I was able to change his mind after about the fifth mix I sent him once I refined my skills. At the time, he laughed at me and said he does not book celebrity DJs. I also met Joe, my manager, at TomorrowWorld, who I begged for a slot at Tomorrowland 2015. People were speaking different languages left and right, and I had no idea what they were saying, but they were happy and I like making people happy. When I entered the festival grounds, the first thing I saw were 100,000 fans having the time of their lives - people from all different countries all around the world brought together on a farm in Atlanta because of dance music. Tomorrowland 2014 was a pivotal moment for me. I remember playing in all 216 playoff games, and the crowd was always the biggest motivator to get pumped up - the crowd bangin’ the floor, music blaring, fans screaming, and the atmosphere is electric. Shaq: To me, EDM is like a Game 7, down by one. What was it about electronic music that grabbed you and enticed you enough to become a dance music DJ? Like many other EDM fans, you discovered the magic of electronic music via a live festival setting: TomorrowWorld 2014. Ahead of WMC, we caught up with the dream team who gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of and future plans for DJ Diesel. This week, Shaquille O’Neal joins Winter Music Conference (WMC) 2019 as a keynote speaker, alongside his business partners and music managers Joe Silberzweig and Adam Richman, to discuss the creation and launch of DJ Diesel and the Shaq’s Fun House brand. The event returns to MMW for it second run in the Magic City, and its third installment overall, on Friday, March 29, at Toe Jam Backlot. Since the inaugural event, which featured performances and appearances from Diplo, Steve Aoki, A-Trak, Carnage, and others, Shaq’s Fun House has quickly become one of the hottest event properties in dance music in just one year. Last March, Shaq invaded Miami Music Week (MMW) with the launch of his Shaq’s Fun Houseevent series, which presents his larger-than-life personality and DJ project as a full-scale pop-up festival that’s part carnival and part circus. He’s also performed on the mainstage at major festivals like Tomorrowland, Lost Lands, and Life in Color. Since then, DJ Diesel has taken a life of its own: Last summer, Shaq launched the Summer of Shaq tour, his inaugural trek as DJ Diesel. Shaq now enters the EDM arena as DJ Diesel, his electronic project, which he officially debuted in 2015 at TomorrowWorld, just one year after he first discovered dance music at the same festival in 2014. A longtime music fan, Shaq made his debut on the mic via his 1993 debut album Shaq Diesel, which went on to sell more than 1 million copies and solidified the baller-turned-rapper as the only athlete with a platinum-selling album ever. That’s not even mentioning his breakout career in music.
Thanks to his magnetic charm and wildly successful career in basketball, in which he notched four NBA championships, Shaq quite easily transitioned into a full-time career as an in-demand entertainer, with work spanning the worlds of film, video games, TV, and even professional wrestling. Standing at 7-feet-1-inch tall and weighing in at 325 pounds, Shaquille O’Neal is one of the biggest athletes of all time - literally. Shaq on Becoming DJ Diesel and Creating the Shaq’s Fun House Brand