Chapters:

00:01 Welcome to Catholic Education Matters
01:54 The Crash That Changed Everything
06:39 From Despair to Purpose: Finding Meaning in the Pain
11:28 Using Music to Heal Broken Hearts
20:10 The First Suicide Note — and a Mission Is Born
25:38 Why So Many Young People Are Losing Hope
33:02 Faith, Family, and the Power of Purpose
38:01 Reframing Depression as Empathy: Airport Encounter with a Hurting Teen
40:12 The 8-Year-Old Dancer Expelled from School – Gillian Lynne’s Gifted Story
42:36 Addicts Aren’t Cursed: The “All-In” Personality as a Hidden Strength
43:47 Traffickers’ Dark Gift: Spotting Vulnerability to Heal Instead of Harm
46:48 Suicide Notes Become Tattoos: Carrying Hope on Skin
47:58 From Tour to Documentary: Turning Kids’ Stories into Classroom Curriculum
1:06:58 “Pain Doesn’t Go Away—Neither Does the Strength”: The Quote That Saved a Grieving Son
1:07:59 From Prison to Sharing Circle: The Kid Who Led After Rock Bottom
1:12:32 Third Suicide Attempt Walk: Spotting the Old Lady Who Needed Her Shoes Tied
1:16:40 You Can’t Stop Addiction—You Replace It: The Power of Purpose Over Self
1:20:02 “Nobody Cares What You Do—They Care Why”: Start Conversations with Purpose
1:23:04 Act on the Prompting: The Man Who Called His Suicidal College Roommate Mid-Speech
1:26:12 Make Every Day Count: Small Acts, Guard Your Heart, Respond to Stirrings
1:28:29 Same Team, Bigger Impact: Bringing Rob Nash to Arenas & Back on the Show
1:29:36 Outro

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In this inspiring episode of Catholic Education Matters, host Troy Van Vliet welcomes Canadian musician and mental health advocate Robb Nash, whose near-fatal car crash at 17 transformed his life and mission. Robb shares how his recovery journey – from physical trauma and suicidal despair to rediscovering faith and purpose – led him to create The Robb Nash Project, a movement using music to open conversations about mental health, hope, and redemption. Through powerful storytelling, Robb discusses how tragedy can hold potential, not purpose, and how choosing to help others gave his life new meaning. Now, after more than 12 years touring schools, prisons, and communities across Canada, Robb has collected nearly 1,000 suicide notes from youth who decided to live after hearing his message. This heartfelt conversation explores faith, purpose, the dangers of “everything happens for a reason,” and the urgent need to restore hope, truth, and connection in today’s culture.

Transcript:

[00:00:01] Intro: Welcome to Catholic Education Matters, the podcast that celebrates the beauty of Catholic education, highlighting excellence in academics, athletics, and the transformative power of faith. Join us as we share the stories of those making a lasting impact on Catholic education. Let’s begin.

[00:00:25] Troy Van Vliet: Thanks everybody for joining us today. My name is Troy Van Vliet from St John Paul the Second Academy Foundation and I’m here today with Robb Nash and before we get into it Robb, I’m gonna tell everybody a little bit about you and a little bit about your background and then we’ll dive right into it.

[00:00:44] Robb’s a Canadian musician, speaker and mental health advocate whose life took a dramatic turn after a near fatal car crash in 2002. So following his life changing this life changing event, Robb channels his experiences into music, forming the Robb Nash Project, a band dedicated to inspiring and uplifting the youth And through his powerful lyrics and engaging performance, Robb addresses critical issues such as mental health, suicide and struggles faced by marginalized youth. So his work has reached thousands of people across Canada providing them with hope, support and tools to navigate their challenges. Robb’s mission is to create safe space for youth to share their stories and to remind them that they are not alone in their struggles. Robb, how was that?

[00:01:42] Was that pretty accurate?

[00:01:43] Robb Nash: I don’t think you need anymore. I think we’re good. Roll the credits. You did a great job.

[00:01:50] Troy Van Vliet: We’re gonna have lots to talk about here. Your there’s your story, your background. I was introduced to you. I didn’t meet you, at the prayer leadership breakfast in Vancouver a few months back, and so Larry told me all about you. And then I watched your video about your bio and your background to learn a little bit more about you before we had you on.

[00:02:13] And what an amazing story and God bless you for what you do. But can you tell us, can you start to tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to where you are today? I know you’ve told the story a gazillion times when you’re going out and around touring, but we’d love to hear we’d love to hear a little bit about yourself.

[00:02:34] Robb Nash: Yeah. And don’t apologize for asking, you know, it’s like telling somebody you love them. You can say it a thousand times and still mean it. So when I tell my story, I still mean it, you know, in the moment it, you know, it seems to help people, you know. Even though it’s rare that people align exactly and oh, I’ve gone through the exact same thing, when you’re willing to be vulnerable, other people become vulnerable around you.

[00:02:56] So yeah, my story is unique. Most musicians, like, that’s what they pictured their whole life at five years old. That’s normally what you hear, well, since five years old. That’s all I want to be as a musician, you know. And I love music.

[00:03:11] I had five older brothers and sisters that had like a family band. They all grew up and then later I was born, so I didn’t make it into the family band. So we have a musical family but I never thought I’d do it for a living. For me, you know, I I just played sports, know, that was I I love music but yeah, I played sports, you know, I actually, you know, I’m six foot five, you can probably notice on the screen.

[00:03:35] Troy Van Vliet: Well, I’m six foot six. We were talking about being competitive so

[00:03:38] Robb Nash: Oh, there you are. Yeah. Okay. That’s you’ve won nothing for you right now.

[00:03:41] Troy Van Vliet: One nothing, yeah.

[00:03:44] Robb Nash: Yeah. So like, you know, at 15, I got a scholarship and I was playing not that I I’m not sure I make it sound like I was going pro or anything like that. But every friendship that I had, everything that’s was through sports, know. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:03:58] And then I was 17 years old and me and my friends went for a bit of a joy ride. I live in Manitoba so we see some extremes in weather. We have the coldest winters, but also the hottest summers in Canada. And, yes, there were some icy roads and you’re teenagers and you feel indestructible. And we’re almost back at our school.

[00:04:17] We pulled out to pass one last car and we got hit by a semi truck and it crushed our vehicle and my friends, they all they were fine but they ran from the vehicle thinking it might explode is what they told me but that doesn’t usually happen. And they look back and they saw that I was just laying there and it’s my story is interesting because most of it I’ve been told like those I don’t remember an accident. I don’t remember being in a hospital or anything like that. So I’ve been told pieces of my story along the way. In fact, a little while ago, a friend of mine goes, I think I just met the first responder that saved your life.

[00:04:53] And I got to have lunch with him and it was really unique. He was, you know, he was driving home from work, supposed to turn left down a country road, but he heard a big crash. And he’s like, and he went to check it out and he had just taken a first responders course. And so I met with him and he goes, yeah. He was just in shock as we talked because he says like, it came up on you and you had no pulse, you weren’t breathing.

[00:05:20] And he said, and I started going through the while waiting for the ambulance to resuscitate me. And, you know, you could be cut wide open, but if you’re not if your heart’s not beating, don’t bleed. Right? It’s gotta be flowing. So he said, I I knew your heart started beating when blood started pouring out of your head because I had crushed the side of my skull.

[00:05:40] And then talking with his wife, like, he had tried to hold my skull together so I wouldn’t bleed out before the ambulance got there. And he had called the hospital every day for, like, months just asking, can you just tell me if that kid made it? And with privacy laws, I said, so we can’t share that with you, you know. And so when we met to that day, he didn’t know if I had made it. So it was like a healing moment for him.

[00:06:08] It was a healing moment for me to meet this guy that had done this. And yeah. So I was brought to the hospital and, know, your parents get that call that no one wants to get. You know, your son was in an accident, doesn’t look good. And, they rebuilt my skull with titanium and I’m still having surgeries and stuff.

[00:06:26] But I woke up and I didn’t know who I was or my parents for a while. And, yeah, I don’t remember being in a hospital and, you know, had some brain damage. And then you go from six zero five playing sports to a guy getting bathed by his mom, and you can imagine where your where your thoughts go and people, you know, often come up to comfort you and they’ll throw cliches at you with good intentions. You know, some people would tell me, well, I guess this was your fate, Robb. And then you go, like, why was this my fate?

[00:06:57] Why isn’t this someone else’s? Right? Some people in my own family told me that, well, you’re clearly a bad kid, so God spanked you with a semi because you’re a bad kid. You know, that’s nothing anyone wants to hear, so your anger now goes to God. Yeah.

[00:07:13] But the most common thing people would say to me is and they don’t and they say it with good intentions. And since my accent, met tons of people in prison, hospitals, funerals. And people always say this, they say everything happens for a reason. And you say this with good intentions, but man, I’ve met with so many people and that that statement does way more damage than good because now I’m laying there going, what’s the reason I was hit by semi? Like, is it because I’m a bad kid?

[00:07:41] Is it because I said that to my dad or did this at school? And you just I was just spiraling and then somebody came up to me and he said the most amazing thing and it changed my life. Like, had been suicidal for two years. If this is how life is, you you’re a bad kid and you get spanked by a semi, there’s a big reason for it. Don’t wanna be alive.

[00:07:59] Troy Van Vliet: How long how long after that?

[00:08:01] Robb Nash: It was I I was that way for two years. For two years. And, you know, nobody knew like, if you if people watch the documentary that I just made about me, if you my friends would watch that documentary, my high school friends or family, I’m sure a lot of them would be like, there’s no way Robb was suicidal. He’s the life of the party Which is usually the case. We put on a mask.

