Unarmored Talk

Beyond Talent: A Father, A Son, and an Unbreakable Legacy

• Mario P. Fields - Sergeant Major (Ret.) • Episode 138

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In this heartfelt Unarmored Talk Podcast episode, we explore the inspiring story of Lance Jones, son of Eric Jones, whose unwavering work ethic and passion for basketball set him apart. 

Under the guidance of his father—his coach and mentor—Lance pushed beyond natural limitations, proving that relentless dedication and discipline could outshine raw talent. Their bond extended beyond sports, shaping a philosophy of perseverance that applied to all aspects of life. 

However, tragedy struck when Lance’s promising future was cut short in a devastating car accident while he was in law school at just 25 years old. This episode honors his legacy and the lessons he left behind.


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Mario P. Fields:

Welcome back to Unarmored Talk Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching each episode and continue, please, to share with your friends and family members and colleagues, and don't forget to leave a rating or review if you feel this is an awesome show. And you can connect to all of my social media on the Parade Deck Just look in the show notes. Media on the parade deck just look in the show notes. Or you can put in the search engine Mario P Fields parade deck and get all access to my social media. Well, let's get ready to interview another guest who is willing to remove their armor to help other people.

Mario P. Fields:

Welcome back to the unarmored talk podcast everyone. For all you listeners and viewers, I am still your host, mario P Fields. As you guys just know, recently we celebrated four years on the air and that's in audio, all your audio platforms and thanks I so much appreciate it, eric the hand clap and YouTube. So thank you everyone and thank you so much, and we'll continue to bring some amazing guests who are making a choice. Again, it's their choice to remove their armor, to share a life event with, whatever that life event is and how emotions played into it, but how they thought through that event and improve the outcome of the current, that situation and subsequent situations. Remember, it's a choice unless you're insane to think is a choice.

Mario P. Fields:

Today we have Mr Eric Jones. I mean he's a very humble guy. I learned a lot about him and he's out in that SoCal, he's out in that West Coast area, but he's doing a lot of great things. I'm going to give him a chance to tell you all a little bit about himself. But one thing I love about Eric is he has dedicated his life as a humanitarian and he does a lot of wonderful things in the charitable space. And with that, eric, welcome to the show.

Eric Jones:

Thank you so much, brother.

Mario P. Fields:

I appreciate you so much and again, welcome. I'm so glad you got the grand baby man. That's a blessing. It's a blessing, trust me. She is. You know, again, we talked before the show but a little Layla is. She is just so amazing. And, um, yeah, the entire budget has been reallocated to Layla, my daughter's like. So where do I fit in the priorities of love? I said my love for you is different. She goes OK, dad, I'm at the bottom.

Eric Jones:

Hey, it changes. It's supposed to.

Mario P. Fields:

Yeah, man, I'm telling you, but can you do, do us a little little bit, a little favor, eric, and bless us with letting the listeners and viewers know a little bit about Eric Jones.

Eric Jones:

Okay, eric Jones is a simple man, grew up in South Central Los Angeles. I was like in the 10th grade when the crack era hit. I'm right there in the center of it, you know. But the thing that kept me from it was I was a musician. You know, I'll end up going to Locke High School. Anybody from Southern California knows what Locke High School is about. It's about music. So I went there and I always felt like I wanted more, but I didn't know what that meant, and so, after a while of bouncing around, I went to LA Harbor College and then I matriculated to USC and then, actually right now, I'm at Morehouse College. Wow. So, when it's all said and done, I'm a simple guy that's hungry for knowledge. That's it. That's me.

Mario P. Fields:

Well, eric, that's courageous because if people don't realize, you know, growing up in South Central or anywhere in some of your cities and when you know the crack, cocaine sales distribution, all that good stuff started to come, you know, becoming a huge thing. You had a choice man Like you could, you could have gotten the gangs and stayed in the gangs and sold crack for years and you know what happens with that. And look at you, you know you went to college, usc, trojans and what you say, morehouse now morehouse, morehouse, college man, but I'll tell you this, uh, when you say I had a chance, brother, you, you don't have a clue, right?

Eric Jones:

you have a clue my, my, my cousins were gangsters and and drug dealers. And I'm going to be honest with you, man, I used to sit back some time. I'm at school, I'm at USC and I'm struggling. I'm struggling with money, right, and I'm doing all this stuff and I have a cousin that'll come pick me up in a brand new 5.0 on Dayton's.

Mario P. Fields:

You may not know what that is, but oh yeah, I do. Okay okay, hey, I'm not that young.

