A music industry veteran, CEO, and founder of Hustlepalooza, Hustle Simmons joins rolling out’s Health IQ to discuss COVID-19, the vaccine and how he’s managed his life through the pandemic.
Where were you when you first heard the buzz about COVID-19?
Coming out of All-Star weekend I was gearing up for the Spring for my artists to start touring and we started hearing rumblings. I remember I flew to Detroit for a performance, and at the performance we [found out] we had to cancel. By that Monday the world was on lockdown.
What have you learned about yourself during COVID?
It’s changed how I look at certain things. I noticed I stopped shaking hands with people. It made me realize that I’m not a 22-year old anymore and I need to take care of my health. It also made me realize the importance of mental health, I’m so used to being in control of everything in my career, [and] this was something that I could not control. I hadn’t felt that since the beginning of my career. It made me have to dig deep and remember my “why.” It [also] made me put my hustle hat on.
What COVID protocols are you putting in place for yourself and your team?
We started implementing certain things probably in May of last year. Our protocol is basically staying masked up, keeping hand sanitizer, and not having a lot of people around us. For Lollapalooza, there was no entourage, I made sure my artists stayed in their own section. Everyone had to have a vaccine, but we also made everyone around us get COVID tests. We’re just trying to stay responsible and follow the protocols of the venues we’re touching.
What was your rationale for getting vaccinated?
When I first heard about the vaccines, of course, I heard the conspiracy theorists. But then I have to be logical about my life and being around my parents, my daughter, the artists I’m with. I had to sit down and research the vaccines. I talked to a Black doctor. He kept it real with me — [gave] pros and cons. He understood my fears. I also had to look at the fact that I’m in the music industry around rappers and artists and they are around people. I’m going to take my chance on medicine with this. I had COVID [and] I don’t want that again. I was able to also take that knowledge and sit down with my artists.
Where do you think our community is with building our trust back with health care?
I think people don’t understand the power of social media, of being an influencer. I’ve been fortunate enough to be at an age where I can read in between the lines, and I can see [misinformation]. We talk about our distrust in medicine, but there’s a lot of things medicine has saved. We have to have those discussions.
For information about COVID-19 vaccines in Chicago, visit www.chicago.gov/covidvax.
