Pebe Sebert: Singer and Songwriter on music, aliens, and her dog rescue Magic Mission.

Pebe Sebert is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who is also known for being Kesha’s mom. She started singing at the age of four and performing publicly at six. Pebe has written for Kesha, Miranda Cosgrove, Miley Cyrus, Pitbull, Riders in the Sky, and many more. Sebert co-wrote one of my favorite songs “Old Flames Can’t Hold A Candle To You Dear” with High Moffatt. It's been performed by Dolly Parton, Kesha, Joe Sun, and Brian Collins.

This is a really fun podcast. Pebe talks about music, aliens, Eckhart Tolle, and her love of animals. Recently Pebe launched Magic Mission dedicated to improving the lives of street dogs in Central America. Their goal is to help spread a culture of animal kindness. Eliminating suffering and overpopulation through the support of community education and sustainable, safe spay and neuter programs. The non-profit also helps the dogs get adopted in the US.

Transcript:

Yulia Laricheva 0:06

Hello friends and welcome to another episode of the Dream Nation Love podcast. I'm your host Yulia. And here we are together, chugging along in 2021. It's been a really wild ride. I hope you are listening to the show and it's bringing you happiness. You can find it and subscribe on Spotify. And you can also reach out and say hello on Instagram at Dream Nation Love. I am super accessible. I'm here, say “Hi.” It's a small world, right? And we're doing our thing, and we're bringing you really amazing interviews every month. And today's guest is Pebe Sebert. She's a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, who's also known for being Kesha’s mom. Now I am a huge fan of both Kesha and Dolly Parton. So when I heard Kesha cover “Old flames can't hold a candle to you, dear” on the The Rainbow album, I took some time to see who wrote the song. I mean, I looove that song. Dolly's rendition is phenomenal, Kesha’s rendition is phenomenal. It's an amazing song and it's actually my wedding song. That's how special it is to me. I was blown away to see that Pebe Sebert wrote the song. She wrote it in the 70’s with her then-husband Hugh Moffatt for country singer Joe Sun, and then Dolly got a hold of it. Such an awesome song. Pebe is such an amazing musician. And it's no surprise that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. And along with writing songs for Kesha, Pebe has written for Miranda Cosgrove, Miley Cyrus, Pitbull, School Gyrls, and Riders In The Sky. Recently, Pebe launched Magic Mission. It's a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of cats and dogs in Central America. Supporting community education, spay neuter programs, as well as adoption programs. This is so awesome, because right now we're in a pandemic and there's a dog shortage out here. So it's really hard to find a dog in America. So why not adopt one from Central America? This is a really fun podcast. Pebe talks about music, aliens, love of animals, and so much more. Enjoy the show and definitely share the love and the podcast with a friend. And like I said, make sure you subscribe to us on Spotify and follow us on Instagram at Dream Nation Love. Love you.

Yulia Laricheva Pebe Sebert, thank you so much for being on the show.

Pebe Sebert 2:26

Oh, thank you. Thank you for inviting me.

Yulia Laricheva 2:29

I love your music and I'm so excited to have you here. Where do I begin? It's like… I guess I begin at the start. I know you started performing at like the age of four and six. You got into music really, really early. But I'm wondering what your dream was as a kid growing up?

Pebe Sebert 2:47

Well, so — it's funny because I just came into this life with like — it was all laid out for me. I literally was… My parents were, were first generation. My mom was straight off the boat from Hungary. You know, she spoke English, but like was not entrenched in any of the American — I mean nightmare — we can call it dream or nightmare, but I choose to call it nightmare. But she was like, not all about the American stuff. It was pretty much you know; they got off the boat and it was survive. It was like grow your food and pretty basic stuff. So and I came in and, and was like, I'm going to make records and write songs. And I think I told my mom that when I was like two or three years old. And we're out in the farm and my dad is a farmer and they're like “Well, okay, yeah.” So like, I didn't know where it wasn't like the family thing. And she was so great because she actually, like sought out help and put me in voice lessons and piano lessons. And, you know, this was all very foreign to this family. So nobody did this kind of thing. So she like sought it out and found, you know, ways for me to follow my passion. Which I just came in with it. I said I was going to write songs and make records. I remember they gave me a little record player for Christmas when I was like three years old. And I guess I was playing it one day. And you know, I think I still have that thing somewhere. But I was playing records and there was a singer singing like a Disney song. And I said well, I'm going to make records and sing like this. And I'm going to write the songs and, and it was never… It was really never a question after that about what I was going to do.

Yulia Laricheva 4:40

You just had it. Like off the bat. You knew your mission in life.

Pebe Sebert 4:43

Yeah, I came in. I came in with a certain thing I was gonna do and I don't know… You know what the reason… I mean, I know that I followed my own passion. I know ultimately — you know, Kesha’s work is the work that I feel like is changing the world and she's a voice for the voiceless. And I mean, she's become a huge voice for the LBGTQ.

Yulia Laricheva 5:07

L-G-B-T-Q

Pebe Sebert 5:08

I don't mean to be disrespectful. I literally can barely remember my grandchildren's name. So, you know, I feel like, like her being a voice for them. And, you know, I've met so many people in my travels with her. So many, I can't even tell you how many people who come up to me and said “If it wasn't for Kesha and her music, I would have killed myself. Because nobody understood what it was like to be a 10 or 11, or 12 year old gay kid somewhere. It doesn't matter where. It doesn't. I mean, but it particularly in Oklahoma, or wherever. It’s just like, and they're like “I didn't feel so alone because of her music.” And, you know, if my reason for being born was so that I could raise her and she could do that for people. You know, I feel like mission accomplished. But I have my own goals as well. And but I feel like, you know, maybe that's why I was born to do this music thing. So she could be that voice for the voiceless people.

Yulia Laricheva 6:20

I think so. I think there's always a mission. And I think there's always like, a higher purpose. I think, if you're open to it, you can tap into your higher purpose. But if you are not, then you won't. But everybody has a higher purpose.

Pebe Sebert 6:35

Yes.

Yulia Laricheva 6:36

And they just have to follow the gut. You know, and they have to just have people who support them to.

Pebe Sebert 6:42

Right

Yulia Laricheva 6:43

You know, whether it's in the family, or or if it's somebody like Kesha outside. Where you know, I've, I've listened to Kesha so many times when I've had like a crappy day. It’s just been like, I had one I had one ex boyfriend who was really into the Beatles and Grateful Dead. Wonderful bands. Love them both, sing along. He didn't like Kesha. He didn't like female vocals. He would turn down Erykah Badu, and I was like, and I was like, he's not on my frequency. And then when I met my husband, we're driving. And I just had like Kesha on a road trip. And he's like, “I love Kesha. I turn it up. Do you love Kesha?” And I was like “Yeah” and I was like, I was like “This is my person. This is my human.”

Pebe Sebert 7:19

Yeah, you know, I mean, you just can't be mad at Kesha music. You just can't. Like there's, I mean, other than she has a potty mouth. But she literally has the biggest heart of any human that's ever lived and if you hate Kesha music. You probably hate puppies. And kittens. Maybe babies who knows. You just — but she's very innocent and like nothing but actually love from her. So in the most real way and, and I'm proud of her for that.

Yulia Laricheva 7:52

Follow your love and it's amplifying love.

Pebe Sebert 7:55

That's really all there is. You know, when at all — I've been listening to a lot of Eckhart Tolle recently. Who I think is one of the highest living beings in our time. Him and Dalai Lama are, you know, two people that I will listen to. You know, I like Joe Rogan, but that's entertainment value. But as far as moral compass, Eckhart Tolle is a big one for me, and.

Yulia Laricheva 8:19

That book changed my life too. What is the book of “Be here,” wait is “Be here now?”

Pebe Sebert 8:25

Oh, “The power of now.”

Yulia Laricheva 8:26

I read it. And I was like “Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm always like, living in the tomorrow.” Like, I'm always in the future. That book is amazing.

Pebe Sebert 8:36

It's so crazy because I go for these long walks. There's a place near me. I live right outside Nashville and there's this beautiful park called Radnor Lake — that's a State Park — but it's literally probably about seven minutes from my door. And I drive over there almost every day and walk. Well actually, this is a crazy story. A friend of mine, one of my best friend, Eileen, we all met through this one particular dog that was a German Shepherd. And his name was Stetson. Stetson had passed away the day before. And so I went to Radnor and I'd already started to experience — like I've had some experience with connect with spirits on the other side. I had an experience with one of my dogs and a cat that were both on the other side. One time when I was up at learning past life regression with Brian Weiss at the what Institute in New York? It's the Omega Institute.

