Dillon Francis & Seacrest's Similar College Dropout Story Will Inspire You

Dillon Francis only had $500 bucks when he took a chance on chasing his dream. The Grammy-nominated DJ bonded with Ryan Seacrest via Zoom on-air on Friday, May 1, and shared that he too dropped out of college to pursue his dreams.

“There were so many stupid things that I clung onto in life that were these little things about careers,” Dillon told Seacrest, who also went and dropped out of Santa Monica Community College in Los Angeles. “And my thing was like, ‘Hey, Mom and Dad, I know that European kids, they do a year abroad. How about I just go to Atlanta, work for my friend and see if anything happens from it?’”

Similarly, Seacrest shared, in reverse, he left his hometown in Atlanta and headed to Los Angeles to pursue his TV and radio career.

“I was like I’m doing it, you can’t stop me,” Dillon agreed. “I had $500 to my name; I moved to Atlanta; I worked with my friend … and watched him for about three months and then I moved back to LA and told my parents, ‘Hey, I saw this guy A-Trak and he put 10,000 hours in; he stayed in his basement for a year just working on his craft. Let me do that at your house and if nothing happens, I’ll go back to community college.’”

The “Touch” DJ added that his parents also kept him on track and responsible for the cost of living.

“They did this really cool thing actually — shoutout to my parents — they made me pay rent,” he added. “But the rent I was paying they gave back to me when I moved out so I could have that money.”

Fast-forward to 2020 and Dillon, who is DJing 102.7 KIIS FM’s virtual prom for seniors tonight, Friday, May 1, has numerous chart-hitting records and Grammy noms under his belt. 

“They were always 50% in and now they’re like ‘Yes!’” he jokingly concluded of his parent’s support. 

Watch back the full interview in the video above.


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