Navarone Garcia and Michael DeLeon on Youth Addiction and Recovery

**Dr. Drew** (0:10)
Hey, everybody, welcome to the podcast. We appreciate you being here. Do you support the people that support the pod? We are able to keep us going at this Corolla Network that you were listening to us from. Don't forget to check out the streaming show Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at 3 o'clock. Ask Dr. Drew.
We've been here to interview some really interesting people over there, particularly if you subscribe over at the Rebel Channel, that would be amazing.
Speaking of amazing, my guests today are Navarone Garcia and Michael DeLeon.
They, there's my alarm telling me that they're gonna be here. They've got an interesting story. I almost don't know where to start. Navarone, let's start with your musicianship. Your story as a musician. Let's just do that first. What's going on?

**Navarone Garcia** (0:50)
Sure. You know, I, well, for those of you that don't know, I come from a musical family. My mother is Priscilla Presley. My sister was Lisa Marie, and we all know who they're related to. So since the young age, I've always had a love for music, and I've been in bands since I was 16 My first show was at the Whiskey Ago Ago, and I moved to Santa Cruz when I turned 18 and started the band I'm still in now, Then Guns.
And through there, it hit a little bit of turbulence. You know, I'm so fortunate that the guys have stuck with me this whole time, but throughout the path, I fell into a little bit of addiction. A little bit. Started with a little bit. Started with a little bit of...
It happens.

**Dr. Drew** (1:49)
It's a taste.

**Navarone Garcia** (1:52)
Yeah, so I actually kept it pretty curbed for a long time. I was a casual heroin user.
Yeah. Yeah, for like a good six years until the fentanyl thing hit. And that was in 2015
All of a sudden, there was something new. In California, they have black tar heroin. And all of a sudden on the West Coast, they started getting white China. And so I thought I was getting a better, cleaner drug. And it turned out it was fentanyl.

**Dr. Drew** (2:29)
Easier, kinder, softer.
Just so you can find them guns. You guys have Instagram, THM guns, just like it sounds, them guns. Anywhere else they should look for the band?

**Navarone Garcia** (2:40)
Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music.

**Dr. Drew** (2:42)
Perfect. All right, do that. And can they see you tour somewhere?

**Navarone Garcia** (2:47)
We're working on that right now. I live in Brazil, I think. So we're working on getting something going when I come back in, I think, September.

**Dr. Drew** (2:56)
And then Michael, who's here with you, somehow, I'm guessing, somehow you're cross paths. So let's give Michael's story before the path crossing piece of this. Hi, Michael.

**Michael DeLeon** (3:07)
Great, Dr. Drew. So yeah, I met Navarone through his mom, Priscilla Presley, and we became really good friends. We're like, I'd say we're best friends. I don't know if he says we're best friends, but.

**Dr. Drew** (3:20)
But men your age are not supposed to have best friends, Michael.

**Michael DeLeon** (3:24)
Really?

**Dr. Drew** (3:24)
We're good friends. Best friends, we get 15

**Michael DeLeon** (3:29)
We're good friends. But I don't really consider myself like a sponsor or a mentor, just really good friends. But I knew that I could help him tell his story and share it with other people, especially kids.
And that's what we started to do. And now we're really looking to book this all over the country as he tours with Vem Guns, the band, in the fall.
And Impact Kids, they're impacted beyond words. It's incredible. He's such a great, charismatic person. He's got such a horrible, horrible story of addiction. And you know-

**Navarone Garcia** (4:01)
What?

**Dr. Drew** (4:01)
I thought you just dabbled. I thought he's a day- he's a part-time-

**Navarone Garcia** (4:05)
Bill had gone to the fentanyl. When the fentanyl came into play, it changed the whole podcast. We'll get into that.

**Dr. Drew** (4:13)
Michael, what is your story?

**Michael DeLeon** (4:15)
So I was addicted at 11, full-blown addiction, and started with a cigarette, alcohol and marijuana all in the same week. So nicotine, stimulant, THC, hallucinogen, you know, alcohol, depression. And so I was on pills by 12, cocaine at 14, heroin at 17, and meth at 19 years of age. And then I shot heroin, coke, and meth for the next 12 years until they ended up going to prison.
And at 30 years of age, I went to prison for 12 years.
So I was in prison for 12 years. And when I was incarcerated, I ran for a few years the Scared Straight program. You've talked about it plenty in the past.