This episode is sponsored by NuCalm. And as many of you know, I only bring sponsors onto this show whose products I truly swear by. Now, we are an overworked and underslept population, especially those of us that wear uniform for a living. And trying to reclaim some of the lost rest and recovery is imperative. Now, the application of this product is as simple as putting on headphones and a sleep mask.
As you listen to music on each of the programs, there is neuroacoustic software beneath that is tapping into the actual frequencies of your brain, whether to upregulate your nervous system or downregulate. Now, for most of us that come off shift, we are A, exhausted, and B, do not want to bring what we've had to see and do back home to our loved ones.
So one powerful application is using the program Powernap, a 20 minute session that will not only feel like you've had two hours of sleep, but also downregulate from a hypervigilant state back into the role of mother or father, husband or wife. Now, there are so many other applications and benefits from this software, so I urge you to go and listen to episode 806 with CEO Jim Poole. Then download New Calm, N-U-C-A-L-M, from your app store and sign up for the 7-day free trial.
Not only will you have an understanding of the origin story and the four decades this science has spanned, but also see for yourself the incredible health impact of this life-changing software. And you can find even more information on New Calm dot com. Welcome guys to episode 58 of Behind the Shield podcast. My name is James Gearing and I have yet another amazing guest for you this week.
The firefighting profession, I think, will collectively agree that there have been very few movies made about what we do that earn our respect. Backdraft certainly was one of the first. Most recently, Only the Brave absolutely has held up to that same standard. But the other one would be Ladder 49. So my next guest is John Travolta. Now John lives in the town I live in, is a very proud member of our community.
I was able to get a message to him and he immediately replied saying that he would love to come on the show. And he ended up coming to my house to do a face-to-face interview, which I'm going to tell you right now blew my wife's mind. So we talked about an array of subjects. We started off with his early career. Then we got to Ladder 49, what it was like to shoot, what it was like to train for it, his perspective of the fire service.
And then we transitioned to some of the health initiatives that he's actually helped spearhead, helping firefighters around the country, including Ocala where I live. So this was an incredible interview. Again, I was blown away that he was able to come to the house and do a face-to-face, a medium that I love to do because the sound quality is so good when they do that. So I'm going to stop yapping.
If you guys have a chance, again, go on iTunes, please rate the show and share the hell out of the episodes. Remember the more first responders we get to, the more people that we're going to help. So without further ado, I introduce to you my interview with John Travolta. Enjoy. Okay. Welcome to Behind the Shield podcast. I am sitting in my home on the couch and across from me is John Travolta. So welcome to the show. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Well, thank you for coming.
I can't believe that I was able to reach out to you and you just dropped everything and said yes, so you could reach out to the first responders of the world. So I really, really appreciate that. Well, you're welcome because when I heard what your purpose was, I wanted to because I believe in supporting the first responders. And I have a soft spot for firefighters. So there you go. Well, we will definitely delve into that in this conversation.
So if you don't mind, I would love to start at the beginning. So where exactly were you born and what was your family unit like? How many siblings you had and what your mom and dad did? Born in Englewood, New Jersey. I have five brothers and sisters, six kids total. Mom was a school teacher, a drama teacher, speech teacher, and dad was a coach and was in business with his brother in the Firestone tire business. And we had a very suburban lifestyle and I loved it.
I wouldn't have traded it for anything. OK, and he said he was a coach. What did he coach? Football, basketball, but he's in the Hall of Fame in New Jersey for baseball, oddly enough. But he did. And he also was a co-coach with Vince Lombardi, the famous football coach, before he was the famed Vince Lombardi. My dad partnered him in coaching students in St. Cecilia High School in New Jersey. OK, did you play any of those sports yourself?
I played football and I played basketball. Five years of basketball and two years of football. Quarterback. Oh, OK, fantastic. Now were your aspirations to go into sports or were they already into drama? Well, we had a choice because dad was encouraging sports but not enforcing it. And mom was encouraging the arts but again not enforcing it. So we got to choose what we really wanted. So I experimented with sports and felt that it wasn't for me as an end game.
But that I felt that I was making quite a good effect as a performer and maybe that was a much more realistic end game. OK, so when you left school did you pursue the arts in college or did you go straight into it? No, I left school and started making a living as a performer right away at 16 years old. I was making a good living at it and it evolved and escalated into a wonderful career. Now what would you describe as your first true big break?
