most supportive person...
it would have to be my mother.
When I was seventeen
My mother said to me
Don't stop imagining
The day that you do
Is the day that you die
[Steve] If I needed that reassurance
and that motherly love,
I went back to my mom.
I made some
pretty wild decisions in my life
that a parent would, you know,
probably walk away from
but she kind of stuck by me.
[Devon] When he became a DJ,
she was hugely supportive of him.
He was living in this crappy apartment.
There wasn't really that much progress
and she never doubted him for a second.
She had such blind belief in him,
in his potential.
[Steve] My mother was always
allowing her blessing.
You know, "This is what
you really believe in?
Let's take over the world together,
one little step at a time."
You know, as a kid you need
your parents to reinforce your ideas.
Can't always be a tough guy.
I guess that's the hard part
about being a parent.
You know, you got to make
that decision, and it's...
The decision that you make can affect
your child for the rest of their life.
[man] And they're puttin' it to him now.
He's got the hammer down,
and he's really going for it.
I don't think I was
supposed to succeed as a DJ.
And somehow I'm in a place where
I've kind of made it, but I feel like
there's a lot more to go for me.
[man] Rocky Aoki
in his first comeback race since 1979,
when he was almost mortally injured
in San Francisco in a bad accident.
I don't really know if I can chill out.
I don't know if I have the capacity.
I'm always thinking,
"I got a lot more to go.
I got a lot more to do."
[man] They told him he'd never do it.
They said he was crazy.
The man with nine lives.
[Steve] I'm 35 years old right now
and I just don't want to waste any time.
[man] I think he's gonna go on to win
his own race today, ladies and gentlemen.
I just feel so fucking fortunate
and lucky that I'm in this position.
And I don't wanna... sleep on it.