By the time 2026 ends, I’ll have released 27 songs. All original. All written by me. All a reflection of my life. Every late night, every doubt, every win documented in songs. I’m just telling the truth as I live it. This isn’t just music. → It’s proof of discipline. → It’s proof of growth. → It’s proof that I didn’t quit on myself. This is my 2026 catalog so far… And I’m only getting started.

This guy, well, there are just no words. I love him, and am so deeply grateful to him for the second act of my creative life. Making music together has been such a joy, but the friendship is everything. Shooter Jennings defines what country music is today.

“I love being at home. My life is very simple. I reada lot of books. I watch a lot of films. I listen to a lot of music. I tend the garden. I cook with my family. Yeah, I'm boring.” — Cillian Murphy

【Announcement】 As this marks the end of our group activities, please bear with me for a slightly longer message. My heart raced as I dedicated myself entirely to this group for two and a half years, prioritising it above all else. I was thrilled to be able to tell people, "I'm an artist." I caused my family so much trouble, constantly leaving for practice. I was utterly absorbed. I never skipped a single day; I truly loved BLACK DIAMOND. However, I have decided to part ways here. No matter how sincerely one approaches things, sometimes one's attitude or manner of involvement can be perceived in unexpected ways. Precisely because I felt there was still more I could do, there were moments that made me reflect on how I should be. Within any environment or situation, everyone holds slightly different perspectives. Precisely because of this, I resolved to accept everything and let go. I cannot say much more at present, but I hope conclusions and outcomes will emerge in the future ahead. For me, words are important in the sense of lyrics; they can become someone's hope for living, or they can be something that breaks things. 　 The songs I wish to sing are songs that can liberate someone's suffering, songs that can appeal to the world's injustices. In this era, a woman who can clearly express her own will is my ideal, and the artist I aspire to be. I want to decide my own way of life and my own message. Dreaming is also about facing reality head-on. It was my fans, colleagues, friends, and family who made me realise this. To guide this one life towards the form of happiness I believe in, I resolved to move on to the next stage. The slightly expensive red suitcase I'd bought new for overseas travel remained there, brand new. It felt as though God had told me to pack my nearly twenty years of passion for music into that suitcase and set off down a different path. To all the fans who came with such fervent passion, To my family who supported me, To my friends who cheered me on, To all the kind-hearted professionals who stood by me, To the members and teachers who shared the stage with me, honing our skills together – Each and every one of you was my most precious treasure. Thank you so very much. I would be delighted if you could support my new endeavours too.

Music helped open my narrow perspective on life & turned my world into 3D color. It changed my life & it’s important for me to pay that forward, which is what I’m doing with my Firework Foundation + Camp Firework, but barely 1 in 5 CA schools has a music/arts program.

Music has always been an important part of my life, and I think it’s safe to say that the same is true for @Springsteen. In this episode, we talked about the songs that’ve made a difference for us—and Bruce even brought out the guitar. Listen on @Spotify: 

When @Aaron_Dessner came into my life, I was ushered into his world of free-flowing creativity where you don’t overthink, you just make music. A song we wrote for his project @BRMadjv (which also features ⚡️Justin Vernon✨) is out! It’s called Renegade.

At my gym, the workouts have names. "Today is Fran," the coach said. I did not ask who Fran was. A samurai does not ask. Fran takes about nine minutes. Fran is thrusters and pull-ups, which is a polite way of saying Fran does not believe you need a spine. Then I met Helen. Helen makes you run, swing a kettlebell, do pull-ups, then run again. Three times. Helen is patient. That is the worst kind. Grace is thirty barbell lifts and nothing else. Grace is quick. Grace does not explain. Annie is a jump rope. I thought, a jump rope. Children use these. Annie took my calves and did not give them back. Diane is deadlifts and handstand push-ups. Diane turned me upside down and left me there to think about my life. My private theory: these are the coach's former girlfriends. He has known many women. All of them hurt him. Now he hires them to hurt us. Then one day, the board said MURPH. A man. I revised my theory. Not lovers. Enemies. The coach has been keeping a list. That day there was no music. I assumed the speaker was broken. Some people wore weighted vests. To make it harder. Voluntarily. I began to respect the coach's taste in enemies. Murph is this: run one mile. Then 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats. Then run one more mile. This is not exercise. This is a grudge. At pull-up 60, I began to negotiate with Murph. At push-up 150, I apologized to him. Somewhere in the squats I stopped counting and started praying. These are different activities. They were using the same voice. By the final mile I considered him a worthy rival. I did not know him. But he would know me. I finished. I lay on the floor. I had beaten Murph. Then I saw everyone gathered at the wall. A photo. A young man in uniform, grinning like the camera had just said something funny. Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy. United States Navy SEAL. Killed in Afghanistan, 2005. He was twenty-nine. This was his favorite workout. He called it Body Armor. Every Memorial Day, gyms around the world do it. The vests are twenty pounds. That is what the armor weighed. That is why there was no music. I bowed to the photo. Deeply. In a gym, this looks strange. I did not care. I did not beat Murph. He has been gone twenty-one years and he is still undefeated. Next Memorial Day, I will wear the vest.

