After the accident, after school, I was ready to end it. A lot of people have this perception with

A comp's not cheap. Getting to some of these comps, they're nuts. The only

thing in life that can't be fixed is death. To see mum

in tears and dad in tears. It's not worth

it. You're not wrecking your life because you're gone. You're wrecking everyone else's.

You can deal with the issues and try and cover them up, as we'll say. I'm

not out of it. We always... You'll never be out of it. It's always going to be chasing you.

It's always going to be a little devil on your shoulder. I can go places. I can go to comps right

now. And I can walk up to random people and I can sit there and go, you're not

by them. Like, you're not yourself. You might not be able to get

out of them, but if you can reassure them or say,

hey, look, after it's done, give me a message. Let me know you're home. That

is the best thing I figured out you can do, is just making sure people are

And we're just a pair of average blokes on a mission to try and be

We're going to speak about all things highs and lows of what it feels like to be a bloke,

plus speak to some legends along the way about what it takes to be a better bloke. Let's

Welcome back. And we are joined by a bloke known best for

his tiny little car. It's captured the hearts and the imagination of

blokes and blokettes all around the country. And it's of course, Swifty.

But it's not just Swifty. It's our mate Jack, because

you are more than just the car that you have built and drive so hard. And

that's the whole purpose of getting you on this. It's just about finding out who you are as a

There's a lot to unpack. Let's unpack it then. He's

on the couch. Yeah. So you're best known for the car, but we

want to know about you. We know about you. We want everyone else to know about you.

I want to find out, so Jack, who are you to

yourself? If you had to go and describe yourself to

I'm 24 years old. I've been in the auto electrician mechanic

trade for nearly 10 years, I'm going to say. I dropped out of school when I

was nearly, what was it, 14? Year

nine, whatever that is. I don't know. I don't catch time. Had

a fair bit of rough coming up. I mean, always awesome with family and everything, but

got bored through school, as you do when you're an outsider kid. Watched

my nan have an accident. Watched my nan pass away. Rolled a

ute down the road. All the horrible things that happened. Got

severely depressed. Tried heaps of things. Nothing really

worked. Went to alcohol. Then built

my first burnout ute, which was that HTVS. And

it did 200 sets, and it was just me to a tee. It was

just a party car. And then I built the Swift. And

as we were building the Swift, I decided that I needed to stop drinking because I was spending too much money

on alcohol. So I started driving taxis on the side. And

we built the Swift in nine months in the back shed with the family, with me mom, me

dad, Scott and Susan, me brother Ricky, and his work.

And yeah, we're now where we are today. Through a

It's got to breathe. It's just a chat with the boys, brother. That's all it is. And

we have had plenty of those chats. So there's,

You're just such a genuine bloke. I'd

say you're quite country, like you live in parks, right?

Yeah, parks. Yeah. So this morning you had, what,

I came down last night to the pub at, what is it,

Bootlegger's, and you had a few rums and had some

dinner and got to Sydney and it was another random

experience because there was no car trailer on, which doesn't feel right to come to Sydney without a

car. And then yeah, the first ever flight this morning, which was

a totally weird feeling, not being in control. And just,

Yeah, that's crazy. So you're 24. And because it's

like, we fly so regularly, that it's just, it's

crazy to speak to someone and actually have a

It was just, I don't know, don't know. It was just, yeah, off

the ground, couple of bumps, and then just looking at

the clouds going, holy crap. Like, you

How about even coming into land and, like, seeing sort of the coastline?

Yeah, it was awesome. Like, it was, as I said to the lady beside me, I've

never seen it from up here. I've always just drove in. And,

yeah, it's just such a different view, different vibe. There's

no real chitter-chatter. It's all real quiet. It's all real just,

Oh, 100%. I didn't have control. I don't like not having control. Control's

Yeah, no, it's just, it's so cool. Like, I don't know. I've

never... really sort of thought about chatting to

someone that hasn't flown before and finding out what the experience was

like. And yeah, it's really cool. Yeah, it's cool to hear like, yeah,

your thoughts. I want to speak to you after you fly back because you've like

the first time is always going to be different. Yeah. So yeah, I want

Interesting. Let's rip into your involvement in the car scene. So, your

parents are kind of car nuts. So, were you kind of? Oh,

they're more than kind of, but yes. So,

you've, I guess, grown up in the scene in one way or another. So,

has it always been like a massive instrumental

So mum and dad went to Sumnats before, I

think it was basically before I was born. They went through the riots at Sumnats. They

went to all the parties at Sumnats. They were there. And

then we kind of started growing up, and we started building bikes. Like,

the parents had bikes, and the pop had bikes, and all that. So

we kind of got out of the cars. Dad sold his HQ. We did bikes. And

then we had a falling out with pop. And we then kind

of got back into the cars. My sister bought a car. I think your brother had

the Monaro. And then we pulled out Nan's HX.

