Voices for Voices®

Beyond the Spotlight: Why Even Rock Stars Struggle (Ep 286)

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 286

Share episode

Beyond the Spotlight: Why Even Rock Stars Struggle (Ep 286)

MERCHANDISE SHOP: voices-for-voices.org/3QnokLU
SUPPORT VOICES FOR VOICES®:
https://www.voicesforvoices.org/shop/p/supporter

Mental health affects everyone regardless of fame, wealth, or status, and finding strength in vulnerability can inspire others to seek help during dark times.

• Metallica's James Hetfield recently shared his mental health struggles during a concert in Brazil
• Setting big goals provides motivation even when facing challenges and doubts from others
• Voices for VoicesⓇ serves as a therapeutic outlet for sharing real experiences and difficult topics
• Money and fame don't protect celebrities from mental health struggles
• Talking about challenges and showing emotion are signs of strength, not weakness
• Many music icons like Chester Bennington, Chris Cornell, and Taylor Hawkins struggled despite success
• Having someone who's experienced similar challenges can make seeking help more comfortable
• Resources like 988 text line and 988lifeline.org provide 24/7 support in English and Spanish
• There's a significant shortage of mental health practitioners that needs addressing

If you're struggling or know someone who is, text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org for 24/7 support. Remember you're not alone – we're all in this together.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome and Our Mission

3:22 Dream Big and Never Underestimate

7:10 Mental Health Affects Everyone

16:03 Finding Strength in Vulnerability

22:43 Real Stories of Celebrity Struggles

33:57 We're All In This Together

40:09 Resources and Final Thoughts

#RockStars #MentalHealthAwareness #BehindTheMusic #FameAndStruggle #CelebrityLife #MusicianMentalHealth #BeyondTheSpotlight #ArtistJourney #StrugglesOfFame #RockStarReality #MusicIndustryChallenges #EmotionalWellbeing #LifeInTheLimelight #SuccessAndSorrow #RealStoriesInMusic #metallica #jameshetfield #mentalhealth #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram

Support the show

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm your host. Founder of Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes. Thank you so much for joining us on this and all of our previous episodes and our future episodes of our show. We couldn't do this without you. We can't do this without you. If you're able to give us a thumbs up, a like, a follow, share, comment, all those things are free to do and it helps us get closer to our goal of helping 3 billion people.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Over the course of my lifetime and beyond, the support that's coming in and has come in, especially as of late, and pushing 80 countries, 800 cities worldwide, it's really I got like goosebumps. It's a humbling. It's a humbling thing, a humbling experience to know that this little organization, this little show, is really having the reach that it's having and it's just an incredible thing. And if I were to give any advice that it's having, and it's just an incredible thing. And if I were to give any advice to anyone who is tuning in before, or if this is your first episode, or if you know somebody family member, colleague, teammate what have you? And you're in a place of being able to guide and positively influence any individual, even if it's just ourselves. That I would say.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

As I've said before, I don't think it's really a magic formula. I think if you dream that nothing's impossible doesn't mean that every last goal and every last bit of thought, and again a goal, whatever those goals are, doesn't mean all of those are going to come to fruition. But I'll tell you this if you have a small goal, you're going to be reaching for small things, and if you have a big goal, chances are that you're going to be able to accomplish a lot more than if you set that smaller goal. Now, small goals are important, especially getting something off the ground, starting something new, and even if it's not something brand new, there's always going to be people that are going to question. They're going to say people that are going to question, they're going to say, hey, this is silly, You're talking about this. That's just way out there. Why don't you think a little bit more realistic? I say to anybody I am thinking realistic because I know God has control and there's nothing he can't do, there's no situation he can't help bring me.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

