John Paul DeJoria: I was homeless and sleeping in car | Forward Progress

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1:02As we wrap up the week, we're bringing you one of the many positive messages from our past interviews. Each Thursday, we're sharing stories of our most watched athletes, celebrities, and leaders. We hope these problem-solving narratives inspire you to tackle obstacles in your own life. This week, Jean-Paul DeGioia. I want to take you back to your younger days. You're 22 years old, have a young kid. and how do you find out your wife's walking out? Well, I didn't find out until I got home. I got home one day. I was working over the weekend in this one job as an announcer for the second annual sports, vacation, and recreational vehicle show in Anaheim, California.

1:44I get home and we have one car. As I'm going up the steps, we're a second-level apartment, my wife's coming down and she says, I'm going to the store, can I have the keys? Sure, gave her the keys, right? And she got in the car and took off. Well, by the time I got to the door, she was in the car starting and going out the driveway. Opened the door, and all of a sudden, surprise, there's my two-and-a-half-year-old son sitting on the floor in a bunch of clothes, and there's a note, can't handle it anymore, better off with you, good luck, I'm gone. And unbeknownst to me, for three months, she didn't pay any of the bills, no utility, no rent.

2:20She would keep the money and rip up the bills. She picked up the mail. I never did. So I didn't know we were posed for eviction or upon our electricity being turned off. Had no idea. But that's how it turned out. What little we had in the bank was gone. How did you handle it? As soon as I realized what the world was going on, no money, no nothing. But with little change in my pocket, I cried. I was just so heartbroken. How am I going to do this? You know, I've got a little kid here. I'm in between jobs. What money I had isn't there anymore. And then obviously I started realizing we're being evicted the next day and it was just, oh, it felt terrible.

2:58But when you're that down, you look at going up. You can't sit there and feel sorry for yourself because if you do, you're going to stay there and stay there and stay there. My first thought was a car. So I go out of a car and on loan that was an old Cadillac, 1951 Cadillac that hadn't been running for years, had a broken water pump. and I got it from this wonderful lady and I filled it up with water every four hours, got the thing going. I had an auto shop in high school so I knew how to get the thing going again and that was my vehicle. It was also my home for a while and then to get money, I went into vacant lots picking up Coke bottles and soda pops, 7-Up bottles, root beer, anything.

3:36In those days, it was mandatory. Grocery stores and liquor stores would give you two cents for a little one, five cents for a big one And that's how we started getting money to live and eat. Describe what being homeless is like. Well, being homeless sucks, okay? I mean, you know, you're looking for a place to, you know, and especially with a child, it's just not a good thing. But you improvise. I learned that when you sleep in a car, my son slept in the back seat. But when you sleep in the front seat, which has more room, your head goes below the steering wheel. Because at night you flip over.

4:14Well, your head is that big. Your body's that big. So if your head's under the steering wheel, it's easier to flip over. So you learn little tricks along the way. What I didn't get about this was you had the ability, if you wanted to ask friends for help or ask your mom for help. Why decide against that, especially when you had a young kid? It was one of the stupidest times in my life when I was homeless and didn't go to my mom. We lived in L.A. and say, Mom, can I have my own room back? It's got still two twin beds. my son and I feed me. She would have loved that. When she found I was homeless, oh, she was just, she was beside herself.

4:52I mean, she just went berserk. She could not believe I didn't go home, but she didn't know till years later what had happened. I was too proud. It was stupid. I didn't want to tell any of my friends either. I was too proud. What conversations have you had since then with the wife that walked out? Well, she came back when my son was eight years old to try and be a mom again. That didn't work out too good. So I got him back a couple of years later and I saw her, I ran into her. Her name is Bella. I ran into her, oh, several months ago. Her daughter had died. And it was a pleasant conversation and she knows that she was wrong and she felt very, very bad about it.

5:28But it was too late. The second time you were homeless, how did you go about eating and showering? Well, the second time I was homeless was a lot easier because I had been homeless before. I had a friend of mine, this young lady, lived down the street. I told her what happened. She said, I'll take care of John Jr. He could stay here with me for, you know, weeks, JP, as long as it takes you to get another place to live. No problem, I'll take care of that. And then I had a few hundred dollars in my pocket anyways. So I learned how to go to the Freeway Cafe for 99 cents for breakfast, go to El Torito after 4.30 at happy hour.

6:03They just started happy hour. They invented happy hour. were 99-cent margaritas, and it wasn't Petrona, I assure you, but it was still a margarita for 99 cents. But you got all these little chicken wings or tostadas or salsa with it. Well, that was dinner. Worked out pretty good. Griffith Park had showers, which I remember from my youth down there, where they had the tennis court. So I went down there and showered. That was my shower. No problem. That's it for now, but if you're hungry for more in-depth interviews, head over to YouTube.com slash Graham Bensinger. you can dive into our deep library, which includes more than 2 ,000 clips spanning 12 plus years.

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