It was originally a 202. We put an LS in it, the 9-inch to

glide all the fancy bits in it. And the front shed of nine months of

the family. And then it kind of all started there. We've

always had bikes, like vintage bikes. I've got a Matchless. Dad's got a

couple of Rudgers, a couple of BSAs. Brother's got a couple of BSAs. And

then we went from there, and we've kind of now stepped back from all the

bikes and gone full car nut. I

got myself Miyu, as I said. It's kind of retired, semi-retired after

200 sets. The Swift, got the Hilux, which

cops are hiding. It's done like 37k's towing in the last year and a

half, two years. And mum has just bought herself a

new old school Jag, which we got a rust bucket

and a nice one. We're going to make it pretty for mum, so she has a Sui. The sister

and the brother-in-law, which I work for, has a 383 stroker and

a Commodore. The brother just put it down the horsepower bar in

the Manara. It parties. It's with a 30-day build.

After work, after driving taxis, after all the life. And

yeah, it's loving life so far. The Swift loves

life until it breaks, but when you're thrashing as hard as we do, you kind

of expect that. Going through 80 litres of fuel in a weekend

So like, I think it's comfortable to say that the car scene is everything to

you then, isn't it? Yeah, cars is life. Like that's, that's your,

I missed Christmas last year, as I was saying to you, the Summonats, to

get to Summonats. I went to Sydney on Chrissy Day to get the car tuned

on Boxing Day. Like, cars are life. Without cars, I don't know

You said earlier you had

a few trials and tribulations growing up. You struggled

with mental health a little bit. Did the cars, were

they a catalyst of sort of finding some normality, finding some

more the one minute, the two minutes, however long the burnout is,

it's my headspace. It's clear. It's just

simple. And the busy side of it also helps.

Working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. People

go, you can't do it. I'm like, I got to. Otherwise, my head stops. And I thought, So

I was just working, working, working to the weekend, and

then going to events and working on other people's cars just to keep my head busy.

And then with the Swift, it's the same thing. But

as we've said, I've got more professional at it. It's more of a business, quote

unquote, business. You know what I mean? There's a lot more behind it.

So you kind of go to the events now, and it's the same thing. I've

got that many more people come and talk to me. So I'm getting a bit better with it. But

it's all a learning curve. It's definitely weird. But

You have progressed, and I've said this to you

so many times, but from our first interaction ages

ago to now and watching you progress as Jack,

not so much just as Swifty, but as Jack, you are getting

so much better speaking to people and being comfortable with the fact that

you are a prominent figure. You're a big dog. that

took you a long time to like you still struggle with I can tell

But look, but you are getting so much better at that. Are you like

I'm 100% proud of where I've come from. Like, not where I've come from, of

course, you mean. But from where we started, basically, two years

of memories are now. The car's two years old, as I said to you before. The

car, when people used to come up and say, who owned it? I said, the old boy. I couldn't handle

people. People, if not people scared me, it was just the

talks. It was just too many at once. I made a day in

non-autistic, as they called me, which I don't know what that means, but non-autistic.

But people coming up to me and just bombarding me, it was just like, holy

crap, woo. I've just got off the pad, or something's

just happened. Just give me three minutes to work out what's going

on. Where now, you park it back in the pits. Dad

or somebody else walks over, and you talk. The

car's the car, and it'll be fine tomorrow. You've

just got to learn that life balance, where you look after yourself, and

you can still sneak away. The people are getting better. Not

I think it's good for you to remember as well is that you're

still so young and this is such a new experience for

you with being in everyone's face and

everyone wanting to speak to you and get to know you and

see the car and do everything that comes along with

it. that, like it's, everyone,

everyone struggles with getting to know that. And even the people that you

look at the guy, they do this so well, they're, they're so used

to it. That could just be a front where you're, you're

being real and going like, Just give me some space.

A lot of people wish that they had the courage to be able to say that. So

Definitely. As I say, it's good. You mean the people are awesome.

It's what keep us going, especially the young ones, the amount of people that come up. I

mean, looking around the cars, you can tell the young ones are interested. I'd

love to know how many people, like little ones, adults, young ones,

any of them. There'll be that many photos that I have not seen because the

amount of people that I say, jump in. You can't hurt any more than I have because The

smile on their face when you throw them a sticker and they're sitting in the car that

they've looked at for the last two years is awesome. It keeps you

going. I mean, just the smiles. And

then you turn around to mum or dad and the mum and dad are smiling because, I

don't know, these days the scene's changed a bit and, I

It's a supernatural response as you grow into something new...

...to be a bit unsure of yourself in

it. You would have grown up, like, watching the likes of

Jake Myers. Lynchy. Lynchy, all

those boys. And now essentially you're one of them.