[00:08:22] Right? Yeah. But yeah, was like that for years and then this guy came up to me and he said the most amazing thing and it changed my life. He said, you’re trying to figure out the reason you were hit by a semi. Right?

[00:08:30] I said, yeah. He goes, I know the reason. I said, please tell me. And he goes, the reason you were hit by a semi is because you were going too fast on an road. And that sounds simple, Troy, but it’s free.

[00:08:44] I didn’t have to be mad at fate or God or trying to figure out the reason it happened. It’s like, all gonna see bad days. We’re gonna experience tragedy, and we have to decide what we’re gonna do with those bad days. And my whole perspective changed, and I was like, I wasn’t angry and bitter anymore. And I was like, man, not a lot of people get a second chance.

[00:09:02] Maybe I should do something with this because that whole time after the accident, I was terrified to fall asleep because every night I was having the same nightmare and my nightmare was watching my funeral and nobody showed up. Nobody cared that I lived or that I died because I had never done anything for anyone but me. So I was like, not a lot of people get a second chance. I should do something with this. And I screamed at this guy and I was like, I wanna do something that matters, like, want my life to count.

[00:09:28] And I thought I’d hear a voice telling me to move to a third world country and Yeah. You know, build a well or something, you know. And I didn’t hear that, you know how we all get promptings. Right? Clear as day what I felt was this is find the semi driver that hit you and tell them you’re alive.

[00:09:45] And I was like, woah. And it took a while, you know, phoning police and saying, can I get the name of the semi driver that ran me over? The cops are like, no. That’s not how that works. Yeah.

[00:09:55] But this prompting wouldn’t leave me and I kept talking with the police. I’m like, think this guy needs to know I’m alive. And this one cop said, alright, you didn’t get this from me. And the trucker was from The US. And I called him and he picked up and I said, is this so and so?

[00:10:09] And he got real quiet. I said, do you remember the car accident up in Canada? And he goes, yeah. I just felt my heart that I should tell you, like, I’m okay. I’m alive.

[00:10:18] I survived. And he goes, I’m just so sorry about your friend. I said, what friend? He goes, the guy that guy that died and crushed his skull. I’m like, no, that’s me.

[00:10:30] And I could tell it, like, set him free. But what happened in that story isn’t about what happened to him. It’s what happened to me. Like I said, I’d never done anything for anyone but me till that moment. I was like, oh, that felt good.

[00:10:42] And I didn’t have to move to a third world country. Yeah. A feeling of significance. And I was like, I want more of that. And, man, I was like, oh, how do I get more of that?

[00:10:53] Like, that’s within us. We’re supposed to impact the lives of the people around us. And I was like, man, I’ve got these dark thoughts that I’ve been struggling with. And I’m like, there’s gotta be other people like me having those thoughts and not talking about it. And I was like, maybe I should tell my story.

[00:11:08] I was like, yeah. And then I was like, what’s a good way to tell a story? I was like, ah, music. Every young person has headphones in their ears walking around. So I was like, music might give me that platform to tell my story.

[00:11:19] So I started a band. Man, we put together a band. We started writing songs, and we did the show. We’re gonna change the world. And there was four people in the audience.

[00:11:27] And it was like, oh, like, man, no, we wanna change the world. But now I listen to our first album and I’m really glad there was only four people there because we kinda sucked. But we got a little better after a few albums, a record deal, ended up having four top 10 hits on the radio in Canada. And we were working on a potential record deal down in The States. And then then I got an offer to do a nine month tour going through prisons, youth detention centers, and schools, and reserves, telling my story, just me and my acoustic, but it would be nine months with no pay.

[00:12:02] Everyone thought, well, you can’t do that, like, but I actually walked away from my record deal, my publishing deal, my management deal. And I went and started going to schools, and I started writing songs about the people that I was meeting, songs about, you know, people heard my vulnerability, and they started being vulnerable. And I started writing those songs. Then after nine months, I was like, what’s next? And then other people, schools, communities started saying, hey, we’d like to hear your story and Yeah.

[00:12:28] Songs that you’re writing. And then what started with the nine month tour has been over twelve years of going across from coast to coast to coast in Canada and seeing a lot of people having breakthroughs.

[00:12:42] Troy Van Vliet: It’s incredible. Absolutely incredible. So what are first of all, the amazing recovery and somebody was looking out for you when that paramedic had calling to just come and hold your head together. Wow, get your heart going again and then waiting for the ambulance to come like, oh, so first of all, an incredible recovery and then a second recovery because you had you’re struggling with depression and why me and why did this happen? There’s been struggling with everything happens for a reason.

[00:13:20] That would, yes, that is a very dangerous, that can be misinterpreted in many ways and that can destroy people and get people searching in the wrong direction. And then this turnaround to say this tragic accident that happened to me, and then you’re suffering afterwards, your mental health, if I might use that terminology, mental health challenges, to turning it around and being an advocate now for to help people and to specifically help the youth is huge. Can I ask you, Robb? How did how did your how did your faith was there a foundation in that that helped you through any of this? Was there a turning point anywhere or?

[00:14:03] Robb Nash: Yeah, absolutely. Like, like I like my mom was born and raised in Mexico. My dad’s from Belize, like Central America. So I grew up in a very conservative home where like, where I get kind of the teaching of, you know, God will strike you with lightning or spank you with a semi truck. I had never I had never really heard about the love of God, just the fear of God.

[00:14:26] And I think people can get that’s a bad for every mile of road, there’s two miles a ditch, you know, and

[00:14:33] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah.

[00:14:34] Robb Nash: And all I heard was that. So that’s all I knew. And, you know, I was like, well, I better figure out, like, why I’m here and is there life after death? Like, all these things, who is God if he’s not the one spanking with the semi? And yeah, I started pursuing that and, you know, it was it was in a church parking lot that I got that that prompting to phone the semi driver.

[00:14:57] And, you know, I I just realized, you know, like, think, you know, people saying he’s got the whole world in his hands, you know, but I I think I think we live in a world that’s really broken and there’s a lot of pain, but there’s enough food for everybody. There’s enough water for everybody. We were meant to take care of one another. And I think, you know, in a walk just like I had a prompting to call the semi driver or this first responder had a prompting to take a first responders course the week before, you know, and you start to see these things and, you know, I you know, you just start realizing that there’s something deeper about faith and just listening to things that may not always make sense to everybody around you, and man pursuing that is something beautiful. We’re meant to take care of one another and spread the good news, and all of us have a different calling.

[00:15:54] And even when I say I thought I’d have to move to another country, a third world country. But some people that is the calling in their life. But I think Right. For me, and I took a lot of flack, I still do from some of my family for playing rock music and having tattoos and all that stuff from a conservative background. But, you know, I I’ll put it this way, how my the biggest way that my faith applies to the work that I do is I think, you know, you’ve read it.

[00:16:22] If you seek, you’ll find, you know. And I think we live in a world where people aren’t seeking anymore. We’re not asking questions. And for me, it’s like, if I can get youth asking the question is, what if there’s more to me than suicide? What if there’s more to me than this addiction?

[00:16:36] Or what if I have purpose? Because I believe if we can get people starting to ask important questions again, they’ll find the answers, you know. And even, I needed an antidote to the everything happens for a reason. I was like, well, so many people are hearing that. And then one day, was on stage, and it just like another word just lands in your heart.

[00:16:56] And it was like, bad things don’t happen for a reason. Bad things happen with potential. Yeah. Like, my accident has had the potential to leave me angry, bitter, suicidal the rest of my life. Or there’s the potential I can take my story and walk it out and tell it and help other people that might be going through something similar.

[00:17:20] Like, tragedy has the potential to tear apart an individual or a family or a school or a community or a province or a country, we’ve seen it. But tragedy also has the potential to bring people together. Like, I I speak at too many funerals and I always say that to families, hey, this has the potential to tear your family apart or tear your school apart. But there’s the potential that this could bring your family closer together. We have to choose and like, I get into some debates, like, one guy goes, well, Robb, like, it’s kinda good that you were hit by that semi, isn’t it?

[00:17:54] And I was like, no, it’s not good to get hit by a semi. He goes, but look what you’ve done with it. I said, but the semi didn’t make me do this. He goes, but if you could go back in time, you’d do it all over again, wouldn’t you? I was like, no, I I wouldn’t.

[00:18:06] Like, the semi didn’t make me do these things. It’s like, I like, we can learn from hitting rock bottom without question, But it’s not the antidote for everybody. Some like one person gets cancer and they just they rethink their whole whether it’s stage one, two, three, four, you’re like Yeah. You’re all of a sudden you’re making every day count, you might change your diet, you wanna make every memory and every day and every conversation matter. The next person gets a cancer diagnosis and goes like, why me?

[00:18:35] And, you know, they can get into addictions for the first time as you struggle with why I’m going through this. And I’ll be honest with you, Troy, like, when I started going to schools, I never talked about that out fact that I was suicidal in that time. I would have never said that. I was just like, because what would the students think of me? What would the teachers think of me if I revealed that weakness?

[00:18:55] So my whole thing in the beginning was just, hey, make every day count. You never know what could happen tomorrow. Like, I had an accident, you know, like but one day we were called to a school in Ontario and principal called our project and said, we heard you’re really effective talking with youth and we just lost a student to suicide. And on this girl’s note, it revealed that she had a pact with a friend, like a deal. If you kill yourself, I’ll kill myself.

[00:19:26] But the principal said, we don’t know who it is. We’ve got a 2,000 students. We don’t know which kid it is. Can you come right away? We heard you’re really effective.