Yulia Laricheva 9:41

I haven't been there but I've driven by it. I've been — it's been on my radar.

Pebe Sebert 9:44

Yeah, so I went and took a week-long past life regression with Brian Weiss which was incredible. But up there walking, for the first time I connected like, so vividly in the woods with these two animals. And they were walking with me, and they were just letting me know that, that they were with me. And, and like really whenever I wanted to see and feel them that they were there. And you know, my house, there's so many live animals, they literally told me "You don't notices this at home because there's too many live animals that are doing what the live animals do. Which is bark and jump around." And that these two were like "We're there. And we're with you all the time." And so I went the day after my friend's dog passed. And she knew that I'd experienced seeing these other animals, she said "Will you try and talk to Stetson, when you go to Radnor." And I — and as soon as I like kind of turned my mind to that like — it's literally like a switch. Like I turned the songwriting switch on. Like, I can go from buying groceries and putting the groceries away to writing a hit song, with Kesha, or whoever, in five minutes. It's just a switch, I don't need to work up to it. And this was a switch, like, as soon as I switched on that “Okay, I'm gonna, like try and feel and sense somebody, or something on the other side.” Then I immediately saw the dog, and he's running through the woods. And, you know, and I, we have a lot of other animals that have passed on. And, you know, I could see him out of the corner of my eye, basically, but Stetson was there. And he was letting me know that he was, he was good. And so basically, in that time, over the next month or two of that time, which was a few years ago, I started walking, and I was like, okay "Who else is here?" And literally, one day, this one spirit, spelled its name to me in my head. But it just spell — both of them did and one was, was NEMA and the other was Amo, A-M-O and N-E-M-A. And I've gotten to see people since then, and been in like healing situations. We were at Olivia Newton John's healing spot in Australia earlier this year. And, and when we were there, I saw a psychic and a lady who said “Yeah, these spirits have been the ones who've been with you your entire life.” I've learned to listen to them. And they just tell me things. Like they told me last year when there was going to be an earthquake in LA, they said that an earthquake is coming. I told Kesha and a couple days later, there was an earthquake. It was only like a four, but still. It was like — so they and a friend of mines brother passed away recently. And I spoke to him and gave him some information. He'd already gotten confirmed from another source that was directly from his brother, like something his brother actually said. It was crazy. So I mean, these spirits are very powerful and very available to me. So, but I mean, the bottom line of Eckhart Tolle and the spirits and everything is, it's just the bottom line is “Love is the only thing that's real. Everything else is not real.”

Yulia Laricheva 13:07

Have you ever been to the Integratron in Joshua Tree?

Pebe Sebert 13:11

I want to go I've not been.

Yulia Laricheva 13:15

Oh my God, I've only been three times and —it's you know — it's an absolute perfect sound chamber. Right? And then it was built to like magnify — it had a spinning mechanism. Like if you read — to go on the website — if you go down that rabbit hole, it's so interesting. Because he created this perfect sound sculpture to amplify love on planet Earth. Oh, the crazy thing is, he had aliens tell him to build it. He in his dream had Moses's tabernacle plans, not including any nails, like it's a perfect dome. And it's the only structure that withstood earthquakes in that area since the 60s. Everything got destroyed except this place with no nails. And I can go on forever because…

Pebe Sebert 13:55

You've been in there?

Yulia Laricheva 13:56

I've been in there three times. And it's the only structure that he built and he wanted to build these stations all around the US. He was supposed to go on some kind of like a late-night talk show to talk about it. But he died and they think that his wife was like some CIA sent agent who was like sent to exterminate him. And she like poisoned him or something. So this man never got to live his mission. But my long story is; it's perfectly sound and they do these sound baths — which is going to be like my life goal. Like when — like in a few years I'm going to get a bunch of bowls and like just they are so…

Pebe Sebert 14:31

That's what my son is doing. My youngest son is doing that but go on.

Yulia Laricheva 14:36

I love it. So they do this like whole entire sound bowl ceremony in this perfect dome. So the sound completely vibrates through you, through this majestic wood. But when you're there, the first message that you usually get — if you're tuned in — some people just fall asleep. So like I would say like try to rent out the place or like try to go on a really slow day. Cuz I've been on like a day where it's quiet and I've been on a day where it's like private. And then I've been on a day where it's noisy and like the people who are unconscious, they're just going to snore. And they're not going to present, right? They're not here now. So they're going to tune out. But if you stay through it, it is such a cool experience, because you're going to get messages. Wherever these messages are sent from, if you're tuned in. And the first message is, you know, like, everything is love. So that was the first message that I got there. And then I took my man there. And I was like, What do you think, how's your experience? He's like “I just got the message that everything is love.” I’m like “Cool. Cool.” But then the cool thing is, as the frequencies go up. You see the different colors of the chakras, because all the different frequencies activate all of your different chakras. So it goes from like, you know, whatever red to like violet. And the first time I was like, then it gets really trippy. Like, I'm like doing an ad for the integratron. But if you're present, you're totally present. Like I had some lady walking out who was like “I just saw every guy I dated through all my past lives, even like George Washington down to like some reptilian.”

Pebe Sebert 16:08

Wait, what is the experience like? Do they shut you in there and like, just do you spin or what happens?

Yulia Laricheva 16:15

You just lay there for like, probably half an hour, maybe 45 minutes at the most, maybe 25 I don't remember. Time kind of stops.

Pebe Sebert 16:15

You just go in and lay down?

Yulia Laricheva 16:24

You just go and lay down on the mat and you just meditate. And, and you just, you know, just just stay focused, just breathe and try not to fall asleep while they do these crystal bowls. And the frequencies get higher and higher and higher.

Pebe Sebert 16:38

Wow.

Yulia Laricheva 16:39

It is a trip. Last time I got the message of “I should be a cloud artist.” And I was like, ooh, Dream Nation. I was like Georgia O'Keeffe cloud artist.

Pebe Sebert 16:47

Wow, that's so that's where you got your title, your Dream Nation?

Yulia Laricheva 16:52

That was, that was a year later. A year later. And I was like, That's weird. And it was like “Do more like artwork like Magritte on top of it.” And I was like “That's really bizarre.” But like just different, weird messages.