You're in that scene. Do you think there's, like, an

element of dealing with imposter syndrome where... You're

physically there, but maybe your brain is still watching

them and you're struggling with allowing

In a way, yes. In a way, no. In some ways, I look at

it and go, I used to go to a con and do six sets in

the old ute because that was a party, where these days I prefer to do

the two sets, the two qualifying kids, and then be

in the crowd and be with it. And I

used to look at them and go, bloody hell, they only spent a minute with each person. And

these days, I look at that and go, you have to. If you sat

there any longer than a minute, your day's gone. You go to a comp, and

you can do your two skids, like your qualifying skids, and

go back to the grandstands or wherever, and the day's gone from

just all the awesome conversations. But you understand why

you've got to go from one person to the next. You can't

just sit in one group. But I don't know how they

do it some days. Like, just the crowds you see around some of

them are just nuts. But I guess, as

you say, you grow into it. But it's still weird, even

from my perspective, watching Lynchy and watching the rest of them. And

it's just weird vibes. Because now I'm one of the drivers. I

can talk to Lynchy. I can talk to Jake Myers and all that. But

growing up, you'd be shy to talk to them. And it's just a

different vibe. I don't know what it is about it. But as soon as you get to that scene and

that level, where you're competing pretty

He doesn't even want to say he's on this level when he's... She's

You're 100% competing with them and you're on that level, but

Like, you'll get there. That's why you're so, I guess, lovable. It's

I'm just there for the party. I'm just there to learn. The car's two years

old and we've only just figured out how to drive it because we've

been chasing smoke the whole time. Somebody said, grab some spanner foam for

Bunnings and jam down the seals. Best advice ever. I

can actually now see out the front window. Well, that's handy. Dad used to have to hang out the

window on point to where to go around the pattern. Yeah, wow. And

it was just like I was having troubles, having troubles. And somebody said that to me, one

of the big boys. And I said, OK. and I did it and it was the

best thing ever. But I took mum in the car

at Autofest and she's like, this is the most fun I've ever had with me clothes on.

I'm like, mum, you can't say that. But that's

Oh, 100% universal perseverance. And mum put that on Facebook and

I'm like, mum, you can't say that. Why not? But mum's

first time in the Swift, she'd been in the VS and a couple of other cars. But she's

like, I looked over at one point and she just had the biggest grin and that makes you just

That's good. Definitely fun. I remember the

night we got down to, and like you saying about, you

know, Jack looking up to like Lynchie and Jake

and like all those boys that everyone considers like the big

guys. I remember the first night we got to Summer Nats, or

we got down there, so we hadn't even bumped in. And we met up with

like, oh, we met up for dinner with you. This was New Year's Eve for

New Year's Eve. And we thought, hey, let's go. Let's go just buy

some beers and hand them out to the boys that are just, you know, maybe

just cruising around town and just try and spread some spread some

joy. And I remember we we cruised around and we pulled into

the car park because we saw we saw the Swift there and we're like, oh, yeah, we'll

go see what Jack's doing. And it was such

a you thing, because I remember in the

middle of the car park, Lynch's new

Stato was just propped up on

the jack. Everyone's rolling around underneath it, trying to figure

it all out. And it had the 0001 tag

on it. So that's the front running

car for this year. And nothing but

dramas. And there's Jack just rolling

around in the car, trying to sort it all out with all the boys. And

we didn't even realize that it was Lynch's car until We're

just like, oh yeah, sweet, it's Jack. But that set up

that scene all weekend. You were,

the thing that you were most known for in the whole entire community

is your want and desire to genuinely help

people. Like you do, you, everyone knows

I don't like people, like if I've got a part that somebody needs or if I've got

something that somebody can get going again, I'd prefer them

to have it. Like the New Zealand boys with the ultimators. I

went up to camp and dropped off the jumper leads, because they're like, oh, you can't do that. I'm like, but

you've got a skid tomorrow. Why can't I? You mean, it's, what,

12 o'clock at night? We're not going bunnies. I don't need them. I

just, whatever. Like, it's just the wheel. It's what

I do. I don't, if I've got a part or if I've got the knowledge and I can help,

I'm helping. It does not bother me. I prefer to see the boys out

there skidding than sit in the pits. It's a

lot of money to get the car there, one. And two, if

you get there and your car plays up, you can't help that. Cars

are buggers of things. You might get it awesome on

the dyno. You might get it awesome on the test skid. You get it there, and

it shook something loose on the trailer. And next minute, you're sitting there going, I've got

nothing here. So I just enjoy and I'm

Do you see these other guys as competition? Because there

would be a lot of people that would see a car breaking down

and go, OK, that's one less person I need to compete against. But you don't see it

Doesn't worry me. I'm there for a good time, and I'm there to see everybody else

happy. What's the use of hating? You

may well go to an event, and if you've got something and

somebody needs it, here you go, have this, and if you ever,

if you take it off the car or whatever before you leave, I'm happy, but if you want it, want it,

I don't care. I mean, like I carry spare parts for myself and

But it's a different game. But so I

carry parts for myself. Like I've pretty much got enough to fix anything other than

a hole in the block. And even in that case, we'll probably drive home and fix it. But

I'm happy just to see the boys out there partying, lapping, cruising. I

prefer them to see them out there and enjoying the time instead of sitting in

the grandstand going, shit, this sucks. But

I've always done it from day dot. That's how I got my first design.

