The Rise, The Fall & The Rebuild Of True Geordie

DOAC

My guest this week is my friend and all round good guy True Geordie, otherwise known as Brian Davis. Brian is from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He was born on a council estate, raised mostly by his mother as he describes his father being in and out of prison and not really being the father figure he desperately needed. When Brian left home he went to work on the oil rigs, scuba diving to work on them underwater. He describes how this would put him into life or death situations on a daily basis. The colleges he gained on the oil rigs became his father figures.

After leaving the oil rigs he started YouTube under the name footballfan533, and first rose to prominence when his first video (titled A True Geordie's view on Nile Ranger) went viral. Brian quickly gained a following due to his expletive and passionate opinions, and therefore changed his channel name to True Geordie, uploading more regularly. He was originally known for uploading rants about his football, but has since become best-known for the eponymous True Geordie Podcast, hosted by himself and his best friend Laurence McKenna.

Geordie was chosen the host and commentator for the KSI V Joe Weller fight in February 2018. He had previously been a commentator for some of the charity football matches.

I met Brian back in 2017 to record his podcast, we recorded it in a tiny abandoned bomb shelter that he paid £50 a day to rent out. Brian has come a long way since then, running a rapidly growing Youtube channel thats accumulating millions upon millions of views per week, he’s commentated on one of the largest Youtube events in history and he’s also created some of the best content I’ve ever seen.

All of this was quickly ripped away from him last year after one of the hardest weeks of his life, something we talk a lot about today. He’s gone through it all, been to the darkest of places, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. However this didn’t stop him getting back on his feet and rebuilding himself from the ground up, coming back bigger and better than before.