Trauma and adversity are a part of life. But author and former Jackson resident Bob Millsap says they don’t have to define you.
And Millsap has certainly had his fair share of difficulty — from the death of a fiance at a young age to the 2008 housing crisis. Most recently, he experiences a bout of long COVID which required a grueling 53-day stay in the hospital.
Millsap returned to Jackson recently to promote his first book “Shake Yourself Free: Take Control of Your Life to Move Through the Pain.” He said he hopes his experience can offer guidance and perspectives on how to navigate through grief and trauma.
It wasn’t always so easy to be open, Millsap explained.
“I had so much anger and so much rage that I continued to show towards anybody that crossed me,” he said. “And that went on for years. That intensity drove my career, but it also derailed it.”
He said that moving to Jackson was a big turning point in his life.
“It was a lifeline to come up to Jackson,” he said. “I was doing a consulting job for a guy that just bought the Whole Grocer and I came up from Phoenix to help him out. Within a few months, I was moving up here and [that’s when] the new me was able to emerge … The community embraced me in a way that just blew my mind.”
Millsap, who was both a KHOL DJ and KHOL board member, said the Jackson community continued to embrace him, even after he moved away.
“When I was sick, people I worked with — people from the radio station, people I was on the board of this radio station with — were all sending me music,” he recalled.
Millsap gets satisfaction knowing that by sharing his experiences he can help people.
“And that feels good, really good, because there’s finally a purpose to my pain,” he said.
Listen above for KHOL’s full conversation with author and former KHOL DJ Bob Millsap. His book “Shake Yourself Free: Take Control of Your Life to Move Through the Pain” can be found at the Jackson Hole Book Trader.