I was at Wagga, one of

the events in Wagga, River and Thrashing Hats. And Visual Power put

up a helping around the pad

or something award like that. And I won it because they'll watch me all

weekend. And I'd go skid, and then go help, and then go skid, and

then go help. I don't recognize as that. I just do it because I do

it. It's not for the thanks or anything. It's just more for the, I

That award, in my eyes, is a better

award than taking our first place. Because that's something that everyone

Definitely. As I said, I don't do it for the thanks, but when you win

that type of thing, you go, OK, maybe I

am doing something, if that makes sense. Because I don't think about

it that way. I think about Lech's party. But then you kind of get those top

awards. And then I did Motor Fest, which is a big car show

with Matt Rendell runs and his wife and his team. And

they put me in the elite hall. And that opened my eyes so much more

for the car side, like car show side. I'm a skid man through and

through. To have a cast in there feels weird. But

they invited me into the, let's call it, the top 60 hall. So

in a month, we rebuilt the whole swift. We resprayed it. We put two new quarters

on it. We fixed it properly, made it to where it should be, and

went in there. Same thing, just walked around all weekend helping them. And

I won the Young Gun Award there. And I was in tears. And

everybody was like, why are you in tears? And I'm like, I'm in tears because I don't

know. This is just not right. I'm not just here for

that. I'm here to help and enjoy the weekend. And

ever since then, Matt Rendell and his wife has always been behind me,

which is awesome. They donated a car to me for a motor and

a gearbox just as spare parts. I mean, just awesome help.

But just things like that, you mean, that I don't recognize. And then you get, and then you sit

there, and you're looking at them, because they're all in the cupboard. Give me a couple of

awards that I've won, and you just sit there, and you're nearly in tears, because it's

just, it's weird. I don't know. Just getting recognized for things

that you don't look at getting recognized for, if that makes sense. Like,

I don't know. It's just cool to

get recognized for it, I reckon. I don't know. I don't know what to think about it.

It's just acknowledgement of being a good bloke, and you only get that if

Yeah, that's what I'm saying, but it's just weird when you can sit back and you go, holy crap,

But I enjoy it. I know we're here to

talk about you, but we'd be remissed if we didn't talk about the

Swift. Can you give us, I guess, the bio

So we're all sitting around tables. This is how it started. This is

the best bit about it. We're all sitting around. So I'm Ricky, the brother, Scott,

the dad, and me. We're all sitting around. And I kept taking the quarters off

the VS because I like to party. And

we're all sitting around drinking piss. And we're looking at Facebook Marketplace.

We're looking at cruises. We're looking at crap, like just random cars.

$500, I think it was, in Willow, running and driving. I

messaged the bike, it didn't answer. So Ricky offered him $700. And

he answered Ricky. And we said, oh, crap. So

then we go like, mate, that were both us. We'll meet you in the middle at $650, or

whatever it was, the price was. Drove to Willow, bring it

home, did a front wheel drive skid in the shed. Shittest skid ever, but it was

funny as. And two days later, we had the LS in, and it

just mocked up on our stand. And

we just went from there. We built the back shed for nine months. I did all

the fabrication work with the old boys. And Ricky made

it look pretty. And we did a test and tune just

before summer naps. Went to summer naps. Had an awesome weekend.

And yeah, ever since then, it's just grown. We've now got HowTech on

board, which is awesome. 24-7 hose and fittings, like the supplier,

like for my hoses. And just, I mean, we've grown as a team, like my

tyre sponsor, Parkside Power. Littlewood Smash Repairs, the

brother, owns that with his partner now. They will always look after the

paint. My sister and my brother-in-law owns AG Suitors

and Parkside. You guys, I mean, you guys always sharing it. That helps a

tremendous amount. Yeah, man, it's just the support behind it right

now is awesome. Like we wouldn't be going places without all

the guys. It's just awesome. But

yeah, so that's Swifty. It's a little party car with an LS2 now,

a cast-iron 6-litre block, a Powerglide that's currently broken,

but it happens, and a Ford 9-inch and bagged all

I think that's the coolest thing. It's like when you see that thing bagged out, it's...

Did you? Yeah. Oh, you've peaked more. How

So it's just VT front end. I was going to say, there's not a lot of room in that front end,

is there? No, but it's just VT Commodore. So we did buy VT Commodore strut

bags and they just bobbled in, which is just weirdness.

So yeah, for Motorex, we're going to redo the engine bay, make it look all pretty.

Have you figured out how you're going to cut your windscreen out for a blower yet? It

Yeah, we fit a mag in the bonnet. That's why the motor's so far down and so far back. We

Oh, once I win NA. Win NA. Yeah. It's

coming. We'll trace lynchy. That's coming. And then we'll blow it. I

got, I got to go first. I got to be lynchy, not

lynchy, but don't want to be lynchy, but you want to, I want to stand on that podium. NA

Don't know why. And so far, do you want to hit us with bloke

So mid episodes, bloke of the week this week is a

man who put up a post that was sort of showing his emotion within

the group. And his name is Sean Black.