Well, every break is correlated or connected to a bigger break. For instance, that year I spoke of when I was 16. And I was in a summer theater professional company of Bye Bye Birdie, a musical. And a big time agent was in the audience looking at somebody else. But I was the only person he thought would be ideal for his roster. So I waited a month and he said the first mistake you made was to wait a month. Because you could be already doing other bigger and better things.
And I said, OK, well, what's our plan? And before you knew it, I was off doing radio commercials and TV commercials and bits on soap operas and auditions for big time movies. And within months I was already on a map, if you will. So that to me was a big break. Now if you're talking about fame break, I would say that was Welcome Back, Cotter, when I was 21, a few years later. That would be when I became famous around the world on television.
And then a couple of years later became famous in movies with Sardinia Fever, Grease, Serbian Cowboy. OK, now if my sources are correct, and my source would be Wikipedia, so it may not be correct, were you an extra in Emergency, the show? Yeah, that would be that first. When I first got with my manager, I was two years into it. I was 18 or 17 and I got cast in Emergency, where I played a victim that was hurt on the side of a hill. You can look it up, it's a pretty... Ethic scene.
Where I have kind of not so good dialogue, but I was being honorable to the script. And then I was in Medical Center and I was on The Rookies and Owen Marshall Counselor, all the shows that were popular in the day, prior to my doing my own TV series. OK, now I saw that you did the musical Grease, was that before the movie and was that how you got into the movie? Yes, I did the stage show of Grease first. I did The National Road Company and then I did Broadway.
And that was really the blueprint for my clocking, that one day maybe I could do the movie. And then indeed a few years later, the movie came along and I indeed did it. OK, fantastic. And then the other one of that period that people talk about, which you just did, was Saturday Night Fever. Now, had you an extensive disco dancing pass before that, or was that something you learned for the role?
Well, everyone in my neck of the woods, you know, frankly knew how to act, sing and dance as a trifecta for getting more work. If you knew these three, if you had these three abilities, when you auditioned for any given show, you had three times the chances of getting employment. So I had a natural ability to do all three and it just added to my, well, let's say the characters traits, being a disco dancer,
you use the same talents at doing other types of dance and you just design it for that genre. So that's what I did. OK, did you have any idea how many drunk people will be emulating those moves for decades after that? Yeah, isn't that amazing? Yeah, they're doing a beautiful documentary. They just finished it in England of Saturday Night Fever. And it's a really accurate and terrific homage to the film for its 40th anniversary.
OK, John, so we're going to get straight to Ladder 49. So can you tell me how that project even came across your radar? It was December 20th or 23rd. I forget what year it was. What's the year of Ladder 49? 2004. It was the release date. Yeah, so it was December 2003 and I was at my home in Maine and I got a call from my agent in Los Angeles saying that there's a very interesting script about firefighters.
They want you to play the captain or chief. Would you read it and consider it? It's a real offer. They're going in February or March of 2004 and I said, sure. I've always wanted to do a movie about firefighters. Even back to Ronnie Howard's backdraft. They said, well, the exciting thing is they're trying to make this much more realistic.
And the new technology was allowing us to do that. So I said, OK, let's read it. I read it. I loved the part of the chief and thought it was fun and interesting and heroic. And anyway, I said yes. And we were off and running. But the prerequisite was that I had to do a month of training to be an actual firefighter. They said we want all the men that are going to be in the movie to be trained as actual firefighters.
So you have to go through literally the same training. And they said, you know what? That's awesome. I'd love it. I don't know if I'll make it, but I'll try it. So we did. And I was good up until the you could help me with this, but there's a black box that you have to find your way through. The maze. The maze. Yes. And I couldn't do it with all the equipment on because I couldn't find the wedges to get me up.
And then they put smoke in there, too, and all that stuff. You couldn't literally see anything. So I was willing to do it, but without I was willing to just do it, but not with the full equipment, which is the adds all that size and weight to your overall structure. So that was the only thing that I kind of drew the line at. I did everything else. I did all the actual putting out fires, simulated climbing the sides of the building.
