Rapper Danny Boy O'Connor Drops By The Coca-Cola Porch

News On 6 is starting a new segment where we'll be featuring the best of the best in Green Country.

Welcome to the Arca Continental Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages Porch, a space that highlights the community in a new way every day. Our first guest on Tuesday is House of Pain rapper and executive director of The Outsiders House Museum Danny Boy O'Connor. He stopped by to help us cut the ribbon on the Coca-Cola Porch and talk to us about the new Outsiders Musical and about why he fell in love with Tulsa and Oklahoma.

Tess: So you moved to Oklahoma about six years ago. What brought you to the state? Because you by now are an Oklahoman and Tulsan, all the way.

Danny Boy: Thank you! So music brought me here we played historic Cain's Ballroom, which is an incredible honor in itself. While I was here, I realized that my favorite book and movie The Outsiders was filmed here. And when looking for locations, that was 2009 actually, and found the house from the movie, the park from the movie Circle Cinema, and the Admiral Twin and all of them are in bad shape with the exception of the drive-in, couldn't believe these things still existed, took about five years to think it through ended up buying the house and ask you for help to restore it to a museum. And that's what really won me over my intent was to stay in Beverly Hills and maybe visit once in a while. But the help that I received from everyday Tulsans and the fans was overwhelming. I thought Why am I going back to LA and so I've been here ever since I've been here over the course of six years. And I love every minute of it.

Tess: You've really done a lot to make this city a better place. 2024 seems to be a big year because you've got The Outsiders musical that's gonna debut on Broadway in March, you've already seen the musical

Danny Boy: I have! I had the honor to fly out there with se him the author and her family. And, you know, I was a little nervous because you know, it's it's a historic legacy. And you don't want anybody tampering with it. But we both loved it. It was my first musical by the way. And I asked her Did you ever think 55 years later, we'd be sitting in La Jolla, California watching a musical and she said absolutely. And I go really? She goes, No, she goes, Are you kidding me? Who could have thought that because you think we'd be listening to Jump Around 33 years later, you know, at sporting events? I was like, Alright, you got but an incredible musical looking forward to seeing it in New York, sometime in March. I'm gonna go out there and yeah, the legacy just keeps growing and growing. So there's a new crop and new wave of seventh-grade readers who discover the legacy and discover the book and then the movie and then the house. So expect new fans to keep arriving.

Tess: Yeah, generation after generation what's planned for 2024 for you and the Outsiders House Museum is really

Danny Boy: Just to keep on keeping on we do a large portion of the offerings at the house are Monday through Thursday, and we do student tours. So these students are reading the book, perhaps watching the movie in class or at the Circle Cinema. And then they get to come to our house we did over 4,000 last year, and close to 10,000 this year. So the the numbers are growing, they come from the outlying states as well as all over Oklahoma, so they're coming from far and wide.

Eventually, I'd like to build a new museum with all of my outsiders, all of my Rumble Fish, all of my text all of my other se hidden collection and put that under one roof and kind of make an educational center of it all but right now we're still working on those plans. Yeah, it takes time, but it just keeps growing and it's a wonderful thing. But that being said, you know, to maintain and to keep it where it is, you know, that house is built almost 100 years ago, so it's not used to having that many guests so we're constantly you know, tinkering with it to keep it in tip-top shape. So really the maintenance and just organically growing as what we do.

Tess: Danny, thank you so much for coming out, sitting on one was dark and early and cold this morning.