The Heart of a Lion – David Francisco
The Heart of a Lion - David Francisco
David Francisco is an accomplished singer, songwriter, producer, recording engineer and spinal cord injury survivor. While attending the prestigious Blackbird Academy furthering his music career, on April 27, 2016, and his life was forever changed when he was struck by a car. This accident resulted in significant injuries most notably a spinal cord injury. David’s response was to rebuild and then grow. Since that time, David finished his schooling at the Blackbird Academy, tried out and had a very successful season on American Idol, organized a charity ride and appeared on ELLEN to tell his story and receive funds for his charity, amongst so much more.
In this episode we discuss,
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David’s life prior to his accident and his accident story.
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Redemption and building your redemption story.
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ELLEN, American Idol, shows, and other very public performances.
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Purpose in Suffering and the blessings of a supportive community.
- David talks about his single Lionheart releasing on the third anniversary of his accident. This is an anthem to those that have persevered through really difficult experiences.
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Proving you can do more than you realize.
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David Francisco talks about his upcoming book (exclusive!).
More About David Francisco
David Francisco is an accomplished singer/songwriter, musician, producer, recording engineer and spinal cord injury survivor.
He opened and operated a small recording studio in Knoxville for a couple of years before deciding to enhance his producing and engineering skills by attending the world renowned Blackbird Academyin Nashville Tennessee. Three weeks after moving to Nashville, tragedy struck. While riding his bicycle home from school at lunch to feed his dog, David was t-boned by a distracted driverwho ran a red light at a busy intersection. His body slammed into the windshield, launched 10 feet into the air and crashed into the pavement. His back was snapped, his spinal cord severely damaged and his left forearm torn open. It was April 27, 2016, and his life was forever changed. The following year consisted of intense, full-time physical therapy and rehabilitation at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, where David focused all of his efforts on regaining any possible mobility. He returned to Nashville in January 2017, and graduated from the Blackbird Academy in June 2017. His journey is documented in the short film "Back To Blackbird”. Later in 2017 he auditioned for American Idoland went all the way to Hollywood week. His audition was televised and viewed more than 42 million times around the world.
He met, fell in love and married the beautiful Kristi Wilhelm, who started dating him while he was still in a wheelchair. Their love blossomed and powered his amazing recovery to where he and Kristi organized a charity bicycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to celebrate all that he had recovered. This led to an appearance on the ELLEN showwhere ELLEN Degeneres gave them a $10,000 contribution to support the Ride!
David is signed with Extreme Music, a division of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and currently lives in Los Angeles. He has performed on stage with Martina McBride, Steven Curtis Chapmanand opened for 3 sold out shows for THE VOICE winner, Chris Blue. He has shared his story at the Grammy's annual MusiCares foundation gala and in person with Katy Perry and Kacey Musgraves.
Back to Blackbird Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXeF1zv7zaU
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