Oct. 17, 2024

From Struggles to Songs: Randie O'Neill's Journey

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Join us on the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball, where we engage in an inspiring conversation with Randie O'Neil, an adolescent intervention specialist and award-winning songwriter. Randie shares her journey from a challenging upbringing with alcoholic parents to becoming a beacon of hope through her music and counseling work. Discover how her music addresses critical issues like domestic violence and addiction, and learn about her latest holiday single. Tune in to hear Randie's story of resilience and the power of music in overcoming life's hurdles.

www.randieoneil.com
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome, um, to the Living the Dream podcast with curveball. If you believe you can achieve Chee Chee, welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate, and inspire.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Today we're going to be talking to adolescent intervention specialists, as well as award winning songwriter Randy O'Neill. Randy's songs provide courage for us to be able to face the problems that most all of us have. She survived in an alcoholic, abusive relationship or, you know, upbringing, and so we're going to be talking to her about everything that she's up to, and she also has a cool holiday song out there that she's going to be telling you about. So, Randy, thank you so much for joining me today.

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> Speaker B>Oh, um, my pleasure, Curtis. Thank you so much for having me.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

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> Speaker B>Oh, where to start? Where to start? You kind of covered it all. I had a, you know, very challenging childhood with alcoholic parents, and, um, say they weren't supportive of their kids was putting it really mildly. They had their own issues, their own problems. So I kind of found my way, and music was a way for me to work through a lot of emotions. And, uh, eventually started writing. Um, I went to school for counseling and spent the last, I don't know, 28 years, um, as an adolescent addiction specialist, I also specialize in anxiety. So my music kind of marries, you know, all of that together.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah. And so, uh, for the listeners who don't know, tell us what an adolescent intervention specialist is and what they do.

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> Speaker B>Okay. So, in the state of New Jersey, it's an addiction specialist. So I deal with. I was working with school, anascida school, doing a lot of prevention work, preventing, uh, substance abuse.

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> Speaker B>Um, and anxiety is a big part of that. Anxiety, depression are big things that can lead to, um, getting involved in substances. So, um, the, uh, counseling anxiety and as well as other preventive, educational things kind of went hand in hand. So in the middle schools, I did a lot of. I ran a lot of anxiety groups, and in high school, I did a lot of, you know, at that point, they're starting to dabble and get involved.

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> Speaker B>Um, so I was running groups for that, making referrals. Uh, New Jersey has a really strong school, uh, program for substances. Um, and in a New Jersey school, if any staff member thinks somebody's under the influence, we send them out to be tested and they come see me.

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> Speaker B>Confidentially, it doesn't go on any school record, and they can work with me to kind of help them. So it's a really strong program in New Jersey.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All, uh, right, well, you know, I know that you have done a lot of work, and we definitely appreciate everything that you are doing to help adolescents. So if somebody came to you and said, hey, Randy, I hear you do music. What kind of genre do you do? What would you tell them?

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> Speaker B>Um, I call it americana because some of it leans towards country, and that's where I won my awards.

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> Speaker B>Modern country. I do some roots, some folk pop, you know, uh, kind of sits in that pocket. You're going to hear a lot of imagery, but there's going to be, you know, some upbeat, the, um, tempos that I use to kind of deliver some of my messages.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, speaking of your awards, tell us about some of the awards you have won.

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> Speaker B>Well, I have to tell you, I'm an indie artist. What that means is I don't have a record label behind me throwing lots of money at me, marketing my songs, so they get on billboard and stuff. Everything I do, I do myself.

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> Speaker B>So it's really nice that you have these little organizations like ISA, International Singer Songwriter association, um, the world songwriting competition, other, you know, that really support indie artists. And, um, last year, my song, queen of the Barstool two step was recognized as video of the year by ISA, the International Singer Songwriter association, the World Songwriting association, and, uh, merit songwriters. So won a couple of awards last year, which I was really excited about because, again, we indie artists, we take our recognition when we can get it. You know, nobody's really. The industry isn't really paying too much attention to us.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>I can definitely understand that as an indie artist myself. M so tell us about some of your most important singers, because I know that you have one. Talking about domestic violence. You also have the holiday single. So tell us about, uh, some of your top singles out there and what inspired them.

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> Speaker B>Each album has a song that I dedicate towards a cause, daddy's pride.

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> Speaker B>I wrote about my, um, alcoholic parents, and, um, when I turned to music, they actually had sold my guitars. I came home one day from school and they were gone. And it took me a long time to get on my feet and be able to use music as a voice.

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> Speaker B>So that's daddy's pride. Olivia talks about domestic violence and stalking, again, a topic we're familiar with, but we don't really want to talk about. It's real. It continues. Women and there could be men. I know there's some men that are in trouble as well. Um, are in a lot of trouble and don't always know where to go.

