Local O.A.R. musician launches mental health podcast 'What Could be Bad'

The bass player in the band doesn’t always get to use a microphone.

O.A.R. bassist and Leucadia resident Benj Gershman is now taking the lead and using his voice to help others through his new mental health and wellness podcast “What Could be Bad." The podcast launched May 1, in line with Mental Health Awareness Month.

"What Could be Bad" is a reflection of Gershman’s own challenges with mental health as he struggled with anxiety and depression that stemmed from debilitating physical health issues. As he works on healing, he is still learning and growing and wants to bring others along in the process.

“I’ve always wanted to have conversations with people that are not fluff,” Gershman said. “Surviving a mental breakdown with the support of my family, friends, medicine and therapy, I have re-entered my life as a new person. I’ve chosen to do what I can to address the many mental health issues of our community and nation by having conversations with professionals within the entertainment industry to show the gamut of challenges felt by people in varying circumstances that I can personally relate to.”

Gershman has recorded the first eight podcasts of his weekly 12 episode first season. One of those conversations will feature Steph Johnson, the director of the Voices of Our City Choir made up of unsheltered San Diegans. The choir will join O.A.R. on stage at the Cal Coast Credit Union Amphitheater on Aug. 9 as part of their nationwide summer tour.

Along with his wife Kristin, Gershman has called Leucadia home since 2014.

“This is a healing community, this is a very positive place and I’m fortunate that I got to heal here and I can take this mentality wherever I go now and hopefully share that with others,” he said.

Gershman has been a member of the band O.A.R. for over 25 years. Music has always been a love—at age eight he started out playing the piano and soon picked up a guitar, then the bass. “My dad brought home a bass one day when I was kinda struggling with the guitar to form the chords with my young fingers,” Gershman said. “He just thought the bass would be a little easier to learn and it just resonated with me and stuck.”

He met his O.A.R. bandmates Richard On, Chris Culos and Marc Roberge when they were all in junior high school together in Maryland. He was in the audience when they rocked out the gym playing Eric Clapton and Pearl Jam in the middle school talent show. A few years later, they formed a band and started releasing music together—they met the band’s final piece, Jerry DePizzo, when they were at Ohio State.

Over the years O.A.R. has found success with a multitude of platinum and gold certifications, Billboard Hot 100 hits like “Love and Memories” and “Shattered (Turn the Car Around)”, selling out venues like Madison Square Garden, and giving back by starting their own nonprofit to support youth and education. Their 10th album “The Arcade” was released in 2022.

Severe physical health challenges that Gershman experienced during the pandemic are what led to his mental health issues.

In February 2020, he got really sick with an upper respiratory infection now classified as Long Covid, which led to Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disorder.

“I became technically disabled,” he said. “I lost the ability to walk, I lost the ability to hold an instrument, I couldn’t really even pick up my one-year-old kid.”

While the respiratory issues eventually went away, he struggled with mental fog, fatigue and lingering issues in his heart and other organs. He went through physical and occupational therapy for his back, legs and hands.

Adding on personal training for another 15 months, he finally got well enough to go back out on tour with O.A.R. in 2022 and that’s when anxiety, depression and the trauma of his physical challenges began to surface. He had to learn how to manage the new way his body worked and he felt in a way like he had lost his identity. It brought out a lot of hard questions: Can I be the person I want to be?

Gershman said he went through a lot to get right, engaging in therapy and finding the support he needed from his wife, parents, friends and the band.

“From all the learning, I realized that things are better when we support each other and a lot of people don’t don’t address their mental health until it’s at a breaking point which it was for me,” Gershman said. “Now I’m on a personal mission to shine a light on things that are going on with people in my industry and try to talk about them and hopefully provide a place where people can learn and listen to others.”

The podcast’s name “What Could be Bad” is a nod to how sometimes what you see and think is not all that a person is going through. His guests, people in the entertainment industry who may seem like they have it all, unpack their personal journeys through trauma and what has worked in their recovery,

The podcasts are not just audio, Gershman also films the podcasts—it’s important for him to be one-on-one with his subjects as he believes it makes the exchanges more heartfelt and real.

Gershman will be recording this season of podcasts up until the band goes out on a tour in late June, a nationwide trek with Fitz and the Tantrums and DJ Logic that runs through September plus a handful of shows in November. Gershman can’t wait to get out and perform—he loves the adrenaline rush and the good vibes of being on the road and being with his longtime friends.

On tour, O.A.R. will play the second annual Oceans Calling Festival in Ocean City, Maryland, part of a huge lineup that includes bands such as Blink 182, The Killers, Dave Matthews Band, Counting Crows, Boys II Men, The Offspring, 311 and many more. The band is proud to be a part of a show that was built out of a love for music, their home state of Maryland and bringing people together.

Over the years, O.A.R. has invited secret guests on stage with them to do covers. At last year's fesitval, the"O.A.R. and Friends" festival set included guests like G Love, Darryl Dawkins from Run DMC —Richie Sambora even did “Livin’ on a Prayer” with them.

The Voices of Our City Choir will be their guest for their solo San Diego tour date: “We love when we get these special moments on stage.”

Gershman has resolved his major physical health issues and he tries to stay positive about getting better with the smaller issues that remain. For his mental health, he does a mix of activities including waking up early to go for walks to clear his head and get his body moving. He meditates, he does breathwork and he goes to therapy, something that he never did before.

“I am really grateful that I found therapy,” he said. “There’s a stigma in society about it being something that you only go to when you have these huge problems that seem insurmountable but the truth is that therapy can help with not only that kind of stuff but the small things and the day-to-day stuff that may seem inconsequential compared to those bigger things—it’s like keeping up with your maintenance for a vehicle.”

He hopes to help people by being open about his personal issues and the tools he uses to heal. The podcast only helps amplify his message.

Check out the podcast at whatcouldbebad.com .

This story originally appeared in Encinitas Advocate .