Paying your dues often leads to heart break.
Paying your dues often leads to your dream job.
Whatever it takes right?
When I moved here in early 1986 I immediately got a job at Target on White Bridge Road unloading trucks. I also worked at a local mom and pop video rental store in Green Hills long before BlockBuster and all the other video chains. And I was also a bar back at Applebees on Elliston which is now a Hampton Inn. At that time my main goal was not to go running back home with my tail between my legs complaining that things just didn't work out for me. That's the last thing I wanted to do.
I was hanging with my amazing friend singer songwriter Kevin Welch who had introduced me to other amazing songwriting musicians like Gary Nicholson, Mike Henderson, Wally Wilson, Gail Davies, Pam Tillis and a few others. Kevin took me under his wing. It was amazing that I was able to hang in this circle. I took nothing for granted. I worked my shifts and went out where these guys were hanging, singing and playing as much as I could. I wanted to be in their world real bad. I eventually played with Pam Tillis in her band long before she got her Arista records deal that made her famous. That gig led to the Marty Haggard gig which started a snowball of gigs for me that would be my life until 1995 when I got off the Tracy Lawrence bus to work A&R for Columbia Records.
Kevin also introduced me to a new band at the time called Sweethearts of the Rodeo. 2 singing sisters that had just gotten a deal on Columbia Records. One of the sisters was married to Vince Gill at the time. They were having auditions to kick off their first tour to start promoting the new record. I managed to get in on it and went thru the process and got the gig. I quit my real job gigs. We rehearsed 2 full days at S.I.R. to get the show in place to hit the road. It was my first big time gig. They had just been offered 25 opening dates with Willie Nelson and the first gig was in Cleveland Oh that coming weekend. I was freaking out to say the least. Having grown up on Willie back home in Texas I couldn't wait to meet him and eventually tell him about all the times I saw him growing up. I told all my friends and family back home that I landed my dream gig.
So after our 2nd full day of rehearsal I drove back to my garage apartment to start packing. We were leaving that night at midnight. About an hour later there was a knock at my door. It was the Sweethearts manager Chuck Flood. He had his hat in one hand and an envelope in the other. He asked to come in at which time he started to explain to me that the girls had changed their minds about me and had decided to take Vince Gills drummer out and didn't need my services. He handed me the envelope that had a check in it for my troubles of going thru the rehearsals and left. My world came crashing down around me. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. What was I gonna tell my friends and family back home? They were so excited for me. It was devastating to say the least. To say I cried that night is an understatement. I was heart broken.
I woke the next morning and drove back to the Target and asked for my job back. My dream was not over and I was not going to let that knock me down. Don't get me wrong. It hurt, It hurt a lot. I just had to learn to get back up after I got sucker punched and knocked across the room. That's what it felt like. The manager at Target said I could come back the next morning. I'm sure he had seen my movie before. I walked in the next day to my old gang and they were all cracking up at my misfortune as any guys would do. Since I was new again on the line they made me crawl all the way to the front of the truck and start throwing boxes on the conveyer belt. We had some spot lights that we would hang in the truck so we could see up toward the front so I asked for some light up in there because I couldn't see way up there in the dark. I'll never forget this as long as I live. One of the guys said to me, "Here you go rockstar, this is the only spotlight you're ever gonna see!" I swear I felt an arrow ram though my chest but I sucked it up and finally made it out of that store and never looked back.
So how bad do you want it? Bad enough to hurt like never before? That's what its about because when you get what you want. When you get what makes you complete. Then...
Paying Your Dues Is Never Over Rated.
Great post Alex! Inspiring :)
ReplyDeleteInspiring and scary when the artist you think of is your own child. Myself, I wanted to be an actor and director in another life. It didn't work out, but I still managed to have a happy life for the most part. And that experience allowed me to tell my daughter when she was 14 that pursuing a career in music (or in the arts for that matter) would most certainly break her heart. If she was willing to go for it understanding this, I (and her Mom) would support her efforts. And yes, her heart has already been beaten up a few times (and mine as well - It's definitely harder to see it happen to your child than it is when it happens to you).
ReplyDeleteBut she's resilient and keeps working at it with a modicum of success (albeit no money to speak of yet). Biased or not, I believe in her talent, but what matters the most is for her to learn to take the punches and realize that there is much more to life than pursuing your artistic dreams.