Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Donny Apollo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Donny, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I first realized I wanted to be an artist pretty early in life. I used to watch Lenny Kravitz, Slash and Jimmy Hendrix videos a lot and saw them playing guitar and thought they were the coolest thing on the planet and I wanted to be like them so I taught myself how to play guitar. The dream faded for a while and into adulthood after working a few dead end jobs and being in college, I realized I wasn’t happy and that making music was what truly made me feel fulfilled. So I started rapping and making pop music instead of rock and metal like I used to play on guitar as a kid and here I am now, really doing this.

Donny, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Im Donny Apollo. I’m a hip hop artist outta Nashville and I do a bit out in the Tampa, Florida/surrounding areas these days. I’ve been making music for a long time and it feels really good to say that I’ve seen some success from it. I think the thing I’m really most proud of is my musical background has helped me create a very diverse catalogue that I find hard to compare to others. You may catch a pop tune one day, a drill track the next and a lofi track another day. But what’s really cool is being able to express myself and tell my story in hopes to impact someone positively and make something that people can relate to with the content that I am able to create. Music really saved my life and I feel it is my obligation to pay it back by not giving up what kept me here.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I’ve had to unlearn would be internalizing my emotions. Like a lot of people, growing up, I was told when I am feeling emotional, depressed, angry or whatever, that I’m supposed to suck it up and keep moving; and I did that for years. Only to find that when I do that, it eventually bleeds into other aspects of my life and pushes people away. It affected how I acted, felt, coped, and even communicated(or lack thereof). I didn’t know how to properly talk to people about things that went on in my head for a long time leaving people wondering what was wrong and sometimes my feelings towards them. I pushed a lot of people away and damaged a lot of relationships with people because of this and I have spent years relearning how to deal with these emotions.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Years ago I had a really bad addiction that impacted my career, love life, friendships and honestly just trajectory of life. I really only did it to numb a lot of my own personal pains that I didn’t know how to deal with. It took me almost dying to finally do something about it and I eventually stopped. Years later I had a bit of a relapse but I recovered and decided to use music as my new vice and coping mechanism with a lot of the pains, traumas and emotional shakes I would get. Life is rough but living is beautiful and I have a lot to share with the world. Realizing that and seeing the people around me supporting me like my manager Nesto and Engineer/Producer Ice Kold Donnie, Garrett, Dan and Sprink, constantly reminds me that I can do this. The woman of my dreams constantly backs me through thick and thin and it puts me in this head space to see what I want for my future and that I can’t just stop here. Am I really gonna stop going after putting so much of my life into this? So l keep going and keep pushing to change life for me and my people around me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donnyapollo?igsh=NWFodmk1c3lqcXhk
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DonnyApollo?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Twitter: https://x.com/donnyapollo?s=21
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@donnyapollotvofficial?si=4KuIeOu_i0sEWTM_
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@donnyapollo?_t=8iku7luqo6o&_r=1
• Linktree: https://linktr.ee/donnyapollo