Later, after Trudell met Jesse Ed Davis , came the rock 'n roll. With Jesse and me, we each came from our collective Indian experience, and had our individual experiences in the non-Indian world. We had both literally been to the last door of hell, opened it, and saw what was inside. The album, released on Trudell's own Peach Company label in a cassette-only format, gained critical attention even with its limited distribution. Most recently, in 1998, Trudell was cast as the Radio DJ, in Sherman Alexie's award winning Sundance film, Smoke Signals.
Poetry is based on the oldest oral traditions.
I'm just a human being trying to make it in a world that is very rapidly losing its understanding of being human. John John Trudell is a crazy lone wolf, poet, prophet, preacher, warrior full of pain and fun and laughter and love, spilling out a vision of fable and truth, love and war, from the unique and somewhat desperate point of view of the Wild American. He's a reality check. Justice is a fire that burns inside him. His spirit cries out for it.