MeettheDrumchapel BMXkingtaking Hollywood by storm
RAGS TO RICHES TALE FROM POVERTY TRAP TO BIKE
TEARS streamed down John Buultjens face when he finished watching a private screening of a movie about his life in front of Hollywood’s glitterati.
Surrounded by top producer and rapper-turned-actor Ludacris, the surreal moment of watching Ride in the Warner Brother studios in Hollywood perhaps hit home just how far John has come from his humble beginnings in Glasgow’s tough Drumchapel.
The movie Ride, due out in 2018, will present a glossy rags to riches tale of how Scot John went from an abused child who had a tough upbringing to a BMX superstar admired by riders all over the world.
It will star John as his own father and is set in the Californian town Petaluma, rather than Glasgow. But most importantly for John, Ride has been made to inspire a mass audience that anything is possible.
In reality, John’s life is in the book, written after the film with fellow Glaswegian Chris Sweeney.
Ride, the book, is the warts and all autobiography set in Glasgow. It is this version of John’s story which is full of bombshells to shock even the most hard-hearted of readers.
For in 1970s Glasgow, John, now 45, was trapped in deprivation, and often on the receiving end of his father’s beatings.
“One day, I remember my dad did not eat his lunch, he brought his sandwich home and I got to eat it – that is my happiest memory of him.
“He was never a loving father, put it that way,” John bluntly says.
John grew up in Drumchapel with his brother and two sisters after the family moved from nearby Whiteinch.
Writing the book with Chris allowed the star to dig into his past and reveal things he never thought he would, including sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a family friend.
He said: “I open up in my book about being sexually abused when I was five years old. It is so mad that abused kids are so ashamed to talk about it. They have to realise it is not their fault. They are not a victim and they are an amazing inspiration.”
Physical abuse was then a big part of his young life thanks to his father Thomas who had worked in the shipbuilding industry but was later unemployed. Thomas was always angry, and when he wasn’t taking out the frustrations of life on John, he often turned to his wife Margaret.
“His whole family were maniacs and I know my dad was abused by my grandfather,” John explained.
“One day, my dad collapsed on his way home. The reason he collapsed in the street was that he had a brain tumour.
“He was an angry man and he had a brain tumour going on in his head. His temper, I believe, was him suffering, his mind was in such pain. It was his way to take it out on us, I guess. That’s how I made my peace with him.”
Making peace was not an easy task for John who as a child suffered burns after being thrown in fire by his father. His mother also put him in Glenrosa Children’s Home on Christmas Eve, 1979 after he picked up a knife in an attempt to stop his dad beating her.
The film will show young John stabbing his father but in reality he was knocked out before he could get a chance.
He said: “The worst point for me was not physically on me, it was when he was beating my mama. I wanted to attack him with the knife but he knocked me out before I could even stab him.
“I remember all the beatings, getting abused, and being scarred but it didn’t really hit me until he was really beating my mum up that bad. I snapped and couldn’t handle it anymore, and I was only seven.”
ENTERING a children’s home was really the moment John’s life began to change.
“The thing I loved about that home was it was like a brotherhood,” John reminisced.
“I had a clean bed which was amazing and I actually loved being locked up with everyone. We broke out a couple of times and got into trouble but ended up going back.”
He continued: “I am hoping with the book and movie coming out, someone is going to read it and be like I was in what he was in.
“I am hoping I can meet people that went to Glenrosa and Stonedyke Primary School which is no longer in Drumchapel. It would be amazing to see where people are for sure.”
His old life was, however, left behind when three years later John was adopted by bi-racial couple Eldridge and Marianna Buultjens, who he considers his parents today – his biological mum and dad have also since passed.
With the Buultjens’ he moved to the West End where he was introduced to a new way of life. It was a big transition moving to Kelvinside Gardens,” John admitted.
He said: “At 10 years old, I couldn’t read or write, and I was tongue tied. I couldn’t even speak properly. I mean, my slang was disgusting.
“So going to live with a couple of academics, I was retrained, I guess. With them