So he posted up about spending 87 days in Niku with

his son. And he

just wanted to sort of share his feelings with, I

guess it was the feelings of the gratefulness of

actually being able to sort of take his son home. And that post

went absolutely massive, like so many people got around it. And it was just

a really good thing for Other blokes that

have been through that to maybe reminisce on what

it feels like to be a NICU dad or just a dad in general with

a young child. So for that, and being open

to share his feelings on the

situation of what he was going through, Shaun Black is our bloke of the

Good work, Sean. We'll get a Blokes Advice merch pack coming your direction.

So yeah, we'll slide into the DMs. I think it's always good

when guys take a step to put

a bit of emotions out there, because it just, obviously that

was a positive situation in the end. He got to take his son home. But

there's times where the situation's not positive, and if there's someone

leading the way and showing, hey, look, it is okay to talk about these harder

things. It allows other people to- I'll add

So at Summonat, I don't know if I mentioned, I think I mentioned to you boys, we

were parked up just because I randomly luck around Summonat, so I'll park anywhere

because I enjoy parking the thing. And I reckon this bike must have been

40 at least. And he came up to me and you could see the tears in his eyes. And

I'm not good with tears, I suck at tears. And he came up,

and he gave me a hug, and he said, man, you and the boys are the reason that

I'm still standing. Last night, sadly, I found me mate hanging.

I mean, we didn't know what was going to happen, blah, blah, blah, all the rest

of it, the sad shit that happened. And he said, but without you boys and without being

able to talk about it, I wouldn't be able to talk about it. And he just hugged me

for a good minute, I reckon, just talking to me and just crying. And

it just, it hits you. I mean, as a bloke that's looked

at trees and all the rest of the things that you do when you're not well in the head, you

know what I mean? When you finally open up to somebody, it's

just, it's a weird, like, it's not a weird feeling, but

it's a weird feeling for me, because I've, I'll

say it right now, I've thought about killing myself multiple times when I was younger. Just

couldn't handle life. Life was no good. Life was awesome, but

life in my head didn't feel good. And yeah, he just came up and

it just, it hits. And since then, I've had a few people, you

know what I mean, know the bloke's voice and know the group, and come up and just have

a chat to me. And it is awesome. I'm loving to

see the, even the younger blokes as well, but the older blokes,

the one that has that vibe that I can't talk when I'm old. But

it's awesome to see some people open up. I don't know if you boys have seen it at

some of the car events, but getting some of the old boys to talk, it's

awesome. Like, the day I saw my old boy cry, I

See? Told you. But just awesome. I just want to give you a hug

now. It's just awesome to see people open up. You know what

I mean? When you're firing your battle and your battle's firing you, it's

fucked. My old

boy lost his, lost our nan. And we won't go

into it, but Pop turned into an asshole and said

a lot of things that you shouldn't say to your kids. And from

that day on, I saw Dad cry, and I was like, I didn't think I'd ever see

the old boy cry. And like, I mean, that's why

it's awesome to see boys open up. Because after

the accident, after school, I was ready to end it. I was, yeah, cool, this

is too hard. I got a phone call from Mum. She didn't even know what I

was doing. And that's what stopped me. And I only told her

that not long ago. And that made her wrecked. Look,

I've talked to the old boy about it. Talk to him. I mean, you

can do that. You're in the back shed building cars. But to see mum

in tears and dad in tears, it's not worth

it. You're not wrecking your life because you're gone. You're wrecking

everyone else's. So inbox is always open. You

boys are the same. Just message us. Some of

the group chat, some of the messages we see, some of the posts, just

hit home. The only thing in life that can't

be fixed is death. Yep. You might be easier because

you're gone, but you've wrecked everything else. And not

being cocky, but that's what it is. I mean, you might

think, OK, look, I'm over it. I'm going to finish myself. I'm going to be easy. But

then you've got to think about your family, your friends, the

random Joe Blow that finds you. you've just fucked

a whole lot more than what you could have fixed. I know it's

You don't even have to maintain your own

struggle to keep your family happy. There

is hope for you to get to a much better place. You just

need to start taking steps and doing the right things, learning

Get out of that headspace. As I said, I

went to alcohol. I used to get drunk every weekend, so I wasn't myself. And

it didn't help. It helped at the time, because bloody hell, I wasn't myself. But

the consequences were far worse than the few hours

of happiness that weren't really happiness, because you'd wake

up crooked as a dog. You'd wake up with a lot of money missing, because I'm a big boy.

I can drink a fair bit. And you were never happy.

And yeah, without the family, you know what I mean, and everyone else, like

it's I went to plenty of the doctors, plenty of

the things, and they all tried different things and it

didn't work for me. And I think just hanging out with the family and actually

opening up to dad and opening up to pets, like to the ones, is

That's good to know, because you said earlier that you

keep yourself busy to keep the head noise at bay. We've spoken to

a lot of blokes, a lot of older blokes, and

There's an element where you know that doing these

hobbies and doing all of that keeps you sane but there's

also an element where it's it's a coping mechanism

to almost cover it up and then those things are gonna chase you.