The organization associates, individuals. They can't bring us through. And I think when we think of things like that, it's just all the more fuel added to the flame, to the fire of desire, of perseverance, of not wanting to give up, of wanting to make a difference in a positive way. Again, even if it's just that one person, that's one less person that potentially would have to go through a situation or a set of situations and circumstances and experiences that may be not very healthy. And so, dream, dream big, never underestimate not only yourself, but never underestimate God and who your higher power is. That's who it is for me, for our organization. But, again, we're just sharing our experiences and our stories. Nothing is a cookie cutter, nothing is all one size fits all. Nothing is all one size fits all. We're, again, just sharing what we can to have a positive impact on as many people while we're still here on earth. But thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us, thank you for tuning in, whether you're watching, watching, listening, here in the united states, across the world. Uh, it means the world to us, who even just have a millisecond of your time, uh, that you would even again take a millisecond or that small amount of time to look into voices for voices for Voices in our show, which is our most popular area, I guess, to date. And so we have that structured foundation and backbone as we continue. So thank you as we continue. So thank you.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And mental health is an absolutely huge part of everybody's life, whether we think it is or it isn't. Fact of the matter is that mental health is a part of every one of us, every one of our lives, and that's a key pillar of our organization. Again, we have a ton of episodes over 280 at this point and on multiple episodes I talk about my mental health, my story, my experiences, and I continue to share, and so this episode is going to be a little bit of a continuation and a little bit not, because I'm going to be sharing others' mental health. And so, again, it's mental health related. And I know I go through my struggles day in, day out. I have good days, bad days, days in between you name it. I'm sure, honestly, I'm sure, as I'm speaking for everybody, but I would, with a high degree of certainty, think that all of our days, while we would want them to be the best, may not always end up that way.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I think that's part of Voices, for Voices for me is especially on the days where I don't know, I don't, I don't know. I don't feel like I'm making a difference. I don't feel like we're making a difference. You know we're not getting that feedback right, that instantaneous feedback that we I crave. You know that, real time, real feedback yeah, doing a good job, and here's real time information, and we do get that. You know that real-time real feedback yeah, doing a good job, and here's real-time information, and we do get that. It's just not every second of every day, and so I'm able to step into Voices for Voices so much more in those days, in those moments where I may be going through a rough patch. Maybe somebody knows, maybe they don't know. This is Voices for Voices is a physical being for the child. I have a physical daughter, but Voices for Voices is an avenue, not just for you and others. It's an avenue for me too.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I equated a little bit to therapy, where everybody has a little, you know, different opinion potentially on what therapy is, if it's good, if it's bad, what it means, what people are going to think about you or me. And I've kind of just gotten or I'd like to think I've gotten past it as much as possible, more so now than when I started this journey back in 2017. Hitting rock bottom, mental health-wise, where I started to take ownership of things myself. It doesn't make me a perfect person I'm not, nobody is but just from things I was beating myself up about and just not addressing, not talking through them, just not being comfortable in my own skin, basically. And so now, voices for Voices, I have an outlet, just as you do and everyone across the world, if they so choose to tune in. We welcome any and every viewer, listener. Be a part of our movement. Where it's that outlet for me where I can talk about.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I can talk about real topics. The thing about real topics is not all of them are easy to talk about. We talk about good things, good times Not all moments are good in that sense and there's a lot of things that fortunately go on in our world and have gone on before I was brought into the world and long after I'm gone from this earthly world, and it's talking about those from this earthly world, and it's talking about those topics, those areas that not a lot of people want to talk about, and I get it. Everybody has got things they're comfortable with, and a lot of the things that I'm comfortable with, with sharing and talking about, might not be that way for you or others, and that's okay. But we still have to respect when somebody like ourselves are sharing and talking about real topics. Everything is not.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

