‘Bad Man’ I am often asked ‘don’t you ever get tired of being a broke ass cracker, living minute to minute all the time with a belt tighter than a nuns habit and twin pockets light on cheddar? I mean wouldn’t you just be better off getting your head down and doing something sensible for the four digit pecking fee and a day off twice a week? ’
Well okay, maybe not those exact words, but you get the meaning. And I’m never disinclined to answer for all the repetition these lines get, because the answer, I think, is important and bears the time taken to put it through the old thought box.
So let me tell you a story to flesh the point – a creative gal: light on luxury but high on talent struggles to make a buck as a singer, the thing she loves and wants to be recognised for. Recognition is not an easy thing to acquire; people laugh at her and put her down. She is ridiculed by the mainstreamers and whispered about behind closed doors where it’s safe to scandalise and poke fun. She’s weird, they say and her parents think she’s crazy: wouldn’t it be easier to get a job like any normal person? Safer they continue. Think of the times, the economy, she should just take what opportunity she has now to get on the ladder at the bottom rung and feel lucky to get something, somewhere to pay the bills, never mind the thrills.
Life isn’t all about getting what you want, they tell her. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, and well, we sacrificed our dreams to get where we are today. Give up these silly ideas, and so it goes: people talking, disparaging comments, disbelief, and condescension – all these things are the bane of the creatively inclined, often from the mouths of the closest to them.
The above story is the story of a lot of folk who’ve ponied up the stones to take a risk, ride out their chances and live the dream of their own creative impulses. But you see this story isn’t just a tale of misbegotten woe for all the artistic darlings out there and it’s not a cry for sympathy and understanding either, nope, it’s anything but. Because some folks will never really understand that in order to follow you’re passions takes just as much sacrifice, more in some cases than to give them up and play dead. The rewards of such a life however, frugal as it at times may be, are in my eyes beyond anything that could ever sound a fat ka-ching in my bank account. Because there is truly no substitute for having a dream made real, and that I can tell you is as gospel as the NT at bed time. That’s right folks I bank not on the high street with the hoi polloi, but with late mornings and quiet smiles in the realm of spiritual currency.
What’s this bull-shit Bad Man? I hear you ask ‘how does this relate to me, and who the fuck are you to lecture?’. Well let me stop you there, for this is the real deal and I’m just a guy with a big mouth. And I’m asking you to regress and consider – Before you gave up on your dreams for practicalities, try to think back to those dreams and how happy they made you for wanting them. Why did you give up and who were the ass-holes who put you off?
Disenchanted, disbelievers and doubters of the highest order I bet. Folks who had nothing to lose by bringing you down to join them. Heck maybe your one of them, the haters, and if so – question: why do you think like that and who made you an expert on the measure of a person’s abilities and potential success? And there are plenty of people who take chances all the time doing other crazy stuff like joining the army, becoming a race car driver, stuff that’d get you killed, yet they never gets shit on like being an artist or writing a book or taking a chance on being a actor. And the why of it is: Because people like to shit on creative folks when they’re not personally creative. They just can’t quite picture themselves doing it or making money at it, and that bullshit projecting never seems to get old.
It’s true not everybody was constructed to take a walk on the wild side and sure not being creative is not at all a bad thing in a world reliant on the sweat of hard work and industry. But why come down on someone who wants to try another path to find their peace just because it seems insensible by yours? I mean if you don’t love what you do then why aren’t you making an escape plan instead of trying to get other people to suffer up and join you? And if someone else is doing something they love: why put it down? If you’re afraid to take a chance then don’t pass it forward: work it out, and if you’re crippled by doubt then find a way to know for sure.
And when the inevitable doubters kick in, I urge folk to never forget the power of positive self belief, self promotion and to take that chance and run with it. If you believe then others will too. If you work hard for yourself then it’ll get recognised. If you don’t give up then others will come around. And ultimately if you dare amigos then you shall fucking win.
So getting back to the point, which I’m sure I left back there somewhere: do I ever get tired of living fresh and dangerous on the breadline? The answer is no. My soul is too free to get locked down by the grind, my heart too light to get burdened by worries and bull-shit. I might not have much scratch and rent day can prove interesting but that’s all ancillary to being happy and loving what I do.
I’ve had the pleasure of spending days honing my craft, talking good times with my editor, chasing agents and promoting my own stuff with hard work and good word. I’ve worked harder for myself than I ever have for ‘the Man’ and loved every minute of it – and that is spiritual currency right there. It doesn’t come on paper or make your wallet fat (not right away at least) but it’s the first steps to something damn fulfilling and as uphill and fruitless as it sometimes can be I wouldn’t trade it for all the cash in a flush dudes stash.
And as for the girl in the story, she was a good analogy I think, but she was real enough all the same. Her name was Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta although she’s better known as Lady Gaga. She had this to say about the whole shenanigans of getting where she got : “I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen,”. Hers was just one of the many stories of the hopeful out there. I know I’m currently one of them.
So good luck to all the triers out there whatever it is your going for. And to all the haters: Get over it man or just shut the fuck up 
Peace out – Bad Man
