Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Donny Apollo

We recently had the chance to connect with Donny Apollo and have shared our conversation below.

Donny, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: When was the last time you felt true joy?
True joy, for me, isn’t loud. It’s those rare moments where everything inside of me finally quiets down. The last time I felt that was when I was spending time with someone who made me feel seen and at peace, like I could stop surviving for a second and just exist. It didn’t last, but it reminded me what joy feels like.

Since then, I’ve been rebuilding. A lot of time with my friends who’ve become family to me Ben, Dyl, Gavin, Jamo and honestly the Five Bucks Drinkery and Thirsty First staff laughing about nothing, being held up without having to ask and trying new things like hiking and horseback riding(I’m not good at either btw). I’ve been pouring myself back into my music and my work. Joy isn’t a constant for me right now, but gratitude is. And honestly, sometimes rebuilding yourself is its own kind of joy.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Donny Apollo, an artist who turned heartbreak, accountability, and growth into sound. I started in metal and pop-punk as a guitarist, but sharing the same birthday, hiphop was always home. My music is where all those worlds collide, storytelling from pain, rhythm from rap, emotion from R&B, and the soul of someone who’s lived a few lives already.

My brand is built on vulnerability, evolution and creative freedom. I’ve slept in my Jeep. I’ve been broke, rebuilding, in love, lost, all of it and my music documents those chapters in real time. Nothing about what I do is manufactured. When life hits, the art drops.

This year marks a new era. I just released Echoes & Embers: Act I, the first project of a three-act rollout that revisits songs I once released, removed, rewrote, or never shared because I wasn’t ready. Acts II and III are coming soon and they’re deeper, darker, and more intentional.

At the top of 2026, I’m releasing a project I’ve been building quietly, piece by piece. It’s different. It’s bigger than music, it’s the moment I truly believe everything changes for me and for the team behind me. The art, the visuals, the story. This one isn’t just a project, it’s a statement.

I make music for people who don’t want to pretend they’re fine. For anyone who’s rebuilding, reinventing themselves, or rising from the ashes. Welcome to the Era of Apollo.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
There wasn’t just one moment, it was a collection of losses. Losing people I loved, losing stability, even losing myself for a while. I used to think pain meant I had to harden up, but what it really taught me was control. Not control over people or outcomes, but control over my reaction. I stopped letting things I couldn’t fix immediately dictate how I move.

At one point, I was sleeping in the back of a Jeep at 100 Oaks Walmart parking lot Nashville, trying to hold onto music and hope at the same time crying myself to sleep every night. I’ve lost relationships, opportunities, places I called home. But every loss sharpened something in me. It taught me emotional discipline to stay calm, stay focused, and stay grateful, even when the ground is shifting beneath me.”

People call me calm, but I tell them I’m just a calm nervous guy who’s been through enough chaos to learn how to breathe through it. I’m optimistic because I’ve seen what happens when you don’t quit. In the words of Nipsey Hussle, ‘Never let a hard time humble us.’

Everything I’ve been through made me who I am. Not colder, just wiser.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering taught me a lot of things success never could. Success shows you what’s possible, suffering shows you who you are. When you have nothing, no applause, no validation, no safety net… you meet the real version of yourself. I learned patience, emotional discipline, and how to keep moving when nothing around me is moving with me.

Suffering stripped away my ego. It humbled me into gratitude, into paying attention, into being present. Success can inflate you, suffering refines you. There were nights when I felt abandoned or even when I was homeless where the only person who could save me was me, and that taught me something no win ever has, I don’t need the world to believe in me for me to keep going.

Success feels good. But suffering built the character to handle it when it shows up.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What truths are so foundational in your life that you rarely articulate them?
One truth I live by is that peace is worth more than being right. I used to fight to be understood, now I fight to stay grounded. Another one is that people don’t owe you the version of themselves you imagined. Letting go of expectations saved me from a lot of unnecessary heartbreak.

I also believe that every loss is a redirect. I don’t look at endings as failures anymore, just pivots toward where I’m meant to be. That mindset kept me sane when life got dark.

And maybe the biggest one… I don’t chase, I attract. If something requires me to betray my peace, it’s not mine.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What pain do you resist facing directly?
Ooof…. The pain I resist facing directly is the fear that I wasn’t chosen, not because I wasn’t enough, but because I was never seen. I’ve lost people, relationships, opportunities, my home and almost anything you can think of… and every time something slipped away, I told myself, ‘It’s fine, keep moving.’

But what I avoid facing is the grief that comes from loving fully and still being left. The fear of investing in someone or something, building futures in my head, and then having to walk away alone with all those unspoken versions of myself.

It’s easier for me to rebuild than to sit in the rubble.

I’m good at carrying on, I’m not good at sitting still with the reality that certain things won’t come back.

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