This again, I can't say it enough that nobody in this world is perfect and sinless. God is all only one. So that means we all sin at some degree of level, day in and day out. Again, we can try our darndest not to, but the reality is we're imperfect. Human beings are imperfect beings, and so when we talk about the hard topics, they're just that they're hard, they're hard to comprehend, they're hard to fathom, they're hard to think about. Some are dangerous, some are what could maybe be considered, oh, that's extreme. And while that might be the case, that doesn't mean it's not happening. Just because a topic in an area is extreme doesn't mean it's not happening, it hasn't happened, it's not going to continue to happen. So I think that's first and foremost to think about.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And then, secondly, as we head into the second half of this episode, we talked about mental health affects everybody. We talked about mental health affects everybody, from middle America to Hollywood and all areas in between, above and below, whatever the demographic, it doesn't matter. We all have mental health and the reason for me wanting to do and cover this, you know, kind of second area, secondary area of this show particularly, is this news that I I came across today and it goes a little bit like this right, one of the biggest rock stars, one of the biggest rock bands of all time, metallica lead singer, james Hetfield. He's gone through a lot, we've all gone through a lot throughout our lives and, as somebody who's gone through a lot, sometimes they're easier than others, sometimes they're easier to talk about than others. And for him, just recently, at one of his, him and his band, metallica's you know ultra huge stadium tour that's been going on has found its way from here in the United States down to where some of you may be watching and listening, and that's Brazil, down to where some of you may be watching and listening, and that's Brazil. And during I'm not sure how many dates they have per city, sometimes there's multiple dates, right, so you have some cities and areas that are much larger and and so to give as many people the ability to have an opportunity to attend the concert, especially of this magnitude, a band, oftentimes, if it makes sense, they'll, they'll schedule, you know, an extra date or two in the in the same area, same city, and so I'm not sure on how that's set up, but that doesn't matter.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

What matters is James Hetfield, during one of these shows in Brazil, brought up that he's struggling mental health-wise and, if my mind doesn't fail me at this moment, I believe there was a documentary in the past that detailed a little bit about James and some of his rough spots. He went through, you know, the band splitting up for a period of time and they wanted James to get help, and you know there's that denial period. I mean, I've been there, so I know what that exactly is like. So, anyway, this was many years ago and so here, and you know, 2025, in the middle of middle of july, you know, james came forward and at one of the shows in brazil and mentioned that he's he's struggling, and you know you may be wondering well, yeah, they're one of the metallic is one of the biggest bands of all time. James is one of the biggest rock star, lead, lead, front man, vocalist, whatever. However you want to. However, you want to give him a title like that or think of him like that as a part of a band, uh, and so he's right.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

He's what we would consider upper echelon have potentially again, potentially have money, you know they can pay for. Some of you know these perceived problems, an issue that some of us think about like, well, he's got all this money or she's got all this money and I don't understand. You know, if I had all this money and I don't understand. You know, if I had all that money, everything would be fine. You know, I would, you know, have my cars and I'd have my houses and my yachts and whatever. And this is just yet another. Another example. Of money can help in certain instances, but it's not a magic cure-all for everything.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And James isn't the only celebrity artist who has had these types of challenges. Again, we all do. It just depends on how comfortable we are to talk about them. It's a little bit easier for me because I've been talking about them for going on, coming in November, eight years, and there's others that are just starting that journey and maybe they'll want to talk about it, maybe they won't, and that's not up to us to judge. Again, we're just talking about information that we have as an organization, I have as a human being, and so for James really to even share that right, I mean because these concerts that you know Metallica's playing, you know there are 40, 50, 60,000 people, and so he's not just talking to you know one person when he's, you know when he's in front of that microphone or behind the microphone. However, when I want to think of it, and so there's a lot of people that that saw it in person and and, and some captured it, you know, on on their social medias, and so what?

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

What I'd like to say to James and anybody else that's out there, whether you're a celebrity, whether you're a rock star, whether you're not, we're all in this together. None of us are perfect. None of us are sinless. And talking about like hey, like I'm, I'm going through some rough areas right now, that's not a sign of weakness. That used to be the thought. There used to be a thought in my own head that, well, if I talk about it, if I have to take medication, if this, if that, if this, if that and that and that, then I'm a weak person. If I show emotion and cry, then I'm a weak person, and that's just not the case From my experience.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Talking about challenges, reaching out for help, it was both the scariest time for me and the most rewarding, and the reason why it was rewarding is because back in 2017, when I hit my rock bottom and I still hit rock bottom from time to time, but as many years that had just stacked up on each other I just I didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to think of myself as one of those people. I'm a nutcase because I have to spend some time to get that initial treatment, that initial assessment. So, james, we're all here for you. And so, james, we're all here for you. Thank you for being so brave to just say that. Just say, hey, I'm struggling. You're an inspiration to a lot of people and I would think now you're even more of an inspiration to even more people because they're seeing you for who you are, who I am. We're human beings. That's who we are.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