Eric Jones:

I'll take your word for it. I'm sitting in this car riding home and these guys got all this money and I just had enough to buy me a burrito today, you know, and I thought about it many times because it wouldn't have been nothing to get in it, man, but it just wasn't for me, man, it just it just wasn't. And I'll be honest, I wanted the money, but I guess I didn't want it that bad.

Mario P. Fields:

Yeah, Before we get into the topic, you brought back some memories. I always wanted some Dayton's man. I couldn't afford no 5.0 with some 16, 17 in Dayton's.

Eric Jones:

You know what I mean? Yeah, he let me drive it one time and I'm driving down Manchester and it's convertible. I feel like I'm outside. I really feel like I'm outside and as I like I'm outside, as I'm driving I'm flossing a little bit, feeling pretty flossy. Then I got nervous. I'm like wait a minute, I'm in a convertible on Dayton's, people shooting people man, they was killing people for Dayton's for a while. I guess that sobered me up because that was the only time I drove that car. I didn't have any incidents or none, but that was the only time I drove that car.

Mario P. Fields:

Right, and for the younger listeners and viewers. I mean, it's back in the day when you get shot for stepping on someone's shoes, Sure would man Back then. Yeah.

Eric Jones:

Yeah, yeah.

Mario P. Fields:

Yeah, you step on someone's shoes or Dayton's or rims, right yeah, you get shot just by. Back in the 80s, you know, stepping on some shoes and some Dayton's, you get robbed. Yeah, easy, easy. Well, you know, man, you brought back some memories. You know people, just you know, I'll be 50 in a few months and people will be like no, you're a youngster.

Mario P. Fields:

I'm 59. Oh shoot, hey, you look. Hey, there's hope for me, man. But and I'm glad we're able to have fun everyone, because the topic is actually it's a very emotional topic and I'm thankful Eric came on the show. But here it is. You know, you grew up in South Central, you made some decisions, you know, had some very influential family members, but, yeah, you chose not to go that route and got into music. And then you have a son. I want to say we'll focus on your son and he's doing great. And then something happens. Can you give a little background about a wonderful son?

Eric Jones:

Well, my son was Lance Jones and he was an athlete. He wasn't. I'll put it like this you could not work him. You could not work him. He wasn't the most athletic athlete but he worked so hard you would think like this kid just got all this natural ability. It wasn't natural, you could not outwork him.

Eric Jones:

He was a basketball player at Rancho Verde High School here in Moreno Valley, california and we put him on an AAU team and he seen that a lot of the kids were better. So he would come home. He would say, hey, daddy, can we work out? And I work him out. I'm out there with him in the yard. I took a spray can and I in our driveway I put like a where the block was, where the free throw was, all that in my yard and he would wake me up hey, daddy, can we work out, work out. And and I mean after a while, man, he just was that dude. Wow, I mean he was. He was like six, six one, but he was like iron man. I created a workout routine for him. We he played a game in fullerton and I mean this kid was giving it to him, giving it to him, and we ride in the car home and it's silence. And then he says daddy, I wasn't strong enough and I said no, you wasn't said but we can fix that, and what position was Lance playing?

Eric Jones:

Lance was 6'1", playing power forward, sometimes center. Wow, just put it like this Think of Dennis Rodman, without the antics, that's my boy. Wow, that's my boy. Dennis Rodman, without the answers, guard anybody, no fear. Before every game I would come up to him and we would hug and I always tell him show no mercy and show no fear, because nobody going to show you none, right, you know.

Eric Jones:

So I started looking up exercises for him and MMA exercises spoke to me and I put a routine together for him and we incorporated into his basketball and it was a wrap man, he was just a beast. I would talk to him because he would get super emotional in games and I would tell him look, man, you got to learn how to turn that off. You got to be a light switch I have to give you license to turn it on on the court but you got to learn how to turn it off off the court. And he did and he did. And so, having said that, his senior year he got picked up by La Sierra University out here and then he had aspirations of being pro. But we talked about it and I told him you're probably not going to go pro because of your height and how you play Different. That was the goal.

Eric Jones:

And so he goes to law school. Second year in law school, man, he goes to the beach with some friends. They're drinking, having a good time. On their way home, the guy who was driving runs into a pole in Orange County and my son dies. He was 25. Yeah, so like.

Mario P. Fields:

I said man. Yeah.

Eric Jones:

But I cherish that I had him and that's why I say to people like you cherish those people in your life. I don't have any regrets, man, and the reason I can say that is because I was his dad. Yeah, not just somebody who was there, you know. And when something like that happens, I'm glad to say I don't have any regrets, you know. Yeah, yeah, that that's, that's where it's at, man, that's the. That's the long and short of it.

