HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO
THE FAMILY GROOVE DRUMS UP A CONVERSATION WITH GREG GRUNBERG OF NBC'S HIT SERIES 
HEROES. FROM MARRIAGE TO FIGHTING EPILEPSY ON BEHALF OF HIS SON TO MUSIC TO DONUTS,
HERE'S  HOW THIS SUPER DAD AND HUSBAND OF 14 YEARS  LIVES LIFE IN THE GROOVE.

THE FAMILY GROOVE: Hello!
Greg Grunberg: Hello! Wait—let me get into my family groove.

TFG: It's not always so easy to get into that family groove—that's why we started THE FAMILY GROOVE.
GG: I live with the groove. I live in the groove. I haven't been out of that groove for years.

TFG: Wow!  Do they sell it in a bottle?
GG: They do. THE FAMILY GROOVE cologne. It smells like cuddles.

TFG: I love it. We should sell it and make millions. So, we're going to talk about you and your family and then we'll talk a bit about your charity, Pediatric Epilepsy Project (PEP).  As you know, we're featuring PEP as our charity of the month. And we donate a percentage of our revenue each month to the featured charity of the month.
GG: Oh my goodness, it just keeps getting better.

TFG: Doesn't it? It's like the cologne.
GG: Now if only donuts came with this interview.
TFG: You know, I should have gotten you some. I made a Dunkin Donuts run for my daughter earlier today—sorry.

TFG: Okay, so, you have three sons. Please tell us how old they are.
GG: Sam is three; Ben is seven; Jake is ten-and-a-half. And my wife and I just celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary.

TFG: That is so amazing. Congratulations to you!
From your experience of fourteen years of marriage, what do you think every husband needs to know?
GG: Well, the best thing a husband can know are three very simple words: sounds great, honey.

TFG: What about being a dad? What does every dad need to know?
GG: You've got to not be afraid to get dirty. Get on the ground and be a kid right along with your kids. I think we all get caught up in our day. And often we come home and  start to talk to our children like they're co-workers. It's hard—it's hard to make that switch, but you have to be present when you're with your kids.

TFG: What do you tell other dads about dadhood?
GG: Well, to new dads I tell them that they're life is going to absolutely change—100 percent. Everything that they think is important in life, all the worry, all the stress, everything that they get joy from will become absolutely insignificant when they have kids. It's all about your kids and you realize very quickly that's the only thing that matters.

TFG: Do you have any parenting tips or tricks that you want to share?
GG: One special thing I do with my kids is to go to an antique shop and find the crappiest, largest, cheapest painting. Then I'll bring it home and the kids and I will paint over it, frame included. We splatter-paint all the different colors Jackson Pollack-style and paint the frame. And suddenly you have created a piece of art together. It's the greatest thing. I just try to make them a part of everything that I do. So of course, I include them in my hobbies—it's just so wonderful.

TFG: What about being an actor? What do they think you do for a living? How do they grasp actor?
GG: My kids know what I do, especially now with Heroes. It's great to see my kids really loving what I am doing right now.

TFG: What do you tell them about fame and celebrity?
GG:  As far as fame is concerned, the hardest thing to explain is why a lot of times we get free stuff and preferential treatment. I let them know that it's nice but it's important to give back, too. We encourage the kids to give back. We're constantly going to the red bin and donating toys. We have a charity, as you know. It's important for the kids to know how lucky they are and to always help people who are less fortunate.

TFG: Let's talk about the charity. You started it because of your son?
GG: Yes, actually Vicki (Forman) and Holly (Boyer) started it before I got on board. It's called Pediatric Epilepsy Project (PEP)  and it's run by parents of kids who have epilepsy and are being treated at the Division of Pediatric Neurology at UCLA.  When Jake turned seven, he started having seizures and little staring spells. We didn't know what they were at the time and the doctor quickly realized that is was epilepsy. We basically had to beg, borrow and steal to get in to see them at UCLA because they don't have the funds to see all the kids that need help. Epilepsy is the second most common neurological disorder behind migraine headaches. I don't think people put those two things together. Everyone has migraine headaches—or use that generalization. Epilepsy is almost as common as that. So I quickly saw that there was really a need to help them. They do such important work. The doctors are angels. They really do incredible work saving kids and giving kids a second chance. They certainly did with Jake. We are so grateful to Dr. Sankar and Dr. Shields. Dr. Sankar is a miracle worker when it comes to balancing medications. Unfortunately, our son is a difficult-to-treat case, but with constant monitoring and communication with Dr. Senkar, we keep his medicine controlled without side effects and manage to keep his seizures, as best as we can, under control. Also, the research that they're doing is —well, the world looks to UCLA  for guidance in pediatric epilepsy. So I talked to Holly and Vicki and asked what could I do? Elizabeth and I got very, very involved. We started with finger painting. Holly and I decided that we were going to send this finger painting dea out to every celebrity I know. We got over 200 finger paintings back. We hooked up with a woman in New York who has www.kidsart.com and we created greeting cards and a website. People can go to www.celebritycards.com and buy packs of celebrity art greeting cards from their favorite celebrities. It's the easy way to donate—a lot of the proceeds go directly to UCLA. From that we had a big event at the Avalon Theater in Hollywood. Oh, and then Gibson guitars donated 50 Les Paul guitars in flat white paint. I sent those out to rock legends and actors—just everyone you can imagine, from Pete Townshend to actors like David Schwimmer, Jennifer Garner and the cast of Alias all hand painted these guitars. We sold some and I continue to sell the rest on eBay and also at private auction. That's been incredible. Gibson has continued to be behind us. They're about to give us another 50 electric guitars.