Pebe Sebert 17:04

That's what I get. I get that kind of stuff all the time. When I go to the park when I listen. And once again, it's the whole Power Of Now thing where, like, I'll catch myself when I'm walking. And I'm like thinking about like, just garbage. Garbage. Garbage like that does it — like is my internet going fast enough? Or like things that like, on the level of don't matter or are underneath the ground. And, and I keep having to make myself come back. That's what I've been listening to the Eckhart Tolle’s The New Earth. And which is like intense stuff. It's so simple. Like, it's so simple that it's like, it sounds so simple, that it sounds stupid. But then when you actually listen to it, like I could have probably not really understood what this stuff meant, at a certain point in my life. Because I wasn't clean enough to have the true meaning of what he's talking about go in my head. Which is, you know, basically everything we spend most of our time doing — is just bullshit. Everything about fame and fortune, like I chased that. You know, that was a goal because I was, you know, in music. Then I wanted like, I really wanted to just write a hit song. The whole, like, chase the fame and the fortune for myself as an artist. But in my particular case, I was an addict and was, I was born an addict. I just was addicted my entire life to something. Llike it was food in the beginning, I was really overweight. And then I did, you know, I discovered I could be anorexic, which I was like, starting at 10. And then I found like diet pills or speed, which would make me not only focus but helped me not be so hungry all the time. And then I had to drink to like, take the edge off of the, the speed and you know, pain pills. I was just a mess of a human which was great for my creative-ness. But it was not so good for my music career. Even though I did manage throughout all that to become successful, and I'm sure I would have done a lot better had I not been such a mess. Because, you know, you just, you don't do things when you're an addict. It's all about the drug or the alcohol or the high. It's more about that then it was about creating. And that I mean it was very much about the creating for many years. But then I just at one point pretty much crashed. When I was in LA when I was about to have a big record come out. Everything — you know. I really worked hard to get there and then that I like kind of built this house of cards. Yeah out of very shaky, shaky structure because, you know, underneath it all, I was just a wreck of a human being. So I had it all built up and things were about to take off. And I really do believe in my heart and it's not just like sour grapes that I would have died if I become so you know, famous, which was so close to happening. And I've got some of the music that I think I'm going to put out sometime soon, Kesha wants to redo a few of the songs from my artist, career, but I do believe I would have been successful and famous. And I probably would have lasted a year or two and probably died for sure. So I think at that point in time, I — my life fell apart. And in the middle of all that I already had my one son and I was out in LA, my marriage had fallen apart. So I'm just out in LA with my son and I decided it be a great idea to get pregnant. Which is just because you know, I've lost my record deal. And I told my publisher to go fuck himself. Because, because he said “It’s no wonder your husband ran off with somebody else, because you're always out in LA working on your career.” Which was true. So I'm like “Well, you know, fuck you, cuz I've just tried to write better songs.” That's what I did, he ended up running off with another woman. So when he sided in with, like “I would have left you too, you’re never at home.” So I'm like “Okay, fuck you.” So I had no publishing deal, no record deal. My, I just like — when my husband and I split up, I ran off to the valley and rented a duplex out in the valley. And the only people who knew where I was basically the drug dealer. And I had my son Lagan was like four. And in the midst of all that, there was a band in the back, and few of the band members, one actually lived in the driveway in his truck part time, and the other one lived in a garage. And I decided I wanted another kid. And you know, one of those lucky guys is the winner of the Kesha’s sperm race, the race to the egg. We've never been sure who it was. But I remember at one point in time when she first went to LA, when she was like, 18 (after she'd already signed something) she went out there, she decided to stay with one of men, but she's gonna go have lunch with the other one. And I said “Why don't you look at them both at lunch and see who you think you look most like.” And that made her so mad. I know, she went out and like put a $300 pair of shoes on my credit card. So in the process, in my process of doing and becoming was not to be the artist. I, you know, was way too volatile. Thank God, I got sober. You know, straightened my shit out. And, and we didn't stay in LA. Well, I guess we stayed out there till Kesha was about four. And then my mom was sick, so we went back to be with my mom until she passed away and then up in Indiana. And then we came back to Nashville, which is where I'd been previously, and I just decided this was going to be a better place to have the two kids and be a staff writer. Like being a staff songwriter was a very — like — I have no other skills. I can write songs, you know, and that's pretty much it. Like I there's really not anything else I could do. I've cleaned houses and I've waited tables. But other than that, that's pretty much my skill set. So I came back here and you know, I raised the kids getting a staff songwriter. Which, you know, is easy, because in Nashville, you go in at 10am, you write a song until, like 230 or three and then you go. That's like what staff writers do. And you book yourself up for a month in advance. And hopefully, you know — this is back in the day when you didn't have to work with an artist. And said that and they pay you. So that's, you know, how the kids grew up with me writing songs. And I guess we were talking about love is where this all started. But the reality is you have to like, be of this earth and you have to do all that stuff, specially particularly when you have children. You have to raise them you can't like — you can go live in the woods and talk to the fairies. But you know, there's a certain amount of like, if you're going to be a responsible parent, you do need to send them to school and do some of the normal stuff and expose them to things. Which I think I did a great job of exposing my children to, you know, a lot of things. And I work with like, for instance, a lot of gay people. Like a lot of the best writers have always been the gay guys in in Nashville. I don't know if you're allowed to say gay anymore. Is that a bad word now?

Yulia Laricheva 25:06

I don't think so I say it. And like, I identify as queer. So I'm like, I don’t know, I'm just like a human. I'm like “Why like, label anything. People are like “But you’re pregnant and married. I'm like “And?”

Pebe Sebert 25:20

It's gay used to be okay, but queer wasn't okay, but queer is okay now?

Yulia Laricheva 25:26

I guess queer is okay now. I think gay is okay. So, I don't know, I think these are like, everything changes every day now. It's like, what can you say? What can you not say? Like, what? Like, everything is just so sensitive, and everything is so raw. And I think people's emotions are like, sitting on top of like - I think like, every day, like, there's like something to be triggered to. Like, for the last, you know, four years, I wake up and I read the news. And I'm like, Oh, it's just been wild. But I wanted to ask if that was your first record deal, because it's really interesting, right? You get a record deal. And then you go from that to writing for other people.

Pebe Sebert 26:08

I had written for other people before because I came to Nashville when I was, was 18, I think or 19. And met it immediately because I — somebody in New Hampshire, where I lived in a school bus had said “Oh, there's this guy that used to live up here that lives in Nashville, his name is Scotty. You should go, you know you're a singer, you should go to Nashville. So me and my yellow van with my dog Bernard, we, we pull into this guy's house, John Scott Cheryl. And I just go knock on his door, you know, the hippie in my combat boots and my old vintage dresses. And you know, me and my, my dog and like, his wife comes to the door. And I'm like, Oh, I'm Pebe and I’m from New Hampshire. Boy sent me. Boy was the guy that told me about Scottie. So I mean, I'm like “Can I stay here for a while?” And you know, I don't even — it's so we start playing in a band basically. So, and he turns out John Scott Cheryl turns out to be a very well known, well respected songwriter. But you know, I came here to do that and ended up a few years later meeting a guy one night. Stayed drunk for an entire week and married him. His name is Hugh Moffatt, that was our courtship. So he was a songwriter that had had some hits and he said “You know you have to write for other people first. That's how you're going to maybe get a record deal is by writing for other people. Have a hit, prove yourself as a writer and then people will be willing to maybe invest the money. You know, this is old school stuff. But you have a hit, you prove that you know your music is viable, then they might be interested in you as an artist. So I had written for other people, had some hits with Lacy J. Dalton, and Dolly, and this guy Joe Sun, and a few things. And then had moved on — Terry Gibbs — just some people that aren't even around that are just like, barely — like put notes in country — you know —music trivia kind of stuff.

Yulia Laricheva 28:17

Joe Sun? Is it Jack Sun or Joe Sun, I can't remember.

Pebe Sebert 28:20

Joe Sun.

Yulia Laricheva 28:21

Joe Sun’s got an amazing voice. I was listening to some of his work, because I didn't realize that you wrote “Old Flames Can’t Hold A Candle To You Dear” for him before you wrote that for Dolly. So I was like “Wow.”

Pebe Sebert 28:34

Well, you know, it's like, I wrote the song and I just, I was a waitress at this place. The Old Time Pickin’ Parlor was downtown. And one night when my ex boyfriends came in. And you know, after my long courtship (my whole week being drunk the whole week) of this husband. It was shortly after that, that, you know, one of my exes showed up at the bar. And I told him what “Old flames can't hold the candle to you.” And he's like, being another songwriter he's like “You better go write that.” And so I was not a fan of country music at all. But he said that that'd be a great country song. So I literally, over the next few months, wrote what I thought was the most clicheic — You know, I was really like, almost, I was trying to do something that I thought was almost a cliche. And it turned out to be one of the biggest songs of my career. And then he came in and helped me finish the second verse, you know, as I recall. So then we played it out live, and Joe Sun heard it. And he was the A&R guy, or he was the guy that looked for songs for a band that was really famous at the time. Who were The Kendalls. They were big in I the, I don't know — this would have been like probably late 1970s. So it was a father and a daughter duo The Kendalls and Joe was out scouting at a writers night for songs for them. And I think he played “Old Flames” for The Kendalls and they didn't want it for whatever reason. So that was a thing that he actually launched a career because The Kendalls didn't want the song and he was convinced it was a hit and he obviously must have wanted to be an artist as most people in the music business do. You know people say “Oh yeah, I was a guitar player, I was a songwriter but I'm just like this record promoter. Like everybody in the music business is usually a frustrated artist in one way or another that either didn't have the personality to, to really pursue it or otherwise maybe they tried it and it didn't work out. So here this guy, like pretty much launched his career based on that song and convinced his record company that he worked for to let him put it out as a single, and it was a hit. Any hussite (word not audible) experience writing for other people then I finally you know, I did what my ex husband said which was “Do my due diligence, write for other people.” And then you know, I found my own voice and was working on that in LA and never officially signed the record deal. It was like still in process right about the time that we split up, which is when I sort of fell apart and moved to the crazy Valley House. And that was the birthplace of the Kesha, that we did come back here and kids were all raised here — like I said I was the staff writer. But you know that's a period of time when, when you have children that you have to be a little bit I suppose more attached to… You know the things of this earth because you're trying to like raise a competent human being. And of which — I mean I'm not so sure you really really have to do everything that society tells us now we need to do because it's very cut and dry — this whole school and college and this that the other thing. And I think it's a little bit of a scam, all the — you know, it's a little bit of a “You gotta go to college so you can have that college debt.” So you basically are hooked into the banking system before you've ever really opened your own eyes, like you already owe these guys a bunch of damn money.

