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The music industry has never been a bed of roses but tell 2022 that in my opinion it’s finally turned into a total pile of sh$! I was contacted this morning by a popular venue who claimed to be interested in booking me to perform based on word of mouth but first they wanted to talk about my social media followers before going further with the booking. They didn’t seem to care about my music or what I’ve done with it in the last 25 years, just my social media follows and how active I am on it. “It appears that you have a lot of followers, how many of them come to your shows?”

Seriously, is that where things are? Estimate how many people come to your shows based on your social media? When I’m at my shows my focus is on giving the best performance of my life not counting who came out to see me based on my social media. Believe it or not there is still a real world out there that some of us are living in.

When I was coming up as a young musician you had to actually prove your talent and skills on a bandstand and work your butt off to make a name for yourself. Someone with more experience probably yelled at you if you were screwing up to keep your ego in check and make you a strong player. There wasn’t a way to achieve any status by playing make believe on a fake platform where most get a pass if they can play three chords on an acoustic guitar and solicit their social media to make it appear as if they have the put in the work it takes to build a career and status as a professional musician. Most of these “self-imposed superstars” who perform in three towns couldn’t play a 1-4-5 shuffle if their high profile careers depended on it.

I’m so thankful I’m in a position where I don’t have to do depend on this industry anymore for anything other than fun. If it’s not fun, I’m out and I’ll go play where and when I want to for real music lovers and not social media worshippers without dealing with this kind of mess. Enjoyment and reality out of life, not likes and follows. Now give me my damn Telecaster.