Photo credit: Joshua Black Wilkins
Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
Currently, I have a bright red 2003 Chevy Avalanche we named “Big Nick” that I’ve put about 200K miles on in the last 6 years. I primarily use it for acoustic runs and I usually have my own PA system I haul around for emergencies, so I’ve had to replace the shocks, as well as the brakes.
I hit a deer once and Big Nick got messed up pretty bad. Luckily, it wasn’t totalled, but I had the most basic insurance I could afford and it didn’t cover the damages. It’s essentially been paid for twice, but I love Big Nick.
Overall, I’ve been pretty fortunate with my vehicles. We did a tour out west in my former drummer’s van we named Ronnie Van Van and we had zero issues with it, much like its namesake.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
I keep Nutri-Grain bars and various trail mixes that I sometimes combine into a mega-trail mix. That’ll usually keep me going to the next free meal somewhere. I will splurge occasionally on foods that are best in whatever area I happen to be in, like on the Gulf Coast you can bet your ass I will be eating oysters.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
Not many, maybe 1 or 2. I used to break a lot in my younger days because I used heavy picks and I played every show like it was my last. Then I started using lighter picks and now that I’m older it’s more sustainable to work WITH my guitar instead of picking a fight with it (made for some killer shows, though). I use Elixir strings, they’re not cheap, $15-20, but my hands sweat a lot and the coating on Elixirs gets me a lot more life out of strings and I actually save money by not having to buy regular strings every few days.
Where do you rehearse?
Anywhere I can make it happen. Since I became a father I’m rarely alone, also these days my band is spread out by about an hour and a half, so individual preparation in order to make the most of our time together is everything. I have to slip in a few minutes here and there, or I walk around the house playing until it drives someone crazy. I actually love to practice and rehearse, though. If you see me staring off into space I’m probably working on a riff in my head.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
“Hit Me” I think was the title of my first song. It was about wanting to write a song and waiting for an idea to….you guessed it, “Hit Me.’’ I think one line was, “Hit me, like a blue-ballin’, free fallin’ kinda girl, come in and wreck my world, then build it all again with more color.”
Describe your first gig.
I had embarrassed myself at some open mics a few times, but Duffy’s Deli in Huntsville, AL was my first gig. I split the gig with a buddy because neither of us had enough material on our own. We were like, 14. The owners were very sweet to provide a little incubator for us once a week while we worked through those early stages. We knew nothing about sound equipment either, so some nights everything was woofed out with bass, and some nights were like getting beaten with ice picks because the treble would be cranked. Whatever knobs got accidentally adjusted on our little soundboard between shows typically stayed that way.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
I do some flooring, tile work and wood work with a friend who is also a musician. I enjoy it, but before that I was roofing, so all other jobs are pretty sweet after roofing. I went to college to become a high school English teacher, it was my “backup plan,” but I got a little taste of doing that job before I finished school when I subbed for a teacher who was out for a while and realized one heartbreaking passion was enough for me.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
I’ve been playing bigger shows, but my overhead is a lot higher. It has always been a struggle and all my childhood hopes and dreams of being successful have been whittled down to an everyday fight to just be financially able to continue making music.
What’s really changed is me. I’ve still got plenty to learn, but I take the money side of things a lot more seriously than I used to. I’m not a high maintenance person, I’m used to going without things and being comfortable in uncomfortable places, but it’s not just about me anymore.
I’m hopeful that this new record will open up some more options for me. I have friends who do pretty well pitching songs. I’m not opposed to doing some work like that, I actually enjoy putting on different hats or slipping into different characters to write a song, so maybe some mailbox money from that lies ahead, but performing will always be where my heart is.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
Be patient. Nobody is anxiously anticipating your first record if you’re as young as I was when I started. Make sure you’re ready, live a little, think about it, put a couple thousand gigs under your belt and then when you think you’re ready, think about it a little more.