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I'm not sure I've seen many/any people fill this in before. I mean if your famous and some uber-fan took it him upon himself to gush on your behalf, then fine, but this is too much right??!
"I was Born on October 14, 1979 at Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital in Anaheim California. I've been athletic, creative, adventurous and "strange" so-to-speak ever since I can remember. I come from a pretty large family. 2 younger brothers and an older sister in my immediate family but I have a ton of cousins that I can't even count. My siblings and I are all 5 years apart. At the time of this writing we're 19, 24, 29 and 34. My parents are amazing people. My dad is a mechanic and has been since he was 16. My mom works in the medical industry and is definitely where I get my outgoing personality.
As a kid I was always drawing. Cartoons, people, cars, monsters, animals, skateboarding... anything that I could think of. When it was library day I would check out drawing books. I was mad at our elementary school library because they only had 1 or 2 drawing books. I would always ask my parents and my sister what they wanted me to draw and I would try and draw it for them. I remember being in elementary school and my mom would get letters in the mail from one of her brothers that was in jail (my uncle gordy). He would decorate the envelopes and even include drawings in the letters for my mom and my sister. They were awesome! Betty Boop as a Chola and lowrider cars... I just remember staring at those drawings trying to figure out his technique.
The other major part of my young life was sports. I never really cared to watch pro sports... I mostly would just love to play. As a young kid I was in karate, baseball and football. As I got older I pretty much just focused on Football and Baseball. In High School I played Football all 4 years and Wrestled all 4 years. Football, Art and Clubbing was all I did in High School. During the week it was school, football or wrestling practice then go home and draw or paint. On the weekends it was chores, drawing or painting and clubbing at night. A few of my friends and I were a group of promoters that would put on clubs and raves. My friend Jerry was the head of our crew and it technically was my first job. We would go out to clubs and party's and promote on the weekends. Sometimes during the week if we were home early enough. I had a pretty fun and exciting life in High School.
As it got closer to the end of my senior year in high school I started to get the usual fear of what I was going to do for the rest of my life. Although I was starting running back and had a great high school football career I was pretty sure I wasn't big enough to play for a big college team. I was about 5' 9" and only 135 pounds. I then started to look at my art career and felt that I wasn't good enough to make it as a professional artist either. So now what was I supposed to do. I decided my best bet would be to learn how to create art on the computer. (This was before I knew exactly what graphic designers did or how to make money with digital art.) I looked into different computer design schools. I eventually found some crazy technical school in Phoenix Arizona. Now looking back on it, it was basically a fancier ITT Tech. I had visited the school found an apartment and even had some minimal furniture picked out. I was pretty much almost ready to go. That's when I started to have second thoughts about what this school was offering me. It was more of a technical school and not much of a creative school. But I didn't want to disappoint my parents so I decided I would just try it and see what happened.
Around July of 1997 I was about a month away from leaving to Arizona. I'm sitting on the couch watching TV at my parents house, enjoying my last days of summer when I get the call that changed my life forever. I picked it up and it was a woman named Analeise. She was calling from Brooks College in Long Beach and said that my 12th grade Art Teacher Mrs. Jensen had given her my number. She asked me if I had a college picked out yet and if I was interested in attending Brooks. I explained to her that I was about a month away from leaving to Arizona and that I was concerned that Arizona was not what I was looking for. She asked me what type of programs I was taking there and she explained to me what they offered. I then realized that I had made a big mistake. The school in Arizona did not offer any illustration classes. They did not offer any multimedia classes. They didn't even offer any drawing classes at all. Brooks was offering Illustration, Painting, Life Drawing as well as Graphic Design, Multimedia etc... Needless to say, I chose Brooks College. My parents were happy because it was here in Long Beach so it meant I could stay home but the only thing they weren't happy about was that it was going to cost more money. They knew it was what I wanted though so they supported me 100%. To this day I am still so grateful that my parents supported me and paid so much money to put me through art school.
During my first year of college I had to get my first Job. My good friend Joey Martinez and I got a job at Medieval Times in Buena Park. We sold swords in the sword booth and assisted the knights and the king during the actual show. It was great times and it definitely would give me the microphone experience I would come to need later in life.
