00:00Hey everybody, Jade Springhardt here from 101WRIF in Detroit, Michigan, and I'm sitting down with Jonathan Davis, the front man of Korn.
00:08Hello.
00:08Now usually we take these opportunities with rock stars to talk about rock and roll and music and touring,
00:14but tonight I'm sitting down with Jonathan and we would like to kind of talk about something that affects both of us really personally,
00:19and that's type 1 diabetes.
00:21Yes.
00:21I've been diabetic for 15 years, since I was 13, and unfortunately Jonathan's son was diagnosed about two years ago, right?
00:28No, he was when he was four.
00:29Oh, wow.
00:30Yeah.
00:30Which is really young.
00:31He's nine now.
00:31He's had it.
00:32Yeah, it was really young.
00:33It was weird.
00:34He was laying around and being lethargic, and so we knew something was wrong, and we took him to the doctor,
00:39and they didn't know what was going on.
00:40They were like, let's check his blood sugar, and they checked his blood sugar, and he was like 250 or something like that,
00:45but at that time and that young, that's way over.
00:48That's way high, so that's when we got the diagnosis, and we went instantly there to the hospital
00:53and had to spend a week in the hospital and learn all the aspects of taking care of a type 1 diabetic,
00:57and that changed my life forever.
01:00Yeah, it's life-changing, especially as a parent, and as a kid who grew up with it, it's hard dealing with the kids at school
01:07and playing sports and doing activities, and a lot of people just don't understand what type 1 diabetes are.
01:13They confuse it with type 2, and so as a parent and some of the things that you have kind of dealt with over the last few years,
01:20what is something that you really want the general public to know about type 1?
01:24Well, type 1 is an autoimmune disease.
01:26You can't catch it.
01:28From what I understand, autoimmune stuff is a lot environmental, and it can be passed down genetically.
01:40Basically, your pancreas can't secrete insulin because your immune system destroys the insulin in your body,
01:50so when you eat anything, any kind of sugar, that's how those enzymes digest and break those sugars down.
01:56In a diabetic, they don't, and they start to get higher and higher.
01:59I tell my son that it basically makes your blood thicker and thicker and thicker and more like syrup,
02:05and over the years, it damages things.
02:07So you can lose your toes.
02:08You can lose your eyesight.
02:10You can lose all kinds of complications because you're not getting the proper distribution of blood through your body.
02:17There's all kinds of emotional and behavioral things with it, too, when you're young.
02:23I mean, when your blood sugar is high or low, even if it's high, you can be irritable.
02:27There's all things that happen.
02:28When you're low, you're all lethargic, and you can go into a coma.
02:31You're constantly trying to balance that and guess the right ratio for, let's say you need food.
02:37There's carbs in everything.
02:38Carbs turn to sugar, and there's sugar, and there's sugar.
02:40So you're always constantly trying to count carbs, stay ahead of it, and he's basically a pincushion.
02:45You know, I've got to sit there with a pin and pop him every time he eats, and he's a grazer,
02:50and that's one of the, you know, when you're a type 1 diabetic, you can have that side effect
02:53where you're just constantly hungry because your body can't process the food right
02:57and get the amount, you know, the energy or whatever you need.
02:59So he's constantly eating, and I'm constantly running around giving him shots.
03:02It's just a horrible disease, especially for children.
03:05I mean for anyone, but a child, they don't understand, and they want to go out and have, you know,
03:09their parties, have birthday cake, and do all that stuff.
03:11So it's very hard.
03:13It's an ongoing battle.
03:15It's going to be a battle for the rest of his life.
03:17But there is lots of new research being done and a lot of breakthroughs that have come through through JDRF,
03:22and people, you know, are raising money, and there's lots of new things and new technology.
03:27But the biggest one I'm very happy about is they did it in Australia, the first artificial pancreas,
03:31which is basically marrying a CGM, which is a continuous glucose monitor that tells you your blood sugar level
03:37without having to poke yourself, you know, stick yourself with a needle and check your blood.
03:42So that's continually going.
03:43They married that with the pump.
03:44And so what it does is act like a pancreas, and that's, like, really, really cool.
03:49There's also encapsulation therapy where they put a stent in your back,
03:52and they put these T cells in there, and it actually attaches to the things that destroy the insulin.
