TJ LAVIN
Soldier
You’re an inspiration, a fighter – that’s what you do: stay strong!
The 22nd of June, 2007 went down as one of the blackest days in BMX Dirt Jumping. That afternoon, 3-time gold medalist Stephen Murray crashed in the midst of performing a double back-flip. The impact crushed his 3, 4 and 5th cervical vertebrae and consequently suffered damage to his spinal cord. Though he managed to survive, Stephen Murray professional athlete, husband and father of two young boys, is now a quadripaligic & paralyzed from the shoulders down.
Few no better know better, than TJ LAVIN what a crash like that could mean. Having won the World Championship in BMX Dirt Jumping several times, his experiences have made him well aware of the risks in BMX. As a long-time friend of Murray’s, that friend’s fate hit him all the harder. TJ wrote a track to encourage Murray and to come to terms with the tragic event, a song that gets to the heart of their friendship and puts his worries in a nutshell: “Soldier”, a well-crafted fusion of HipHop and ballad that demonstrates this world-famous athlete as an outstanding musician.
TJ LAVIN gives free rein to his influences ranging from Timbaland to Garth Brooks on “Soldier”. His rapid, well-phrased rhymes paced at a moderate beat couple themselves magically to an acoustic guitar that is sure to get those goosepimples up and prickling. He receives support from Pippa Tabron, the wife of a close friend, in the form of gorgeous vocals she contributes to the track. There’s hardly a more intense way of showing someone that you’re there for them, through thick and thin.
For ten years now TJ LAVIN has been active not only as a BMX star and for MTV Real World / Road Rules Challenge as a presenter who enjoys worldwide popularity. He has a following as a musician, too. Working on his own under the name Lavs Labs, he already produced a collection of captivating HipHop tracks on his album “The First Set”. The CD took off like wildfire across the USA via mouth-to-mouth propaganda. It soon became clear that TJ LAVIN also had all the makings of a highly talented musician, a man who is developing a style of his own at his well-equipped home studio in Las Vegas. As TJ puts it, he would never call himself a rapper. The process of seeing a track emerge and grow is what he loves. Pure and simple. Even so, he has a solid ‘rep’ on the Vegas HipHop scene, and a fruitful musical friendship with the Kottonmouth Kings has been nurtured for quite some time.
TJ LAVIN is currently preparing his second album, which is going to be available in Germany, too through Rodeostar. It will contain a bunch of unconventional HipHop tracks, tunes with on-the-dot beats and off-the-beaten-path raps that have the potential to let TJ LAVIN become a major musician in his own right as well. One of those tracks is “Soldier”, the song to give Stephen Murray heart.
Yet “Soldier” is more than just a tune for a friend: It’s a piece of the future at the same time. A far cry from the NBA, NFL or other big-time pro sports varieties, BMX/ Actions Sports has no Union or League to shore up athletes with financial support when a catastrophe occurs. That’s why it was a never a question for TJ LAVIN that the track was to be released as a single, and that the proceeds from it should go to the Stephen Murray Family Fund that supports Stephen and his family through donations. When TJ goes on the US-wide Action Sports Tour (A.S.T.) at the end of June, he’s going to tell Murray’s story and warmly recommend the “Soldier” single to one and all – to have a strong man receive the help that he has earned.
“Take it slow and go your own pace,” is TJ LAVIN’s advice to young BMX riders.
“An accident like that happens rarely, a lot less often than an airplane crash. It was just bad luck. But don’t try to do something that you’re not able to judge.”
Stephen Murray has two sons and a wife who take loving care of him. He is 28 years old now, and he bears his fate with the greatest of strength.
www.stephenmurrayfamilyfund.com
www.myspace.com/murraystrong |
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