INTRO
Today I’m at the Mpact Sports in Franklin, TN talking to Eric Melton. As the owner and head of martial arts, Eric works with children and youth to inspire them to develop their physical but also spiritual abilities. Former Kickboxing Champion, Eric finds his joy and purpose in passing down the wisdom he learned through his fights, the ones that got him in trouble as a young man, and the ones that got him US titles.
BUMPER
I am Tajci.
At 19 I was a superstar and I was lost inside. I left it all behind, switched continents and started all over. Years later I found myself lost again. This time in the American dream. This is a story about awakening. About living the life you were created for. About going inward and discovering the joyous and purposeful person you and I are both meant to be.
This is “Waking Up In America.”
TAJCI
Eric, welcome! How do we greet in Martial Arts?
ERIC
We usually, when you bow with your eyes up, slight bow with the head. Just out of respect, nothing else.
TAJCI
Okay. So… Eric, welcome!
ERIC
Thank you (laugh)
TAJCI
Good. You started out on the ‘wrong side of the tracks.’ What does that mean?
ERIC
I was a real… not a real nice kid. Wasn’t a bully or anything like that ’cause I was really small. My whole family is six four better, my sister’s five ten. In school it was kind of tough for me because my brother, my oldest brother was all football confidence, my other older brother was all basketball and then my mom wanted me to play in the band. And so I wanted to do what mom wanted me to do, ’cause I was kind of mama’s boy and… so they started me with a clarinet, so in the tough school that I went to, it didn’t go over very well. Especially in the area that we grew up in, it was really tough area.
TAJCI
Where was that?
ERIC
Clarksville
TAJCI
Tennessee
ERIC
Tennessee. My dad worked on the army base, and we were out in the country. And so, I learned to use my little clarinet as a weapon.
TAJCI
Oh (laughs)
ERIC
and it worked for me. So, it was about this big and I’d hold the handle and I cracked a few people with it. But then, my band leader wanted me to go to a tenor sax, which is huge. Now, I’m little and it is as big as I am so there was no longer a weapon, it was just something to hide behind when I could.
TAJCI
Would you say, it was the resistance to be who you are and not allowed to be who you are, or you didn’t find your way to express yourself?
ERIC
That has changed for me a thousand times over the years. When you don’t have any guidance as a child, you find your own way. As my father didn’t believe in God, and so our family didn’t. So we just sort of make your own way… learn to justify things as ten year old. The things that you do. And when you start learning to justify things, it’s not always the right thing about it, usually, lot of times it’s never the right thing. When I was… from 11-12 my mother got sick, and she was always in the hospital, she later passed and what happened was, these people came to our house… they were RA’s, I don’t know if you know what that is – it’s Royal Ambassadors – and talked to my dad about going to a church down the road and he literarily threw them out the door. But one came back, he talked to me and I went to church and I would slip off and go, and I would go to RA’s, I didn’t want to go to church because you know, that was really… not what we are supposed to do, so…
TAJCI
Right.
ERIC
I learned something from then, it’s never about… the relationship is what you are looking for, but at 12 you don’t even understand what a relationship is… But they never came back to the house. They did their job, I got saved and they let me go. And so, I found out over time that that’s just where it starts. And so, as a 12 year old, I truly believed I was saved, and I knew right from wrong. This is right, this is wrong. But, remember, I had no one teaching me, so you learn to teach yourself. So I get hooked up with a group of guys that, we did everything you can imagine. We robbed cars, we stole cars, we broke into people’s homes, we fought all the time, but in my little mind, when we robbed homes, I wouldn’t take money for nothing. I mean, everything they sold, if I didn’t take any money for it, then I’m still good with God in my brain. Okay? And then when we fought and we hurt people, as long as I was helping my friends, that was good.
TAJCI
As a young man who’s out there fighting and doing all these things that you say, in your heart you know they are wrong, but you are doing it for your friends, and it is a part of belonging, part of being a part of something.
ERIC
Absolutely, and during all of this we would get arrested from time to time.
TAJCI
Yes
ERIC
And one of the things my dad did teach me…
TAJCI
I’m sorry, I have to pause. You got arrested from time to time. I don’t get a chance to talk to many people that would say that.