Although school was tough things were still going pretty good. I was doing great at school and I loved meeting so many new people. Working with Joey at Medieval Times was a great escape from some of the stress that college life was putting on me. It was at this time though that some major events would occur in my life that would shape me as the man that I am today. In 1998 I lost my grandfather Julian Adame to cancer and about a month later my uncle Gordy that I mentioned earlier was murdered while walking home from the store. I know everyone says this about a deceased loved one but it's true... my Grandfather Julian was an amazing man. Full of life. Someone we thought we'd have around for a long time. Every day he was outside building something. Welding metal, sawing wood, fixing cars, inventing stuff. Some of the greatest memories of my childhood are camping, fishing, riding dirt bikes etc... All that was done with my pops and my grandpa. About a month after my grandfather's passing my mom's youngest brother Gordy was walking down the back alley of his house and was stabbed in the abdomen and later died in the hospital. Gordy was another man I looked up to. He played sports, was a great artist and an all around great guy. I didn't get to see to much of him growing up as he was mostly in and out of jail but I just remember how happy he was every time I saw him. Knowing what I know now about him I'm amazed at how positive of a person he always was. He was a gang member, drug addict, alcoholic and everything else that society looks down on but deep inside he was the most generous kind hearted person I knew. I would ask him about drawing and he would share some old jailhouse shading techniques. hahaha. Technically my first art lesson's were given to me by my convict uncle named Gordy. hahaha. I had just started to accept the deaths of my grandfather and my uncle when death came into my life again. In September of 2001 my friend Joey that I spoke about earlier suddenly died of alcohol and drug abuse after a show he performed. He was the singer of a band called Azdachao and although he was straight edge for most of our High School years it only took one out of control weekend to get him hooked on drugs and alcohol. To this day I still don't know the exact story of his death and I'm sure no one will ever know the real truth about what happened that night. Everyone was partying and when they woke up in the morning a girl Joey was seeing found him dead in the bedroom. That really sent me over the edge in my personal life. I took it all pretty hard and it showed.
These deaths in my life so close together during my first year of college are what I feel really shaped me as an artist and as a person. Under the pressures of college and work, something as tragic as this came along and really messed me up. But. Like they say. Pain makes great art. I have sketchbooks full of very dark images. I hated the world and I felt my life would never amount to anything. All this showed clear in my art but being that I was in art school I really wasn't too different from most of my classmates. Everyone had their own issues. I was lucky that I still had the love and support from my family. I had two younger brothers that looked up to me and an older sister that encouraged me to do good and live my dreams. I created some amazing artwork around this time. I would feel sad and depressed and just go in my room and paint. I hate the fact that I had to lose these people in my life but I definitely took this pain and used it for positive. I learned so much from these experiences. Life is so precious you never know when it's going to be gone. You really need to live each day as if it were your last.
I got through all the pain of my first year in college and made it to my last year. It was 1999 and my last semester of College and I had to get an internship. My cousin Joanne and her Husband Rodney had just started an import racing magazine called TMR. (Toy Machine Racing) It started out as a small pocket sized magazine and would later become a full sized magazine. I started interning here for school in 1999 and fell in love with the publishing world. It was face paced, high stress... Long days, no sleep, no rest. Before one issue was done we were already working on the next issue. The whole magazine was done out of a one car garage in Costa Mesa. I pretty much spent every waking hour in that one car garage. If we weren't in the office designing then we were out at races, events, shows or even at a racers house doing a story on them. In the summer of 2000 Rodney and I went on a summer tour. Just him and I drove around the whole country in a 4 door Ford Dually towing a 40 Ft Race Trailer. We drove from LA to Florida, LA to Texas, LA to Sacramento, even LA to Vancouver Canada. That was a memorable summer. First time I got to travel so much. Great learning experience.
While working at TMR a few of our advertisers would ask us who designed our magazine. They basically wanted us to design their ads as well. I did a few first ones for free but after a while I saw it as an opportunity for me to make extra cash. We basically started to tell companies that we had an outside design agency designing our book for us. We said the agency was called Boiler Room Creative Group. The name referred to our one car garage. One day when I called from the garage into the house to speak to Joanne I started the conversation with "Hi this is Chuck Adame, down in the Boiler Room..." and that's where Boiler Room came from.