Mario P. Fields:

You know, and Eric, and again man, short of it. You know, and eric, and again man, there's never words. Anyone could say that that you and I've talked about this off air is to take away grieving, grievance forever right. And I love how you when he would say, dad, let's work out. You didn't have have to. I know some days you were probably tired.

Eric Jones:

Oh man, look, he would work out every day if I let him. But I told him I was reading a book by Miyamoto Musashi, the Book of Five Rings, and there was a story in there where this guy came up to him and said, master, how long would it take for me to be a master? He said five years. And then he said, well, what if I practice double the amount of time? And he said, then it'll take you 10. And so I thought about that. And it's like when you're working out, you're not building yourself up, you're tearing yourself down. It's the rest period where your body is repairing itself and all that. So the routine was Monday, wednesday and Friday doing off season. But it get 110 degrees out here and, man, we was out there at nine o'clock in the morning. I'm a real estate broker so I can make my own hours, so I would work around his schedule and that's what we would do.

Mario P. Fields:

So yeah, and you know, the other thing that I hope the listeners and viewers got, eric, and I want to highlight, is how you said that you weren't just a father, you were involved.

Eric Jones:

Oh man.

Mario P. Fields:

Yeah, and how that played a role in your grieving process, how we're like you said, it wasn't. You wake up one day and Lance is gone, and now you're reflecting, going dang.

Mario P. Fields:

Yeah man, I, you know, I never was there or I never worked out with, I never went to a game, and I think that's critical because, like you said, we all don't know when we may lose. If we have a right now and for this episode of sun right, um, and so, as this devastating man event occurs from my basic understanding, you, you just didn't just stop with life. Can you tell us a little bit about what, what you started to do after you lost your, your wonderful son Lance?

Eric Jones:

Well, you know, I have another son. Lance was my oldest, my, my youngest is two years younger. He played football. I had one in basketball, one in football and my wife, of course. And real talk, man, we, we just leaned on each other, we and my wife, of course. And real talk, man, we just leaned on each other. We had to, we leaned on each other.

Eric Jones:

I would say, out of all of us grieving, I probably grieved the most. Yeah, but that's still nothing. Grief is, I guess, is relative. You know what I mean. But since I was there so much, I knew him better than anybody and so, you know, I tried to just throw myself into work and books and stuff like that. But, like I said, I didn't have any regrets and man, that helped, it just did, you know, I would say, and man, this is going to sound so bad, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

Eric Jones:

He didn't have any kids. And you tell your kids all the time don't have kids until you're ready, don't have kids until you're this, don't have kids until you're that. He was the perfect guy to have a kid. He asked me one time. He said dad. He said I don't think I'm going to be a good dad.

Eric Jones:

And I said why you say that? He said because I'm selfish. He said I don't think I'm going to be a good dad. And I said why you say that? He said because I'm selfish. He said I'm selfish. He said you know, I like to do what I like to do and all this. And I said you know what man? You're going to be a great dad because you recognize where you're weak at. Already I said you're going to be a great dad and so now there's no legacy from him, except in memory. You know what I mean? Yeah, so I struggle with that. Like, should I have told him to not have kids? Should I have? Or should I have told him have as many kids as you need to have? You know, but that doesn't mean he would have been a good dad.

Eric Jones:

We never know, you know, but I'm just saying that's something that I think about. That's why I tell you what your grandchild Don't let anybody tell you anything about your grandchild. Man, you do what you need to do. You do what you want to do. Do what you want to do. You shouldn't do that for her because she got it. If you don't want to have it, don't bring it over here, or better, y'all send it in the mail and you don't want to have it taken from you. You know, I mean, that's just my opinion.

Mario P. Fields:

You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, and and no, I don't like you know. I feel the same way about my own son. Like son, you ain't, you ain't ready, but, like you said, what is ready? I mean, what does that even look like? But look at what you're. You know the beauty about Eric. What I've seen from you is you are making decisions to keep Lance's legacy going. I mean, this episode will keep Lance's legacy going unless they ever delete YouTube.

Eric Jones:

Right.

Mario P. Fields:

You know, and I applaud you for that, and then you're doing a lot of charitable work, and again, everyone, these are all choices. I mean, yeah, you know, eric, could, eric could have just went into deep depression and literally let the deep depression control him.

Eric Jones:

Yeah.

Mario P. Fields:

And not be there for his wife, his young, you know his baby boy. But you did not. And can you tell us a little bit about the just a major impact that you have been making for folks or real in Southern Cal?

