A unique feature of General Hospital star Maurice Benard’s weekly video podcast, State Of Mind, is the diverse people he introduces to his audience each episode. This week he shined a light on another video podcaster, Sose The Ghost, known for introducing his audience to an insider’s look at the motorcycle club culture, who spoke of a shocking tragedy that changed his life.
Sose The Ghost: A Troubled Beginning
Benard (Sonny) could take the easy road on his show and just talk to his friends and peers in the entertainment community, but the subject of his show is mental health, and that touches everyone. Keeping that in mind, this week’s guest featured Sose The Ghost, an outspoken member of the motorcycle club brotherhood, a video podcaster, director, and hip-hop artist.
*Trigger Warning: This episode contains candid talk about addiction, gangs, crime, and mental health.
The host gave his guest a warm welcome. “He created a podcast called Demons Row. I will tell you right now that I looked through it yesterday, and the stuff that he does is just…don’t get me wrong, mine is cool, but his music, his editing, the way he does things, and when he is talking…damn. His name is Sose the Ghost.”
The two quickly dived into his background. “I was born in Puerto Rico, and then we moved to the Bronx. My mother and father ran away to have me and my sister because my grandfather was not having it.” The Ghost shared more details. “He did not want her to get married. He was from a very strict Puerto Rican family. So they ran to Puerto Rico, gave birth to me and my sister, and then ran back to the Bronx just in time for the crack [cocaine] era.”
That was just the beginning of the troubles that he grew up in the middle of. “The thing is that my father got caught up with the drugs,” the podcaster explained. “He got into crack. He was a good dude, man, but he just got caught up. He worked at this carpet company, and he would lay down carpets. A friend of his turned him on to the drugs, and that was it.
“By the [the time I was] 4, he was already out of the house,” he continued. “Locked up for life. It was rough after that.” The video director described what happened next. “I had a stepfather that was abusive. Physically abusive. The first day I ever met him, he checked [hit] me.
“I wasn’t a bad kid at that time,” he continued. “I was a really good kid. I eventually developed into a bad kid but never malicious, though. Just mischievous, you know. That was rough.”
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A Life-Changing Event
In an inner city story known all too well, he described how he ended up joining the Crips. “With my stepfather, everything was the belt. I just took to the streets. There were a lot of gangs at the time.” It was another family member who introduced him to the legendary gang. “My cousin was locked up, and when he came home, he became a Crip. He got chased out of the park by some Bloods, so I went and retaliated with him. After a while, I became a Crip for about 12 years.”
It was a home invasion by the very gang that took him in that changed his life. He shared the moment after they burst into his home and held a gun to his head when he knew everything had to change. “At that point, I looked to my left, and my daughter was crawling on the floor, playing with her toys. She was 3. I looked at her and thought, ‘What am I doing with my life, man? Is it over? Am I going to get offed right here in front of my 3-year-old?’”
Luckily, the gunmen changed their minds and left without doing any physical harm. “Yeah, I can say that was the worst thing that ever happened to me,” he declared. “It just wasn’t my time, I guess.”
Sose The Ghost: A New Journey
Sose The Ghost turned his life around. Find out more about how he grew up, meeting his father again at the age of 28, and how the WWE’s Hulk Hogan, a tough guy who happened to love motorcycles, inspired The Ghost to serve as an ambassador for good.
Learn about how he raised a daughter with special needs on his own and how he worked in a mental health facility for three years. He shared his thoughts on the tie between addiction and mental health issues. The motorcycle enthusiast was frank about serving time as a juvenile, how it led to his own close relationship with God, and how that gave him balance.
He spoke about how he taught himself to be a one-man crew, started his podcast, did his own interviews with people like fellow cycle enthusiast actor Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones, Aquaman), helped the newest and youngest members of the motorcycle clubs navigate the bike life, and directed hip-hop videos for artists such as French Montana.
Watch the full episode to see him turn the tables on Maurice Benard to learn about how he was inspired to be an actor, catch Benard’s impressions of Al Pacino and the 70s film tough guy Billy Jack, and fans will learn how the Daytime Emmy award-winning (and current nominee) star balances his bad-boy persona with being a spokesperson for all things mental health.
To find out more about Sose The Ghost and his work, check out his Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and his official website. To follow State Of Mind and subscribe, go to YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Fans can now purchase inspirational merchandise for Benard’s State Of Mind. Check it out.
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