And then because I play the drums,  I was asked to play in an impromptu celebrity thing at the House of Blues. I realized that I got so much attention in the press and that the people who were there were very into watching celebrities play music. So, I started this band called Band from TV (www.bandfromtv.net). We have a MySpace page. We have an album coming out.

TFG: I'm a former rocker punk chick, so I know that when music is in your blood, even if you move on to something else, it always comes back up.
GG: Yeah. And I've never taken it really seriously, but I am a performer, like you are and we got it in our blood, so there's nothing we can do about it. One of the people in the band is Larry Thomas, who started the Guitar Center stores and now has the Guitar Center Music Foundation. He had a fundraiser and asked us to play. So I got together Hugh Laurie, who stars in House, James Denton from Desperate Housewives, Bonnie Somerville, Bob Guiney and we played. The bill was Yes,Chicago,Mick Fleetwood and Friends, Macy Gray and Dave Mason.

The press couldn't care less about any of them and only wanted to talk to us. And I was sitting there so in awe of the people—they're all incredible—but the press just wanted to interview us. So I talked to these guys and I said, "Look we can really do something great here." We started a 501c3 under our band name. We've got a CD and DVD, hats, shirts—all of those great things. We all have a different charity that we support and we're going to collect money for them. All the money that comes in is going to be split up between PEP, Save the Children, Cure Autism Now and Coalition Against Domestic Violence and some other charities.

TFG: That's the coolest way that I've heard of in a long time to use celebrity and talent. I love it. THE FAMILY GROOVE will definitely be following you guys.
GG: The album, by the way, is called Hogging All the Covers—it's all covers, we don't take ourselves too seriously. It's just fun. It's familiar faces playing familiar music for charity. You know, we're not great. We're not the best band in the world. But we have so much fun and people have such a great time when we play corporate events or award show parties. Our show got nominated for a Golden Globe, Hugh got nominated for a Golden Globe. Desperate Housewives got nominated for a Golden Globe. So we're hopefully going to play the In Style party. We played the TV Guide party at the Emmys.

TFG: Rock star trumps every other kind of cool, doesn't it? We will support you in any way we can. Do you have anything else you want to add?
GG: Just that hopefully people will buy hats and t-shirts on our website—and then the album when it comes out— because that's an easy to way help out.

TFG: So you're one busy dude. What's your day-to-day MO?
My day-to-day MO is basically to direct traffic. I'm like a airport traffic guy. There are planes going through this house like crazy. Every morning, I make breakfast for the kids. Then Elizabeth or I will take the kids to school. And then I run off to work and Elizabeth is a super mom. She really is incredible at balancing all three kids. It seems like it changes every day because you never know what to expect. And our life with Jake having epilepsy is even crazier, but it's non-stop cuddles and laughter and screaming and yelling and having a great time.

TFG: You've spoken about this in many ways, but I'll still ask the blanket question: What inspires you?
GG: What inspires me?

TFG: I mean, you have a lot on your plate. So what fuels you? What keeps you going everyday?
GG: Creativity and my family. My family keeps me going—that's the ultimate fuel for me. Just to keep everyone happy and healthy. But creativity also fuels me. A little while ago we saw the Dixie Chicks and Elizabeth looked around and remarked on how many people were there. There were around 17,000 people at Staples Center. And she looked at me and said: "Do you realize you perform for 14 million people every week?"

TFG: In their living rooms and bedrooms, no less!
GG: And I don't ever, ever think about it. That couldn't be farther from my mind. Honestly, I never get nervous in that way anymore; however, I do get nervous about telling the truth in my acting and trying to entertain. This morning in Costco, I was checking out and this guys says to me, "Thank you for all that you do. You just give so much pleasure to people." And I was blown away. It was the greatest thing—I couldn't believe it. So I guess what inspires me is just not taking for granted the opportunity that I have. There are so many people out there who want to do what I am doing—many who are more capable than I am. I just remember to enjoy it, not take it for granted and be the best that I can at what I am doing.

TFG: I have one last question: How do you get your groove on—other than donuts and our cologne?
GG: I get my groove on by just looking at my wife. She is the sexiest woman in the world. That gets my groove on.

TFG: That's a very nice way to end this interview. Thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. And just keep on groovin' on!
GG: Thank you.

WANT MORE OF GROOVY GREG? GO TO:
www.bandfromtv.net
www.nbc.com/heroes
www.4pep.org

And don't forget to check out our inspiring story on our Charity of the Month, PEP.