Everything but that last bit is what I did because I just couldn't find the niche for it. I don't think you're alone there as many firefighters that really can't stand where in the pack and a lot of people do. You still have to stay in, but you take your pack off to traverse some of those. So I would say that's still admirable if you got through everything except that. Yeah, I did. And I got through it without the pack. So yeah, but I learned a lot.
And the main thing that that I observed and you'll understand this is that I was watching many of these firefighters closer to retirement. There was a particular chief, a captain and a sergeant that were not doing well with physical ailments from all the poisons and toxic they were exposed to.
So I got smart and I decided to offer them a program that I had helped start with others around the September 11th time where we were detoxing the firefighters, the policemen, the first responders that were at that site in Manhattan. And the detox program is a sauna sweat program where you sweat for up to from 25 to 35 days, five hours a day, includes a lot of vitamins and minerals and oils pushing the toxins out of the body.
And I established this along with Tom Cruise and my church and we were very successful. We've done, I think it's upwards of 3000 people in New York now and all over the country. I started other divisions of what they call the Heroes Health Fund and it's for even soldiers from the Middle East that are exposed to extremities of toxic elements.
And it's super effective and anyway to get back to the story, I noticed these three guys that were not doing particularly well in Baltimore and I said look, I'll finance, I'll open your own little division for detoxing you guys to prove to you how well it works. And if you like it, you can share it with other first responders. So I set up shop there. I invested the money in setting up the saunas. I hired a doctor. I did the sole profile for them.
And one December after the movie had been released and I said well guys, it's all set up. You are now officially ready to be detoxed. And they spent 25 days. They got out around Christmas Eve or something. And all their ailments went away. All the ones that they were suffering from and this was anything from addiction to pills that they were on because of these toxic effects to not being able to sleep, to organs shutting down and some even extreme, even more extreme situations.
But they all got fixed and they were very excited, couldn't believe it. It was as if by magic. And we started a Baltimore Heroes Health Fund right there where I filmed the movie. And then we opened up another one in Nevada and then another one in Utah. Anyway, we have about five of them around the country including New York of course and we are trying to build and make more of them.
And they are so successful. So that was my personal gift back to the firefighters and continues to be so. Even here in Ocala I have a place where the local firefighters can use the Heroes Health Fund to help them detox if they are interested. Yeah, I heard that from local firefighters. I have friends in Ocala Fire and Marion County Fire and they have told me that story about going through a detox and doing the Niacin and the Swedish steam baths.
And it is now catching on where I have heard of other departments detached from your specific drive that you have done that are also putting saunas in the stations and steam baths for the same exact reason. They really need to. There were several local Ocala firefighters that we succeeded with to have the same result as the Baltimore guys. I was just giving the origin of it which was Baltimore and New York but we were successful in starting it here in Ocala as well.
Right. And speaking of Baltimore, did you actually spend time in the stations and running calls with the guys there too? Yes, we did that. We had to as part of our training to be authentic so there were many calls that we went on. And a couple became volunteer firefighters after the movie. Oh really? Yes, I think two of the actors actually signed on to be volunteer firefighters because they were already trained and they got their cert so they just decided to be on call if they were needed.
Okay, brilliant. And now I want to get the gentleman's name right. Where are we here? Oh goodness, I'm going to cut this bit out too. Lieutenant Mark Lant? Yes. So Mark, was he kind of mentoring you through this whole thing? Yes, he was our lead trainer. Very patient. And there were some funny times too because we had to do the call within a 60 second period to get in equipment, on the truck and out.
And of course I was doing everything correctly I thought but I was by far the slowest of all of them so there was one take where they said action and they tried to do it in actual time where we get our equipment on from the time it's called to the time the fire engine leaves the house.
And suddenly I finish everything and everybody breaks out into laughter because they've been already ready for about 40 seconds and I'm the only one. I think they clocked me at two minutes getting everything where they were under a minute and I said hey I'm an old man, leave me alone. Well speaking of that, so you had a huge amount of real firefighters in the production as well, is that right?
Yes, and they needed to be. Any time you're trying to accurately portray a subject matter you really have to have the real deal with you. I finished a race car movie and if we didn't have the actual professional race drivers we wouldn't be authentic, we wouldn't pull it off. You really do need the real deal.
Yeah, I had Captain Dale Die, have you met him? I worked with him as a firefighter before I became a fireman so I worked with him in Japan doing the Terminator show for Universal Studios and he put us through the boot camp. It's a very mini gentle version of what he put the guys through for Platoon and Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers.
