Tell us about your tour vehicle.
It’s a 2012 Chevrolet Express van with roughly 175,000 miles on the odometer. I purchased it from a couple who bought it to take their five grandchildren on trips. Even though I’ve had it for years now, I’m still finding crayons and empty Go-GURT tubes.
It’s actually the second Chevy Express I’ve owned in my lifetime. The first one I bought new and I drove it for 324,000 miles. To the best of my knowledge, it’s still out there as a work vehicle. I tried to donate it to the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame on the basis that Tyler Childers and his band once spilled a bunch of cheese popcorn in it, but they passed. Foolish move if you ask me.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Given the price of everything these days, I haven’t found a way to eat cheaply on the road other than occasionally subsisting on a diet of sardines and saltine crackers, which I only do on solo tours. My band has forbidden me from eating tinned fish in the van.
This isn’t a point of pride, because I know the diabetes/heart disease/high cholesterol bell tolls for me too, but I don’t really sweat healthy eating on the road too much. I’ve been in a relationship for two decades and I don’t really drink or do drugs anymore, so my hard partying ways are basically limited to destination dining. I really love seeking out a special thing that I can only have in one place. Big fan of regional eating over here.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I used to be a big string snapper. Like, I’d bring three guitars to a gig and end up using all of them. Not so much any more, so I can get away with changing electric strings infrequently. Acoustic strings are another story. My intonation and tone are pretty much toast after two shows. It’s about 10 bucks a set, so this seems like a good time to mention that if anyone reading this works for a string company and they felt like giving me an endorsement, I’d be proud to be your spokesperson.
Where do you rehearse?
In my home, I set up shop at the kitchen table to play guitar and write and as I’m sure you can imagine, shit gets wiiiiild.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
It was called “Ten Times Bigger Than Jupiter.” I was really into the Isaac Asimov books about the solar system as a little kid.
Describe your first gig.
It was in a bar on the second story of a Chinese restaurant in Morgantown, WV called The Tea Garden. Big shoutout to the owner Sue Teng, may she rest in peace, for providing me with many of my first paying gigs. I made $22 at that first show and I’ve continued to command those sorts of prices ever since.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
I worked at a UPS Store for a very long time. I don’t know if he reads Twangville, but thanks to the owner, Mark, for being so supportive and giving me unlimited time off to tour. For that reason, I’d have to say that was my favorite non-music day job, even though it could be fairly stressful dealing with irritated people and lost packages.
I think that every citizen in the United States should be drafted into two years of mandatory customer and food service upon turning the age of 18. I’m talking Donald Trump’s creepy looking kid right down to the bottom of the ladder. That sort of work has the capacity to teach so many lessons regarding empathy.
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?
My goal has always been to make a working class living via music as long as I didn’t have to make any compromises about the art itself. I feel incredibly lucky to say that I’m doing that and I hope that’s still the case 5-10 years from now. Anything beyond that is gravy.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
Not to take other people’s opinions regarding your work so seriously. Artistically, we only have to answer to ourselves and it’s important to listen to your gut and trust your own intuition. Sometimes a younger person will ask me for advice when I’m hanging out at the merch table and I usually tell them to not listen to other people’s advice or opinions, including my own.