“Lullaby for a crackhead” is Mike Rowe‘s favorite podcast title so far. It came to him after he had finished his podcast about Mike Lindell that he told while “sitting at his kitchen table,” “sequestered, isolated, sheltering in place, separated, segregated” during the coronavirus stay-at-home orders.
Rowe starts this podcast by saying, “If you ask Mike to explain the secret of his success, he will talk about the dream that inspired his turnaround and the people who helped him along the way.” This includes Don Imus in 2011. Imus had “a very popular radio show and was also a recovering drug addict and admired those who confronted and overcame their demons.” So Imus agreed to play the “crack head’s song on the air.” And, “the audience responded enthusiastically.”
Joe Piscopo, who “had a radio program with many devoted listeners” found his listeners also “responded amazingly well” to Mike and “the crack head’s song.”
“One of those listeners was Alec Baldwin’s brother Stephen, who was so inspired by what he heard that he befriended” Mike. And then, Donald Trump invited Mike to his inauguration “where this former crack head was welcomed with great enthusiasm.”
But, most of all, Mike’s “rise to fame and fortune was made possible by millions of satisfied fans and a few businessmen.” One was Leon Barocas, who “has a cover business in New York City” and “shocked the industry when he extended a million dollars of credit” to Mike, “with no money and no collateral.” “When asked why, Leon said there’s just something about Mike that made me trust him, something real, he just had so much faith in what he was doing.”
Another businessman was Wyman Smith, the president of the company that manufactures MyPillow’s foam. Smith “offered a million-dollar line of credit after a face to face meeting with Mike,” where Mike told him he was a recovering crack addict.
Another key person in Mike’s life is Lee, Mike’s drug dealer, who totally cut off access to all drugs after Mike had been up for 14 days doing crack. “You don’t need any more crack,” he said, “what you need is a good night’s sleep.” Then Lee “took a picture of the broken man standing before him, strung out and desperate” and said, “look at yourself. I’m telling you, brother, you’re going to die if you don’t get some rest.”
Later, Mike “prayed for God to take away his addiction.” When he awakened, “his craving was gone and, in its place, a new vision for a new life. It was a miracle, an absolute miracle.”
“A few months after quitting cold turkey, Don Imus and Joe Piscopo were playing Mike’s song on the radio, and just a few years after that, that same melody had generated over $2 billion in sales.”
It’s a “heck of a story” and you can read all about it in Mike’s memoir, What Are the Odds? From Crack Cocaine to CEO, where you will find Lee’s photo of Mike, right on the cover.
Without Lee, Mike “would have surely overdosed or died of exhaustion had he not gone to sleep that fateful night.” Then, Mike would have never “purchased millions of Leon Barocas custom covers or truckloads of Wyman Smith’s fill, or lived to personally oversee the manufacturing of 40 million revolutionary sleep aids” in Mike’s home state of Minnesota.
It is an amazing story, or as Mike Lindell would say, what are the odds? And Mike’s “lullaby?” You will have to listen to Mike Rowe’s podcast, “The Way I Heard It” to find out what that is.