One day while driving to TMR I was listening to the Kevin & Bean Morning Show on KROQ and I heard K&B making fun of their Producer Jay Tilles, aka "Lightning". I thought to myself... We should try and get lightning featured in our Magazine. We could do a story on one of his cars. Maybe get the morning show to make fun of him and talk about it on the air. It was a great marketing strategy. That day I went in to the office and I told Rodney about my idea. He responded with... "That's an awesome idea... I actually know lightning. I'll hit him up and see what he says." We all just laughed and thought Rodney was joking. (I'll find out a few years later that Rodney actually did know him.) We actually never got the chance to feature Lightning for TMR. The magazine closed it's doors in 2000 due to lack of funds coming in. The cost of doing a magazine on your own gets very expensive.
After TMR I did some freelance design work under the Boiler Room name. One day Rodney called me up and asked if I was interested in a freelance project. This Off Road Racing Magazine called Dirt Pilot had asked Rodney if he would come aboard with them and help them build up Dirt Pilot. It was already an existing magazine but definitely needed some help. I created a media kit, business cards, letterheads, etc. Once they saw my artwork they offered me a full time job as their Art Director. It wasn't TMR but I was happy to be back in the publishing biz. I was with Dirt Pilot for a few years and got to meet a ton of people in the off road industry. I was Art Director, Photographer and a contributing Writer for Dirt Pilot. This became my new TMR. I was at the Dirt Pilot offices day and night getting work done. I designed every page of that magazine by myself. We really started to need help so one day I asked the owner Craig Turner if we could hire my boy Steve Flores. Steve is pretty much like my brother. He was my next door neighbor since I was born and he pretty much became like my older brother growing up. We hired him on as a contributing photographer and writer. From there on out it was me and Steve. The magazine as a whole really started to take off and things started to pick up, but that didn't last too long. Somewhere down the line we started running low on money. The readers were there and the advertisers were there but the cost of business just started to get to us. A few dollars wasted and a few dollars lost and it seemed the independent publisher curse struck again. In early 2001 about a year after my start there Dirt Pilot closed it's doors as well.
Now just before Dirt Pilot closed I had decided to get a little more serious with Boiler Room. I was doing freelance projects on the daily and was making some good money with it. In mid 2001, right when Dirt Pilot closed, I found myself a small office in Pico Rivera and Boiler Room was my daily deal. I was 22 years old with my own Design Agency. I hired Steve to be my sales guy and things started to look up for us. I did the usual. Business Cards, Flyers, Posters, Stickers, Shirts. I also tried to draw, paint and shoot photos in my spare time. One day while doing some work at my office I get a call from Rodney. He said "hey Chuck I was down at CES and I ran into Lightning from the Kevin and Bean show. Lightning is working on a project and he needs a designer... you interested?" I couldn't believe it. Not only did Rodney really know Lightning but now Lightning is asking if I could design some stuff for him. I said hell yes and we set up a meeting. At this time Rodney was working at Car Audio Magazine so the three of us met down at Car Audio the next day. I was pretty nervous but I was very optimistic about the meeting. At this point I had this attitude that I was one of the best designers around. I had so much to offer. Design, Illustration, Photography etc... I met with Lightning, got his files and started on his project the next day. Over the next few weeks Lightning and I started to work together more and more. We pretty much spoke every day and Lightning actually became a friend. I would be working on my computer and Lightning and Steve would be sitting behind me talking about different things. Cracking jokes, talking about partying, music, girls, cars... usual guy stuff. Lightning and Steve became good friends too.