[00:19:34] So now, like, what do in that moment, by the way? We don’t charge for anything we do. So we don’t say, well, our flights are this, our hotels are this, and Yeah. But we just went. But now there’s whatever it was, a 1,200 students in front of me, and there’s somebody sitting in front of me that’s about to take their life, and I’m supposed to find them.

[00:19:51] And I knew the one thing that was brought to my attention recently is how often I talk about promptings. But I had another prompting in that moment where I was like, I need to say this for the first time that I was suicidal myself. And my heart was racing. Troy, I was like, I can’t Wow. I’ve never said this to my band.

[00:20:12] I’ve never said this to my family, you know, my parents. And now I’m got 1,200 strangers in front of me. Oh, my heart was racing. What is everyone gonna think of me? But I got to this place where I was like, I know there’s someone in this room that’s thinking about taking their life.

[00:20:29] I was like, you’re not alone. I was there once too. And it was like, that felt really good. That was like a thousand pounds off me. And man, the conversations after that show, it wasn’t just people asking for autographs and selfies.

[00:20:46] Yeah. It was hugs and I thank you for that. Like, and the depth of the conversations went to another level. And then this girl walks up to me, and she pulls a note out of her pocket, and she goes, here, I want you to have this. It’s an old note, all folded up.

[00:21:02] And I was like, what’s this? She goes, my suicide note. I was gonna kill myself this weekend. She’s like, I don’t need this anymore. And the principal and school counselor standing next to me, and we found her.

[00:21:13] And they walked off to get the help that they needed. And I was like, what just happened? Like, she didn’t write that note while we were sitting in that room. Yeah. Old and I talked to some police that do a lot of work with suicide prevention.

[00:21:28] They said, oh, yeah. When we come on the on the scene of a suicide, very rarely is the note freshly written. People usually carry it with them for two to three months before they take to life waiting for somebody to push them over the edge, or for somebody to reach out and let them know they’re not alone, say something that resonates. Right? So it was the next day, and I was like, another thousand students in front of me.

[00:21:49] And I was like, well, if the stats are true pre COVID, one in five teenagers had seriously considered suicide in the last twelve months. One in five. So another thousand students. I was like, what if I said it again? I was like, I know there’s someone in this room thinking about taking your life their life.

[00:22:07] I’m like, you’re not alone. I was there once too, and a young man came up and hands me his note. I was like, oh, this is now a focus for me. It’s not all we talk about, but that was the beginning of I was looking for them right here. That was the beginning of now 971 suicide notes that we’ve been handed.

[00:22:28] Kids carrying them with them. That doesn’t include all the kids that get home and make TikTok videos, YouTube, Instagram videos when they get home, and they just rip up their note saying I don’t need this anymore. In fact, when we perform one of the songs we play, like we have big LED walls behind us. So the music video is in sync while we’re playing, the lyrics are there so the kids can see what we’re singing. And there’s one song that I have called the thief of colors.

[00:22:57] And it’s just a compilation of kids ripping up their notes or burning their notes, and you get students sitting there watching this compilation. And I want them to see, look, not every not every story of mental illness ends in a suicide. Not every story of addiction ends in an overdose because our media like tragedy sells, so media, that’s how they go usually, but we need to balance those stories and show that not every story ends in a tragedy. So when we perform now, I’ll tell a story of a girl we met in lockdown, like, because, like, we do prison shows and stuff, and I’ll tell her story. Sounds I was like, yeah, we wrote this song together.

[00:23:35] I’m like, do wanna meet her? And she walks out on stage and we perform together. Met this one kid on a reserve in Northern Saskatchewan, and I tell his story. It’s like, he didn’t have a suicide note. He had a book.

[00:23:50] He had written a 100 pages of things that he hated about himself. And I said, you want to meet him? And he walks out on stage and performs with us. So these kids are like, woah. Just hit them with inspiration and yeah.

[00:24:05] Like, just show them your story doesn’t have to end in pain either, you know?

[00:24:10] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of it I’ve got so many questions here now. I’ll start I I first comment being first of thank you for what you’re doing. Like, I mean, God bless you for that because it’s there’s not enough of it.

[00:24:28] Absolutely not enough of it. Mental health is a huge, huge issue. One of the questions I’ve got for you right now, do you have a theory as to why it is so rampant today among teens? I mean, I’ve got my own theories, but what is why do you think it’s such a problem today? More so, I mean, when I was in high school, never heard of it.

[00:24:57] Like, didn’t know, not just I didn’t know anybody that committed suicide, I didn’t even know of anyone that committed suicide. Yeah. Or wanted to or what have you, you know. And today, it’s the number is it now the number one cause? Number one leading cause of death for youths?

[00:25:16] Robb Nash: Second leading cause of death among youth. Yeah.

[00:25:19] Troy Van Vliet: Second leading? Okay.

[00:25:20] Robb Nash: Yeah. I believe so. Yeah. And that’s, you know, and it never used to be that way. And honestly, Troy, I could go down about 4,000 paths of why I think it’s happening.

[00:25:32] Obviously, in social media is massive. Kids learn from each other. Yeah. And it’s I’ll tell you this, when we started, the biggest change we’ve seen is just that it’s getting younger and younger. Like, in the last few years, we got called to one community where they lost an eight year old, one that lost a seven year old.

[00:25:51] And if you thought that wasn’t an option when you were in high school, like, at seven years old, you should be playing with Lego, you know. How do you even know that’s an option? So there’s a lot of different ways I can go. Think I think in the West, we’re so focused on more. I think it’s the most Yeah.

[00:26:10] Evil four letter word there is. Yeah. And I think we’ve lost priority of what is important. Again, my mom is born and raised in Mexico. My dad’s from Belize.

[00:26:21] Last time I went to Belize to visit all my cousins and stuff, I only told one cousin I was coming because I just didn’t want to make a big deal of it. I wanted to relax. But everyone found out I was there and there was a big party. Forty, fifty people were hanging out. Mhmm.

[00:26:35] Next day we go out to the ocean and then we go to the caves and then we’re after about eight days, I was like, hey, guys, it’s like, you don’t have to we don’t have to have a big party every day. And they’re like, what do you mean? I was like, well, don’t you have jobs? And they’re like, yeah. I said, what did you tell your bosses?

[00:26:53] We told them that our family is here. I was like, and they were okay with that? They’re like, of course. I’m not kidding. And Troy, six months later, my cousin came up from Belize to Canada and surprised me.

[00:27:04] Hey, Robb. I’m in Canada. I was like, oh, cool. I can meet you for coffee next Thursday, like, forty five. And he’s like, no.

[00:27:14] No. I wanna, like, hang out for a little while. Like, I wanna see Canada for a few weeks and hang out with you. And I was like and then I just started describing, well, that’s not how we do things here. I can’t just not work.

[00:27:28] And I tried to explain our society versus theirs, and oh, it felt gross. But our cars are shinier and our houses are bigger. Yeah. And I sell tell that whole story where our priorities are at, you know, and we keep everything inside. COVID was I talked about this quite a bit in Yeah.

[00:27:50] Podcasts and interviews like, man, when COVID hit, we were all pretty nervous. Is this gonna kill us all? But pretty quickly, saw young people. They were doing pretty good. Yeah.

[00:27:59] Their immune systems were alright. So I was I had an accident when I was in high school. And I was told to isolate and stay home and don’t go to school and don’t see your friends and don’t play sports, don’t go into a gym. I know what happened to my mental health. And I was like, we’re gonna put every kid through this?

[00:28:16] What I went through?

[00:28:17] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. Uh-oh. Yeah. Look out, brace yourself.

[00:28:21] Robb Nash: Yeah. And man, we hear from the schools and they’re man, the communication is just so different. But yeah. And even like, I could go down, like, why is this happening? Bullying, if you were getting bullied at school, it was over 03:30 when school was over, you know, now it’s Yeah.

[00:28:38] You know, what’s happening online, you know, there’s it’s brutal day. Young girls, the image that they have to try to hold to look a certain way. Like there’s so many pressures on young people and Yeah. You know, parents are often super focused on their own careers too. There’s a different dynamic at home.

[00:28:59] So there’s a lot of avenues I could go with why I think it’s happening but there’s a few points.

[00:29:05] Troy Van Vliet: My overarching belief on why well, I think to be honest, believe we’re rumbling especially in the last ten years as a country, but the West in general is kind of falling apart. People aren’t having kids. Think it’s down to 1.6 kids now per couple or something, like we’re below replacement rate in the West. Why is that? And there’s a lot of factors.

[00:29:35] It’s funny. Was in Napa Valley last week at the Napa Institute, which is I won’t get into it. But anyway, I met a doctorate down there who just wrote a book on why young people aren’t having kids anymore. And we were kind of getting into the weeds with it. You know, I’m not a doctor, I’m not a writer, I’m not an educator, I’m none of these things, but I find these kind of topics and she came up with all these different sort of micro level reasoning, you know, which is piling on and piling on, and I’m like, you know, my theory is much simpler on this.

[00:30:12] It’s like, you know, the West was founded and built on Judeo Christian values. Like, can’t argue that. That’s what our legal systems were all, you know, when you went in laws and things like that, we’re all inspired by that. Were all thinking the same way because we had all of those same similar belief system. And as Christianity, I’ll say specifically, as it started to crumble, know, we used to say the Lord’s Prayers in school, when I was in elementary school, in public elementary school, we’d say the Lord’s Prayers, and everybody was on the same page.

[00:30:45] Nobody was fighting that. Nobody was saying, you know, at that stage, you know, we got to get rid of this. This is, you know, separation between church and state and that kind of stuff. Those were words that were said but they weren’t really believed because it’s like you can’t have a foundation society without some form of guiding light. And unfortunately, it can’t be government because government screws up everything.

