The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘I don’t want to live life like this no more’
Former addict hopes locally shot hip-hop video can boost career
MIDDLETOWN — It’s been a long, hard road to recovery for former Middletown resident KC Conklin, whose addiction to heroin brought him to the depths of misery, put his family through hell, and cost him 11 years of his life.
This upcoming hip-hop/ rap musician, 31, whose inspirational song, “Sober (Voice of an Addict),” has, in just under a month, been streamed more than 2 million times, has turned his life around and is using his talents to tell his story.
The lyrics to one song has become his motto: “If one person hears what I’ve been through, what I’ve seen, and it motivates them to make a change and it saves a life, then it’s been a dream.”
At 17, Conklin, who now lives in Wallingford, found himself addicted to alcohol and marijuana after hanging out with the wrong crowd. His problem quickly escalated out of control, and, for more than a decade, Conklin was in and out of rehab and detox centers.
Several times, he thought he’d hit the depths of his addiction, and somehow managed to get clean, but would inevitably relapse. It wasn’t until he was living — barely — in an apartment in Middletown when he finally reached out to family for help.
These days, Conklin, who goes by KC Makes Music professionally, spends much of the week in the Windsor studio of producer and musician Jordan Meyer, who owns Jordan Meyer Productions.
The “Sober” video, shot all in Middletown, with one memorable scene on the Arrigoni Bridge and another with an ambulance donated by Hunter’s Ambulance of Meriden, tells his remarkable story of recovery.
“I don’t want to live life like this no more,” is the refrain.
Conklin started rapping and writing lyrics in high school with friends, and would often freestyle for people at parties. “I was decent, but never pursued it” — until he got sober in June 2016.
When his parents divorced, Conklin, 5 at the time, his mother and two sisters moved to California. Conklin went into rehab for the first time at 17 in California, to get help with his drinking and marijuana use.
Then he started using cocaine.
“I realized pretty quickly when it would come time for my friends to tone it down or straighten out or cut back, I found it a lot more difficult for myself to do that,” Conklin said.
He returned to Connecticut at 18. By his mid-20s, Conklin had moved on to using Percocet for the high it gave him. Five years later, he was addicted to heroin.
“There would be days when I was looking at him, talking to him, and he was looking through me. I knew he wasn’t hearing the words. It was heartbreaking because we grew up pretty close,” said his sister Kristin Conklin, who at first didn’t know the depths of his troubles.
“I thought he was doing something, but I thought he was just drinking too much. I never imagined it was as deep as it was,” she said.
That’s when his family started taking notice. “I was calling them a lot and coming up with a lot of strange reasons why I needed money and extravagant stories. Somewhere along the line, they put two and two together and realized what I was up to,” KC Conklin said.
“I had the image I was maintaining and doing things on my own, but, in reality, I was bothering my parents for money, and making up lies and excuses, and basically using everybody in my life. It was an ugly place to be in,” he admitted.
During the depths of his addiction, KC Conklin would bicycle to Old Saybrook from where he was living in Westbrook. He’d take a bus to Middletown, then transfer to another route and end up in Hartford, where he’d buy heroin. “It was a three-hour mission,” for drugs he’d use that night.
By the time he got halfway home, his mind would starting racing again, getting him thinking about how he’d procure his next high.
Eventually “my parents cut me off. My power had gotten shut off, my heat was off. I was running an electric cord to my neighbor’s house for a space heater in my living room,” he said.
Still, he rationalized, everything would be fine tomorrow. “The thoughts are absolutely insane. In the midst of [addiction], it sounds like a logical thought,” KC Conklin said.
That’s when he reached out to family, and, eventually, at 28, finally kicked his habit. He remains in recovery today.
The last time he relapsed, Conklin, who usually weighs 160 pounds, was down to 120. His mother, whom he hadn’t seen in two years, came to visit him. “She had no emotion left in her face. She was waiting for the call saying I’m dead. She thought it was probably the last time she was going to see me,” he said.
Then, a light switch went off at the same time his uncle became very ill. “I interjected myself into my family,” KC Conklin said. Once he got outside of himself, for the first time in his life, he was able to kick his addiction. That’s when he returned to the thing he loved best in life: music.
“I always knew that he had talent. He would always come up with things off the top of his head. He is very quick-witted,” his sister said.
Meyer, a self-described “one-man band” is a music producer and engineer, musician, songwriter and vocalist who can play just about every instrument.
Also a recovering alcoholic, Meyer met Conklin just over a year ago. “I thought he was incredibly talented. That blossomed into a beautiful friendship, and we had so much common ground in recovery and sobriety and we hit it off really really beautifully.
“I just loved his energy from the minute he walked into the studio. I knew right away he was someone who I could have a deeper rooted relationship than just a customer,” Meyer said. “It didn’t take long before we were making music together,” he added.
“His energy and authenticity is what speaks to people. Sometimes you meet a person you just know right away, something’s genuine about him. He has a lot of conviction and it shows in his music,” Meyer said.
Less than two weeks ago, the song’s views hit 1 million, and now, cumulatively over all the platforms (Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon, Spotify, iHeart Radio), the song has been streamed 2 million times.
To date, KC Conklin has released 10 songs, including “Shot in the Dark,” which illustrates a particular conversation KC Conklin had with his mother.
“I just balled my eyes out listening to the song, reliving the whole experience all over again. He has come so far since that point,” Kristin Conklin said.
KC Conklin will next perform live Saturday at 10 p.m. at Eli’s on the Hill, 624 W. Main St., Branford.
For information, visit KC Makes Music at https://adobe.ly/2DS4hzw and KC Makes Music on Facebook. Check out YouTube to listen to “Sober” , “Shot in the Dark” and “Powerful” music videos.