Yulia Laricheva 32:28

You’re programmed. And it is just programmed from the start. Like wake up early, go to school, follow directions, pay taxes.

Pebe Sebert 32:40

And I don't think it's good but I don't really — you know — I don't have the answer for the way out of it. I — but — I just don't think it's good. And when my youngest son, we’ll Kesha didn't go to college, so my oldest son did. And he's used every bit of his education and become very successful. Got a Masters and the stuff he learned with his Masters is what's he's earning a living from. So that all worked out really great for him. But Kesha didn't go to college, and she's fine. And my youngest, like, chose not to, because, unfortunately, I was like so much more of a hippie. By the time I adopted him when Kesha was 12. So someone offered me this healthy baby and I always knew I was supposed to have one more child. So I adopted him. And, and throughout that was his life, was throughout the time when I had more money, more success. And we were on the road with Kesha for part of his, you know, upbringing. So he literally was raised on a tour bus. And you know, he is not the same, and he's not fitting into society the same. That I'm not so sure if it's better or worse, it's just not the same.

Yulia Laricheva 33:59

I don't think there's an answer. And I think everybody has to find their own thing. And I think, you know, like, I was reading somewhere, did Kesha get into Columbia? She had, she has a really high scores.

Pebe Sebert 34:09

Yeah, yeah. She had high scores. She, I think she got into Barnard, not Columbia. And then I think like Fordham. She got into a few places. And it really was — I know she was looking at — oh, I forget. Well, but yeah, she got into some Ivy's. But you know, we were on the fence. But she actually signed her deal. You know, right about the same time you'd make the college decision. So… and that was it. And, you know, she's even talked to me recently about maybe wanting to go back and get a law degree, which like, she just mentioned that like, a week or two ago, and I'm like, Well, okay.

Yulia Laricheva 34:51

That would be amazing. I'm actually thinking about going back to get like a Masters or a PhD. I was like, I want to go to Harvard.

Pebe Sebert 34:57

Good.

Yulia Laricheva 34:57

Like maybe AI but like It's just, it's just there's never enough information, right? Like, there's no set time. I think you just like march to the beat of your own rhythm. And like you go to school, you don't go to school, but there's not a formula. And there's just like a path that they like shove you into. And for everybody is different. And everybody has their own rhythm.

Pebe Sebert 35:22

Yes. Yes. And I mean, the thing that's different now, the way it was when I was younger, is that like, books are always there and available for those people who wanted to go read. In you know, maybe like the level of knowledge was not available. The level of like, of truth, well, suppose the truth, there's a lot of mistruth out there. But the internet brought — you can pick and choose through what you watch or hear or read and, and make your own determination about how much truth there is in anything, which you have to do. But like a lot of stuff just wasn't available. And I'm dyslexic. And so, um reading has never been easy for me. Because that's, you know, now though, for me with the YouTube was for like Audible. All these things were my own personal dis… disability. Which, like I finally diagnosed myself, because nobody knew what in 19, like 60 nobody knew what it was when a kid couldn't read, right. Because I wrote perfectly backwards, I'm left handed. And when I would write everything, you could take it and put it in front of a mirror, and you could read it, but nobody realized that that was associated with dyslexia. So when I had so much trouble reading and retaining, people didn't know that. The bottom line to me is if you just want to learn about things, I feel like it's all available and very easy to digest. All you need is a Audible subscription or like YouTube, then I pay for the $10 month no ads and like I can watch lectures, I can watch the smartest people in the world talk about just about anything.

Yulia Laricheva 37:10

My favorite is like I crank it up to 1.75 speed so I can consume it faster. Like whenever I get in the car, my man is like “We're not listening to like another book really, really fast?” I'm like “No, I'll do it on my walk.” Like fine, but I'm just like “Oh, get in my brain.”

Pebe Sebert 37:29

Yeah, yeah, I had a Eckhart Tolle at like 1.5 today it was an accident. It was sooo like not Eckhart Tolle to be like anything faster than one. But the bottom line was it when it's all said and done with me after raising these kids, everybody's out of the house. Like the bottom line for me is it's all about love. And for me I have to stay really close in my recovery. I spend a lot of time in AA like I'm just good old fashioned, fuckin AA, 12 step program. I know they call it a call body daddy da [unintelligible] that doesn't matter if you have a brain like mine. And I'm like a full fledged alcoholic/drug addict that like you can go to one group that will take care of both of those issues. I also have an eating disorder. If there's a way to have a disorder with something I have, like I have the full package. When they say do you want this kid loaded? I'm loaded. Every disorder there is I've got it.

Yulia Laricheva 38:34

You a hard, you go hard. You're very passionate.

Pebe Sebert 38:37

Well, I don't have the sex addiction and I don't have gambling. So I don't have those two, but pretty much everything else, the shopping, the eating, the Al-Anon, which is like relationship addiction, just unhealthy. Of my natural go to is if there's a right and a wrong, my natural go to is always the exact opposite of what correct is. So it's you know, daily struggle just to be me. And to just not eat or drink myself to death or drug myself to death. That's like a daily thing right there. I started out on my knees in the morning, just asking to let go and to allow something besides my brain to run my day. Because if I let my brain, my brain is a very dangerous neighborhood. You know, the good things don't happen there. So it's just you know, for me, I've got to stay out of my head stay in my program. And then you know, now that I've kind of seen everything “I've looked at life from both sides.” Now, I think who wrote that sonate think that might have been Judy Collins or Joni Mitchell. They both sang it. “I’ve looked at life from both sides now. From up and down and still somehow, it's clouds illusions.” Yeah, that. I think that might have been Judy Collins that…

Yulia Laricheva 40:08

I have to Google. I'll google it after the show. But yeah, I remember it. I just I can't remember who did it.

Pebe Sebert 40:13

No, I know Judy, I think maybe Judy Collins wrote it. Then Joni Mitchell definitely, two of my idols, like those are my idols. Those were the people I aspired to be. Joni Mitchell is still my — to this day my idol. Like people… like I don't really pay much attention to anybody. Joni Mitchell just sort of did it for me. So if you're not Joni Mitchell, you're just not Joni Mitchell in my book.

Yulia Laricheva 40:43

Joni Mitchell is incredible. Who else who else were your influences?

Pebe Sebert 40:47

Pretty much. Joni Mitchell. Like I love The Eagles. And there is another guy who died unfortunately pretty young named Dan Fogelberg. Like I wore out a few of the same record. He had one called, I don't know, it was his like, main record that I wore that thing out and his songwriting style and the way — when I was in high school, like I loved Elton John. But mostly Joni Mitchell was definitely like, my go to idol for a songwriter. And I don't think I've ever even gotten close to one Joni Mitchell song. And the level of brilliant.

Yulia Laricheva 41:30

I think you're your own Joni Mitchell. I don't you know, it's like comparing, like, something that's really wonderful to something else that's really wonderful.

Pebe Sebert 41:38

Yeah, it's just, you know, another person. I mean, I really think Dolly is just like, she's done probably the best job of anybody in my eyes, you know, aging gracefully. And like, just continuing to, like, do different things. And like, just from that fame thing, like she's maintained a very nice image throughout her career in her life. And not trying to look like she was 20 and not date guys that she's old enough to be their grandmother. All that stuff really turns me off. But I, I've gotten less and less — like I'm to the point where I literally do not listen to music. But I don't want to like really subscribe to anything except like, you know, alien podcasts. I do like aliens. I do Eckhart Tolle. That's pretty much my interest. I think we talked a little about how I went to Contact In The Desert the year before last, I think. I don't know the years have all like sort of mush together, thanks to COVID I guess it was…

Yulia Laricheva 42:46

Yeah, it was last year because I just finished a really exhausting freelance gig. I was running a team. And it was like three months of just like, just crack outness and I was like “Take me to the desert.” I’m going to Palm Springs for two weeks then I'm just floating in a pool and like — they have cannabis everywhere, which I love. And I was like, take me to every dispensary and let me like rehabilitate myself. Oh, we went to see Matisyahu too when he was on the desert. So he played…

Pebe Sebert 43:18

I don’t even know who…

Yulia Laricheva 43:19

He's like — he used to be like a reggae, Hasidic rapper. He’s really great. And like, I don't know where he's going by now. But like, he played the place in Joshua Tree that's in the middle of nowhere. And it was like, it was weird because I love Matisyahu. But then like, the crowd was really weird. It was like, it was like dudes that would like beat you up. And what is this crowd because like, this is not like a reggae and peace. This is like Nazis and Meth Heads from the desert.