ERIC
It was like, my dad told me, and I tell kids this all the time, if you say ‘Yes sir’ and ‘Yes, ma’am’, ‘No sir’ “No ma’am’ and you treat people with respect, they tend to like you better. So I never got arrested.
TAJCI
Then there came a point that it seems like your first turning point where, at one event…
ERIC
I’d gotten into a really bad fight where I was, now I’m fourteen.. fifteen, just turning fifteen… my mom had passed away and my dad.. he was just not interested in the family. You know, it was five of us, so he wasn’t really around. I had gotten into this really bad fight, now I’m fifteen… the people we’re fighting are in their 30s, so it was a whole different than… so many more of them. And they just beat our brains out. And so, afterwards as I’m going home that night, police officer found me, I was just laying in a ditch behind the store. I just said, just take me home. He said no we’re going to have to arrest you this time, ’cause they knew who I was. And so, then one officer says, well, tell you what, if you come to my karate school and we’ll come, you have to come, or we are going to take you to jail. So I don’t know if you can do that or not do that, but that was a whole lot better than going to jail…
TAJCI
Yes
ERIC
So he lived five miles from my house and what I did every Monday night, I would run to his house, five miles, I would take two hour class and then I would run home. I did that for years. And in the back of the class is where I had to start. I was still me… I was mean, and I was tough, so it didn’t happen over night and people bring kids here all the time, they want their kids to change or… it doesn’t happen over night. My heart was hard to change.
TAJCI
It sounds like this cop offered you a chance and offered you what you were maybe screaming for: attention, love maybe…
ERIC
Direction
TAJCI
Direction, guidance
ERIC
Someone to say, don’t do that.
TAJCI
Yes. When we come back we’ll talk to Eric about what led him to start MPact sports and affect people.
BREAK
This episode has been brought to you by Doing Good, a 501c3 non-profit organization which tells real stories by real people who are making a difference through volunteering. Find out more online @DoingGoodTV or the website, DoingGood.TV
TAJCI
So here we are. So you are.. new chapter, you are training now, how did you become kickboxing champion?
ERIC
I finally got to a good gym, and in the gym I was what they call a feeder fighter. I fought the real fighters. But I was good enough to last one good round, and then I would last three rounds, and I would last five rounds and over the years I’d come to last all twelve rounds. I could fight the best of them 12 rounds and fight toe to toe with them. I finally started winning, I went for ten straight years and I became one of the fighters of the gym that got treated like a fighter. I already made a box with “God” on it, set it up on my shelf and said “God you are going to stay up there this fight, I’m gonna take this guy out. The very first round, if you ever see it, it’s on the internet, I got knocked out the first round. I went ten years without ever being knocked out. I just started praying. I really started praying. And sixth round, I started praying, I said: ‘God just let me stay up on my feet. And so, by the twelfth round, I remember knocking him down and he looked up at me, and he said, you know, “I can’t get up.” And I thought to myself, you know, that was, that was it, you know. But as I was looking down at him, and I thought about this the moment I knocked him down, when he said “I can’t get up.” My Dad would always come down the steps in the basement, I made a pillow bag, I’d hit the bag, had no training whatsoever, 11, 12, 13 years old, and I would just hit it. And he would come down the stairs, and he would talk to me about how worthless I was, And how what a waste of time I was… All the time. But he would sit there. Now I didn’t realize this at the time, I just thought he was just a mean person, so I’d hit the bag harder. And then, he would sit there for 30-40 minutes and just berate me over how bad I was. And then once in a while he would say: You’re dropping your hands. Keep your hands up. And I’d hit the bag some more… This went on for years. Just, he would come home and just tell me how worthless I was. But at that moment, I won the world title, I realized, he loved me… he really did. That’s just the only way he showed it. Because, if he truly thought I was worthless, he would have said I’m worthless and leave. But he sat there for almost an hour sometimes, just watching me hit this bag.
TAJCI
Was that a moment that you felt you forgave your father? And you felt loved?
ERIC
I think so. I think it was a big moment for me. Because I never forgave him. For all the stuff that I felt like he did to me, not just me, but everybody, and… but he grew up in a very loveless world. Back in the 30s, life was hard and you had to be hard. And that’s how he showed it.
TAJCI
’96. Olympic Games in Atlanta. How did you get picked to carry the torch?
