Leessang's Gil Talks About His Hard Childhood and Bedridden Father

Gil Sung Joon, or more commonly known just as Gil, is the charismatic leader of the famous hip hop group Leessang. He also happens to be one of the comedic relief characters on the MBC variety show “Infinity Challenge.” He was never one to really reveal a lot about his private life on television, choosing to keep them to himself for the most part. However, a recent confession on “Infinity Challenge” shows a man that has overcome many ordeals to get to where he is today. One of these ordeals that Gil chose to reveal was that his father was completely bedridden for most of his schooling years.

On December 7, an episode of “Infinity Challenge” aired that involved the members preparing a surprise forum with a group of high school students that have just finished and received the results of their college entrance exams, or “Sooneung/College Scholastic Ability Test” as they are referred to domestically. The point of this event was so that the members could converse with these students to offer them advice as they head out into the bigger world and offer their own stories in the hopes that it provides the students with some ideas about what they should do in future.

One of the questions that was asked of the members was about a student that confesses that he had a lot of fights with his parents because he wanted to become a voice actor, which his parents didn’t approve of.  The members give him several pieces of advice. Park Myung Soo tells him that the happiest person in the world is someone that earns money doing what they love, but they need to prove to their parents that they are to be trusted to go down the right path. Jung Hyung Don also explains that the reason that parents get into conflict with them is because of how much they love them.

As this is being discussed, Gil chimes in that he truthfully cannot understand certain parts of this issue. This is because they actually have parents that can say these things to them. Meanwhile Gil reveals that he had no such avenues as he grew up. He explains that his father collapsed when he was in his fifth year of primary school and ended up in a bedridden state, unable to walk and talk. Gil states that his father mentally regressed to the mental age of a child. 

Gil had previously mentioned on an older episode of “Infinity Challenge” that his father had become unwell and collapsed after a guarantee he signed went wrong which caused his whole family financial ruin. Gil’s family had previously been well off, owning several large businesses including a department store, but this issue resulted in them being kicked out into the streets.

Gil then continued to explain that his family of six was forced to live in a basement room. He describes how he had no one around that could offer him that kind of advice and the only he thing in the world he knew about was anger. He began to even question why he was born and how he really hated going down into that basement room. 

He also explains that despite their lack of money, his mother refused to give up on their father and vowed to get him to walk and talk again. To support this and his family, Gil and his family did a wide range of jobs including making dolls and lighters, but the one job he specifically mentions is sorting microchips. He explains that they receive a large bag filled with items, some of which include dead rats and left over foods. Their jobs was to shift through this garbage and to pick out the microchips in the bags, sorting them by name. 

Gil explains that he couldn’t understand why he had to be doing this and how he had no dreams or anything whatsoever. Eventually his father passed away with a sudden heart attack after Gil completed his college entrance exam. He explains that he doesn’t remember anything about the funeral but he remembers what his mother told his father as Gil went in to shroud his father. His mother told their father that she hoped he would live a healthy life up in heaven and that she would stay behind for awhile longer so that she can live in comfort thanks to their impressive children and to wait for her in heaven in good health. 

This is when Gil thought to himself, what could he do? He realized that he really liked listening to music and that music makes him really happy. So he decided to take an audition and while he failed several times, he did not forget the lesson his mother taught him, which was to never give up. 

Gil finished off by saying that if you want to realize your dream, then you have no choice but to just work hard even if that means sacrificing some of your creature comforts like sleeping and eating.