They do. And you're a young fella. So you need

to just obviously make sure you know that you're

Yeah, so you can deal with the issues and try and cover them up as

we'll say but I don't know, since I

went through it, and I'm not out of it. We always, you'll never be

out of it. It's always going to be chasing you. It's always going to be a little devil on your shoulder. But

I can go places. I can go to Compsite now, and I can walk up to

random people, and I can sit there and go, you're not vibing. Like, you're not

yourself. And it's not just you're having a sad day. You can

100% tell, like, what, like, I mean,

you might not be able to get out of them. But if you can reassure them or

say, hey, look, after it's done, give me a message. Let me know you're home.

You know what I mean? Just start the conversation. As soon as you

start the conversation, that is the best thing I've figured out

you can do, is just making sure people are all right. You know,

you're not just going, oh, he's not well, cool, whatever. Start the

With you saying that it's something that's always going to chase you,

have you thought

about now that you're getting older and you've found some ways

to keep yourself busy and not have

it just as a constant thing, have you thought about going

and chatting to anyone like a counsellor or

a psychologist and maybe trying to use the fact

that it's not a constant thing now and maybe try and get to

the root cause of, or just at least get some tools to help

The issue I had was when I was, what, 16, 17, just

after my accident, I think I went to five counsellors. The

first one waved a watch on my face and said, all your demons are gone. The

second one, that's not a counselor. Yeah, not a hundred percent, but

that was the first one that he charged me a lot of money, like charges a

lot of money. Went to another one and they said, Oh,

it's not that, it's something else, man. I know what it is.

I've watched me nun chop a foot off. Watched me have a stroke. I

got bullied through school. Like I know what's going on. I

just need a hand to fix it. So he gave up on that. And

it just kept on, they just try and fix other things. And

he's like, no, no, no. I want to, you know what I mean, help me think about the thoughts.

Like, I'd wake up one o'clock in the morning every morning after my

accident screaming, because that's when it

happened. Like, I wanted a hand to get that fixed. And

they all just, I don't know. I don't know if Sydney would have

been better, but out of the way of parks, there's nowhere, no one

decent to talk to. Like, I don't know what it is about out

there, but all the councils and all the rest of them just, like

they, I don't know. Just doesn't, didn't

work for me anyhow. And I've heard a lot of stories from Matt Bush that

there's not many to talk to. And that's the worst bit about it

is we need somebody out there that's actually Keen to

So, it is something that you're open to doing. It's just

I think it would be different now as well. Obviously, you're

an older man and you're coming from a place where there's more stability. So,

often, you know, when you're in crisis management,

when shit's really falling apart, it's very hard to do that. That's

why a lot of blokes might jump on the antidepressants, just to get

themselves stable enough to where they can now

That was the best thing I did, was jump on the antidepressants. I've

always been on Ritalin for ADD, but jumping on the antidepressants just

not levelled it, but levelled it in a such, which

has made that a little bit less hard. Because before,

I couldn't go out of the house some days. Like, I didn't like people. I couldn't

see people. I loved talking to people, but it just wasn't,

I mean, I didn't want to do it. But it's just, I

don't know, like, with the ADD and the normal

autistic and the side of it, everything hits so hard. Like,

you might say, you suck. And in my head, that's saying, You're

a dickhead. You're shit. You can't do it. So

in my head, I've got to figure out ways. We've all

got to figure out ways. But you've got to figure out a way to take the

shit things and go, ha, that's cool. You've got to change them.

And some of the comments like, You get through the post and

that. You've got to turn them from a hate comment to a cool

comment. Things like that. You

can't let the little things kick you in the nuts and give up.

So I don't know. Same thing as the A

to D and the depression side of things. You've got to take the good and

the bad and put them together and go, cool. We're living. We're

That's so good. It's like, but you like, you know, that you're on this, like this

sort of journey and that your filter in here is

very different to what Maddy's filter is. What my filter is like,

everyone's, everyone's filtering how they view the

world or receive the world is, is always going

to be different and what

you have gone through is going to change that too. So, but it's really good

to sort of, even you being so young, you understand that

and you're like, you're learning it. And it's, it's, it's exciting watching you

Oh, it's, and as you know, from Simon that mum

and dad wouldn't let me drive home because they knew it wasn't good. I mean, security,

stuffed up. They had to stuff up. That's what happened to Sumnats. We all know that's what happened. But

at that time and that moment, I spent roughly, let's say,

20 grand to get to Sumnats, to get the car ready, to

get the car there, get the car filled. My sister's just had a little cute

baby, you know what I mean? So family's awesome. But I

didn't get to see family for over two months between

work and working and getting the cars ready. So

I miss Chrissy, I miss New Year's. To get to some laps, I

did me five laps. Had an awesome time. Next minute, they go, you're

out for doing skids on skid row. I'm like, I haven't even gone down it. So then

it hit. I'm sitting there going, what's the point of the car anymore? And

it was just a spoil. Mum couldn't get out of it. Dad couldn't get out of it, which is just nuts.

