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(Originally written for the website SelfMadeStar.com)
As I have mentioned previously, I decided to start this publication as a way to expose the everyday life of indie musicians and help set the expectations of younger artists. It's not meant to be a discouraging lecture, but rather a way to help those artists who are new to the business deal with the realities of life in this world. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term 'indie musician', it is basically any working band or artist who does have the resources of Sony Records or the William Morris Agency behind them. Like NFL or NBA players, the MTV/Clear Channel supported faction of the music business has lots of money, exposure and perks to make their life easy. Unfortunately, unless you're the next big boy band from Orlando, the latest pop princess, or a finalist on American Idol, this is a world that you probably won't ever see. Remember, yearly statistics show that 99% of all CD's produced in a given year will sell less than one thousand copies. For those of you unfamiliar with the trade, that's about 499,000 short of a Gold certification. What this means is that there are a large number of blue-collar bands out there making a living everyday. No limos. No lear jets. No MTV Cribs on your doorstep. But take heart, you aren't the only one. Let me share a story with you.
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As an indie musician myself, I am friends with lots of other musicians, both lifetime-indie and some who used to be major label artists. I recently got to tag along with one of these friends to a local gig just so I could see what it's like in the big league! This particular friend is David Muse, former member of the 70's supergroup Firefall and current member of The Marshall Tucker Band. Although I consider David to be a 'rock star', he is extremely humble and doesn’t seem to like the title. Recently, MTB had a gig scheduled about an hour away as the first show on a short road trip. David was going to rent a car and meet up with the band at the gig. The lineup for the show sounded like fun so I offered to drive him there in my car, if MTB would pay for the gas. As we set out for the show in my Honda minivan 'limo', I realized that this isn't exactly what I pictured as life on the road with a soon-to-be Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, southern rock legend like MTB. After some minor navigation errors (it was David's fault), we arrived at the gig, which was set up in the infield of a local racetrack. We quickly slipped through security and were led to the backstage area by a local cop riding an ATV. We parked next to the MTB equipment truck and headed backstage. Although I knew that I shouldn’t expect a backstage setup such as would be available at a Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen show, I was somewhat surprised at what I found. The MTB area consisted of a large tent pitched behind the stage with a portable A/C unit, a couple of folding chairs, three large folding tables and a tall mirror propped up in the corner. It wasn’t exactly like I had often seen on MTV but I reminded myself that it was nicer than the backstage area at most of my shows. I headed over to check out the food and beverage situation, as we had been forced to skip dinner due to our little unplanned excursion through central Florida. The spread consisted of a deli tray of sandwiches, some kind of pasta salad, chips, bread, peanut butter, pickles and Reese’s peanut butter cups. There was also a small, assorted selection of beer and bottled water. Hmmm, should I have expected smoked salmon, wine and cheese? “Were are the M&M’s?” I said jokingly. One of the other people at the table reached over and pulled out a large bag. I don’t believe that they got the joke.
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As we had arrived only about forty minutes prior to the MTB set, David and the guys soon took the stage and gave a great show. About 5000 people on hand, lots of cops and even some groupies. “Groupies” is a term I use loosely as they were thirteen-year-old, middle-schoolers or 50ish biker chicks. All of them were very nice people, but just not what I pictured. Apparently, the guys went over their allotted amount of time and the cops ended up pulling the plug on the show before they were finished. Something about a curfew and noise ordinance. Oh well! After the show they signed a few autographs and then piled into a passenger van for the ride back to Orlando for an early morning flight. All in all, it was a pretty fun night.
The reality? As you can see from this entry, life as a working musician isn’t all limos, paparazzi and parties. It does require some hard work and dealing with the rigors of the road. Even so, it’s still a much better way of making a living than digging ditches or flipping burgers. This story wasn’t meant as a discouraging lecture to younger musicians, but rather a little lesson. It takes hard work to get to a level where you can make a living playing music and a lot of patience and more work to stay there. Even if you do make it to the ‘big time’, don’t be surprised if there are no MTV cameras. Always play like you’re in front of a million people and put your heart into every song. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to spend your life doing what makes you happy.
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