Daily Inspiration: Meet Wesley Geer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Wesley Geer.

Wesley, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I put your opening in and left the rest as it was. Here’s the whole piece again:

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I was an insecure kid, and we moved around a lot. Then I discovered the guitar and rock music, and I was obsessed. I wanted to make records and play festival crowds. In the ’90s I co-founded the band (həd) p.e. out of the Orange County underground. We rose together, signed to Jive Records, toured the world with bands like System of a Down, Incubus and KORN, and sold more than a million records worldwide. From the outside it looked like I was living the dream. On the inside I was losing a battle with addiction and with the mental health struggles underneath it. By the end, it had cost me almost everything.

I got sober on December 10, 2007. Early in recovery I started meditating, mostly out of desperation. My logical mind was always the loudest station on the dial. It kept telling me how improbable everything was and what a struggle life was going to be. I wanted to change that station and tune into something bigger: infinite potential, and the idea that I could connect to the field and visualize the life I wanted into being. Once I started tuning in that way, things began showing up that I couldn’t explain. One of them was a text offering me the touring guitar spot in KORN. The twist is that they hired me because I was sober. I toured with them from 2009 to 2013 and played some of the biggest stages in the world.

When the KORN gig was coming to an end, I felt lost again and started slipping into self-pity. Then it hit me: I wasn’t put here to struggle through a miserable life. There had to be a purpose in all of this. That left me with one question: how do I take what I love, use it to help people, and make a living doing it?

Then the download came: Rock to Recovery®. I founded it on 12/12/12. The idea is simple. We walk into a treatment group and turn it into a band. People who have never played an instrument write and record an original song together in a single session. Something happens in that room that talk alone can’t reach. Walls come down, people connect, and hope shows up.

Today our team of 24 Jam Masters leads nearly 500 sessions a month, and we’ve written more than 44,000 original songs with people fighting for their lives. We’ve spent ten years in continuous contract with the U.S. Department of Defense, serving the Air Force Wounded Warriors program. I co-wrote the award-winning book *Rock to Recovery: Music as a Catalyst for Human Transformation*. In 2022 the ASCAP Foundation honored us with its Sunlight of the Spirit Award, and this November the CLARE Foundation is honoring Rock to Recovery with its Ethos Award.

Now, as co-founder and CEO of BandJAM, I’m taking this work beyond treatment centers into senior living, corporate wellness and other public spaces. We use AI to measure the impact of making music together. I also speak on the science of why this works: what happens in the brain when people create together, and what I call the Vortex of Radness. When you aim your creativity and passion at helping others, it comes back to you amplified.

I’ve been on both sides of the stage, and on both sides of the struggle. What I know for sure is that music is medicine, and none of us heal alone.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Ive had to restart my life and career path so many times. I had to face myself on the deepest level. Shadow work, therapy, anything and everything. Its literally been how I got out of the hopeless lost states into the realm of infinite potential and what I call Divine guidance.

Ive been blessed to come to know a number of super high vibe talented people to help me along the way — people that had done the work themselves. Kindred spirits and life guides.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’ve been blessed to be inside the rock star life and travel the world and see massive crowds move to music I’ve written I’ve gotten to play with some of the biggest bands in the world and what’s made it even better is to get to transition out because we all face that potential sometime and find I could still stay in music but use it as a source of fulfilling work period I’ve been able to help musicians make a great living doing inspired work we’ve switched the whole paradigm from buy a black t-shirt buy our CD stream our song to giving our musical talents in a way that elevates people’s wellness. People have literally said, our program has saved their life. Hard to believe, but we hear it more than you would imagine. And we’re not done yet.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I call it the vortex of radness. First, the vortex starts where we can take our heart, our passion, what feels like our calling in life, use our creativity and combine that with focused productivity to perform fulfilling work. Then when we can take that work and be impact driven, knowing our talents can help change the world in ways that are unique to us, that’s what I call the vortex of radness. When you get to look into the world at people who are elated by the work they’re doing and in some way you had impacted them empowered them in some way it’s that natural high that emanates in your heart in your being When you know WE, or making a difference. Together., and combine that with focused productivity to perform fulfilling work. Then, when we can take that work and be impact-driven, knowing our talents can help change the world in ways that are unique to us, that’s what I call the vortex of radness. When you get to look into the world at people who are elated by the work they’re doing, and in some way you had impacted them, empowered them in some way. It’s that natural high that emanates in your heart, in your being. When you know we are making a difference together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bandjam.co
• Instagram: wesgeer
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/wesgeer
• Youtube: wesgeer
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/rocktorecovery
• Other: https://rocktorecovery.org