When they can't talk me down and get me out of it, that

is bad. It's crazy in my head. And

it just wrecks you. I look at that day

now, and as much as it wrecked me that day, I step

back and go, it wrecked me then, but I got through

it, so what's the next? You've got to look at the next and the next, because

it killed me, and I was going to sell the car. I was giving up. But

then you sit back two days after and go, that was shit, but

the video of it getting geeked out got 800,000 views. The Hooningan video,

pre-release video, got 1.4 million views. That

really, really sucked. That really kicked me in the balls. But now I'm sitting in

a better place than I was two days ago. So I just find ways

to cope with it. But you still sit there and go,

your head's still firing you, but you've just got to

I think like it was, we had that chat, like we went for a walk when you

were in that, in that space just to sort

of like remove yourself from that situation. Cause there was, like you said, like

everyone tried everything, but it was, it had to be

you. You had to get yourself out of that. So I just went, let's just

go for a walk. You can sort it out in your own time,

but just not here. And I think

I told you that there was like, this, like

so much good will come from this. Just don't do anything in anger.

Yeah, just, you know, just just sit, sit

here for a little bit and just wait. And then it got

sorted the next day. Because you because you like you

chose what you thought was the right thing to do. And it was, and everything worked out

from it. And they're like, Seeing you in that much pain because

of the passion that you have for that like sucked so fucking much

It was like very very a lot of people sadly, but I wasn't

well on the head that day like I mean forgetting that news and

it just hurt me because I'm like Really, like, you mean, like, I

haven't done anything. I knew I didn't do anything. And it was just like,

I don't know, just the thoughts in my head was no good. Like,

it was not a good way. So, and as I said, mum and dad can

normally talk me down and make me, but for some reason that day, just nothing

was happy, like nothing was working. And I don't know how

you got me to walk, but you got me to walk. That was nuts. But

even mum and dad said, how did you do it? And I'm like, I don't know. Because

I don't, I shut down. You might as well put me in a safe when

I'm in that type of position, because I don't talk. So I don't know what you

did that day, but you made me talk. Honestly, I couldn't tell

you yeah, that's just like cuz I shut down I will I

lock myself out and you probably saw that from a lot of people I

just went not get away and that's not me I don't normally tell people to

stuff off, but I couldn't be there. Mm-hmm and

you mean And it sucked on

the day, but the next day was awesome. I mean, we got back in. We got the

views. And I know it's not all about the views, but the more views to

the Swift, the more out there it gets, the

easier everything gets, because you're actually getting known,

getting the comps easy. I mean,

HowTech's on board, which is awesome. I mean, that's one of the biggest sponsors. But

even 24-7, like Hoes and Fittings in Sydney, we'll be

on Ricky's Manara in that 30-day period before Autofest. And

it'd be five o'clock and I'm like, hey guys, I need this

fitting. You know what I mean? Just I need this fitting. Send me a bill and send

it out. Lunchtime the next day it was there. You know what I mean? Just

the little circle around the car is awesome. You know what

I mean? Just the guys that are on board. It's not a little circle around

Yeah, it's got big. But you know what I mean? It's still, we

aren't chasing the fakes and we don't want the fakes. And I'm

not trying to be fake. So if something goes wrong in the car, I'll quite happily tell

you. If something else happens, I'll

tell you. Like, it doesn't worry me. But you know what I mean? It's awesome

when the people that are helping you then jump on board helping the family. And

I think that the best, the best way that I, and I, I think I've, I

think I've told this to you, but I'm not, I'm not sure. And like,

I don't mean this in like any negative sense. It's just, it's

just like to promote how good of a person you

are. So we, we took Hemi down to Summer Nuts. It was his first time

at Summer Nuts and he was, he was like, just

so stuck with it. But. So he

like, he met you and he like, he knows how big Swifty is.

And he met you and he was so pumped to meet you. And like,

he did not get nervous around you at all. Like he was like,

he was on your hip the entire fucking week. And like, awesome.

He just like, just idolized you. But then him around anyone

else, he would get so nervous with. And he's like, Oh,

but this person, this person was like, you know, Jack's bigger than that

person. Hey. And he's like, Oh, it's Jack though. Like,

it's just Jack. Like that, that shows like your authenticity

and just the, you just have this, I don't know,

like the vibe you give off is just so fucking real. And you,

like you, you and your mum and your dad and your

brother and your whole family should be so fucking proud of that because it's, it's

That's, we've always done it and we've, we

don't party separate, we party together. And yeah, we

loved the party. Like, not even loved the party, we loved the

We had a party, but we were also, like the old, Scott,

the old boy, for the few months there when I was trying to get back. Because after

I hit the wall at Bash Nats, I nicked the wall at Bash Nats. It wrecked me, because I was terrified

of wrecking it. So he was in the car. And it didn't matter

how many comps we went to, he organized the way to get there. Like, I mean, if he

had to take a day off work, he didn't care. But it was every time you looked over

at him, when you could actually see him through the smoke, He had a smile from

ear to ear, hands out the window. Like, it's

just awesome. As I said, mum, the other day in the car, I even put

Ricky in the car. And Ricky's a lot different than me, as you've

seen. He's a lot less bouncy, a lot less A to D. But

I looked over at him, and he's got one hand out the window. And he's like, and

I'm like, I don't know. He made him smile. Like, he

was, I reckon he was terrified. But he's like, don't hit

any walls. I've got to fix it. Don't hit any walls. But just the spirits. that

we've got with this car is awesome and just it makes me smile.