But again for the same reason that you guys did the fire is I've interviewed so many military people on this show because I hold them with high regards especially the special ops guys and so many of them say that especially Band of Brothers is something they respect and it would not have been that way had they not had real soldiers in the movie and the actors being taught by a soldier.
Also it gives the actors that are not professional firefighters or whatever the profession they're portraying confidence to have someone near them that is exactly the real deal and you know actors have a certain pride that they want to be execute things well and if you have an expert next to you that can clock what you're doing then you don't feel like you have an insurance policy next to you and it feels very good to do that.
By doing the right thing next take do it this way try to do it cool. Now you know that there's at least one to three takes that are absolutely authentic and they can scratch the one that's less authentic.
Right yeah I did the World Trade Center with Nicolas Cage and I say with he was physically there on the set nothing to do with me I was we were just glorified extras but I guess they took that to such a point when the final you know the movie came out we were literally silhouettes through a window but even then they still wanted those silhouettes to look like they knew what they were doing. Of course of course. So yeah. It's absolute sense.
All right so when once you've gone through that training had your perspective of what these men and women go through changed. Completely because the danger was very real to me now what they're doing and risking is completely authentic in regards to whether they like it or not they are heroic and I think it's empirical that they are because as the saying goes everyone else is leaving the.
Fire and they're going in I mean that's that's putting your life immediately on line and I think it's completely impressive.
So yeah my my viewpoint you got an inkling that it was like that but when you experience it yourself and you feel the heat and you see the the complexity of how far as you know let's say even in a kitchen fire where apparently the most dangerous fumes are from plastics that you know ignite and then the firefighter or the people trapped breathe that in and it solidifies in their lungs.
You know knowing that it's a kitchen fire or a restaurant kitchen or something you know you're going into something that even if you don't get killed might be damaging you for life you know it's a very tricky thing that these guys are estimating but they do it you know. Yeah. How brave is that.
Well speaking of the heat another thing that I got from a couple of the interviews I saw about the movie they had the LPG props blaring when you guys are shooting is that right so you were feeling a lot of heat. Oh always yeah and it was the first and I'm not trying to brag or or say that we're better than other movies but I do think as far as authenticity we did capture it better than any film to date because we simply had the technology to and the earlier films did not.
So we are part of the it's the evolution of the technology of film that allowed us to be authentic or let's say more authentic than prior films or earlier films. Yeah yeah because another one that's prior to you again back to back draft that's pretty much before that before I'm sure I would say hell is the best one but there were obviously some big holes in the game I being in the middle of fires and not wearing a mask and having perfect dialogue and wait a second.
Yeah which is what they do a lot in aviation films it drives me crazy they they do all sorts of things are in that are inaccurate but in this one we were 100% accurate but that's because the firefighters are not going to allow us to be anything else but we asked them to not allow us to be anything else but authentic. Yeah now there's there's I would say there's one more movie and we're talking you know a long long time after ladder 49 now but have you seen only the brave yet.
I have not. Okay I highly recommend that that to me now has joined the other two as an incredible movie Josh Brolin played one of the roles and it was released let me see about two months ago now and it's based on the Prescott 19 so the 19 wildland firemen that were burnt over in 2013 in Arizona.
I didn't know about it. Yeah so I highly recommend that but that's a wildland movie so it's very different but again they went through a firefighter boot camp. What's your feeling right now about what's happening in Los Angeles. In the wildfires. Yeah I mean this is a terror incognito I don't think anything's ever happened like this before in that kind of high end areas of Bel Air and Ventura and I mean what's your take on it.
I mean I don't I know from from a firefighter's point of view when you start building houses amongst you know wildland interface it's it's a gamble then you're already rolling the dice but just the sheer magnitude of some of these fires it's almost like a fire perfect storm that we're seeing some of the footage has just been you know heart wrenching but I used to. What do you think was the cause or what would you what would you say are the probable causes of the cause.
I am detached from that side now so I would be you know I any words from my mouth wouldn't even be worth it but I would I would definitely ask my old apartment and I'm just in Orange County those guys have been out fighting all those fires.
The arson the point of origin is almost irrelevant because whether it's a cigarette whether it's a piece of glass from the sun whether it's a debris set if it hadn't been these crazy dry conditions in the Santa Ana winds blowing through it would be a spot fire and it would be out.