[00:31:06] The more they get involved, the more government gets involved, the more messed up society gets, in my humble opinion. I think a lot of people would agree with that. So when you take away the faith that’s guiding a country and a civilization, the West specifically, when you take that away, you can coast for a while on those morals that were established over, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years. You can, the moral compass that’s been established. But eventually you get rid of faith when it crumbles, now the family starts to crumble.

[00:31:46] And when the family starts to crumble, now like you talked about, you know, fear of God and things like that. Even if that was the only thing, reason why you were doing good was because you feared God, at least it kept you on the straight and narrow. And when that started to crumble, when the family starts to crumble, well, now society crumbles. Everything becomes a mess and there’s a question mark behind everything and everything, you know, every rule, there’s a question mark behind it. Now it’s, you know, what is truth?

[00:32:16] Well, there’s your truth, there’s my truth, but what is the truth? You can’t agree on that anymore and everything starts to fall apart. And it’s where, once again, humble opinion, where you see a reversion now because things are a mess. You see a revert people either reverting back to their fate or even converting, you know, they had never been brought up in faith at all because they’re going like there’s got to be more to this. There has to be more to life and like, we can’t look to government to fix everything.

[00:32:50] You know, we can’t look to government to be the answer. It’s like, well, the government should pay for this, the government should pay for that. Doesn’t all work that way or well, when it does work that way, it’s falling apart. And so, anyhow, that’s my simplified theory as to what’s happening in the West. The more we do it, the more we allow that to happen.

[00:33:14] We, know, if you don’t have a guiding light, like I said, if you haven’t got that, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for it, everything just starts to fall apart. What’s great is that what I see right now with you, you’re going to these schools, these kids are lost. So many of them are just lost. There is a and what are they replacing this guiding light with? They’re replacing it with what they see flashing in their face on social media like constant algorithms of advertising.

[00:33:45] It’s like, oh, I’m interested in that. Great. You’re interested. We’re gonna feed you more of that because that was that’s what we can sell you on. Yeah.

[00:33:51] You know? And the kids are the products.

[00:33:53] Robb Nash: Yeah. That’s You said the word right there again. More of Yeah. More and more. And one thing, like, hopefully, you’ll get to come see one of our shows Yeah.

[00:34:02] Because, you know, this isn’t something I came up with myself, but what we try to show kids is, like, like, what you’re actually like, the antidote to pain or sadness isn’t actually like happiness. Like, happiness is like, if good things around you are happening, we call that happiness. But then if your things aren’t good around you, like, if you’re letting your circumstances around you dictating your mood, or your emotions, you’re in trouble, like, but peace can find in the midst of a storm. Right? And I think the antidote for sadness is actually purpose, and that’s some of the roots that you’re talking about.

[00:34:44] So, like, for us, I always say to young people, like, everybody knows what they do. Walk up to any adult and ask them, what do you do? And everyone has an answer. Ask them why do you do it? And very few people know what to say.

[00:34:57] And that’s a sad thing. But that’s what we try to get people think about it. And I think the reason we’ve had the reason I’m passionate about this isn’t because I feel sorry for a kid like me that’s suicidal. I actually don’t feel sorry for them. I I don’t think we’re losing.

[00:35:20] I I I think we are losing some of the most gifted people. I’ve never asked been asked to speak or sing at a funeral whether if somebody’s taking a life where the mom or dad says, it’s good thing our daughter’s gone. She had nothing to offer this world. It’s always the opposite. She’s so gifted.

[00:35:37] And I’ve talked with hundreds of thousands of teenagers now. And now I can sum things up pretty quickly. The reason I do this is because we’re losing some of the most gifted people. When I was growing up, my friends, I watched them go through something tough and they could just keep going, and I couldn’t. I would get to my room and bawl my eyes out, and I thought I was cursed with this extra emotion.

[00:36:01] Like, why do I hurt so deeply? All that time, I didn’t know I was a songwriter. Yeah. This extra emotion that I had wasn’t for me. It was for the people around me.

[00:36:12] It was meant to be even if it’s dark, it was meant to be poured into a song. Like, it’s tears aren’t meant to be kept in your system. I say tears are kinda like, not like poison, but they need to get flushed out once in a while. But we live in a world especially for guys suck it up, be a man, don’t talk about your emotions. So for me, like, I’ll give you like, when I talk with somebody, I walk them through it.

[00:36:36] And usually when I meet kids after a show, a counselor brings a kid backstage to meet with me, I can walk through it. But the other day I’m at an airport and I’m about to board my flight and a girl runs up to me and I know I’ve got a couple minutes but she’s just crying. She goes, Robb Nash, your music means so much to me. I was diagnosed with depression. I have suicidal thoughts, you know, and I was like, okay.

[00:36:57] I’m like, I knew I had no time, but I was like, so you’re like me. And she said, what do you mean? I was like, you hurt deeply, but you love deeply, don’t you? And she was like, yeah. I was like, you hurt deeply, but you can see when others are hurting, can’t you?

[00:37:15] And she was like, yeah. I was like, yeah. You have what I have, and it sucks sometimes, but you can help a lot of people with that. I was like, isn’t it interesting that you and I get diagnosed with depression, which is very real. Nobody gets diagnosed with empathy.

[00:37:30] And she went, And you could just see the reframing of her. I’m like, so do you dance? Do you sing? Do you paint? She goes like, yeah, I’m in dance.

[00:37:39] How do you know? There is a weird connection between the arts and mental illness. Mhmm. These emotions, that’s why we lose so many artists. Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington.

[00:37:51] I’m talking about rock artists that you may not know. Yep. You’ve Yeah. But you’ve got this emotion inside of you and it feels like a curse sometimes. But we’re actually telling young people it’s like, don’t hold it in, channel it into a song or a painting or a journal, like, bottle it up or shut it off.

[00:38:13] Like and depression is very real and I’m not always against medication, but it’s that’s usually our answer. You take this, it’ll turn that off. It’s like I’ve been on every medication and there’s moments where I’m like, cool, I don’t experience all of this, but I also can’t write a song now. You know, I’ll tell you a true story. Hopefully, don’t screw up any of the details here, but you can look it up yourself.

[00:38:35] Anybody listening or watching, there’s an eight year old girl that was called into the principal’s office. Her parents are called in. Principal says, yeah, we’re kicking your daughter out of school. She can’t sit still. She can’t focus.

[00:38:47] She can’t think straight. She distracts all the kids. To give examples of how useful she is, here comes all the teachers. So the teachers came in and this eight year old girl says, was sitting on my hands. I didn’t wanna be the girl they were describing that was so antsy and, you know, distracted.

[00:39:06] And then finally, a teacher came in and said to the parents, can I talk to you in the hallway for a second? So teachers or the parents said, sure. So they walk out. As they’re leaving the room, teacher flipped on the radio and closed the door and the parents are standing in the hallway. The parents are like, what do you wanna tell us?

[00:39:23] Nothing. I wanna show you something. Look through the window. And because she flipped the radio on, this little girl was dancing around the room. I said, there’s nothing wrong with your daughter.

[00:39:32] She’s a dancer. She needs to be moving to think. Tell her put her in dance class. Give her a way to channel that. So they put her in dance class.

[00:39:41] Sum it up quickly. She went on to the Royal Ballet. She met Andrew Lloyd Webber. She wrote all the choreography for cats. She wrote all the choreography for Phantom of the Opera.

[00:39:57] Wow. And she’s now a multimillionaire with dance colleges all over the world because one person looked at her and said, you’re not cursed, you’re gifted. Nowadays, we try to make her sit still. Right? And I again, I’m not like and there’s a hierarchy of of school courses which ones are important that were all based on the industrial revolution.

[00:40:18] There’s a great TED talk by Sir Ken Robbinson that you should watch on that. He tells the story I just told you about, The Dancer. But Mhmm. You know, there’s these ways of channeling. I did a show for all the addictions foundations in Alberta.

[00:40:33] They all came together. And I’m looking at this and I go, you know, I’m not here because I feel sorry for you guys either. I was like, look, addicts, we think we’re cursed because we can’t quit. Our friends can party on the weekend. They can shut off and go back to school or go back to work.

[00:40:51] Addicts, can’t. We’re still going on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we think we’re cursed because we can’t stop. I’m like, that’s not a curse either, and all these addicts are looking at me. I’m like, look, whatever we do, we’re all in. Like, I’m an addict.

[00:41:05] I’m an all in guy. When I got a hold of a guitar and I started a band, I was all in. I wasn’t gonna quit. And guess what? When I got a hold of drugs, I was all in.

[00:41:16] Yeah. That’s not a curse, that’s a gift. You point that at the right thing, you’ll excel at whatever you want. Point at the wrong thing, it’ll destroy your life. I I got last award I got was for some of the work I do with trafficking, human trafficking, and just the mental health that happens within that.

[00:41:29] And I went to the seminar and I’m talking with people that work specifically within trafficking, they said, you can pull that person that traffics, you put them in a room with a 100 kids, and they’ll be like, she’s vulnerable, that boy’s vulnerable, she’s they can point them out. Man, I have my blood was boiling. And I was like, woah, that that I was so upset and I got to my I got to bed that night and I was like, and every day I try to say, did I learn something today or did I teach something today? I better have made today count. I better have done something.

[00:42:00] And I was thinking about these traffickers. My blood was boiling. These guys can go into a room and they can spot the vulnerable kid. And then I went back to my logic, the place that you think you’re cursed is probably your gift set. And I was like, wait a second.