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> Speaker B>And Olivia is a song about someone and it's based on a real life story of someone I worked with in high school who was actually killed. Um, she had restraining orders, the whole nine yards. She, uh, had a safety plan and things we tell people to do, but she just tried to make it out to her car one day and didn't make it. It was like, I don't know, like 30ft from her house to her car. So this, you know, in an upheav way, because I want people to listen to it, I want people to hear the message and then go, oh, wait, she's in trouble, you know, and start a dialogue.

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> Speaker B>And that's what I'm kind of trying to do with songs. Um, then my holiday song really is just a lot of fun because you're in a summer, you have to write a Christmas song to put out bye October, November, to get it out to the markets.

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> Speaker B>And what do you say Santa takes a look at? Uh, I have an issue with elf on the shelf. I think it's really creepy to have the idea that somebody's watching you 24/7 you know, and here. Here's a person at a holiday party and they're like, wow. What do you say, Santa? I'm going to parties, I'm having fun. Does that mean I'm on the naughty list? So it's kind of a humorous look at, you know. What do you say, Santa? Are you coming my way? And I'm there at a party, I'm drinking some eggnog.

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> Speaker B>Um, so I kind of take, uh, a humorous look at that.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah. Listeners, you should definitely go check that song out.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>It definitely is catchy and real good.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Who would you say some of your biggest influences are, as far as musically? Uh, who influences you to do what you do?

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> Speaker B>I have to go back to a lot of the female rockers, those who came before me and put in the fight to get women where they are today, the Joan Jetts, the Pat Benatar, the dolly partons, who did it their way in a time when you didn't hear two chick songs on a radio. I don't know if anyone remembers those times when radio was dominated, um, by all men. If you heard one female song an hour, we were having a good day, you know. So now I think it's really come full circle that you're hearing more. I think we're having more females really stepping up, producing, um, going behind the scenes. Um, and it's really rewarding to see that because they were my inspiration you know, for a long time.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, well, tell us about any current or upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of.

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> Speaker B>Well, I'm basically okay. Um, I have the holiday song coming out. Uh, and what I'm focusing on is I just put a band together called the werewolves of summer, and I really just want to kind of kick back and have some fun with my music. I've been road tripping. I've been down south to south Carolina, to island, um, hillsboro. I just played Rhode island songwriters association. And I love meeting people, fellow songwriters. I love listening to my fans who are listening to the music. I really, really enjoy that. So I have a lot, uh, more time now. Um, and I'm spending a lot of time just enjoying music.

00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:59.940
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, so listeners can keep up with your music and everything that you're up to. Throw out your contact information.

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> Speaker B>I am everywhere. I'm on all the platforms. I'm on the bathroom walls. I'm just serious. If you spell my name right, you can find me anywhere, because my name is Randy. R a n d I e.

00:10:12.727 --> 00:10:32.759
> Speaker B>O'Neill. If you spell it with a y, you get a baseball player, and that's not going to be any good. So if you spell my name, I have a great website that links you to everything, lets you know what shows where I'm playing. I have a Monday night show where I actually interview other indie artists, uh, americana artists.

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> Speaker B>I stick to country americana. I do that every Monday night, uh, on Facebook and YouTube.

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> Speaker B>Uh, my two big, uh, platforms that I'm on mostly YouTube, I'm on quite frequently, and my show's on Monday nights, uh, seven eastern. We go live, and it's interactive, so people can play along and comment.

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> Speaker B>We can respond. So I have a lot of fun with that.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Okay, go ahead and put that website out there.

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> Speaker B>Uh, uh, Randy O'Neil is randieoneil.com.

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> Speaker B>and you'll find me all, uh, right.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>We'Ll close this out with some final thoughts, maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on, or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

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> Speaker B>Pretty thorough, Curtis. So I really appreciate that. And, um, I know that music has gotten me through a lot of. Lot of hard times, and I know it has for a lot of people, too. And I really do hope people find that music that inspires them and helps them when they're celebrating, when they're feeling down, when they need to guess through things. Music can get you through a lot of.

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> Speaker B>A lot of, um, tough times. So, you know, just keep listening.

00:11:49.429 --> 00:12:18.274
> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yep. Ladies and gentlemen, keep listening to Randy just like you keep listening to this show. Go check out her music. Randy oneill.com follow rate review share this episode to as many people as possible. Jump on your favorite podcast app. Give us a review. Follow us share the show if you have any guests or suggestions, Curtis Jackson 1978. Net is the place to send them. Thank you for listening and supporting the show.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>And Randy, thank you for all that you do. And thank you for joining me.

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> Speaker B>Oh, uh, it's my pleasure, Curtis. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>For more information on the Living the Dream podcast, visit www.djcurvefball.com.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>until next time, stay focused on living the dream. Dream.