I think that what's causing the magnitude is certainly the weather yeah and this you know this dryness but then sadly the more of us inhabit this planet the more we put our houses in you know more dangerous places whether it's on on a cliff on the edge of the ocean or you know. How are you feeling about the neighborhood you are living in do you feel that they're pretty well prepared for any kind of fire.
For yeah I think it's so as far as topography and what we would look at as a risk yeah we're pretty good we're surrounded by by roads we fire breaks you know there's not a lot of heavy fuel as far as you know some of the green plants that do burn fast and but I'd say our biggest threat here is hurricanes. But again unless we had a direct hit from a tornado that's Ocala has almost magically missed it.
I don't know what it is but it's kind of surrealistic that it never quite affects this area and the Clearwater area is the same Clearwater and Ocala seem to be these little little divisions that never really quite get hit that hard. No the same as Disney us that's who we protect now and they say there's a bubble over there I mean we've we've had some you know. Being done there.
So speaking of Ocala so that's another thing I wanted to touch on you know while we were talking yes you're this this big you know star on the screen but you're also extremely loved in the city that I live in you know that we share Ocala. And almost every restaurant we go into there's you know pictures of you in a good way you know eating there being a normal resident. So what was it that drew you here and what was your impression when you first came.
Basically the fly in community concept is what drew me here because it where I live is quite a large runway and was capable of safely bringing in and out any size of aircraft. So my wife really wanted to be in the country. So I think that those are the two main things and it's close to my church in Clearwater and I think those two were were primary the reasons.
Okay yeah yeah because as we were talking before we went on Mike that sense of community I think is very strong for a sleepy little town in the middle of central Florida. We're very proud of our little town. If I'm not mistaken we got voted as the number one family community in the country to bring up a family like this would be the right atmosphere.
And I think there's I remember there was a survey done recently about Ocala and it rated so high relative to everywhere else in the country for all the right reasons like for instance this is what I was told anyway. That the priorities of the citizens seem to be more group oriented versus individualistic. You know they're not it's not we need a self centered thing to open or do it's like I'd like a good place for the kids to go. I'd like a good place for the family to blah blah.
I would you know I would like more community activity there all the desires of the individuals seem much more group for the group more than than self centered ideas and that's unusual. You know that's kind of exciting thing old fashioned concept that is now reliving itself here in Ocala. Yeah yeah and we talked about before about the whole tribal thing I think we have that you know we're proud of our network here. I agree with you.
I think there is a tribal feeling that makes everyone feel good about being here and it's evolving into all the niceties that any cosmopolitan city could have and it'll get more so. But I mean we're not wanting for much here you know as far as entertainment and food and stores and you know it's continually evolving. Yeah it is I mean every time they close a business down it seems like just a more genuine family owned business pops up in its place which is great to see. Yeah it really is.
All right well I'm going to just you said about emotion so the one thing I want to touch on before you know we kind of close out. One of the most powerful moments I think that most people would say about ladder 49 was when you gave the eulogy when Joaquin Phoenix's character passed away. I saw ladder 49 right when I came out of my very first fire department's orientation which was three months of hell by the way hi Alia if you can still remember that.
But it was October and at the end of the movie you know it was very tragic and you saw the funeral and you know it was a real punch in the gut as far as the job. But it was still two dimensional on screen. I watched ladder 49 with my son Ty who you just met for the first time he's ever seen it. He's just turned 10 I figured it was a good time to watch especially before he met you.
But when I watched that scene it was completely different. I've been a fireman 13 and a half years and then the last four or five I've lost count of how many firefighters are buried from you know not any any dramatic death in a fire or anything like that but from cancer from heart disease from drug overdose from all these different things.
And the detail in that scene not only you know the actual funeral itself and then your eulogy but the way they saluted the bagpipes all these different you know elements that they had. I mean it it I was in tears watching it because it wasn't two dimensional anymore as a fireman halfway through his career it was real now. And then when you did your eulogy obviously I mean I was crying like a baby as well.
I really totally understand and you know I that's why I love that film so much I think it has a depth and an authenticity that is rare. And as far as your friends are concerned that you've lost this is a time where you can promote the heroes health fund to them because maybe many of them their lives would be saved if they experience this heroes health fund and the detox program.