One day while driving to the office I heard Kevin & Bean talking about how they were looking to get a new Intern. Ever since they had gotten rid of Big Tad they didn't have a "Man On the Street". I turned to Steve and told him I was going to get him that Job. I picked up my phone to dial lightning and I decided to wait till after 10AM. I didn't want to bother him while the show was still going on. As soon as I hung up my phone it started to ring. I looked at it and it was actually Lightning that was calling me. He asked if we were listening to the show and I said yes and he said "Great! What are you guys doing tomorrow morning?" I said "coming down there to KROQ." He laughed and said "Yes, be here tomorrow at 8AM". Kevin & Bean ended up loving Steve. Their first mission for him was to go down to Long Beach to look for the Midget Town. We didn't find it. After that they invited us out to Vegas for a Singles Party. It was a bus trip. We all got on a bus in Long Beach with a bunch of winners, drove out to Vegas and partied for 3 days straight. I won't go in to too much detail on that story but the trip was awesome. While on that trip I met most of the KROQ Promotions crew. They ended up offering us a job with the KROQ Promo staff. I turned it down at first but Steve accepted it. I would later accept it due to the fact that 9/11 had just happened and my business was hit pretty hard by the tough economy. We were hired on in April of 2002 and started out what would became some of the greatest years of my life. Steve became Super Steve of the Kevin & Bean Morning show and I started doing small design jobs for KROQ as well as being a promotions person on the daily.
About a year into my career as a Van Driver at KROQ I was offered a full time job at a real Design Agency. A printing broker that I did work for had asked me if I would come and be in charge of their whole Mac department. I accepted and went to my bosses at KROQ to tell them that I wouldn't be able to work at KROQ anymore. Aissa and Smiley (my bosses) explained to me that the van driver position was considered part time so I could stay on payroll and just work a few days a week. Mostly late nights and weekends. I said cool and pretty much worked every weekend.
After about a year or so at the design agency I started to feel like I needed something more. I was dealing with alot of corporate stuff and didn't have much of a chance to be creative. Everything we did had to be done by corporate standards and it just really wasn't what I wanted. One day I got a call from Dave Winner the owner of Fabtech the offroad supsension company. I had met Dave while I was over at Dirt Pilot Magazine. He was a cool guy and definitely a big player in the off road industry. Dave asked where I was at and what it would take for me to come and work for him. We worked out the details and I started as the Art Director and Marketing Manager 2 weeks later. About 2 years into Fabtech the economy starts turning for the worst. Fabtech invests a large amount of money in a new shock program that doesn't do as well as they had hoped. After that we started seeing people get let go. I knew my time was coming soon but I still didn't expect it the day it came.
I was laid off from Fabtech in November of 2007. The day I was let go I called the bosses over at KROQ and told them what had happened but that I was going to take about 2 weeks off to collect my thoughts and get some freelance projects done. Later that day they called me back, told me to take the next day off which was a Friday but to come in on Monday so we could just talk about a few things. I went in on Monday and to this day I'm still waiting for those two weeks off to collect my thoughts. As soon as I came in on that Monday I had to produce a calendar signing and then about 2 weeks after that I had my first KROQ Acoustic Xmas to produce as the Event Manager.
I'm now currently going on my 3rd year as the Event Manager at KROQ. Every year gets better and better. All the stories, tales lies and exaggerations that I've experienced will have to wait for part 2 of the autobiography. This job honestly is everything you can imagine and more. I'm very fortunate to have an amazing job and every day I try and find more and more things to love about it. Everyone at KROQ is amazing and I've made some of the best friendships of my life at KROQ. Everyday is a mystery with the bosses I have. Amy is one of the most creative individuals I've ever known. She comes up with all the great ideas you hear about on KROQ. She also has her own blog. Visit her site at www.heyamy.com. Aissa Juarez is the most well rounded individual I've ever met. Talk about anything you want and she's either done it, seen it, read it, watched it, lived it, is a master at it or failed miserably at it. Either way she knows what you're talking about. Sometimes I think she has a clone. The other people in our office keep me laughing on the daily. Adrian, Eddie, Paul and whoever our office person is for the day. Even people from our sales department have become some great friends of mine. Of all this though the greatest thing to come from KROQ is definitely my fiance and best friend Katie. She started as the receptionist when I was a van driver. She's now the Digital Traffic Manger and a freelance makeup artist. She's the most amazing person I've ever met and very thankful that KROQ has brought me such memorable times, amazing friends and the greatest fiance.
Well that's my story. I'm still missing a few key moments in my life but I think the 100 page novel I currently have should give you the best overall idea. Thank you if you actually made it this far. I don't really expect anyone to completely read all this, but if you did. Thanks for stopping by. "