Without King Charles I might never have become a successful DJ. <\/strong>Back then he ran the Prince\u2019s Trust to encourage young people to start small businesses. They took me on and put me through business school to learn profit and loss in business as a self-employed person. When I qualified, I got a degree and a grand. The scheme gave me a purpose and paved the way for my career although Charles<\/a> didn\u2019t personally come down and give me a lesson on the decks.<\/p>\n It\u2019s never been about the money.<\/strong> It was always about the opportunity. In my first year DJ-ing, I went from earning \u00a318,000 as a scaffolder down to \u00a312K as a DJ charging about \u00a350 a gig. It was tough to survive, and I had literally no spare money. But I had faith and played the long game. I said to myself, \u2018I\u2019ll get to 45 then go back to scaffolding.\u2019 Then, when 45 came, my career<\/a> was still going. Then 50. And I\u2019m still going now at 62 and I still love it.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve played all over the world but only once have I experienced blood on the dance floor. <\/strong>I was in Caracas, where people are very passionate. At this particular gig the sound system was great, but the security felt a bit lax. Fireworks were going off for the first 20 minutes and then they just carried on, \u2013 and I realised they were gunshots. There was a local dispute, and his guy got in with a gun and he was shot along with his girlfriend and two other innocent people in the crossfire. I was told to get down but didn\u2019t want people to think I\u2019d been shot, so as I descended beneath the decks, I faded the music out gradually. It was absolutely crazy, and I was traumatised. I escaped to my family\u2019s home in Barbados.<\/p>\n My core positivity stems from my family growing up in Barbados.<\/strong> It is such a happy place. Every year, they have this thing called Crop Over, to celebrate all the sugar cane that gets cultivated and sold off to the rest of the world. It\u2019s a huge carnival where everyone comes together through the island\u2019s Soca and Calypso music and everyone\u2019s happy and that\u2019s the attitude I take with me to my gigs. <\/p>\n In the middle of all the pandemic my father was trying to live with dementia<\/a>. <\/strong>By the time he died, in the first lockdown, he didn\u2019t know who I was, but his legacy was the music he helped me fall in love with, so I did a two-hour tribute show inspired by his music; every single record I remember him playing. It was a very difficult show.<\/p>\n My mum died eight years ago. <\/strong>The way I pushed through the grief of both of my parents passing<\/a> was by knowing that they\u2019re looking down on everything I do, knowing that this is exactly what I wanted to be doing. Their spirit is with me all the time and that gives me the strength to carry on. <\/p>\n I have two sisters but I\u2019m not a father, so I\u2019ll be the last of the Cox\u2019s.<\/strong> I\u2019m very happy not having any children because my job is very demanding. I could have had children<\/a> but then I would have been pulled from pillar to post with those responsibilities, and I didn\u2019t want to bring anyone else into the world if I couldn\u2019t guarantee I\u2019d be there for them.<\/p>\n![\"DJ](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/SEI_260511054.jpg\")
His father died during the first lockdown and he did a two-hour show in his honour (Photographer Dan Reid)<\/p>\n