They would not they would you know have a different fate and you can you can help them have that by promoting it on your show and enlightening them about how it works and be a great thing. Absolutely. Well I will put that on the website for today's episode which will be JamesGierion.com for you guys listening. I'll put a link there. I also want to put a link as well for the Jettra Volta Foundation. Can you just give us a brief overview of that as well.
Yeah. Yeah. When my son passed we started a foundation that was very widely scoped because so many things my son was connected to and education and other illness in children and different aspects. And it was so complex his situation that I felt like limiting the foundation to just one or two ideas. It was not enough. So I widen the scope for for all areas not not just any particular illness but education and support of special needs children because that's really an area that
until you experience a special needs child you don't realize the magnitude and the depth of concern it can give a parent and more importantly the child itself. They're not having an easy time of it you know. So it's a it's a good thing to do a wide spectrum and when you're doing a charity like that. Yeah. OK. Well I will put the link on there as well.
Very good. Thank you. OK. So just a couple of wrap up short rapid fire questions. I always ask everyone is there a book that you recommend to people on anything in the world.
Oh gosh. Well entertainment wise let's give your other card. I have to think about that because there's so many good books out there that it's difficult to hone it down to just one. It would depend on your interests and your interest levels. I would I would imagine. But you know of course I'm going to I'm going to promote my my own you know religion and probably I don't know fundamentals of thought or
let's say Dynetics or Science of Survival. One of these books are always interesting to read for people and help them through life and give them some tools. Those would be the books I would immediately recommend. And then there are others.
For I grew up with all the classics and always enjoyed them for young people you know to kill a mockingbird and airport and you know because I was an aviator and these are all books that were fun to read. I don't know if in a new unit of time if there'd be much fun for people but that's what I grew up with. OK fantastic. Now what about a movie and or documentary. I love documentaries and I think that the there's so many documentaries that that I've enjoyed over the years.
You know I like the World War Two documentaries that investigate the antics and politics of that. I think there's always something to learn from them. Any aviation documentary any rock star documentary I find interesting. You know there's many recently that are good. And then what was the other movie. Movie movie and or documentaries.
Yeah movies are so again each year I have not to be perfectly honest investigated this year's cinema enough and I have my obligation at the end of the year to watch movies for my voting for the Academy. So I will I will take take time to do that so I don't have one yet that I would recommend recently.
OK I'm pretty sure the Academy will be sending you only the brave so that will be coming to your doorstep soon. Yes. OK now is there a guest that you would recommend to come on the show to talk to the first responders of the world.
Yes what I'll do for you is I'll give you a list of about five guys that I think will blow your mind with what they went through with the Heroes Health Fund and detoxing and to give you details of their life threatening illnesses that they had that were completely handled with the program. And I think it would do you and your fellow first responders a great deal to hear someone who actually got their life saved. Absolutely. You see fantastic.
And I think the more extreme situations are even the ones that will be better for you to hear because we all know a healthy guy can get more healthy but when you have a totally artificially affected firefighter or first responder that has been exposed to things that he shouldn't have been exposed to but had to for the line of duty to hear their magnificent results would be much more effective I think. Yeah nothing more powerful than the life story.
Definitely. OK and the very last one before we talk about where else we can find you what do you do to decompress when you're not acting and not flying. Well flying is one of the things I do. OK well flying. Sorry. And I take courses at my church and that helps me decompress and I spend time with my family and that helps me decompress and travel if I can as not just for business but for pleasure.
And honestly being in Ocala helps me decompress I'm always more chilled when I'm here than anywhere else. Yeah I agree 100 percent. Love it here. People ask why do I because I live I work in Orlando why don't I live down there and it's like well it's very simple. Just come to Ocala and you'll see. Yeah and it may take a few months to get it but once you're here you always come back. Yeah exactly. I found that people that leave to get out they always find themselves coming back to Ocala.
Absolutely. OK so we've got the two websites you talked about already the Heroes Health Fund and Jet Travolta will be on there. Are there any other social media or websites that you want to talk about. I think we covered covered them all. Do you know. I think I think that's that's good. Fantastic. Well thank you so much for coming on the show and I truly appreciate that and I know that people listening will really be blown away by this interview so thank you. Oh good. Well my pleasure.