Eric Jones:

Well, we're still in the beginning stages of this, but I have a friend he was actually my boss, his name is John Taylor and he asked me to go to lunch with him one time. And I went to lunch and he said you know what, eric, I watched how you raised your sons and I watched how you used to work with these kids at school on the weekends and nobody paid you. You just did it. And he said you're great with young men. And I said thank you. I never looked at myself as being great with anybody, you know. But he said you know what man? You should open a group home. I'm like a group home. I like that. That never in my mind for any reason. And he said no, man, he said they can learn a lot from you.

Eric Jones:

And so I thought about it, me and my wife talked about it, we prayed about it. I prayed about it and I said you know what? Uh, I used to go to these aau games and I would be the only dad in the stands for practice, my son's practice. If I missed a game, it wasn't a big deal, because I'm at the practice four days a week, you know. So, but we was at the games too, but still. So I thought about it and I'm looking at how many kids are on the court and on the football field with their mom but no dads, you know. And I'm like we got to try to fix that. I don't know how, I don't know how to fix that, but I said, you know, if I can get a group home and just give some of those kids some of the wisdom that I have, I can't make you take it, but I can offer it. You know, if you take it, you'll have a better life, because not only will you have your life, but you'll have my experience trying to guide you through life. And so I said okay, so in 2023,.

Eric Jones:

I started the process man and man, they do a background check on you. They did the background check on me and I didn't hear any information. And I called him like well, I don't have any information. They said, well, we kicked you out the system. I said why are you kicking me out the system? I haven't done anything. You, because you wasn't affiliated with anybody. I'm like no, I'm creating a business myself. I'm not supposed to be affiliated with anybody. So we got that all straight last December and so I just did my final orientation just last Wednesday, man. So I'm at the stage now where now I can buy a house. So I set up. Thank you, brother. I appreciate that. I set up a nonprofit business to help fund the LLC and other group homes and I'm also going to create my own group home and in LLC. Right now the nonprofit organization is up and running full blast and then the group will become as soon as we buy a house and I submit all that stuff to the state and so that's that's it. That's it in a nutshell, man.

Mario P. Fields:

Man that is. That is wonderful the power of a father and the power of a father being intentional man when it comes to raising the kids.

Eric Jones:

And for this episode a son or sons, yeah.

Mario P. Fields:

I, you know I could hold you on here forever and I would love to, but you guys know every episode. I don't want to be selfish, because you guys know. But what a powerful person, you, but what a powerful person. You know what a powerful testimony and I will tell you from my point of view, eric, is what you have done? Growing up in that, in that cocaine cracker, growing up in Dayton, you can get killed.

Mario P. Fields:

I didn't have any but I was sitting on them one day Sitting on them and just making a choice to get into music and stay in the life, learning as you still are, and to really be intentional with your son. I believe this episode is powerful and I hope a lot of men out there listen to this episode. Self-reflect like you said, lance had the ability to self-reflect. That is a powerful human skill, one that's overlooked and one that, if you don't have, could be very destructive to your improvement as a person. Just your ability to just continue to be a leader, not only in your household but in your community. Looking back, if you had to give yourself any advice when your child or children were born, if you were standing there looking at yourself and you had to give yourself any advice, what would it be?

Eric Jones:

Talk to your grandparents, more especially if you have a granddad that's alive. Talk to your granddad man. I'm not going to say to your dad, but your granddad, talk to your granddad. Talk to your granddad man. Yeah, wow, talk to your granddad If you're a guy. If you're a guy, talk to your granddad, because he will give you a point of view that you would never get from anywhere else. And when he passes, it is gone.

Mario P. Fields:

It is gone. Thank you, Eric. So much you guys hear that the power of wisdom and experience. You can't go to any university.

Eric Jones:

Oh, no, right, that's not in there.

Mario P. Fields:

You get a master's in wisdom and common sense.

Eric Jones:

Yeah, oh yeah.

Mario P. Fields:

Yeah, and my friend, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Hey, my friend, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Lance will forever be in my prayers in this episode. We'll forever honor lance jones eric. Thank you for coming on the show.

Eric Jones:

Love you, brother thank you, brother, love you too, man man, god bless. Congratulations on the grandbaby. You can't spoil her enough. No such thing, no such thing no such thing as playing your grandchild brother.

Mario P. Fields:

Look, sir, yes sir.

Eric Jones:

Here you go.

Mario P. Fields:

Well, everybody, you guys know the deal. We'll see in a few weeks with another amazing episode, but until then, I will continue to pray that God blesses you, the listeners or viewers, your family members, your friends and every living being around you. Take care, take care. Thank you for listening to this most recent episode and remember you can listen and watch all of the previous episodes on my YouTube channel. The best way to connect to me and all of my social media is follow me on the parade deck that is wwwparadecom, or you can click on the link in the show notes. I'll see you guys, soon.

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