JA Video and Interview

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

 Hello I’m uh Johnnie Ashley and I am a skateboarder at the Sunnyvale skateboard community. It’s been quite a thrill out here from my seven years of rust skateboardin, ya know? Definitely keep it out of the mist ya know, definitely one of the top priorities. Oh wait hold on a second that’s my boy over there.

What’s up with third eye conclusions?

Haha the thing about third eye conclusions… It just came to me, like all the answers.

I was walkin along one day just doing my normal routine like a human being would and something struck me.. Something inside. Something deep-fried the brain, blood I’ll tell you that. I mean I could give you the answers, but I don’t know how they got there. They’re posted on….. not instagram but uh facebook. Everything’s there. You need it? I got you. Trust me the level’s there. 

So you figured out all the conclusions to life’s greatest questions?

They never stop coming and the answers never do either. You fade in and out and sometimes all the answers are on you and gather inside you. Men are the ones that contain the third eye. You know they got it all up in their venue, its in there Yeah. I'm not even gonna go there you know I don’t want to start no sexist uh.. Well… I didn’t want to start a war.

It’s easy to get caught up in a real sense in the mind.

Naturally that’s gonna happen throughout time no matter what I do because it happens to everybody. Nobody’s always on point.  Everybody always has issues or like things they haven’t recognized in themselves yet. Or things they have and are ignoring for a time until they realize that… that’s not worth their time anymore.

How's the pizza gig?

Ha making salads and shit brother. Tossen em all day long.

What happened to your head?

Well after skating for seven years, I fell and hit my head and things are shitty bro like really shitty. It was like two days. We pulled up to this beach with a ramp. I was fuckin around at the top of this wet ramp. I told Josh that “fool, good skaters don’t matter” The ramp was just drenched and I dropped in and did a back d, fell to flat and smacked the back of my head. I heard everything everybody said like three times like “are are are you you you ok ok ok” By the time I got to answer it had gone back to normal but I had a flash in my eye like a purple spot like when you get your picture taken. I had that for thirty minutes or so. I skated for the rest of the day for like thirty minutes and everything was ok.

Then the next day I went to go skate. We were just chillen and shmolin’. It rained a little bit and then dried up but while it was still a little bit wet I just rolled in and tried to do a back lip. My foot just went wrong and I flew back and smacked my head on the ground.

So you skated in the rain again?

 Yeah I mean I’ve done it a bunch of times like.. I know it’s a risk just that day something happened. Yeah so that day my head started bleeding in the bowl and right when I fell my eyes pretty much turned into puddles cuz I was laying on my back and tears collected up in my eyes. Then it started raining super hard like right as I started to feel the pain. I had the most piercing pain right at I got up. I had trouble getting out of the bowl for a while and people were helping me out.. Jesse’s mom gave me a ride home.

I just went home and started throwin up and shit and calling people. I thought I was gonna die. My mom called an ambulance for me and they put me that stretcher with no pillow or no headrest… just strapped down. It was a bitch, dude. I’m lucky I can even remember.

Because of the part of the brain that was bleeding was too sensitive of an area to do surgery, if it had bled any more then I have to get to top of my skull sawed off and then there gonna put the skull top in a freezer for six months and I have to wear like this big ass football special made helmet and then go back and get my skull back. Dude yeah there’s people that had that done already to em.

Luckily it didn’t come to that though

Yeah that would have sucked ass…ball.

So will you be able to skate again?

 At the beginning they told me I couldn’t forever, and I like had an emotional break down because that’s what I’ve depended as an outlet because I don’t have others that I’ve opened myself to you know what I mean. I’ve closed myself into it a lot. Now it's like a test, I have to find things outside of that realm.

In a year they said I could. Like I should use a helmet for sure… but I really shouldn’t.. at all because if I hit my head at any point in time like… I don’t want that surgery. So my plan is… I just wanna keep it mellow. I don’t want to go around and try all this shit like I used to. I gotta use other things to justify my existence you feel me?

Just do slash grinds

 Haha I’m definitely going to get a lot more into music.

So what you been up to lately

Just workin and tryin to get a MPC to make beats with. Its tight the sound reacts to the pressure of the buttons. Whatever I’m feelin that day is just gonna come out into sound. Combining patterns and making something that sounds right you know?

Anything else you want to talk about?

My new album comin out in uh Septembuary. Pick it up at the… splock market. Make sure yall support stay up on the one, buy one of my t shirts know what I'm sayin get them classic designed kicks I get a signature on it have it sent to your door exclusively. Remember that.

Shout outs?

First off I gotta shout out to Jesse Perez and his mom for taking me to my house that day because I very well might not be alive if it were not for them that day. I give him a snap every time I see him. Thanks to everybody that came n visited me during my head the heights of my head injury and thanks to my mom for making me possible an supporting me as I be. Definitely all my boys at the Sunnyvale park you all know who you are shmole gang. Ya boy Ivan ya boy Josh ya boy Stoney know what I’m sayin three shmole amigos. I’m just the white fool that kicks it with the three amigos ya feel me? That’s just what is. hahaha They the boys, and we the boys together and I send love and respect out to all nature.