Pebe Sebert 43:50

Well, there you go. That's to get out there in the desert. It's a little a little bit of a scary crew out there.

Yulia Laricheva 43:57

And I was like, I was like, I'm gonna leave the concert early. Because I was like, I feel like my man (unintelligible).

Pebe Sebert 44:02

It's... Yeah, the Meth Heads in the desert. You definitely its own crowd. I mean, I love the desert. I love those weirdos. Like, as long as they don't scare me, but when they're scary, it's another thing and you know... I mean — it was... even the I was very shocked at the Contact In The Desert that they were it was a like, big time republican thing. And I'm not a Republican, by any stretch of the imagination. And there were people literally, like, one of the main guys, David Wilcox was talking about Trump and I was like "Oh my god, no." What is Blake...? I was just, you know, I thought I'd be with a bunch of hippie liberals and that is not what it was.

Yulia Laricheva 44:50

So that is so interesting.

Pebe Sebert 44:54

I'm very shocked, very shocked.

Yulia Laricheva 44:57

That is so interesting.

Pebe Sebert 44:58

I don't know if I would go back because, you know, things are so polarized right now that I just can't, you know. And for me when I say, you know, as far as like, I'm all about love anybody that's doing anything trying to spread more fear. You know, I'm sorry, I don't think we should have guns, hate me for saying that maybe they needed guns when this country got started, because there were like, wild animals. And, you know, I mean, you're...

Yulia Laricheva 45:30

And they were taking somebody else's land.

Pebe Sebert 45:32

Yeah, here, we're like raping and pillaging, like, we need to protect ourselves from the people like that we still owe their shit, you know. So, but we don't need guns anymore. I'm sorry, we don't need a gun. And I'm like, not with anybody that thinks we need guns. And I'm not with anybody that wants to spread fear. And I can't really be in a room full of those kind of people. I don't even want to be because I feel like the planet’s evolving. And I feel like either we're going to have to evolve to a way of peace and love, get rid of the guns, get rid of the weapons, get rid of the wars, or we're going to perish. This planet will end. Stupid people with weapons that want to kill each other, will lead to the end of this planet. It's disgusting. Everything that we're doing, and the fact that nobody sees it, nobody gives a shit. I'm just thankful that I'm going to die before it probably ends. But I feel bad. And it's not going to be long. Like we either have to make some really drastic changes very soon. Or it won't be long before you know this planet will end. Because there is enough food. There's enough everything for everybody. And it's just these criminals, these corporate criminals who don't pay taxes, Citibank, Amazon, none of those people, they don't pay any taxes. I pay taxes. I literally like somebody didn't pay my taxes for a while. And like the big one of the biggest checks I ever got, I had just turned straight over to the IRS. Like I paid my taxes.

Yulia Laricheva 47:04

I paid like 40% last year for New York taxes. And I was like 40% Where is it going?

Pebe Sebert 47:26

But Amazon, Amazon, they pay nothing. City Bank pays nothing. Nothing.

Yulia Laricheva 47:34

And everybody's also moving to Texas because they're like, we want to be free. And then California has too many legislations and I'm like everything is it's insanity. But you know, it is all about love. And it's like people have to get with the program because the old program is not working. You know that the original peace sign? That was the original de-nuke sign, like when you do signs like landing an airplane. That's apparently like, de-nuke. I don’t know, I was like “What am I gonna do in a few years?” I was like, “I want to denuclearize the planet.” But I was like, I have this little dream that I'm gonna like, go in front of the UN and like, really advocate for de-nuking because nobody, nobody's doing it. Women aren’t doing it. And I'm like, well, maybe it's up to women to just have rational voices these days. Like, and just, you know, maybe it's like Mothers Against De-Nuking, but um, like the fact that we have nukes is insane.

Pebe Sebert 48:27

And you know that the aliens, that’s the thing that a lot of these aliens crafts — I have either been like going way down, you know, the rabbit hole with the alien videos about some of the things that have happened like this one guy. Jeremy, I think it’s Corbell was I was following him down a rabbit hole. Like they had people go to Russia, you know, and get involved and go get into the Russian like nucular system, the army tried to get in the Russian nucular system as well as Americans have been shut off by these alien crafts. Like they don't want us to have nuclear bombs. They know. We have no business with them like, at all.

Yulia Laricheva 49:15

I think we're just like a low-level war planet and everybody avoids us. I'm sure there's intelligent life out there. And I'm sure they're just like, ‘Oh, man, those people are crazy.”

Pebe Sebert 49:24

Like we’re the bad neighborhood.

Yulia Laricheva 49:27

We are the bad neighborhood.

Pebe Sebert 49:28

We’re the bad neighborhood with the toothless inbred people that like they're like “Oh, God, don't go there unless you just want to like — it's like the Jerry Springer show.”

Yulia Laricheva 49:39

They are like “We're going to get killed.” They're like “If you stop, if you stop the car in this neighborhood, we’re going to get killed. Do not get out. Go to the nice neighborhood. Venus is nicer.” Yeah, I don't know. It's like, I'm sure there are conscious people here and like, I know they're nice people here but like, man, our welcoming committees are just not good.

Pebe Sebert 49:59

It's not good. And I did in one of my past life regressions, you know, I know I'm jumping all over the place, I did do a regression, where I actually saw myself on another planet. And I was this thing. And at that point in time, I hadn't done enough research into aliens to even like, have had this in my mind that I was this thing that — I looked like either a raisin or a turd that I was this brown thing. So the kids used to laugh at me. And, you know, and say I was from the turd dimension. My, my youngest son and his friend said “Dad, mom's from the turd dimension.” Because I look like this pile of crap, basically. But it my past life, I was sitting on this, this white chaise lounge. And there was like a bunch of these white chaise lounges and all these turds. We just sat there, and we didn't like really do anything. But we could see and hear everything and know everything. And there was like a white screen in front of us. And we just sat there and kind of took in everything that was going on in the universe. And knew everything and just existed and we weren't hungry, or thirsty or whatever. And I apparently volunteered to come down here to help the animals. So this is my past life regression. So they put me in a spaceship. And they took — you know, the sucky things at the bank, when you go to the bank, and you put your money in the sucky thing that gets sucked up. Well, basically, so the spaceship I was my little turd self on the spaceship. And then they had that, that thing that looks like the bank cylinder thing. And they're like, okay, you're gonna go down here. So in this past life thing, I come down the little tube, like the bank tube, and they plop me off in front of this store with like, spinning like, candy cane thing. So it was a barber shop. And I looked at him, and I'm like “Oh, my God, I have these things.” It was feat, cuz I hadn't had feat before. And I'm looking at like, standing outside this barber shop, looking at these people inside the barber shop. These men, they're talking and laughing. And I'm like, this girl with like long braids, and it was like, sometime in the 1800s. And I don't know what happened to that life, you know, but I was sent here to, apparently I volunteered to come here to do help the animals. And I thought like, when I was a turd on the good planet, I thought “Well, this will be easy.” Like “Piece of cake. I'm going to come here, poof, you know, we'll have it all like taken care of then.” No, it's not been easy. So this all leads me to even when I was a little kid, when I was on the farm, when I first decided I was going to be a musician. My parents couldn't have more kids. So the only thing I ever had were dogs. Well, eventually, my parents adopted my sister. But from birth till she came at six, it was just animals, like I hadn’t barn full animals, and I had dogs. And so basically, I've come full circle now and am I like, here trying to do my mission with the dogs, which have always been, you know, where my heart was. But raising children is, it's a job. And I had to run down that road with Kesha, the fame road and you know, see and feel and taste and smell everything that was there. Just, just to know that like, at least for me, there's nothing in that world for me. I mean, yeah, it looks fun. And yeah, and it is fun to not stand in the lines. Sometimes. You know, like, we lived that life for a while, like, I don't think that would be the life we live in anymore. But you know, there was a time in her career when she was like, the big thing. And you know, I lived that life. And it was, you know, because I had, had my chance as an artist, and kind of fallen apart. So it was like, well, a part of me was the ego that wanted that life, wanted to experience that life, that world. And I have and it was fun, you know, and I can see why anybody would. But the bottom line is there's more unhappiness that comes with that. Overall, I would say that it was more of a, like a car wreck than it was winning the lottery. I mean, not that winning the lottery is even a good thing. Like the thing I've realized is that “whatever is going on, is really what is a good thing.” And learning to be okay with whatever that is. Living through the fame and fortune was definitely fun, but I would so much rather spend a day with Kesha out in my garden. Like her and I were out there weeding and picking and flowers. And like we made flower arrangements. And we write, we write really well and one of my passions still, other than the animals and like my family, my grandkids, but one of my passions is still to write a great song. And we thank God for, for Zoom, because we've been working on a record even though she's in LA, and I'm here. And you know, we have great writers that we are partners with, that we've worked with for years. So you know, and we're all so familiar with each other, that it works. Like it wouldn't work, I don't feel like with a stranger to write that way. But with these very special people, it works. And Kesha and I like we've always had this relationship where even when she was a kid, like when she was a teenager, we have huge fights about this, that, or the other thing. But when it was time to sit down, try and write, like that has always been our place. And when we both got out of treatment a few years ago, like we had some years that were not good between us as mother and daughter. We really had to reestablish some healthy boundaries with each other. But even throughout that, there were times we weren't even talking. But we could show up at a writing appointment and bitch at each other in the parking lot, and like call each other names, and then walk in, do the writing appointment, and then walk out and continue the fight, call each other names in the parking lot and go on and I'd go to a hotel. But you know, it's just thank God, we've always been able to maintain that writing connection. So, so I still love to write. But my passion definitely, when you first asked me about this podcast, I just have to tell you, it made me actually start this project that I've been talking about. And I've had in the works in my head for like at least 10 years, called the Magic Mission. And when I you first asked me, um, I think I listened to somebody you had on who done some big thing and I was like, “Wait a minute, I'm not even going to answer her back until I start my thing.” Because I'm so ashamed of myself for just, and I know that's not a good feeling. But it's like what the fuck are you waiting for? Like, what the fuck are you waiting for? To start?

