It’s the type of thing that you tell yourself would never happen to you or someone you know. Especially when you’re on the plane literally every other day. You know that plane crashes happen but apparently you’re more likely to get killed by a shark than to be in a plane crash. So you just go about your life and get on those flights. You also go about your sometimes stressful life and forget how fortunate you are to do what you love for a living, and to do it in good health.

As you all know, Friday night my friend DJ AM and his 3 friends got on a small Learjet that caught on fire before it even took off and suffered a horrible crash. It’s a miracle that Adam and Travis survived. Unfortunately, Travis’s entourage and the 2 pilots didn’t. So first of all, my condolences to those families. The news was tough on me, as I’m sure it was to many of you. It just made me so sad. Personally I was on the last day of a 3 week tour, waking up on the Paris-Bordeaux train to a frantic phone call from my girlfriend. I hadn’t slept much after the previous night’s big, late gig and this was the only date of the tour where I was by myself. The first thing I thought about was how much AM’s been through and how much of a fighter he is. As a DJ I remember when I first heard about him: purists were quick to try and dismiss him as a “celebrity DJ” who probably had it easy because he was engaged to that famous chick. But he just kept doing his thing and won people over one by one. I certainly remember the first time I saw him play and thought: “this guy’s a real DJ and he freaks his records than most quote-unquote turntablists that I know.” He eventually broke down barriers, even for guys who came before him.

What stayed in my head the most yesterday was a conversation that I had with Adam at Coachella this year, right before my set. A few minutes before I hit the stage, I was standing with him and I said something like “I hope my set goes well.” Suddenly he broke into a full-on pep talk. It was like someone flicked the “on” switch! He was like “listen man, you’re the shit, these people know you’re the shit, so you’re gonna go up there and kill it” and all this stuff, and he was totally matter-of-fact about it. I looked at him and said “that was a really good motivational talk!” and he said that he’s literally been giving motivational speeches for a while now. He goes to schools and talks to kids about the struggles he’s been through and how he turned his life around.

Now he just took another hit, possibly the biggest one of his life. But my man’s got such strong will, I know he’s going to get through it. He’s got a legion of friends and fans rooting for him and we’re all just praying for him to bounce back like he’s done before.

Get well soon homie.