[00:00:00] Scott DeLuzio: Life after the service can feel loud. Even when the room is quiet, your head replays old scenes. Sometimes you try to forget them. Try to push them down, and you reach for anything that helps you feel a little bit less alone. For a lot of us, that’s something is music, but the headphones on the world just shuts off and you hope that the right song will hold you together for one more night.
[00:00:25] Now imagine being able to point to a specific song and say, you know, that one got me through this period of my life. This other one got me through a deployment. This one got me through a, a divorce. This one got me off of from stepping off that edge. This is a, a, a clear way of how far you can come and, and how much you have survived by being able to kind of replay some of these songs, uh, in your head.
[00:00:53] Uh, today, in this episode, you’re gonna hear from someone who actually did stuff just like that army National Guard. [00:01:00] Officer and author Tony Kessel built a playlist of his life. He wrote out the stories behind 366 songs and turned years of bottle up emotions, suicidal thoughts and spiritual questions into a book.
[00:01:14] Uh, and in his home studio, uh, we, we talk about how music can be a crutch that keeps you stuck, and how it can also be a tool that helps you finally face. What you’ve been running from, we get into non-combat deployments that still twist you up thinking that maybe you should have done more coming home almost overnight, suicide intervention training.
[00:01:36] And why simply just sitting there with someone in their worst moment matters more than the perfect advice that you might want to give. Before we get into this conversation though, I, I do want to talk a little bit about the, global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation. Uh, it’s a foundation that is, uh, working to build a permanent national memorial, uh, in [00:02:00] Washington DC to honor the service members, the families, the, uh, individuals who are involved with the Global War on terrorism and, and honor their sacrifices and, and service.
[00:02:10] If you’d like to learn more about the memorial, visit GWOT memorial foundation.org. Now, let’s get into today’s episode.
[00:02:20]
[00:02:33] Scott DeLuzio: Hey, Tony, welcome to the show. I’m really glad to have you here.
[00:02:36] Tony Kessel: Hey, thanks for having me. Wanna wish you a
[00:02:38] happy Veteran’s Day
[00:02:39] as well, so thank you
[00:02:40] Scott DeLuzio: Y yeah, you bet.
[00:02:42] Yeah. Yeah. It’s
[00:02:43] And, and likewise, you know,
[00:02:45] for, for the, the listeners who, who are hearing this and, and you know, it’s, it’s when we record these episodes sometimes a little bit in advance, so, you know, it was, you know, veterans Day yesterday, when, when you know, at the time of the recording.
[00:02:57] So, you know, it’s, it’s really awesome. You know, getting a, [00:03:00] we were talking before the, the recording here, but it’s really awesome getting to chat with other veterans on this show. I, I, I feel real, really privileged to be able to do that. And, and just hear the stories and be, be, first off, be trusted to be able to hear other veteran stories and kind of creating a, a place where, where peop...
