Welcome to watch Mojo.

And today we're looking at the tragic life of River Phoenix.

I welcome and into this all, if that's what should be I don't mind that, in fact, I would rather quit while I was ahead.

Uh, yeah, there's no need overstaying your welcome.

Born River Jude Bottom River entered this world in a log cabin in Oregon.

His hippie parents named him after an inspirational river in.

Herman has his philosophical novel.

Siddhartha Jude came from the Beatles song.

Four siblings would follow, each with their own unique name, Rain Walk, a kn Liberty and Summer.

But by all accounts, their upbringing was extremely difficult.

Find a normal family and the good of bringing, and I would have been a well adjusted person pens or what you call normal.

Yeah, When River was just two years old, his parents joined the Children of God.

The bottoms drifted into a religious cult called The Children of God, which blended traditional Christianity with the hippie lifestyle.

The Children of God were a group of young nomads and hippies who refused to adhere to the capitalist system, calling those who did system mites.

The adults didn't work, and the Children didn't attend school.

This included River and his siblings, he told the Chicago Tribune quote.

I would sing at jails with my sister and stand on street corners, passing out literature containing uplifting messages.

He would also play his guitar on the streets as a way to make small amounts of money.

Every little bit helped River began playing guitar on street corners and singing with his sister Rain.

They sang to attract potential converts and, more importantly, to earn a living.

In other words, River and his family were in a religious cult.

Like a lot of cults at the time, they lived in communes and were adamant that the end was nigh.

The cult gained notoriety for their highly controversial sexual practices, including allegations of child sexual abuse, the allegations, including the cult's founder, David Brandt Berg, who was accused of abusing his own daughters and granddaughters.

It was also well known for a practice called flirty fishing.

Flirty fishing was when the female members of the group would go out into the public and persuade men to join the cult by offering their bodies.

Berg's daughter later referred to it as quote religious, prostitution, and it was this practice that persuaded Rivers parents to leave the cult.

River didn't speak much about his time in the Children of God, although he once said that they were disgusting, that they kind of gone into, ah faith crisis, that they weren't comfortable in the Children of God anymore.

And they wanted to leave homeless, destitute.

All the bottom family had left were each other.

Leaving the cult was certainly the right moral and spiritual decision to make, but a challenging financial one.

After literally sneaking out of the cult, the family found themselves poor and homeless in Caracas, Venezuela, which is where they've been stationed.

Rivers parents had also experienced intense pain and loneliness following their departure from the ones welcoming cult.

At the end of 1977 after leaving the Children of God cult, River Bottom and his family were stranded in Caracas to pay for their room and board at a local Catholic church River and his sister, Rain played that they lived in a beach hut for a couple of months before hitching a ride to Florida on a commercial freighter.

It was around this time the family decided to change their surname to Phoenix, a proud metaphor for their prolonged struggles and hopes for the future.

A symbolic rising from the Ashes were moving Base Camp Case of You tracks his whole life.

He's been paying the price of their beliefs.

Look what we're doing with These kids have been running their whole lives like criminals can't keep running away from something that you have nothing to do with.

You deserve your own chance.

And it seemed to work because life did get better.

Back in the States, River remembers rich Children giving them their old clothes, and he and his sister began winning local talent contests.

We'd come out to Los Angeles to, um, to make it and and at the time, I was nine years old and my sister was seven and we wanted to be recording artist, which was a bit far fetched, I suppose.

Word of their accomplishments eventually made the papers, and these papers made their way to Paramount Pictures in Hollywood.

They contacted the Phoenix family and told them to drop by sometime.

So Phoenix's parents, through the Mullen s station wagon and made their way out to Hollywood.

You hear what I said, right?

Run back, Mr Haff.

Lock the sheriff.

What?

What are you gonna do?

Thank you.

In Los Angeles, Rivers, Mother landed a job at NBC.

Meanwhile, River and Joaquin began performing on the streets for spare change, where they caught the attention of acting agent Iris Burton.

Burton was enamored with the Children and their talents and signed them on his clients.

Then, later on, we got into commercials for financial reasons, and enacting became, you know, attractive concept.

So we pursued.

River soon landed work in commercials and other small time gigs, including the short lived CVS musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and numerous made for TV movies Dream and Vision Tonight of Seven Brothers.

Bold, Strong.

His big break came in 1986 when he was cast in the critically acclaimed It Stand by Me.

That's where the people think of my family of the Stone.