There might be times where somebody plays an actress or an actor in a TV show or on a silver screen and they're able to play somebody else for a period of time, but at the end of the day, it it comes back to we're human beings and we do have emotion, whether we want to believe it or whether we don't, whether we want to think others do or others don't, because of whatever, like, oh, they got money. So everything you know. I don't understand why, you know they people have problems like that, like they don't have to deal with what I'm dealing with. And I'll just say to those that think that, uh, I was there before, I thought that before, but I've had my eyes really open, eyes wide open, really Ed Sheeran's song. Because of me, because of what I've gone through and am going through, of what our guests talk about, what they've been through and are going through, I have nothing but respect for anybody that talks about what they're going through, what they went through, because, in the end, when we leave Earth, and when we leave Earth, I would like to hopefully think that I was able to help more people than I wasn't able to help, you know, for a good part of my life. It was Justin, justin, justin.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And there's days that there probably seems like that and again, I'm not perfect, but there's less days like that and more days where I'm thinking of how, how our organization, how I can try to be a light and help as much as I can, as much as we can as an organization, and again, whether we help one person or one billion people anywhere in that continuum, that's it. We're talking about one that's one less person that's had to think about and go through tough situations, or maybe they've thought about it and gone. No, I don't want to, but maybe watching and hearing our show and hearing and listening, hearing and watching me or other guests or other current events, other topics and areas, like with James, with Metallica James is strong to be talking about this. We're all strong to be talking about mental health and when we're going through some tough things, we can talk about suicide. Suicide is a real thing. People die by suicide.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Again, on all sides of that continuum, all ends, doesn't matter how much money you have or how much money you don't have, doesn't matter how big your house is or how small it is, you don't have one. You know we can go through just from the music world, right? So Chester Bennington, chris Cornell, taylor Hawkins, and that was in Brazil. So that's, I think, another reason why I wanted to cover and talk about James and how brave and that he is and continue to be, to talk about his challenges, because that was the first thing that I thought about was like, oh, brazil, I think that's, you know, near, I'm not sure exactly what city, and and that, but in that country, but that's where Taylor Hawkins from the Foo Fighters, the incredible drummer, passed away.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Liam Payne, I think he also. I'm not familiar with exactly what works that Liam did if they were acting music, a combination, but a very well known, very well known celebrity, well known person, and I know there's circumstances and people have been arrested around that, so not really sure all around what happened, but nonetheless, liam's not with us, unfortunately. Taylor's not with us. Unfortunately Chester Bennington isn't with us. Unfortunately Chris Cornell isn't with us. Unfortunately Stitch isn't.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I believe I said his name. I sure hope I said his name correctly. He's on the Ellen show for so many years as DJ had what would seem to be not as troubled as many life, had what would seem to be Not as troubled as many life, and yet that led to him. I believe he traveled on foot. How he got to the motel doesn't matter, but he left his house. His wife told that's not like him. She feared, she called and someone at the motel ended up finding him and passed away. There were a single gunshot wound, and so these aren't fun topics, these aren't fun areas that we cover on a lot of our shows, but these are things that are happening in real life and have happened in real life.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And so if we can help one person to step away from that ledge and not think about it to say you know what I'm going to live another day, I'm going to reach out, I'm going to get some help. There's more living for me to do on earth, I mean right, I mean that's what we're here for. We're here to help. We want people to succeed, we want people to feel good. We want people to like who they are, and we all have flaws. We all do. Again, it goes back to none of us are sinless much. We think, and we want that to be so when we have the ability to like our show and with myself and our guests.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We don't take it lightly when we talk about these topics because we know they're very serious. Some of them are very dangerous to be talking about and sharing, but again, that's real life. We can either choose to try to talk about some things head on or we can just turn the opposite way. That will bystander effect. You know somebody I don't know. Fact. You know somebody I don't know.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I'll give the example of I was. I traveled a few years ago to a location was very popular and I was walking from one place to another and there was a person that was passed out laying on the sidewalk and there were a lot of people in this area and I think maybe there was a couple of people that were helping that had dialed 911 and you could hear the sirens coming. And I was just coming up on the scene when the squad got there. But I looked at it and I thought about how many of those people who had kind of looked and glanced that were ahead of me and they just kept walking. I don't want to be a part of this. I don't want to get pulled into this situation. A part of this. I don't want to get pulled into this situation.