[00:42:14] They can spot the vulnerable kid in the room. That’s what I have. 10 kids come up to me after a show. Some are asking for autographs and a selfie, all of a sudden, my heart just that girl right there is vulnerable. I’ll just be like, are you okay?

[00:42:31] What do you mean? Do you have something on you that you need to get rid of? And all of sudden, they pull out a suicide note or a razor blade or they break down in tears and share their hearts. And Wow. And I was like, that that that trafficker has been given a God given gift to spot the vulnerable person in the room.

[00:42:52] Could be a counselor, they could be a social worker, they could be a youth leader. Yeah. Now it’s been perverted and distorted in the worst way you can imagine, but that’s a gift too. It is. It can spot the vulnerable kid in the room.

[00:43:06] What could they do with that? Yeah. When I do prison shows, like, I like doing like, we’ve done maximum security prisons and all that. I thoroughly love those shows. But I try to focus on youth prisons when we do them because youth prisons a 15 year old getting out no matter what they’ve done.

[00:43:25] Yeah. And so it’s like, hey, you’re gonna get a second chance. What are gonna do when you get out of here? You know, like talking to them about that. And I’ll tell you what, you read the headline, you meet a kid that murdered their parents, That’s a terrible headline.

[00:43:39] Didn’t you actually sit down and listen to them and hear their story and you’re like, oh, wow. Like, we don’t all start from the same place, you know. And then we can be really quick to judge some of these things, but poof, I might be here also. So it’s like having that that grace. And honestly, like, again, I’m six five and a beard and a mohawk and tattoos and it’s not by accident.

[00:44:08] You know, I I like showing that tough kid in the back of the room or in the prison. It’s like you can be tough and edgy and rough on the outside and still be filled with love and compassion and mercy and grace on the inside, you know, and show girls they should expect that as well. Yeah. You know, which is which is huge. But, yeah, there’s a lot within it.

[00:44:31] And then I’ll tell you, we started getting tags, so many of these kids that were ripping up their suicide notes. They started tattooing the lyrics of our songs on their arms where they used to cut. Was like, that’s a song I wrote in my bathroom, and now it’s tattooed on somebody’s arm. I was like, man, how do I kind of repay if I’m not if a song I wrote is that much part of their life, how could I, like, repay that? So I I took the names and signatures from all the suicide notes, and I tattooed them here and filled them up.

[00:45:06] And I did this for the same reason I said before. It’s like, I want to be able to show people, like, look, are all signatures of people just like you that had those thoughts, and they’re still here. And when COVID hit, a lot of people said well, so many schools and communities were like, we need your help now more than ever with mental health, you know, and we couldn’t do our performances, you know. And there was a film crew that had been hired by CBC to do a little piece on me. And they were just they followed us for a few weeks on tour, they were just all in tears.

[00:45:37] And they said, man, we feel like our whole lives of doing production was to one day tell your story. So when COVID hit, I called them. I was like, you still wanna help tell a story? I wanted to go around the country and find some of these kids. Where are they now?

[00:45:50] And so they did. And I just wanted them to do a documentary just on that. But they’re like, we need to tell your story. You’re kind of the glue that puts it all together, you know? Mhmm.

[00:46:01] So they did a documentary and yeah. And we put it on YouTube just a few months ago. And hearing some of these kids stories, We wanted to do that and we actually had with teachers, social workers, counselors, and psychologists, we actually broke the documentary into episodes and it’s turned into, like, a teacher resource or some provinces they call it a curriculum. But kids sit in class and they watch a ten minute movie about my story, and then they watch a music video, and then they journal about what they learned from my story. Then they watch Dylan’s story, his name’s up here.

[00:46:39] They watch his story, journal about it. They watch four episodes, and then after four episodes, they’re asked to journal about their own story. And those journal entries go straight to the school counselor. Consistently in all schools that are taking it, twenty percent of the kids are self identifying that they need help with their mental health, and sixty percent were flying completely under the radar. Teachers saying that girl’s been in our classes for three years, and we had no idea that was going on up there or at home.

[00:47:12] So that’s now a follow-up to when we do our shows. Right. We were going all over the place, school to school. The demand got so huge for what we were doing that we couldn’t do that anymore, then I almost got burned out. Yep.

[00:47:25] Talk about that in the documentary too, but now we go to a bigger venue, like, we’re coming to Surrey Mhmm. In fall and to Bell Centre, and we’ll just bring in five, ten schools to a show and I tell my story, we play a song, I tell a story about a girl, she walks out, performs with stories and songs, stories and songs. And, you know, in the in the West, we’ll talk about mental health now a little more and physical health and emotional health, but we don’t talk a lot about spiritual health and that’s a sad thing. That’s one thing I like about working with the indigenous people is, like, that’s an open door right there. It’s, you know, even a drumbeat is spiritual to indigenous people.

[00:48:09] When we started going to reserves, at first it was like, okay, white boy, what’s the catch? Right? Mhmm. But once they saw that it was real and genuine, like, people can tell when you’re real, you know, when you mean it. And, yeah, some of the chiefs had a ceremony and they gave me my spirit name.

[00:48:28] The indigenous people, they don’t call me Robb Nash, they call me bear chief, like the healer or the protector. I said so that yeah. I actually tattooed that on my hand, a bear with chief across the fingers and Ah. Man, and I’ll tell you this story, Troy. Yeah.

[00:48:44] Listen to the layers of this. We were on a reserve four hours from a major city, and normally, we’re the only non indigenous people. My bass player, she’s indigenous now, but Yeah. But at the time, it was we were there wasn’t everybody was indigenous in the room except for us, but there was two black nuns in the audience. Was like, I was so curious.

[00:49:05] I’d never seen this before, I walked up, and I was like, can I ask where you’re from? He said, we’re from Africa. I was like, what are you doing here? They said our church in Africa heard about the issues on the reserves in Canada. They moved us here.

[00:49:19] We got a vehicle, and we drive to the city, and we get groceries to feed the kids at lunch that don’t have lunch. Now we send our money out there, which is fine if that’s what you feel called to do. Yeah. What did they raise in their currency to pull that off? They’re feeding our kids in Canada.

[00:49:39] Yep. And how many of us look in our own backyard, like, to see what’s going on? Like, the layers to that story just had me in tears, you know? Incredible. Yeah.

[00:49:51] Troy Van Vliet: I know. I remember my late father was like that. He traveled to some third world countries and my dad did he did well in business, and he was like it was like a calling to him. It’s like, am I supposed to sell everything that I own and go and help these people on the other side of the world and but then he also realized there is so much help needed right at home and you’re proving that with the, you know, the tours that you’re going on. You know, you brought it up COVID and what we did with our kids.

[00:50:30] We flipped what we normally do on its head in terms of, you know, it was always, you know, women and children first. We’d always make sure you always because of the children, that is the future of society. That is our future. Without the kids, we have nothing. There is absolutely nothing that will continue society’s success and growth.

[00:50:54] And instead what we did during COVID and this might this may hit some nerves with some people here, but I’m going to dare to throw it out there. Decided to protect the elderly at the cost of our youth. And by keeping our youth at home for months and months, first in some areas it went even longer and we devastated them in their education, we devastated our kids socially, we took athletics away from them, we did all of those horrible things to our kids. I mean, the worst thing you could do, when somebody’s in prison, what is the worst thing that you could do, worst form of punishment within a prison to somebody, is solitary confinement. And we just did that with all of our kids, And you

[00:51:50] Robb Nash: it was just backwards.

[00:51:53] Troy Van Vliet: It went against the grain of everything we’ve ever done in society and we’re still paying the price and you’re expressing that right now with everything that you’re doing, going around and hearing how, what’s the suicide rates? How many kids are coming to us going like, Oh my gosh, I actually am considering, you know, considering killing myself. What? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:52:17] Like, how could it have gotten this bad? So, I mean, that was just, you know, the icing on the cake. We only had problems before, but Yeah.

[00:52:24] Robb Nash: I mean, my dad passed away during COVID, not from COVID, but Yeah. During COVID. But, you know, my mom and dad live in a condo with elderly people. And Yeah. And I’ve got three daughters, and we couldn’t barely see them.

[00:52:40] And then he passed away, and then and we had to pick 10 people. Yeah. Go to his funeral, you know, and that’s that was tough, you know. Yep. You can’t yeah.

[00:52:52] You can’t get those couple years back. That was tough. No. And if you watch that documentary, by the way, he passed away two days before they interviewed me. And I’ll tell you this, I was I when I was talking with the director and producer and all that stuff and the one guy that, by the way, had like three Emmy nominations in Saw Show of mine years ago, And he’s, like, kinda tired of Hollywood.

[00:53:18] And he’s, I’d, like, follow you and film you because maybe one day we’ll need this footage for a story. And Mhmm. So we had some big guys that made the documentary. And, yeah, when we were shooting it, they’re like, hey, man, your dad just passed away. Should we redo this?

[00:53:33] And I was like, no. Let’s just do it. And it was hard to do, but it brought something really raw out of me. But I had a lot of you know, when I talked with them, they were kinda like, you know, how, like, I’d kinda told them, like, man, I was the way I was judged by my family for the music I was playing and listening to. And I and the director at one point was like, hey, man, like, your dad, like, you wanna go there again?

[00:53:58] Like, because I talked to them and how, you know, every kid wants their dad to be proud of them. Like, when I played sports, my dad didn’t miss a game and he was my biggest fan and I wanted his approval in the in the work I was doing. Maybe he didn’t like what I was doing, but I wanted him to know why I was doing it. I had this frustration. And so the producer was like, Robb, aren’t you gonna go there?