It's what they think of me, just one of those little life chambers kids.

That's not true.

Oh, it is.

No one even asked me if I took the milk money that time.

I just got a three day vacation.

Rivers costar Wil Wheaton attributes the movie's success to the casting and grew attached to River throughout the filming process, calling him quote one of the kind of people I've ever been around.

I just think I'm weird, definitely low man.

Seriously, my weird, Yeah, but so what?

Everybody's weird.

The role helped make River a star, and it seemed like his metaphorical surname had finally proved decisive.

He soon became a well known activist for animal rights and environmental awareness.

They asked their parents.

They said, What is this?

What?

Why are they killing these animals?

They said, Well, that's when you eat fish.

This is how they do it.

You kill the animal And the kids were horrified and they never again a fish or meat of any kind.

But River was never happy in his fame.

After his death, Rivers mother told Esquire, quote, he became more and more uncomfortable being the poster boy for all good things.

He often said he wished he could just be anonymous, but he never waas.

I think there's a lot of pressure in Hollywood, you know, there's a lot of pressure to d'oh you know to be a lot of things that maybe he wasn't.

His financial success also proved to be a burden, and he began taking on a more paternal role in the family.

His father had struggled with alcoholism, and with River being the eldest and most successful child, he felt it was his duty to provide for his family.

River was the leader of a kind of a merry band of feral Children.

He was.

It was his idea to perform on the streets, to get money, to send the kids to school.

He was the one that led the family into vegetarianism.

His girlfriend, fellow actors, cement the Mathis recounted to The Guardian, something that River had once said to her in their last year together, River told her quote, I just have to make one more movie to put away enough money so my youngest sister can go to college.

It's a statement that perfectly captures rivers, generosity and maturity.

Unfortunately, River would pass away in the early morning of October 31st in 1993 at just 23 years old.

While there are different accounts of what happened, what we do know is that river died from a dangerous concoction of cocaine and heroin, often called a speedball.

The autopsy report claims that there were no drugs in his nasal passages or needle tracks on his body, and the conclusion seemed to be that River had swallowed the concoction as a drink.

It also claims that he had eight times the lethal dosage in his bloodstream.

This aligns with stories concerning the night in question.

River had gone to the Viper Room Ah Hollywood club, owned by Gianni Depp with the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John for Shawn.

Director William Richard claims that Samantha Mathis told him that for Santa gave River a cup and told him to drink it, promising that he'd feel fabulous.

It's possible that the content was meant to be sipped and shared, but told to drink it river down the whole cup.

God knows how many of us would have drunk something in that state on a night off from a difficult time, so but nobody stopped him, really, and nobody helped him and nobody said we were getting a car.

It's time to go home.

After doing so, he shook and fell down and was later seen stumbling around the bar.

Musician Bob Forrest recalls that river, approached him in the bark, tapped him on the shoulder and told him that he was overdosing.

Good evening, Eugene.

Please come in.

Sit down.

Make yourself comfortable.

I'm afraid I can't do that.

I'm terribly upset.

Nothing went right tonight.

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Reportedly secluded himself following Rivers Death.

Frightened that he'd be arrested, Rivers father told a reporter that if he ever saw fresh on day, he'd kill him.

However, Rivers Mother later announced that the family was not pressing charges.

My mom, my sisters, were the ones that really kept his memory alive and kind of the willingness to t talk about it.

Rain has this beautiful lyric in her song In My Mind Still See Your light, Keep It Alive.

In a 2018 interview at The Guardian, however, Mathis said that she was in the bathroom when River took the fatal dose.

In her words, quote, I have my suspicions about what was going on, but I didn't see anything.

When she returned from the bathroom, she saw a river in a fight with another patron.

They were both kicked out by a bouncer, and river began convulsing.

Whatever happened that night, the result was the same.

River overdosed, and his family and girlfriend were there to see it.

Charlie, do you have a girlfriend?

Yeah, I could be your girlfriend if you want.

His brother, Joaquin Phoenix, called 911 while his sister, Rain, tried to resuscitate him.

He was still alive when the ambulance arrived, but was later pronounced dead at Cedars Sinai Hospital.

When he collapsed, his brother called 911 and mentioned the tranquilizer Valium in his friend.

It was, ah, horribly tragic way for River to go and capped a life full of difficulties.

He's remembered today as a beautiful soul who fought to rise above misfortune and who was taken from us far too soon.

You lost today, kid.

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