ERIC
My wife wrote this essay and they told us hundreds of thousands of people sent in their essays, they said they would notify us through email. And I looked again, and they said, “If you aren’t notified by February 5th, by next day letter, than you just didn’t get picked. So I didn’t get picked. So I go home that night, at like 10 o’clock. I get off work, I walk in the front door. Well, the delivery person had delivered a next day letter for me a week ago. And there it is. Next day air… I opened it up and it says “you’ve been chosen.” But you have to notify us by February 5th 12 pm or we’ll go to the next candidate. I am on the phone for hours. I called Atlanta, I’m trying to find the president of the Olympic commitee, which is impossible. And so… I bet you I left 30 messages: “I’m in. I’m in. I’m in.” So finally I haven’t heard nothing for a while and then they called me and… it was the most awesome thing I’ve ever done.
TAJCI
We are talking to Eric Melton, whose story is one of overcoming a tremendous amount of anger and growing up on the ‘wrong side of the tracks’ and then becoming a world champion and carrying the torch at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. When we come back, we’ll talk about MPact sports and how Eric is helping the kids today to develop both physically and spiritually.
BREAK
TAJCI
We are here with Eric Melton at MPact sports. You are married, three children, working for UPS, now you are a ‘regular’ guy. And then what happens is, in 2002 you lost your job with UPS, and your wife describes it as a really low point.
ERIC
I guess, you know, when a man moves on in life… I think it was God moving me on because I thoroughly enjoy what I do. Working for UPS, it was like a training field for me. It trained me how to get up and go to work, it trained me how to work hard when I was there. It trained me how to do my best all the time. It’s almost… it’s crazy to say that but I always thought, I always felt that UPS was like a father figure for me. I mean, there was very demanding father figure. But it trained me to be a good… a person that did my best all the time. -Yes. -I did my best all of the time, not just some of the time. And so it helped me in fighting. I was in management, so I’d drive with the driver and I would just sprint back and forth, you know… they always wanted to ride with me because, especially when I was fighting, I got my training in during the day. ‘Cause I would train sometimes at 4 o’clock in the morning, ’cause I had to work all day.
TAJCI
When you lost that job, what did that really, how did that have an impact on you?
ERIC
It was like loosing a father.
TAJCI
Yea
ERIC
Where do I go from here? We’re talking to friends and he comes up to me and he says, well why don’t you do what you do best? And I say what? And he says ‘teach’. And I say, well I don’t really teach really well. I fight, but… you have to learn to be a teacher. So what I did, I went to two different churches and I asked if I could teach martial arts totally for free. And I would train all these kids on how to be… and I’m training on how to be a teacher, and I’m training them in martial arts, so I made a lot of mistakes. But the biggest mistake I made was, I’m standing in front of all these kids and they are talking. And I’m a world champion and they are talking. I am loading their brains out with how to be a champion. I say, you guys need to understand, I am a world champion, you guys listen to me. And I go on and on… and this little girl in the front row, and this was a turning point in teaching. She raised her hand, I can tell she she’s nervous and scared. I said “yes” and she goes “what’s a world champion?”
TAJCI
Oh, beautiful!
ERIC
And I just went, wow… what a moment! And all the parents were like, like this right here, because they understood being a world champion I had a lot of knowledge to teach these kids. but they don’t care. -Yes -They just care that you love them. They just care that… and they love you back if you love them. And that’s how I teach now. The parents bring them… “I want my son to learn respect.” I say, there is two ways… you can demand it, which doesn’t work, or you can commend it. And… I show them my heart. Once they see my heart, it takes a little while, everyone is different, then they’ll show me theirs. And then, no matter what I say to them and… they will accept it.
TAJCI
Yes
ERIC
But not until that moment happens between a teacher and student will anything happen. But that’s what you have to look for. That little girl that asked me what a world champion was, it was just a true turning point.
TAJCI
Yes
ERIC
So, I taught there for years, and then we decided to go at it as a business and as any business, you know, it’s difficult, you gotta pay the bills.