[00:54:17] Like, this earth that you had towards your dad, you know? And I was like, god, he just died two days ago. And you nailed it. Like, some of the stuff I was taught kept me out of some trouble, you know. Even though, you know, I didn’t get to see, you know, hear some things and get a lot of movie references because we didn’t watch movies home like all my buddies and stuff.

[00:54:41] But it kept me out of some trouble for sure. And man, I am if we would have shot that documentary and I would have gone there, like, oh, my parents and this was how my like, my brother’s in the documentary. He’s very open, you’ll see, of how he judged me for what I was doing and the tattoos and all that stuff. But Mhmm. And if I would have done that documentary and my dad would have passed away a month after it came out, And, oh, that would have hurt my heart that he would have seen that.

[00:55:12] And just for an update for everybody watching, like, you know, somebody came to my dad’s mom and dad’s door and was like, hey, is your son Robb Nash? And they were kinda like, yeah. Like, hey, can you thank him? He really helped our granddaughter. They like, wait, what?

[00:55:30] It’s like, well, you must be so proud of him, you know? And it hurts me a little bit that it took somebody else validating me. Yeah. My dad did show up for a few shows and before he passed away, like

[00:55:44] Troy Van Vliet: Oh, nice.

[00:55:45] Robb Nash: Still a big earplugs in his ears. He didn’t know what it was sounding like, but I think he knew why I was doing it. But man, am I glad I didn’t take shots at me. I didn’t now I realized I didn’t finish this thought before, like, all I heard about was the fear of God, and I never heard the love of God, you know. And that’s a ditch you don’t wanna be in.

[00:56:02] But I think also we can get into the ditch too much of all you hear is love love love love love and you Yep. And you don’t think at all about consequences or Yeah. You know, you get caught, but it’s Reminds me of two miles a ditch, you don’t want to get caught in either, you know?

[00:56:17] Troy Van Vliet: Is it that’s why they’re on both sides of the road. Yeah. Absolutely. I want to ask you, have you heard of the organization called Sanctuary?

[00:56:28] Robb Nash: Yeah. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So I said it before we hit record here, but before COVID, man, we were booked.

[00:56:39] I couldn’t tell you where we’re gonna be. Like, tour schedule was booked two, three years in advance. And it takes a lot to figure out our tour and get the venue booked for a week and get the funding and the we pay for the school buses if the if the school like we just try to do everything because schools don’t get the support they need for mental health. They don’t have the funds. We just do it.

[00:57:02] But so it’s sad that we don’t have it all, but we have flexibility now. And when I was invited into the prayer breakfast a couple of weeks ago in Vancouver, I met, yeah, Brianna from Sanctuary and Pastor. Oh, good. Could you come do a show for, you know Yeah. Our guy.

[00:57:23] And I was like, look, we always got a we actually have normally, I’d say, we’re booked for the next two, three years. We actually have room right now. So I’m like Yeah. Hey, we need a venue. And she’s like, we have a venue.

[00:57:34] I was like, we need people that can bring in the kids, you know, when we have the kids, I was like, and we got to, we got to fundraise. Well, we could even try to help with that. And I was like, hey, we’ve got some, we’ve got room in the so if anyone watching, it’s like, yeah, we would love when we actually have room for that in this tour schedule that we’re working on right now for That’s great.

[00:57:55] Troy Van Vliet: And that’s so for September, this coming September?

[00:57:58] Robb Nash: Well, yeah, we tour during the school season. It takes a while to set it all up,

[00:58:03] Troy Van Vliet: but Yep.

[00:58:03] Robb Nash: It really takes a few champions. And champions school board, let’s say, and or teachers or counselors or whatever. That’s it. Yeah. Should work together with the Robb Nash Project.

[00:58:13] We take it takes okay. We have a connection to a venue and we’re often doing all this work ourselves as a project. But man, if we have local champions and some people say, hey, you know, I’ll raise money and to anybody watching this, like, I say I always challenge young people, hey, don’t just figure out what you do, but figure out why you’re doing it find something that stirs you and you don’t have to do what I did and you know rip up a record deal and start your own charity but find something that stirs you and be a part of it and even if it’s an hour a week, but do something and let your kids see that you’re a part of something. So if you’re stirred by this conversation, you wanna help us come to Vancouver and do a show for your schools and be a part of it and come volunteer and be an usher at the at the show or whatever it is, great. But if you’re not stirred by this conversation, that’s okay.

[00:59:03] But find something that stirs you and go be a part of that thing and let your family see because you talked about what we’re lacking in the West. Like, we are so hyper focused on more. And it’s okay to have things. And we toured with some of the biggest bands and you meet them backstage and they have everything, the fame, the fortune. You meet them Yep.

[00:59:24] And they’re some of the emptiest people because they stop at success they never move on to significance. Mhmm. Using your success, loo using it’s okay to have more. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:59:34] As long as you’re using some of that more to do something like, people get really scared of the word prosperity. But being prosperous is having enough money to do the work Good. You’ve been called to do. So if you are walking from village to village in Africa, you got sandals on your feet, you’re probably prosperous. But if you were meant to give a billion dollars to a cause that is doing something good and you’re only giving millions, you’re not prosperous.

[01:00:07] Yeah. Having enough money to do God’s calling in your life, that’s prosperity. And so find something that stirs you. It may not be mental health and addiction and self harm and all the stuff we talk about from eating disorder. Like, we cover a lot of ground in our shows.

[01:00:22] And Yeah. I don’t know, you know, Clay, you’re I think you’re still watching, but when you do this, put a link to our documentary up and you get to not just hear me tell these stories, you get to hear the six kids tell their stories

[01:00:35] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah.

[01:00:36] Robb Nash: In a documentary and, yeah, it’s free to watch

[01:00:38] Troy Van Vliet: on YouTube. I’ll see what we can do to put your video, your documentary on our website, on the school website as well, the school and foundation website. Yeah. Because I think it’s something that everybody needs to see and we’d love to promote it and of course, we’ll link it in this video as well. It’s a great documentary, I have watched it.

[01:00:58] It’s fantastic.

[01:00:59] Robb Nash: Yeah, they did a great job. And,

[01:01:02] Troy Van Vliet: but it tells what so much is going on in the world that that people don’t know. And the sanctuary program, this would be go hand in hand with what you’re doing. It would be a great way to help to launch sanctuary in the schools as well. That’s a 12 video program, and it’s not just for people that are suffering from, you know, different mental health challenges, it’s for everybody to see it and just to be able to recognize that kid in the crowd that is, you know, maybe troubled, but is not talking about it and that kid that you least expect.

[01:01:44] Robb Nash: Yeah. And it might not be that you’re going through it, but you also start looking at that kid sitting alone in the hallway, you’re thinking about the kid at the oh, man, you start considering other people. And we’re now like, when we started, we really put a lot of focus on, like, let’s hit the grade elevens and the twelves because they’re Yeah. In the midst of so much. Now we do a lot with work with middle schools because, like Oh.

[01:02:05] We can do preventative stuff and let kids know, hey, you’re going to face a tough day in your life. You may not have seen it yet, but you will and you’re gonna have to figure out what you’re gonna do with it and, you know, there’s we were in Edmonton once and we did a show and after the show, we were at a restaurant for dinner and came back out to the tour bus that a couple gave us. I’ll tell you that quick story. A couple came and watched one of our shows. They have a few bucks.

[01:02:33] Yep. They find a cause that they believe in.

[01:02:35] Troy Van Vliet: Yep.

[01:02:37] Robb Nash: They think about it. They pray about it. If they have the same amount on their hearts without talking about it, they donate. So she thinks they should give the wife thinks they should give $10 and he thinks 15, they don’t give a dollar. Only if they independently hear the same amount.

[01:02:53] And they told us that they watched the show and they were stirred and a week later she goes, I don’t think we’re supposed to give them any money. He goes, me neither. She goes, we’re supposed to buy them a tour bus. He goes, mhmm. That’s what I heard.

[01:03:05] So they flew us to Nashville and bought us the tour bus that Adele was renting for her tour.

[01:03:10] Troy Van Vliet: Oh, really?

[01:03:11] Robb Nash: 16 flat screen TVs inside, which by the way, sounds like a blessing until you have to put diesel in it and you have to pay for the fuel. But then Yeah. Then a trucking company says, we’ll pay for the fuel. Anyways, we’re doing the show in Edmonton And because our tour bus is kind of noticeable, like, we came out of the restaurant and there’s a guy waiting by a restaurant and he walks up or he sees waiting by our tour bus and we walk up and he runs up, gives me a hug and he’s crying. You know, I was like, oh, hey, I’m like, how you are okay?

[01:03:39] Like, what’s going on? He goes, you spoke in my middle school a few years ago. I was like, okay. He goes, I wasn’t going through anything tough. He goes, but a year later, my mom and dad died.

[01:03:52] Oh, no. And then I remembered all the stuff you said in that presentation. And I’m waiting to thank you. And that’s why we do this. Like, when you get to that tough day and he mentioned it, like, he this quote was locked in his head.

[01:04:04] And what I tell people all the time from stage or in conversation, I say like, look, life is full of painful days. And another cliche people will say like, oh, don’t like when my dad died, I couldn’t believe how many people say, oh, don’t worry, the pain will go away. And then the pain doesn’t go away and you think there’s something wrong with you. Right? Yeah.

[01:04:26] And I say like if you’ve lost somebody in your life that that pain is not going away and it shouldn’t. No. Because that means you forgot them. Yeah. Can say, but listen, if pain doesn’t go away, neither does the strength.

[01:04:39] If you wake up in the morning looking for pain, you will find it. But if you get up in the morning looking for strength and hope and help, you can find that too. And he he’s like, my parents died a year later and then I remember what you said. Oh. When you go away, neither does the strength.