Yulia Laricheva 57:31

That's a great No Doubt song right? Like Gwen Stefani wrote that song like “Ta, ta, ta, you stupid girl. What the fuck you waiting for?” And the whole entire song is like “What are you waiting for? You stupid girl?” And I'm like “Yeah, right. Like, just, I was like, and I think I was in college. And I was like wait, what am I waiting for?”

Pebe Sebert 57:53

I don't even know that song. I mean, I probably know it. But the point is, so I finally took that jump, like, I didn't want to even do this podcast, until I did it. Because this is what I want to be doing. And I like it's my true, true — like, if I want to leave before I leave this world, I want to create this Central American street dog foundation. Because I have traveled so much. We traveled so much in central South America, my son was in the Peace Corps in Honduras. And I've seen so much like, you know, the way animals are treated there. It's just it's really just terrible. And I think a lot of it just has to do with it's not the culture there. But it doesn't take a lot to change. You know, the culture. And just to learn to you know, that whole machismo thing about not neutering males and stuff like that. So, you know, before I die, I literally what that's my mission is I have four street dogs. I think three or four of them are here right now. The first one was when I found, I’m Magic, which we were my son was — Lagan was in a Peace Corps in Honduras. So we went to one of the islands while we were there visiting him and kind of fell in love with the island and bought some land there. So we would go back to Utila, Honduras every year to visit and we were getting to know the community and planned on building the house there someday, which could happen now maybe again, because now there is an organization that I was not a part of creating but I'm jumping into helping them. But the story is we would go there and there were so many tragic like starving, dying animals everywhere. That I just couldn't, you know, in the end, I couldn't go back because every year I'd spend the whole vacation. You know, with bags of dog food driving all over the island, like crying because there were so many sad cases of animals that just needed mange medicine or whatever. But the one year we were there. This little puppy covered in oozing mange that was all bloated, like was like literally tried to walk in the street and was like dying in front of me. And I picked her up with a towel because she was so disgusting because she was so covered in mange and took her back. And like took her on the ferry to a vet on the mainland. And basically, my son's like, oh, some of my friends who've had dogs here in Honduras, when they leave the Peace Corps nobody can get a dog back, he said, so don't even try. And that was all it took. So the next for the next, I paid for this dog to be cared for at this bed. So it took me like, probably six weeks to figure out a way to get this animal from that vet back to Tennessee. And it was I couldn't speak Spanish. And it was like I had to find the airline. And they're like “Oh, yeah, you know, this airline, no fly, but you have to call and talk to Juan.” And you'd call Juan’s phone number, which was in Honduras, and like, Juan didn‘t speak English. And you'd hear babies cried and chickens. And so I'd have to go to a Mexican restaurant to get somebody to talk to Juan. And it was just this whole, like a huge ordeal. And finally, I got Magic. And so my project is the Magic Mission. And it's, you know, basically I want to just bring about change to the Central American countries through spaying and neutering, through education, through, you know, going into the schools and just talking to kids about pet ownership. But also, I do want to have a big website, which I’m just beginning to get this all like sorted out. We're going to start probably with this rescue on Utila that somebody else has made called Jasper's. And we're going to get these adoptable dogs up on a website. And Kesha is going to help us raise money and publicize these guys. And then there's — I'm working with another lady in Panama because I went to Panama like three years ago for the nice family vacation. We're supposed to rent a nice house, no dogs, like everybody's like “We're gonna get away from the dogs.” When they come to Granny's house. It's like just massive amounts of dogs, there's usually at least 10 dogs, and it's all about the dogs. So we're going to go on this nice family vacation, we get to our house. And what's at the caretaker’s house, like that's right in front of our house is three, not just puppies, but dying puppies. So my daughter-in-law, Lagan's wife Sandra, helped me the entire time and we're supposed to be, I'm supposed to be laying on the beach playing with my grandchildren. I'm like taking these puppies to get them shots and getting a dog house and setting up somebody to bring them food and ladee, dadee, da. And eventually, they became healthy enough to give their shots. And then I flew back with two of my friends and brought them home to give them two nice homes, which ended up being me and my home because they're all still here.

So I am working with the ex-vice president of Panama's wife whose name is Anagrethel De Lewis, who has a rescue that needs help in Panama. So all these are gonna fall under the heading of the Magic Mission. And I'm just trying to, I'm a great business person when it comes to music business, but I really don't — I'm smart and I'm, I know, I can figure it out. But I'm just trying to wrap my head around how to get these nonprofits up and running. That I know that with the help, the main thing we will have, which I think you know is going to be a big part of all of it is we have celebrities. Kesha is going to be willing to help publicize and, you know, I know Arianna I know, Taylor, all these people. So hopefully we can use these people be willing to come on board and just you know, ask people to donate or as you know, make these websites available. So next time somebody wants to get a pet instead of getting a Doodle for $3,000 you can get a street dog for $2,000. You know, it's just like I want to make Central American street dogs the new Labradoodles. You know, because really, once you've had a street dog, you'll never go back to a regular dog because…

Yulia Laricheva 1:04:50

They're, they're so smart.

Pebe Sebert 1:04:53

And they're just they just have a different temperament and the most gratitude of any animal I've ever, ever seen. Like, they know you saved them, and they never, ever, ever will let you forget that they know it. So it's just a beautiful thing. And they have my heart. And so that's, you know, I want to write enough songs to be able to support my dog addiction, basically.

Yulia Laricheva 1:05:23

You know, dreams into reality. And thoughts are things and if you can think you can do it.

Pebe Sebert 1:05:30

Exactly, exactly. And really, that's all the other great thing that I mean, the pandemic is tragic and horrible, but because of the pandemic, my son who went to an office in New York City, the office isn't operating anymore. And he came to visit me in the house next door to me was for sale, he now has his office in my basement, and my grandchildren are 165 feet from my door. So it's just like, literally, probably, you know, if I had a dream to, to be in the position, I am spiritually and you know, emotionally, and to have the beautiful family I have and have my grandkids next door. And to be able to work on this animal project and still write great songs with my daughter. I mean, it's all pretty great. Like, I feel like very full. I think at one point in time, I felt like a victim for whatever reason, in my own stupid head, just because that's what we do. We make ourselves — we make up stories about ourselves. And that story is not who I am anymore. It probably never was who I was, but I needed that story. To become the person I am now. You know, I just feel so full of wisdom, which is great. It's just a beautiful thing to get old and have this wisdom and I'm just hoping to, you know, do the best I can with it. While I can do something with it, and I'm sure it's not gonna leave me I — you know, I have no illusion that this is the end of anything, but I want to use this incarnation to do as much as I can.

Yulia Laricheva 1:07:18

While you're spreading love, right?

Pebe Sebert 1:07:19

So that's what I'm trying to do.