TAJCI
Eric, this is such, for me, this is such an American thing to do, to use all of the hardship and the wrongs that you’ve done and turn them into right and then give back to the community, and even at the, like you said, every start up is hard, and it took a lot of risk and a lot of love and commitment to create this place. One story of someone, of a kid maybe, that affected you, that you helped in this place…
ERIC
There was a girl years ago. She came, she was new to our country, she couldn’t speak English very well and.. Not always, but you can tell there is a lot of strength in this person… but the girl was a bully. Okay? And I caught on to it really fast, so in class, when I walked out of class this child hit another child. And so I rushed back in, you know, ’cause of the crying and stuff… and I said, listen, I told the dad, you really can’t come here, ’cause you can’t hit the other kids and… here I’m teaching people how to defend themselves and your kid’s hitting them. So, she leaves… She is really upset. We got along really well and she was a sweet kid, you know, but then I thought about it for days, this kid’s mean, okay? So, I teach kids how to deal with bullies, but here is a bully in class. So I’m gonna make her leave, right? So, I thought about that and I called the Dad back and I said, hey listen, you can have the child come back. I want the child to come back, I said, but she can not quit. That was not an option. She can not quit. And he goes, what do you mean? And I say, I’m gonna deal with her, the way she should be dealt with and she’s gonna want to quit. And we have huge requirements for black belt, I’ve only had, in the last 25 years, 14 black belts. She is one of them, but she is probably the nicest lady. She is, she just graduated from a high school, she is in the college, she got 31 on her SAT and it’s amazing brain this girl has, but she comes back and helps me teach, and teaches the kids, but I wonder sometimes where would she have been… would someone else have found her and helped her? You know, you never know… but she is quite a kid.
TAJCI
And it’s your experience and your… what you went through that recognized that in her…
ERIC
I think so. I don’t always think about it at a time but it truly bothered me… and then you just… I can help this one.
TAJCI
And thank you for pointing out how it’s a process. Because life is a journey and we go through ups and downs and we learn hard way, and we have good teachers, and we have guidance from people that love us but they don’t know how to communicate that… and sometimes that gets miscommunicated, but thank you so much for what you do, thank you for opening your heart and telling us your story ‘as-is’. Thank you Eric!
BREAK
This episode has been brought to you by Doing Good. Find out more online @DoingGoodTV or the website, DoingGood.TV
SONG
TAJCI
DeeAnn, you’re Eric’s wife and a partner at MPact sports and I would think that the only way how a former kickboxing champion and a black belts can live with someone is if that someone also has a black belt. And you do!
DEEANN
I do. I am a second degree black belt, I’m not sure if it’s a prerequisite to live with a black belt, or former fighter, but it probably helps a lot.
-Yes, I’m just joking, but, for me what’s beautiful about it is that you came to Nashville as a singer-songwriter.
DEEANN
I did.
-And you picked up Martial Arts…
DEEANN
It gave us a way to have something in common and to just a physical outlet to share and to encourage each other with. Yes…
-And then you excelled at it. It’s just really beautiful. It’s inspiring.
DEEANN
Thank you!
-So you’re gonna sing for us?
DEEANN
Yes!
-And what are you going to sing?
DEEANN
A song called ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ It’s one of my favorites. We actually named our daughter, our firstborn after this song.
-Wonderful!
DEEANN
I AM A POOR WAYFARING STRANGER
TRAVELING THROUGH THIS WORLD OF WOE
THERE IS NO SICKNESS, NO TOIL OR DANGER
IN THAT BRIGHT LAND TO WHICH I GO
WELL, I’M GOING THERE TO SEE MY FATHER
GOING THERE NO MORE TO ROAM
I’M JUST A-GOING OVER JORDAN
JUST A STRANGER GOING HOME
I KNOW DARK CLOUDS THEY GATHER O’ER ME
I KNOW MY PATHWAY’S ROUGH AND STEEP
BUT GOLDEN FIELDS LIE OUT BEFORE ME
WHERE WEARY EYES NO MORE SHALL WEEP
WELL, I’M GOING THERE TO SEE MY JESUS
GOING THERE NO MORE TO ROAM
I’M JUST A-GOING OVER JORDAN
JUST A STRANGER GOING HOME
-We’re just all strangers going home.
DEEANN
Yes
-Thank you!
To share Eric’s story and to find more, visit us at WakingUpinAmerica.net and do find us on social media as well. Thank you so much for watching. See you next time!