[01:04:56] So you plant these seeds with kids, you know, and you’re not always there to water it, you’re not always there to even see it

[01:05:03] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah.

[01:05:03] Robb Nash: When it So blossoms, you know?

[01:05:06] Troy Van Vliet: Do you have I mean, there’s thousands of kids at lives you’ve touched or whatever. Do you have a favorite story that is the most impactful? Like, you talked about the first one where the girl came up to you and gave you the note, And that was your first, you know, sort of big wow moment. Is there is there another one that stands out with you in all of these tours that you’ve done that I mean, I know there’s hundreds or thousands in there, but

[01:05:31] Robb Nash: Yeah. There’s thousands, but popping out to me right now and if there’s a student watching how was I not the one? This is just one that pops into my Yeah. Heart right now. And we did a show.

[01:05:48] It’s a theater. Let’s say 1,500, 2,000 kids from all different schools. And then afterwards, like, we brought down kids from reserves all over the place. And so afterwards, I went with some elders and the chief, and we had a sharing circle. And some people might think, oh, you can’t do that, like a sharing circle, and Mhmm.

[01:06:11] You’re dipping into things. But if you’ve never been in a sharing circle, it’s really quite something, you know. There’s, you know, there’s a song, like, there’s a few people with a drum and they sing and then you get a talking stick and you share and everybody listens. And nobody’s interrupting and if you’re not holding that stick, you don’t talk and then it gets passed around. So this elder said so there’s an elder here and she sang a song, and there’s an indigenous young man on my left, and he was doing the drumbeat.

[01:06:42] And then so the elder said, oh, she’ll go around and you watch the show today. Just talk about how you were impacted by the show today. You know? And so the this kid that was leading the sharing circle, he takes his thinking as well. Was it was really good seeing Robb Nash today because last time I saw him, I was in prison.

[01:07:03] I was like, woah. Then and I was like, and then I remembered him and he was in jail. He was 15. I won’t get into his story. He is in the doc after this, I was like, hey, this is a kid we should follow-up with, but here’s a that was in in prison, you know, for, you know, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder times conspiracy to commit murder times five, attempted murder, a bunch of other things, and but he was 15.

[01:07:35] And again, I knew he was getting out of prison, so what are you gonna do with your life when you get out? And Yeah. And now here he was leading a bunch of indigenous kids younger than him in a opening up, and he was vulnerable in front of all these kids. And it’s like I saw Robb before and I was in prison, don’t do what I did. Don’t hit rock bottom like me, you know, like and I’m not here to tell you any of the kids.

[01:07:58] These kids aren’t still gonna have bad days and make bad choices, like, there’s, you know, like, Ask my kids if I’ve been a perfect dad or my wife if I’ve been a perfect husband, but it’s like, we have to be willing to start over, you know. As a songwriter, man, I’m like you know, you read what David wrote as a songwriter, and that was also a flawed man, you know, but being willing to start over, you know. And that’s what I try to teach kids no matter where you are. There’s one thing we all have in common in this room right now, kids. We’re all breathing.

[01:08:33] And the first song I always play at our show, I tell my story, and I sing a song that I wrote about my story. It’s one last breath. Okay. I’ve got one last breath. What what’s gonna come out?

[01:08:44] You know? What’s what are people gonna remember? You know, did you impact somebody in your life? Because that, again, purpose is what’s in us, the what we’re, you know, designed for. That’s what we’re that’s what we crave.

[01:08:57] Not for our like, there’s you know, it feels good. Like, I’m not gonna deny it. It feels good to do good things, but Yeah. It’s in our it’s in our DNA. It’s in our spirit that we’re meant to impact the community around us and the people around us.

[01:09:15] Wow, this one’s popping into my head too, but there’s a young man he’d I’m not a counselor. I I’m not a social worker. I’m not a psychologist. I always say, like, it took me a while to figure out what my role was. I’m trying to be the bridge between the hurting and the help, you know, validate that it’s okay to be vulnerable and open up and get help.

[01:09:38] But there’s a family friend that he had his third attempt and they said, hey, can you be there when he gets released from the hospital? And I was like, sure. So I went for a chat with him and he was oh, he was fired up. He was like, man, this is my life. Like, if I wanna cut myself, these are my arms.

[01:09:55] Like, he was upset with his parents. Like, you know, if I wanna if I wanna get high, it’s my brain. If I wanna kill myself, it’s my life. And I looked at him, I’m like, yeah, but I think there’s something special about you. He’s like, again, like, twisting it a bit.

[01:10:10] Right? And he goes, what are doing? I said, you ever sitting at a red light, busy streets, and somebody stands out to you, and you’re not sure why? I was like, maybe she’s hot, but sometimes just Mhmm. Somebody stands out to you, you just notice them.

[01:10:24] Does that ever happen to you? He goes, yeah. Actually, that happens all the time, which I think happens to all of us if we actually take our mind off of ourselves and Yep. Your surroundings. Of course.

[01:10:34] I said, yeah. I think you have a gift. Let’s go for a walk. So we start walking. We’re downtown and busy streets and he goes, what are we doing?

[01:10:42] Just let me know if anybody stands out to you. He goes, well, it’s really weird that you say that because when we got out here, I noticed that old woman over there across the street. I’m like, oh, the old woman with the walker? He goes, yeah. I noticed her.

[01:10:57] I was like, okay. Let’s go find out why. So we start walking across the street. He’s like, wait, what are we doing? Like, let’s find out why you noticed her.

[01:11:04] And I’m like, please let something happen. We walked across. I said, hello, ma’am. Is there anything we could do for you right now? And she starts crying.

[01:11:13] She’s like, are you serious? Yeah. She goes, I’ve been standing here for half hour. She goes, my shoes are untied. I’m scared to take another step because I don’t wanna fall and break my other hip.

[01:11:25] I just prayed that somebody would come and tie my shoes. Would you boys tie my shoes for me? It was perfect. I tied one, he tied the other. We got up.

[01:11:34] It was like we just bought her a car. She was so grateful. And we walked away and he’s like, that was awesome. I’m like, yeah, man. I was like, you saw it?

[01:11:43] He goes, yeah, I did. I was like, let me ask you this. I’m like, do want to get high right now? I said, not really. I said, wanna hurt yourself?

[01:11:49] He’s like, no. I’m like, you wanna kill yourself? He’s like, no. I’m like, why? Who are you focused on?

[01:11:54] He’s like, her. I’m like, let me guess. When you’re cutting yourself and you’re suicidal, you’re alone in your room, aren’t you, most of the time? He said, yeah. I said, maybe all those times, somebody outside needs their shoes tied.

[01:12:09] And there’s a voice in your head trying to get you to completely focus on yourself so you don’t go tie somebody’s shoes, You know? And he was like, woah. His parents called a few weeks later, what’d you say to our kid? I’m like, why? Because every day before he goes to school, he’ll like go knee mow the neighbor’s driveway or mow the neighbor’s lawn or something.

[01:12:28] Mhmm. He’s taken his mind off of himself, know, and we have such a self absorbed world. Oh. Our We have. Capture ourself.

[01:12:37] Even parents are going, get some me time.

[01:12:41] Troy Van Vliet: Oh, totally.

[01:12:42] Robb Nash: Totally family. Right? But and it’s like understandably, like the majority of us only look after ourselves, don’t do anything for anyone else, that’s a bad ditch. Yeah. Some of us get so focused on helping others, we don’t take care of ourselves, that’s not healthy, you’ll burn out.

[01:12:58] Yep. But here’s the case, go tie somebody’s shoe, you know. Just listen to that prompting you have and it doesn’t have to be significant. It can be a text, it can be a phone call, but, man, do something outside of yourself. That’s what and one thing you learn in addiction is you cannot shut off an addiction.

[01:13:18] That’s It’s

[01:13:19] Troy Van Vliet: there. Four seven going, going, going. You can only replace it.

[01:13:24] Robb Nash: Wow. What are you gonna replace it with? And well, there’s a lot of

[01:13:28] Troy Van Vliet: I gotta write that one down.

[01:13:30] Robb Nash: Yeah. And that’s not a Robb Nash thing. That’s a psychology thing. You cannot Yeah. Stop an addiction.

[01:13:35] You can only replace it. What are you gonna replace it with? And I tell you what, philanthropy or purpose, man, that is an addiction and it’s a healthy one. And you don’t like try not to do it self granted like the amount of people and I’m not always it’s not always bad, but the amount of people like that film themselves doing something good to post it online like the Yeah. But it feels good to do some of these things, but be careful.

[01:14:02] But man, to do something just because, you know, and yeah. And be an ally to somebody. We all want to be, you know. Our

[01:14:14] Troy Van Vliet: our school became kind of I’m just kind of reflecting back on it. It became an addiction for me in terms of, you know, we got to build this school and it started out, my motivation was a selfish motivation, selfish in the sense that I wanted, especially for my youngest daughter, but I wanted a school for them to go to. They were in a great Catholic elementary school, there was no high school locally, and I wanted something for them and there’s a much longer story that goes along with that as well. But quickly that selfishness changes when you realize there’s going to be tens of thousands of kids that are going to get educated here with a fantastic foundation and moral compass guiding their lives for the next hundred years plus. And so all of a sudden, not no, I wasn’t doing this for me and my kids.

[01:15:10] I’m doing this for everybody else and their kids in the society that’s gonna benefit from it going forward and so many incredible things and it’s become an addiction for me because it’s what I focus on most of my day.

[01:15:24] Robb Nash: Yeah.