Yulia Laricheva 1:07:22

I mean, I mean, there's, you know, there's a reason I named my podcast Dream Nation Love. Because first I was like, whoo, I'm gonna name it Dream Nation. I was like, “Arrr, there other Dream Nations, but I'm like, I'm really focused on dreams, and getting people to do their dreams. Then connecting, connecting people, right?” Because Yoko Ono has this amazing quote, I love speaking of musicians, I love Yoko Ono. I like love her. I did an interview with her in like, 1999 she's amazing, too. She's an artist, but she has this quote that says “A dream you dream alone is just the dream, a dream you dream together as a reality.” So I'm all about connecting people too and I was like, well, it's gonna be Dream Nation Love. Because love just fuels everything. And like, you have a dream out of love. Like everything, everything there's always love at the end. So people are the Dream Nation Love. I'm like, “Yeah!”

Pebe Sebert 1:08:10

Love is really like really — people. I think the cleaner you get and the closer you get to like who you truly are as a human, once you strip away all the rest of the stuff. Like all the stuff that we're the ways we distract ourselves with everything from social media, everything on this phone, this thing that we all carry around. Like if you can put that thing down and like just be alone with yourself and look at your surroundings and be at peace with like, what really is and like feel love. Like that's, you know, that's when I know I'm writing a great song. When there's some times I'll just like — love just makes me feel like I want to cry. Like when things are, you know, I don't know why but it's just emotion. And when I'm writing a great song and it's [unintelligible] start building I want to cry. I know it's — that's love. And for me love is God. Like I don't know, whatever the spirit of the universe is — what it is love. It's not fear. It's not hate. It's not guns, it's not death, it's not nukes. What is — is love and that's… I think what makes animals — dogs in particular, so you know — close to my heart — dog spelled backwards is god you know, and they're just pure love. Pure love.

Yulia Laricheva 1:09:36

It's so true. Yeah, I love animals. I mean, animals are pure love, right? I mean, dogs, dogs especially. And like I mean, like I wouldn't say like a bear is pure love, because he might eat me. But I do love animals and I do love animals so much. But I was also thinking about how are you talking about a fame and how like at the end, there's really nothing. At the end of the day, you go to sleep, everything goes away. You know, the tour is over, you know, and then like you need animals around. You need your tribe, you need your love. Because at the end, it's like, what are you doing? What are you doing all of this for?

Pebe Sebert 1:10:16

You all the stuff that comes with fame, it's like all — it's not important. Like it's like, stuff with names on it, like literally like a piece of material that says Gucci, or says Versace or says whatever. Like, that's meaningless stuff like that has no meaning on the planet at all. In any realm. Like, if they came back and like, looked at us 1000 years from now they'd say, yeah “Yeah, look at this person. They were happy because they had this piece of dead cow that had this stamp on it. Like my trainer today was saying, that ad I heard it some purse named I forget what he called it, but he said they were $30,000 a purse, because it gets a piece of leather with some like stamp on it.

Yulia Laricheva Yeah, yeah. Hermès or whatever.

Pebe Sebert It costs $30,000. Like, I don't even know what it is.

Yulia Laricheva 1:11:12

You know, I have a cloth bag. And I lived in New York for 15 years. So I wore things that like do not get me mugged. And I'm very happy and I'm like, you know what? A purse does not define me. I do not judge my worth by like somebody's stamp and like, you know what? I've got enough self worth to just like not to — like I'll take that money and all invested in real estate or something smart. What am I gonna do with a purse?

Pebe Sebert 1:11:38

You know, give it to a charity? Like, I mean, like, I won't carry leather anyhow, I don't want it. Why would I want to carry a dead animal? I mean, it's around with me — like what does that say about me? That I like really there's not something cloth — like I won't carry or wear leather any of that stuff because Gandhi and all these people all the you know, Eastern holy people like they won't wear leather. When you're, if you're practicing, I suppose — I don't know if it's Buddhism — I think it is that when you're a monk you don't wear leather. You don't eat meat. You know, and I aspire not to say I'm a monk. I'm like a truck driver, more like a hillbilly truck driver than a monk but I mean, I just choose not to do those things. Because you know, then I'm being hypocritical if I'm here for the animals, why would I want to eat them? Or wear them?

Yulia Laricheva 1:12:35

Torture. Why would I, why would I want to like torture another thing when I don't have to? Like, because I'm like “You know what? Today I'm in this position. But some day, like some aliens are going to come down. They're going to be like “You're going to make a nice purse.” And I'm going to be like “Me? A Gucci purse? OMG they’re going to make me into a purse.”

Pebe Sebert 1:12:58

You’d be a nice purse.

Yulia Laricheva 1:12:58

I would be very comfy and very useful. I would be very utilitarian purse. But I, I love what you're doing for the animals on this planet. Because I think there are not enough people thinking how you're thinking. You know, unfortunately, I think people are thinking about Gucci purses. And they think that, like “If I have money, I'm gonna spend it on a purse. Like that's gonna make me like a better person or something instead of like, actually taking that money and donating it to making somebody else's life better.”

Pebe Sebert 1:13:34

Yeah, that's actually true. Make somebody's life better if you don't want to donate it to a dog, like, donate it. There's plenty of organizations, you know, for kids. Like I like to go to the smaller organizations, I'm not a fan of the big ones. There's waste way too much money advertising, you know, sorry, PETA, and those people. Like they like bombard my mailbox. And I like well address this stuff in that and send it back to them. And I say “If you would stop wasting money on this, I would give you money. But since you won't, I'm going to give it directly to an organization where it's gonna go straight to the animals.” Which is like, I gave $500 to feed the starving dogs and this island in Honduras, because there's no, no tourism, the people are starving. I get that. But I'm choosing to give this money to help the dogs because, you know, nobody's worried about the animals in this situation. They're going to let the animals die. Which, like, I'm just choosing that that's where I want my money to go. Which, you know, some people might think I'm a bad person, because I'll give it to the animals rather than the people. But I can do that.

Yulia Laricheva 1:14:52

I think so. I think it's like, I think everybody needs to be doing their own thing. And that's how the world kind of like evens out. You know, there's somebody supporting orphans, there's somebody supporting dogs, and everybody has their own unique, diverse thing. And hopefully together we make the planet a little nicer. But I was gonna ask you, where can you find that Magic Mission? Like, how can people get in touch, and all those details if people want to find out more.

Pebe Sebert 1:15:20

Magic Mission is going to have a Facebook page very soon. I'm not a Facebook person. But I'm making a Facebook page for Magic Mission. So that should be up and running soon. I'm also going to get a website and I think it'll be magicmission.org I think that's the name we have. So I was, you know, thinking it'd be better to wait until I had all this organized to even come on a podcast. But the thing is, it's in progress. And hopefully, if you google Pebe Sebert, you know, there'll be links to it. But I'm officially hopefully very soon going to have something that will be like my first offshoot of the Magic Mission, since I'm trying to get all my status, you know, in place to be a 501 c3, so I’m, you know, tax-deductible. While all that's in progress, I'm going to be working with Jasper's Rescue on Utila, Honduras. So it's a Jasper's Animal Rescue in Utila, Honduras, you can connect to that. But Kesha and I hopefully very soon are going to be doing a little campaign fundraiser with them and get some dogs up on a website for adoption. Because I know a lot of the places in the US are out of dogs, because everybody and their brother has adopted dogs to this pandemic, which I think is the best thing ever. I think, you know, breeding more designer dogs is maybe not the way to go. Maybe for people who want to be a little bit more, what would I say it's a little bit more like recycling — be a little bit more — just to use what's already available. There's a lot of animals available so and really, you can prep for what it costs to get like these designer dogs. I think with even the transportation, you can probably get a dog from a place like Jasper's, which I just looked at some of the adorable dogs that they had. And it's just like they're beautiful. It'll be something like you can go down there, I think as of October 1 and pick your own dog up. You know the island’s opening back up for tourism for the first time. But if not, you can have street dogs shipped to you. There's also a good friend of mine that ran say the Cozumel Humane Society, there's tons of dogs available on that website. So I'm just going to try and get everything organized. I'm not there yet, but it's at least in progress.

Yulia Laricheva 1:17:59

I love it. Pebe I have so much fun talking to you. Because I feel like you and I can just sit here and we can go for like five hours. And like what I love about you is that like I don't even say anything. I just, I let you go and you interview yourself “I'm like this is the best. The best one, I don't have to like pull for like more information because you're just like, you're going and you're so hyper and you're so present. And you're so in it.”

Pebe Sebert 1:18:22

Well, thank you.

Yulia Laricheva 1:18:22

And you're such an, and you're such an interesting person. So you have a lot of things to talk about. Because you have a lot of experiences.