I may be a Teslanaire, but the wealthier I get, the simpler I want my life to become. I see a lot of people make more $ money and quickly make their lives more complicated. Bigger house. More cars. More payments. More things to manage. More stuff they have to think about. I’ve gone the opposite direction. I just have two cars. One small, cozy home. No debt. And I like it that way. Could I buy a mansion? Def yes. Could I fill a garage with cars, buy expensive watches, designer clothes, and all the other things people associate with being wealthy? Of course. I just don’t give a fuck about that stuff. What makes me happy is simple. A great steak. A good bottle of wine. Time with my family. A peaceful home. Good music. Waking up without worrying about bills. Being able to spend my time how I want. That means more to me than having a huge house with rooms I never use or owning things just so other people know I can afford them. For me, wealth was always about making my life more free. The more $ money I make, the less I feel like I need to prove anything. I still want to build. I still want to invest. I still want to grow my wealth. But I don’t need my lifestyle to grow with it. That’s what makes me happy. Not the material things. And I know this may sound strange to many people right now. But when you reach a certain level of wealth, you start to understand that the biggest luxury is needing less, appreciating the small things, and having the freedom to enjoy them.

The Tesla Cybercab launch was magical. I’ve spent years talking about what autonomous transportation would become. This week, I got to live it. And what surprised me most was NOT that the Cybercab had no steering wheel. It was NOT the butterfly doors. It was NOT even how futuristic the car looked. It was honestly how NORMAL it felt. I just get in. Sit down. Put my seatbelt on. Press one button. And go on w/ my life. No fear or anxiety at all. At one point I literally forgot there wasn’t a driver in front of me. The ride was unbelievably smooth. And that’s when it really hit me… this is how transportation changes… when the technology becomes so seamless that you stop thinking about the technology at all. The entire Cybercab experience is ridiculously simple: 1/ Order the Cybercab from your phone. 2/ It arrives, recognizes your phone, and can automatically open the door for you. 3/ Get in, buckle up, and the doors close. 4/ Press one button on the screen to begin the ride. 5/ You can work, talk, watch something, listen to music, enjoy the scenery… do whatever you want bc the car handles the entire driving. 6/ Arrive, get out, and payment is handled automatically via the app w/ no tipping. That’s it. Some people are probably still going to say: “Elon was late.” “FSD will never work.” “Tesla is still just a car company.” “Who would trust a car w/ no driver?” “Who would ever get into a car w/ no steering wheel or pedals?” “Cybercab/Robotaxis will never scale.” I’ve heard versions of this stuff for years… And yet here I was. Sitting inside the product. Paying for rides. Driving around Austin w/ nobody behind the wheel. After experiencing Cybercab myself, I understand what the Tesla team was building toward. The car. The autonomy. The safety. The software. The app. The pickup experience. The doors. The payment. The entire experience had to feel like ONE product. Bc if Tesla gets that experience right and then scales it across America, this becomes MUCH bigger than another Tesla vehicle. It will change how people think about owning a car. It changes ride-hailing. It changes what we do with the time we currently spend driving. It changes transportation. And I think Tesla absolutely knocked this product out of the park. What makes this even more personal for me is how grateful I am that I was invited to experience this moment. As the only Korean in the world, being invited to the launch and getting the opportunity to be the first one to ride in a Cybercab is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Seriously. What a freaking life… hate me or love me, nothing honestly compares to this. Austin… Your food was incredible. The people were unbelievably kind to me. The city treated my family and me so well. I loved almost everything about you, except the heat. And Tesla and Elon… Thank you. You have genuinely changed the direction of my life. You gave me something I am deeply passionate about. The products. The technology. The people building them. The crazy ideas that sound impossible right up until the day they’re sitting in front of you. Today I head back to the Bay Area. But my mind can’t stop thinking about what I just experienced. There was a point when people started saying Tesla’s biggest growth days were behind it. After this week… I feel the exact opposite. Cybercab reignited that fire in me. It feels like I just watched the first few minutes of the next chapter/book of Tesla. And if what I experienced in Austin scales to cities around the country… Transportation will NEVER be the same. One day my kids will look back at human-driven cars the same way we look at an elevator operator today. Something that once seemed completely normal… until technology made it unnecessary. I came to Austin excited about Cybercab. I’m leaving even more excited about what comes next. The future is going to be so freaking amazing. Till next time, Austin!