03:57So that's promising.
03:58There's new insulin inhalers so you don't have to get, you know, shots.
04:03There's all kinds of things coming down the pipeline that really gives me hope
04:05that my son's not going to have to live with this the rest of his life.
04:08Right.
04:09It's hard.
04:10It's hard, but everyone balance.
04:11You don't know unless you get there.
04:13Like I said, when he was diagnosed, it changed my life.
04:15I'm constantly following that boy around because if he doesn't receive his insulin, he's dead.
04:19Right.
04:20As a kid growing up with it, I can't imagine what my parents went through.
04:23And I had a circumstance when I was about 21.
04:26I had gone out drinking, and, yeah, and that's down the road for you,
04:32but eventually he's going to be my age.
04:34And as a kid dealing with it, my parents were always there, and I passed out.
04:38And thank God my parents were there to pick me up and to shovel sugar into my mouth
04:42and wake me back up.
04:44And it's scary, and I think for me the biggest thing that I want people to know
04:47is that diabetes affects your life every single day, every minute of the day.
04:51There is no breaks.
04:52It's whether you're eating food and sitting on the couch or if you decide that you want
04:56to go run a mile and exercise.
04:58All of that factors into your life, and going to concerts, standing up on the lawn, watching
05:03corn rock out.
05:04You know, there's a moment where I feel, is my blood sugar low?
05:08Have I had too much to drink?
05:10Do I need to eat something?
05:11What did I do earlier today?
05:13And I just don't think that people understand that.
05:15And that, for me, is something that I've battled, you know, for 15 years, is that people don't
05:19get it, and they don't understand.
05:20And another thing is having family and friends, and especially as your son gets older and you're
05:25not going to be there every minute of the day to chase him around.
05:28His friends need to know.
05:29And I've got such an amazing support system, friends who would drop anything for me, and
05:33that know.
05:33And my parents definitely made sure all my friends knew.
05:36Yeah.
05:36And so, and that's really my whole purpose to sit down with you, is to say that I empathize
05:43with you, and I feel for you, and I genuinely feel the same way.
05:48I want them to find a cure so badly.
05:50My brother and I have dealt with this for over 30 years between the two of us, and it's
05:54heartbreaking.
05:55And I thank you.
05:56You also did the song, So Unfair, which has raised a lot of money.
06:01Yeah, it was over $100,000 for that.
06:03But I got to talk to the president of J.D. Rapp, Derek Rapp, and it just helped a lot.
06:08A lot of things, a lot of, you know, there's a lot of stuff needs funding, and they're doing
06:14lots of research, and there's lots of really new, cool stuff coming down, but it's still,
06:18they need the money to, you know, get that and find that cure for type 1 and 2.
06:22I mean, it just affects everyone.
06:24And the biggest thing that I've noticed out of all this, they need more psychiatric care
06:27for people with diabetes.
06:28Absolutely.
06:29There's none.
06:30It's just like, there needs to be a place where parents can get together, anyone that's
06:35affected by it, and then sit down counseling.
06:37It doesn't stop.
06:38It drives you insane.
06:39It drives a big wedge in families.
06:42And, you know, I deal with my kids, like, oh, you're always, you know, paying attention
06:47to Zeppelin, and you know this, and, you know, and it puts pressure on marriage.
06:51It puts, it's really a crazy-ass experience.
06:55So I'd like to get into helping and get more, you know, psych at, you know, just any kind
07:00of therapy for people to, dealing with the disease just to help, because seriously, there's
07:04not someone to punch a hole through wall.
07:05It just doesn't ever stop.
07:07Yeah.
07:07Social media has been really great for me, finding people that I can relate to.
07:11Cedar Point is an amusement park, and you always see people in the summer.
07:14And I have friends who will point out, oh, that person has a pump, and it's awesome to
07:18talk to them, because I can relate to you, and I understand what you're going through,
07:21and I totally get it.
07:23And so, you know, please download the song, So Unfair.
07:27Check out jdrfr.org.
07:29Donate.
07:30We would love to raise money and help this cause and help all of these millions of people.
07:34And if you know someone, if your family or friends have diabetes, get educated, because
07:38this affects a lot of people, and it is life-threatening, and it is very scary.