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Well, I think that's part of what makes us so unique as an organization and as a charity is that we try our best not to look the other way. We try to talk about hard topics, hard things, hard experiences. People have been through, our guests have been through. We have as individuals, as a human race, and so whenever we think that something's inhumane, or especially which being inhumane is really also a really a public safety concern, public health concern, don't want to help. That's what it comes down to, I don't think I'm ever going to be able to quantify, even though I'd like to quantify, even though I'd like to quantify right. We'd all like to have, like you know, this crystal ball or whatever and go oh well, I just helped another person. You know, let me pat myself on the back for that one. That would be nice to. You know, have that running tally, and that's part of what makes this business really hard for us. To have that running tally, and that's part of what makes this business really hard for us is because we're not able to see every single person that we were able to help, that we were able to give inspiration and self-worth to, yeah, to believe that, which is the case, that we have more living to do here on Earth. There's more things for us to do, and you could have your very own organization, you could have your very own show. That's way more popular than ours and I'd be okay with that. I think anybody would be okay with that, because you'd be helping people. We're all in this together.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And then we want to think about anybody that's been a victim of any type of crime, any type of abuse, any type of abuse, any type of trauma that's at the hands of somebody else. We want to have justice for those victims. We believe that there should be accountability for those who are doing things that are against the law, against the law of humanity. Instead of helping our fellow brother and sister, we're hurting them. We do believe in justice, and victims deserve that. They most definitely deserve justice for the people that have abused them, have forced them into situations and doing unthinkable acts, and so that's us as human beings, being human being humane, being human being humane, and so we cover quite a few areas here on this episode, but at the end of the day, thank you, james, thank you Metallica James Hetfield or Metallica or sharing that you're going through some challenges and some struggles, just like the average person that might be at one of his shows would be going through some of the same things, and by James saying that and sharing that may have helped that person or persons more than we know, more than he knows. So, james, thank you for being brave and strong, for being brave and strong. We can't thank you enough for doing that, because it takes so much courage, so much courage and strength to talk about that face-to-face with a therapist, with one person, but in front of thousands and thousands and knowing that it's going to be caught on film and that, and you still, you still stepped up to the plate and and you still shared that man. That's that's incredible.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And for us in the United States we do have a few or somebody you know going through a hard time, going through a type of crisis. You can reach out, you can text 988. You can go to 988lifelineorg. I believe is the website where you can talk 24-7 in English and Spanish on chat, on text you can call.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

It's my understanding that the individuals a lot of them that are on there are people who have gone through trauma and gone through some things themselves. So these aren't people that are going to be judging and they shouldn't be judging anybody, no matter what, especially in this particular field, that I've always thought that when I'm talking to somebody, if somebody has gone through something similar, I feel a little bit more comfortable that they're not just preaching from a book, because that's all helpful, but it's also very helpful, or even more helpful, when somebody's able to say you know what, I've been through some crazy stuff too. I've been through a lot too. I've been through some trauma and then they share a little bit, to just give a little bit of a nugget, an insight into their life, and if you're somebody that has an interest, we have a huge shortage of mental health practitioners, licensed social workers. So please check out your local community, colleges, universities, talk to your doctor when you have a visit, your therapist and you want to learn more.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We'd love to have you join us in the movement to help as many people as we can and so they don't feel like they're alone, because it took me a long time to find out that I'm not alone and you're not alone, so the people we're talking to they're not alone either. None of us are alone. We're all in this together. So thank you for joining us on this particularly deep episode, content-wise, term-wise, experience-wise show of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm your host. Founder of Voices for Voices Hayes. Until next time, please be a voice for you or somebody in need. We'll see ya. Bye, bye.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Justin Alan Hayes

Host