Jeremy Jackson was getting ready for a Baywatch movie premiere when Tab first cut his hair. The original cast had been invited back. Jeremy had recently left jail, was living in rehab, and was beginning to put his life together again.
Years later, he still remembers how Tab made him feel that day.
Back in the chair, Jeremy stops to thank him. Their encounters had always felt kind and supportive, he says. During a period when he was struggling, an ordinary appointment gave him something he had carried with him long afterward.
That history gives the conversation room to go beyond the familiar image of Hobie from Baywatch. Jeremy returns to the boy who loved singing, dancing, and performing, and the mother who drove him from Orange County to auditions in Los Angeles. He remembers her helping him learn lines when dyslexia made reading difficult, then watching him find his way once it was time to perform.
Television brought him a level of recognition few children experience. He talks about working with David Hasselhoff, the excitement of being on sets, and the parts of his own history he has spent years trying to understand. When the discussion turns to addiction, Jeremy looks further back than fame. He recognizes patterns in himself that began before the role people knew him for.
At the time of this recording, he was approaching five years sober. He speaks about that milestone with gratitude, alongside an awareness of how much can turn on the choices made in an ordinary day. The years matter to him. So does continuing to show up for the life he is building.
Some of that work now brings him alongside people in detox and rehab. Jeremy describes trying to reach someone who cannot yet imagine a different future, drawing on the experience of having needed that possibility himself. Faith and service have become part of how he moves forward.
The conversation keeps returning to what people can give one another during those uncertain stretches. Jeremy remembers a day when he needed to get ready to face a room full of people. What stayed with him was the person who helped him feel welcome before he walked into it.