[01:15:24] Troy Van Vliet: And it’s something it’s not my job. I don’t get paid

[01:15:27] Robb Nash: for Right. Well, and two things can be true at the same time. Like you can do

[01:15:31] Troy Van Vliet: it Yes.

[01:15:32] Robb Nash: For it feels good and you wanted to do it for your kids. As well as it’s the right thing to do. It’s gonna help a lot of other people, you know. So like, just because, yeah, two things can be true at the same time and you know, if you scared of that.

[01:15:47] Troy Van Vliet: Exactly. Yeah. That the day to day focus, it’s like, yes, while I’m doing this for my kids and taking care of my kids, looking Yeah. Other people are going to benefit from this as well.

[01:15:57] Robb Nash: Yeah.

[01:15:58] Troy Van Vliet: The way you go. And there’s where you find something you’re passionate about. And, yeah, so

[01:16:06] Robb Nash: I had a pick me up at the airport one time. How’s your flight? And you know, man, when I walk on a flight, especially I’m with my band, you know, like, I’m wearing my leather jacket and I’m six five and covered in because you can just kinda see people going like, oh, I hope he doesn’t sit with me, you know, and Mhmm. And then you sit down and they see the names on your arm and they’re thinking, I wonder what those names mean.

[01:16:29] Troy Van Vliet: Exactly. Their

[01:16:30] Robb Nash: imaginations can But, you know, but then people ask can ask about Yeah. What’s can I ask what you do or then, you know, I start with my why and so my buddy picks me up the airport and he goes, hey, was your flight? I’m like, oh, man. I had this amazing conversation with this person blah blah blah. And he goes, oh, you suck.

[01:16:51] And I was like, what? What? He goes, yeah. Like, you get on a flight and you get to have these big deep conversations. And, you know, you’re like, because people think what you do is cool and blah blah blah.

[01:17:05] And, you know, and people ask me, I don’t know if I what do you do? And I said, oh, I’m an accountant. And the conversation’s over. And I said, well, that’s because nobody cares about what you do. And he’s like, harsh.

[01:17:18] And I was like, hey, but nobody cares about what I do either. Like, I hit metal strings with a plastic stick. That’s what I do. No one cares. They care about why I’m doing it.

[01:17:29] Yeah. He said and I looked at my friend, like, he’s one of the most generous people and he’s, you know, he’s really passionate about homeless people in our city and he not only does he, like, help fund the thing, you know, and but he goes there and volunteers with his family and his kids. And I was like, man, next time somebody asks you on a flight, what do? Don’t start with what you do. Say, why?

[01:17:52] Start with why. It’s like, hey, what do you do? Honestly, there’s a soup kitchen in our city, and we have a real issue with homeless people. And the soup kitchen, this is how many people get fed every month, and they have these many people can sleep there, and there’s medical facilities and blah blah blah. And I’m really passionate about it, and we volunteer there with as a family once a once a month or whatever it is.

[01:18:15] You know? And, yeah, it takes a lot of funding to pull it off. And I’m really good with numbers, so I do accounting. And that’s how I am able to raise some money for the soup kitchen. And you just flipped it a little bit.

[01:18:29] You know what I mean? Yeah. Start with why. And again, I said it before, but I usually talk with youth, but to adults, like, want a relationship with your kid, you know, you wanna have deep conversations and show them examples of let your kid know not just what you do, but why you do it. Let them see that you’re passionate about something, that you go the extra mile once in a while for something, you know.

[01:18:56] Those are the things that they’re gonna remember about you. Yeah. When you’re when you’re gone, and that’ll those are the influences that you wanna leave with them. And Yeah. Getting that focus back in the right place, which as we’ve both said, we’ve kind of lost, you know, that that meaning and purpose that’s been given to us.

[01:19:18] Yep. What we’re meant for, you know.

[01:19:21] Troy Van Vliet: Gotta bring it back. Gotta bring it back. Robb, do you have a last message that you wanna give out to our viewers and listeners that you may want to say, hey, now I’m putting you on the spot, but I’m sure you’ve got something in there that you can dig up and

[01:19:38] Robb Nash: Yeah. It’s just I’ve said it a few times here, but make every day count. Like, you just never know and you we can be so good. Oh, yeah. Maybe tomorrow I’ll do something.

[01:19:52] But just like I said to that kid, open your eyes, look around when you get to a red light, and you’ll if you if you get stirred by something, like, your eyes, take a look around you, see what’s going on. You know, I spoke at a conference in Toronto a little while ago and this guy walked out and he said, hey, I just want to apologize for something. And I was like, oh, what? And he goes, well, while you were speaking, I I left the room, and I didn’t mean to disrespect you. But while you were talking, you kept talking about promptings, and something inside of me told me to call my college roommate that I haven’t talked to in fifteen years.

[01:20:35] So I went out in the hallway because I was just thinking about these promptings, and I called him and he said that he was in the darkest place of his life and he didn’t know if he was gonna make it to the weekend. And, like, there was 4,000 people at that conference. I there’s lights on you. I didn’t see him walking out. But it’s in that moment and, you know, we can get so focused on ourselves, but even as you, like, people go, like, how do you how do you get a prompting?

[01:21:05] How do that? But, like, right, like, when you when you turn off this podcast, or even right now, you just close your eyes and be like sometimes you think you have to figure out how to feel prompting or how do you how do you hear God’s voice. It’s like, you how do I put it? Show him. It’s like, I’m gonna close my eyes, bring somebody to my heart, and all of a sudden you think of your college roommate or somebody.

[01:21:38] Right? And they come to your heart. God, I don’t know what that if that was you, but I’m gonna reach out to them. And in the future, if I get I’m gonna act on this prompting right now. In the future, if you wanna communicate with me, do it this way, and I’ll act on that prompting.

[01:21:57] And so, like, learn. It’s like, and you’re not gonna make a mistake that way.

[01:22:02] Troy Van Vliet: Mhmm.

[01:22:03] Robb Nash: You know, you’re gonna be like, close down. Wow. Yeah. That guy called his college roommate. It’s like, close your eyes, somebody is actually oh, I just thought of somebody and I’m gonna call and you don’t have to, you know, start your own charity or anything like that.

[01:22:18] But

[01:22:19] Troy Van Vliet: Yeah. You don’t need to save somebody’s life for a prompting, you know, it doesn’t have to be anything. Realizing there’s so many things to be grateful for. Yeah. Making every day count can be as simple as being productive, picking up after yourself or cleaning up the kitchen when you’ve been putting it off or something.

[01:22:38] Like, it can be teeny little things.

[01:22:41] Robb Nash: Yeah.

[01:22:41] Troy Van Vliet: As listening to Jordan Peterson, you know. Yeah. Start with these small things with anything.

[01:22:47] Robb Nash: Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. Be careful like what you feed yourself, right? What you watch, listen to because there’s a reason like, stuff is gonna enter your ears and enter your brain, but there’s a reason it says guard your heart.

[01:23:01] Yeah. You know, like, watch like, make sure you fill your boat, your cup with Yeah. Something that’s gonna make you think a little bit and maybe there was something that stirred somebody watching or listening to this and then but when you click on the end of it, respond. Like, okay, let me try something. Let me see if somebody comes to my heart.

[01:23:23] Yeah. Maybe I should talk to them. And guess what? They might not even yeah. I’m good.

[01:23:31] And it’s not but you were obedient in that moment. Yeah. You stepped out and maybe you don’t find out.

[01:23:37] Troy Van Vliet: You took action. Right?

[01:23:38] Robb Nash: Five years. But now all of a sudden it’s like, oh, now it’s like, oh, you responded to that prompting. Now I can trust you with more of that in the future. More promptings and all of a sudden you’re like and maybe you find out in ten years, by the way, when you reached out to me that day, I said I was fine and I wasn’t. But you may not find that out.

[01:23:58] Yep. If you tell we’re all gone and later on you find out that that conversation meant something or at your funeral they say, you know, am I am I grandpa, he said this to me or my yeah, he was my roommate. They show up at your funeral, and they have a story to tell about you. And you may not get to hear it, but that’s not what it’s about, you know, like, you know, you did something and that’s what we crave and there’s and it’s okay with to act on those things. In fact, I think it’s what we’re meant to do.

[01:24:28] Troy Van Vliet: Well, you keep doing what you’re doing, Robb. Because

[01:24:31] Robb Nash: We’re on the same team.

[01:24:32] Troy Van Vliet: Our youth needs you. They need a light shine on an electron on these topics of mental health and, you know, we’re all in this big boat together. So we all should be helping each other and help grow in the same direction. And we’ll definitely we’re going to work to see what can do to get you out, if not just our school, but into a bigger arena, of course. We’ve done it already with other events.

[01:25:01] So but this one I think would have probably the most meaning so and the most impact. So we’d love to work with you. And hopefully we could have you back on when you come out as well. And maybe you’ll have some great some more great stories to share with us.

[01:25:18] Robb Nash: Yeah, that’d be great.

[01:25:19] Troy Van Vliet: All right. So thanks, Robb. I’ll say goodbye to everybody here as well. And please, if you could make sure you like, subscribe to these videos and podcasts and also give us comments, give us some feedback that really helps out and let us know if you’ve got some ideas of other people you’d like to have on the show. Robb, thanks so much.

[01:25:38] God bless you for what you do.

[01:25:40] Robb Nash: Thank you. And if you wanna hear anything else too, if you wanna our website is Robbnash.ca and you can find out more links to the documentary and all that stuff. Awesome. Has stirred you.
[01:25:50] Troy Van Vliet: And we’ll get your video in the link here as well. Awesome. Alright. Thank you for listening to Catholic Education Matters. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the podcast on your favorite listening platform, rate it, and also leave a review. Don’t forget to share this episode with your friends.