I was smoking some marijuana with my friend Diaz, and I called the marijuana the ¨same old crap''. Eventually we shortened it to ¨same old¨, then it became SAMO©. We started writing it everywhere as many times as we could with sayings with them. We made it confusing and confronting. It got people's attention and it became a style and I was proud of it. It gave me and Diaz a name. We used it to take away our anger. Nobody else at the time was doing anything like it, people would be writing gang names on walls instead. This gave us an idea. It made me and Diaz had basically became famous, before this I was a artist struggling in life and art. I hadn't really made it big yet. My friend Diaz has been doing graffiti since he was 12. He was a graffiti artist and he also wanted that time where we hit it off.

We've been friends, and he was really up for anything if it makes him big. We thought that writing phrases on walls could be it. We did it so much we became famous in NY. He said that he would do it because he wanted to be someone. He also said that he was only good at art, he wasn't any good at sports or anything, so this is perfect for someone like him. Brooklyn at the time was a sad place to live. It was dirty, smelly and poor. So we moved around the whole city. There was so many drugs I tried to stay away from, but living in NY in the 70s everybody’s on something. Whatever though, me and Diaz met in a gifted school in 75’. One of the things that connected us perfectly was that we were both big on words. We started this newspaper with a couple of friends called, “The basement Blues Press”.

That's where SAMO© first really started. One time we faked that it was a religion and we would go around to people’s houses and tell them about it. And they believed. It was one of the funniest times in my life. After I left, I started dating Madonna for a little bit. She helped me with my art. She was a great person and a big part of my life. After I stopped dating her after a year I went back and got 100% back into my art. I felt that it should rather be displayed on a canvas and live for longer than my graffiti. I pursued my own art dream by myself.

After a little my paintings started to get noticed and became a big thing. My artwork was getting displayed in museums and galleries. I sold one of my first insanely expensive paintings in 1983. It sold at a price of $81 million dollars at Christie's. It was the most expensive painting I'd ever sold at the time. It's a big step up for me and I was happy that my paintings were getting seen by people. I made my paintings very personal. If you looked at one for hours and tried to understand everything in it you still wouldn't know everything. When people buy my paintings I feel like a celebrity, but also sad because I'm losing a piece of myself. Diaz was off doing more graffiti, we stopped SAMO©. He wasn't continuing SAMO©, the tag had died. I kept improving with my art and my painting would get sold for more and more money.

I did a collaboration with Andy Warhol in 1984. He became one of my best friends and I loved him very much. I kept doing art with him and had some of the best times in my life. When we stopped our collaboration I felt a bit more empty without him. I started to do heroin. to get away from my life and feel more free. Andy was the one person that I would listen to, and he told me to get off of that stuff. I tried my best to get off it and eventually did, but then something terrible happened. Andy had had a surgery for his gallbladder, and it was supposed to be routine. But somehow they messed up and Andy died at the young age of 58.

My best friend was gone and I was alone again. I couldn’t help but get back into heroin. I was sad and depressed. All alone again. One of my last pieces of art shows how I felt (Riding With Death). I had loved Andy and only the heroin could make me feel any better. One day I was home alone and I had a little bit more than I should have… and I died at the age of 27 in Great Jones Street, New York City. Alone.