Pebe Sebert 1:18:28

I'm very passionate. I think that's the thing. I'm very passionate. Like, I love my life. I'm so excited about it. Like I don't want it to be over. And I just can't imagine waking up and ever being bored. My brain is not boring.

Yulia Laricheva 1:18:44

I have never been bored of my whole entire life. I'm an only child and people are like “I'm bored.” I'm like “I wish I had your lifetime to Google things on the internet and draw things.” And like…

Pebe Sebert 1:18:55

Anything.

Yulia Laricheva 1:18:56

I'm like, I'm never bored. I like I go for a walk. And I look at things from a different angle. Like, I don't know what boring is.

Pebe Sebert 1:19:04

I don't know.

Yulia Laricheva 1:19:04

Boring people are bored.

Pebe Sebert 1:19:06

I guess that's what it is. I guess like you just have to be — I mean, I feel like creative people like — cuz you know, I can always create and I think being creative is — and I'm not just talking about music — like I used to love as a kid to go pick through — there's a dump near the house and I go pick through the dump and I'd like come glue a bunch of stuff together and make art or whatever. So there's, you know, it's never boring.

Yulia Laricheva 1:19:33

It's never boring. You just have to figure out something to do and like become passionate about it. But I'm so excited. I'm so excited for Magic Mission because a lot of amazing doggies are going to have their life changed. They're going to have their dream come true.

Pebe Sebert 1:19:46

I hope, well you're about to have a Magic Mission, your little Magic Mission right there.

Yulia Laricheva 1:19:52

Oh my god. I sneezed so hard yesterday that I like pulled a rib and I was like “Fid I just stab my baby with my rib?” And I was like “No, I'm sure it's fine.”

Pebe Sebert 1:20:01

Absolutely.

Yulia Laricheva 1:20:02

But I'm so excited because I'm like “She's gonna be so creative. “ And like, just to transfer the gifts that I have, like just to do a knowledge dump. Like, I'm really interested to see what this little person is going to have. And like what opportunities she's gonna have that I didn't, and that my mom didn't either. My grandma didn't. Like, my grandma lived through World War Two, she had like four kids, like, you know, she couldn't really chase her dream. Her dream was like “Let's get to America.”

Pebe Sebert 1:20:28

Yeah, yeah. Let's eat.

Yulia Laricheva 1:20:29

Let's eat. And I'm like, it's just it's mind blowing to start thinking about that. I moved here when I was ten. From Russia, and like…

Pebe Sebert 1:20:36

Oh, really?

Yulia Laricheva 1:20:38

Yeah. So like, I grew up in, Communist Russia. So I mean, it's just really, it's a trip. I'm like…

Pebe Sebert 1:20:44

How did that? How did that happen?

Yulia Laricheva 1:20:47

You know, when my uncle's moved here before us. 20 years, my uncle came here, he couldn't get a job because we're Jewish, so we can get jobs in Russia. So they were… hold on… Reagan, Reagan, the one thing that Reagan did that I love, he said “Release all the Jews to America.” And Russia was like, “See you later, because we don't want them here.” And we were like “That's is us. We're leaving. We don't want to be here.”

Pebe Sebert 1:21:11

Good.

Yulia Laricheva 1:21:11

So, so you can go to Israel or America and I and my mom was like “Well, I don't want her to be in the army. So let's go to America.” But then my uncles got to leave before us because they got like, the okay to go. So they came here. And they like, drove cabs, the whole like Russian story. But then my uncle is a really brilliant textile engineer, and he got a job at United Surgical. And he became like, basically VP at Johnson and Johnson. And he invented dissolving stitches at some point at United Surgical.

Pebe Sebert 1:21:42

Oh wow.

Yulia Laricheva 1:21:42

So it's like the crazy immigrant story, right? It's like you couldn't do anything in Russia, and you're smart, but they won't let you apply your talent. So you go. And now we're here. And then, oh, I digress. But like this podcast is about, you.

Pebe Sebert 1:21:56

No, no, no. I love, I love that. But so you get but you didn't come till you were ten?

Yulia Laricheva 1:22:01

I didn't come till I was ten. So I had to, like learn English and stuff. And, you know, like when it comes to dreams, like I just have this different perspective, because I see the dreams of my mom and my grandma, and they see the dreams of immigrants. And they see how hard people have to work. And I see, you know, like, as an immigrant, and I have a single mom, too. So whenever you're describing your dynamic with Kesha and I was like “Oh, that's my mom and I.” Like we will [unintelligible]. We would fight but we love each other. My my man saw us, like, have an argument once and he was like “I was ready to break up with you because I thought you were a monster.” And then he was like “Oh, no, you two love each other. You guys just you guys have like a weird dynamic.”

Pebe Sebert 1:22:41

And you know, as a single parent, that's like — I have that with all my kids, because it's not going to be the same as if there were third party here. So you know, there — it's just yeah, it's it is a weird, dynamic and like, Kesha’s boyfriend, it freaked him out. Like he's like “Wow, you guys like, I'm waiting for somebody just pull a gun out and start killing each other. He's like, you guys, like just do it and like, go on.” Like, it's just the way it is.

Yulia Laricheva 1:23:13

But it's also like, I don't know if your dynamic is the same. But it's also like the relationship switch roles. So you're like, Who's the mom? Who is the parent? Who is the parent? Who is the Mom?” Different times? Is it and then it's like, it's like “you a Sister Mom?” Like, it's totally a trip and I love it. And I have this relationship with my mom. And it's so special. So grateful for it, but it's like, you know,?

Pebe Sebert 1:23:36

Where does she live? How far away is she from you from you now? Now? Now?

Yulia Laricheva 1:23:40

I'm living 15 minutes away and we have boundaries. So she's allowed to come over once a week.

Pebe Sebert 1:23:45

Oh, that's it? Oh my god. And just wait until that baby comes and then it's gonna be “Okay, never mind. Nothing's gonna get any of my energy except this baby.”

Yulia Laricheva 1:24:01

I know it's gonna be exciting. But it's like, it's just it's all surreal. It's a little soul, right? She's, she’s probably teleporting in from the third dimension.

Pebe Sebert 1:24:13

And, you know, she's — if there's anything that's going to truly, like, make your life richer and probably take you in directions that you've never dreamed of going — you know, that's what they do. Like, the, you know, the people I'd met because my kids played baseball or because of school, because of this or that, like, I'm hanging out with these army people. You know, I'm like, the biggest, like crazy hippie in the world. And I'm hanging out with these, like, career army Republicans. You know, and it's just, you know, and I was great friends with those people. As long as we don't talk politics, we're fine.

Yulia Laricheva 1:24:51

It opens up your world.

Pebe Sebert 1:24:52

Yeah.

Yulia Laricheva 1:24:53

You know, you hope that you're kind of like comets. Just bouncing off people and you hope, you hope somehow you'll have a conversation with somebody and maybe their conversation will influence you or your conversation will influence them. I don't know. It's all it's all just like, it's all luck.

Pebe Sebert 1:25:07

Yeah, it is. And my — my mom came from Hungary as well. So I'm first generation I think I told you as well. But it turns out that the Hungarians, we thought they were Hungarians. And then I did the 23andme. And it's actually Russian, Croatian, Polish, Ukraine. Ukraine, so that's where they're from. And Poland. Like the, there's not like the 23andme — even though we're from, from Hungary, and we've been to the town and met the relatives like that, for sure was the thing. There's like zero Hungarian blood in them. It's just all these other Russian, Croatian and Polish blood. So…

Yulia Laricheva 1:25:52

That's so interesting, right? Because you're like “Is anybody musical in my family?” Like, it's so — because people, it's just a different time — zone. But people are still the same. Like people are like “That was so long ago.” I'm like “Nothing has changed. We have exactly the same feelings. We might have Facebook now, right?

Pebe Sebert 1:26:08

Right, right.

Yulia Laricheva 1:26:10

Nothing, nothing is different. People are still people and you know, people are just trying to love and survive.”

Pebe Sebert 1:26:15

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yulia Laricheva 1:26:17

Thank you so much Pebe. I can talk to you forever for hours. I just want to thank you so much for being on the show. I'm so grateful that you took the time out of the day to chat.

Pebe Sebert 1:26:26

Oh, God, it's been great. Thank you so much.

Yulia Laricheva 1:26:33

Thanks for tuning into the show. I hope you enjoyed it. Please share on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and Dream Nation Love. It's not Dream Nation podcast. It's Dream Nation Love because I think my single mission in life is to teach people how to love a little bit more and together we can save the world. So it's Dream Nation Love, share it with your friends, have a great day and go out and make the world a better place.