What does the future look like the next year or so? So,

you kind of came in privateer. Is that

a word in burnouts? I don't know. But you were finding it off driving taxis

and working your fucking ass off and doing a lot of the work yourself and

with the family. As you said, getting a little bit easier as

there's more attention, a few sponsors, but it's still like muchly.

I think that's the good thing to sort of mention as well because a lot of people have this perception

with like the big burnout cars and Like we've said so

many times, you have a big burnout car. Most people

just go like, it's drug money. They assume it's

all drug money. They don't see you working all these hours.

If it was drug money, I don't know. I

get the concept, of course. But I don't get the concept of the drug money.

As you've seen, some of the photos, some of the videos you've probably seen

over the times, it will be 4 o'clock in the morning. I'm

just getting out of the taxi on a Saturday. And then it's 9 o'clock on

Sunday morning. I'm in the shed. Or, you know

what I mean, back to work on Monday. There may

only be 30 minutes worth of sleep some weeks. And

you go to the comp, and you're sitting there going, shit, we're

here now. Now it's time to relax. But

to get there, you've got to work. Like, a comp's not cheap. Like,

Awesome got a tie sponsor on board, of course. And, you know what I mean, we got the help from the brother and

the sister and the rest of the family. But getting to some of

these comps, they're nuts. Like even without the tyres and

without paying full price for everything, a comp could

be three or four grand for a two-day comp or a one-day comp. So

getting there, getting everything sorted, it's

not just the old VS day where you bought second-hand tyres and you partied. That's

what people don't realise, is when they come around and dirtbag all

the boys, or he doesn't want to talk to me, or drug

money, or this or that, that hurts. Because they don't see

the hours and the hours and the hundreds of hours we

put in a 24-hour day. We don't have enough time to

see family. And then you go to a conference and somebody

goes, that's drug money, or that's daddy's money. It's like, some

of it's daddy money, because the family always helps. I mean, we

all work our ass off for what we do. Like, the true

boys. And it's just, it hurts when you

get the boy, like, the weird outsider

guys that just think it's all the drug money or you're, like,

I don't know. It's just some of the vibes, like, even some, that's the

worst. Do a burnout. Man, I've just haven't

slept from two months, right? I'm not doing a burnout on the cruise route to

get kicked out for your happiness I'm here to cruise this thing.

I'm here to party. I'm not getting kicked out for

you You ain't like that make you happy not me So

the skid row is down there guys. We'll go down there into the burnout door the pads up

there But you mean like the amount of abuse that gets held

at the drivers like around some nuts if you take a lady in

the car and How can you get your tits out? It's like, how can

you get your mum to get your tits out? Fuck off. Like, I mean, just the

old slum match was fun, where you could just lap and lap and lap and party. But

these days, it's just like it's all about the people that are there. And

you just sit there and look at some of the crowd and go, you probably couldn't afford noodles.

let alone what we're driving. And it's

just, I don't know. It's just weird. Weird,

the money side of things. And the brother helps a lot. The

old boy helps. My mum helps a lot. You mean, I get a lot. I could not

afford to do it without the family. The cars cost me nearly $80 to

build, and that figure doesn't get said very much. But that

$80 isn't all my money. I owe a lot to my brother, and I owe a lot to

my brother's shop, my sister's shop, my employer, my

parents. If I'm ever struggling, the old boy will buy the shirts for

the merch. He'll get paid back when the merch sells, or I'll pay

back, what do you mean? We're not just sitting

On that note, we're going to have to round this one out. Definitely. But

we'll chuck the links to all your social pages as

well. So if anyone hasn't seen the car, jump across and

have a look. There's a bunch of videos, super cool stuff. And for

anything Better Bloke, you can jump onto betterblokeproject.org. We've

got all our events listed on there, as well as all the other podcasts, as

well as a link to donate if you want to help us with the cause of

fucking off suicide as the leading cause of death for Aussie bloke. Definitely

As always, be better. Cool.

I was trying not to

talk too much. I know, but...

I know, but I don't talk about it. Like, I talk about it to the people

I need to, but never into a mic. Does that make sense? Yeah,

it fucks you. That's one thing that you don't recognise, how much it fucks you.

Thanks for tuning into today's episode of Better Bloke. If you got anything out of it,

If you want to learn more about everything we're doing, head to the description, hit

the links and follow us on the socials. If you want to learn more about the project,