Friends, Users, Music In This Town and My Heart For It...
I am a workaholic. Yes I admit it. I work and I sleep. I don't play nearly enough, and when I do play I am thinking about work... I am thinking about music...
I have become wary of somethings in my life too. It has occurred to me there are friends that genuinely care for you and want to invest in your life and then there are those that - as soon as you are useful to them - start contacting you and making out like you matter to them.
When I hit rock bottom in the second half of last year, I had very little to offer anyone. I was in a shaky job and I was pretty new to Nashville. I didn't have a car and I was pretty messy. Where were these people then?
Now, I am busy as ever. I am working by day and then booking shows at night to help people I believe in. To support their music because I believe in it too. All of the sudden I have people coming out of the woodworks - saying things like "dude, dude... we should hang out" and "we should work together" and things like that. I guess the thing is you need to be good at sifting through the bullshit and finding those people that have pure hearts and if you had NOTHING to offer them other than who you are - would still wanna hang. Don't get me wrong, I am open to making new friendships - but I am looking for genuine hearts in that. I am looking for real people.
On the converse of that, for those people that only want something from me (and there are a lot of those people, some of which were close to me and then bailed), I need to apply the following rule:
Where is your heart at? Do you really have integrity in what you are doing? Do you have personal integrity? How can I help you? How can you help yourself? How useful are you to what I am working to achieve? How useful are you to helping support the indie music scene? What the heck is your motivation behind it - to look good or to really truly support the music - whether you make a dime or not?
I care about music in this town - and I do this for free because I believe in seeing musicians walk away from being valet parkers and waiters and laborers and stuff like that. I want them to get PAID! I want to see them connecting with other artists - playing and touring. I want to see them empowered to make their own money and not be begging, pleading and praying for someone to sign them. I want them to become amazing marketers. I believe it is possible for artists to become self sustaining. These things matter to me. Artists work too damn hard and give up far too much to make it happen and by God, if I can have something to do with helping them - I will.
This is me using the gifts God gave me, this is me in my feeble and inadequate way attempting to serve people with my gifts. This is my ministry.
Off to another show tonight... This time it is all play and no work... and for that I am excited.
I have become wary of somethings in my life too. It has occurred to me there are friends that genuinely care for you and want to invest in your life and then there are those that - as soon as you are useful to them - start contacting you and making out like you matter to them.
When I hit rock bottom in the second half of last year, I had very little to offer anyone. I was in a shaky job and I was pretty new to Nashville. I didn't have a car and I was pretty messy. Where were these people then?
Now, I am busy as ever. I am working by day and then booking shows at night to help people I believe in. To support their music because I believe in it too. All of the sudden I have people coming out of the woodworks - saying things like "dude, dude... we should hang out" and "we should work together" and things like that. I guess the thing is you need to be good at sifting through the bullshit and finding those people that have pure hearts and if you had NOTHING to offer them other than who you are - would still wanna hang. Don't get me wrong, I am open to making new friendships - but I am looking for genuine hearts in that. I am looking for real people.
On the converse of that, for those people that only want something from me (and there are a lot of those people, some of which were close to me and then bailed), I need to apply the following rule:
Where is your heart at? Do you really have integrity in what you are doing? Do you have personal integrity? How can I help you? How can you help yourself? How useful are you to what I am working to achieve? How useful are you to helping support the indie music scene? What the heck is your motivation behind it - to look good or to really truly support the music - whether you make a dime or not?
I care about music in this town - and I do this for free because I believe in seeing musicians walk away from being valet parkers and waiters and laborers and stuff like that. I want them to get PAID! I want to see them connecting with other artists - playing and touring. I want to see them empowered to make their own money and not be begging, pleading and praying for someone to sign them. I want them to become amazing marketers. I believe it is possible for artists to become self sustaining. These things matter to me. Artists work too damn hard and give up far too much to make it happen and by God, if I can have something to do with helping them - I will.
This is me using the gifts God gave me, this is me in my feeble and inadequate way attempting to serve people with my gifts. This is my ministry.
Off to another show tonight... This time it is all play and no work... and for that I am excited.