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The Lower Class Musician

Back in 1992, I told myself that I was going to make it in the music business no matter what. The thought of being a starving artist was romantic to me in many ways, because it looked glamorous on TV and the singer always seemed to get the girl in the end. But as I got older I started to feel like I was on a blind date. I was broke, sleeping on a twin box spring without a mattress, and spending what little money I had on fast food and Mary Jane. I was a lower class musician.

I was not a lower class musician for lack of musical ability — after all, I was one of five singers accepted into Mason Gross for Classical Voice that year. Rather, I was a lower class musician because I couldn’t buy my way into the music business. My first label job in the A&R department of Universal Records paid a whopping $14k per year and did little to advance my career. I learned the hard way that there is a difference between what I wanted to do and what I had to do.

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