The Shortcut Trap: Why Most Musicians Never Make It!

[00:00:02][music] >> The problem with chasing the shortcut.

[00:00:12]Everybody wants the backstage pass, but nobody wants to carry the amp.

[00:00:19]Now look, man, this world that we live in right now, the illusion of the shortcut is everywhere. We live in a world of success with hacks, shortcuts, secrets, overnight success.

[00:00:36]Everywhere you look. Grow your channel in 30 days. Master guitar in a weekend.

[00:00:44]Get rich while you sleep. Become a touring musician with this one trick.

[00:00:51]The truth, most success still comes from showing up and doing the work. And that's what we're here to talk about here today, man.

[00:01:01]Cuz look, man, I don't believe that there are shortcuts, and there are reasons why it takes a while to get somewhere.

[00:01:12]You know, uh I recently saw Tom Bukovac talk about on his channel in one of his videos talking about how Nashville is still the old school way.

[00:01:22]Guys are going to Nashville, and they're making videos about how Nashville sucks and and all this kind of stuff. And look, man, it it's the old school method of playing a gig, doing a great job, and having somebody say, "Hey, man, I really enjoyed playing with you today. Hey, give me your number in case I need you sometime." That's when you know you've made a connection. But look, man, here's the thing, you could do that for years, and it never results in uh getting where you need to go.

[00:01:58]It's a very It's a very difficult place to break into and man, you know, starting ground sort of let's say ground starting at the ground level would be lower Broadway. And that was never a place that I did a lot of spent a lot of time with. I I can I could get now where that would be a grind that would probably break many people. You know, I my start in Nashville and I've talked about this you know, on the channel, but there was a club down on lower Broadway actually on 2nd Avenue. It's eventually became BB King's, but there was a club there called What was it called? Marbles, right? This is where if Michael Jordan came to town or Patrick Ewing or somebody like that.

[00:02:53]This is where you would see them hanging out. It was high-end fine dining and music that fit that kind of thing.

[00:03:03]And that's getting into that realm which is a smaller network of players. Now it's is is a lot more of those types of players in Nashville, but imagine going from playing the Sunset Strip and playing in a funky metal band to then going to Nashville and playing smooth jazz in a place that I saw Michael Jordan and all these other you know, people that would come to town and want you know, back then dude, when I moved to Nashville, honky-tonks all that stuff was really struggling, man. So the place where you could get you know, make a decent amount of money and play for people with money uh doing these other types of gigs, right?

[00:03:54]And the country stuff was what Nashville has always marketed to uh America and Canada and England and all that.

[00:04:03]But man, the musicians, the musos, they call them in some places, the musicians that played everything, right? Those guys all operated in a different network, right? And there was never any clear path to going on the road. I think now if you made enough connections down on Lower Broadway, you might be able to find yourself going out on the road with a country artist. I've known guys when I was playing with the B.B. King All-Stars, I knew a guy who was a waiter at B.B. King's.

[00:04:39]And I let him sit in one time playing guitar with the band, right?

[00:04:45]And I met I remember meeting him and I'm just like, I'm the veteran guy who just got off the road with a country artist and now I'm back in the clubs playing R&B and blues, right? And here's this guy, he just comes to town. It was almost like seeing a younger version of yourself and and I'm going, he's doing what I did. When I first got to town, there was no shortcuts.

[00:05:10]And there were times where I had to take on other jobs. Now, I never waited tables in Nashville, but in my time out in LA when I was playing the Sunset Strip, I would work at the hotel carrying rock stars bags uh up to the room on a bell on a bell cart and parking the cars and all this other stuff. And then later that night, I'd go and play the uh Whisky a Go Go headline with my band.

[00:05:37]And so it was literally like Clark Kent Superman. And I didn't even tell any of those guys that I was carrying their bags, that I was playing at the Whisky, which is crazy now that I think about it. Feel like it should have said, "Hey man, if if you want to go do something, why don't you come meet me at the" Now I would do that. Back then, I was like I was two different people. I was literally Clark Kent and and hair pulled back and greased back and all that, and then boom, all of a sudden I'm I'm, you know, out on the stage and and Superman.

[00:06:08]There were there were no shortcuts to any of this. There was there was no shortcuts to Nashville. There was no shortcuts to the Sunset Strip. It was basically putting in the work, man, making the calls, making connections.

[00:06:24]Uh you know, playing your butt off when you got the call, right? Doing a great job is is the first first rule of anything. Any gig uh worth doing is worth doing well. And keeping that philosophy, man, is is important in all of this.

[00:06:42]And here's something you need to remember. The elevator to success is usually broken. That's why the stairs are never crowded because there's always people uh that want to the easy way.

[00:06:56]Life is filled with people who want the easy way, and the people that's uh don't care. I don't mind personally, still to this day, I don't mind taking the stairs. I I feel like it it it's a great thing. It's a privilege to be able to still climb the stairs in life. It's a privilege now to still put in the work each day on this YouTube channel, right?

[00:07:22]Uh I mean, you know, here's the thing, man. You know, everybody that watches this channel knows I've done a lot of cool stuff and had a a lot of cool experiences and all that.

[00:07:32]But man, I don't mind working, right? I I I need to work. I need to have goals.

[00:07:38]I need to have things to do. And here's the thing, as you learn in life, opportunities come because you do the work and you do a good job and you show up each day and you're consistent and you're on time and your gear works and your your your pants are, you know, ironed if they needed ironing and your clothes are clean. These are such simple simple freaking things, but here's here's the discouraging thing out of all of this, man.

[00:08:09]Many of the people still out there playing the road, they're making the same money that I was making 13 years ago. So, that's that is a reality you're going to have to come to come to grips with.

[00:08:22]Even if you find yourself out, you know, getting a road gig and getting to play for thousands of people, maybe the juice ain't worth the squeeze.

[00:08:32]And now that people are able to see me on YouTube and see the growth in this channel and look, man, we I've still got a long way to go. This is not an easy path. This is everyday baby steps everyday, dude. There is no paying for subscribers. There is no paying for views or or or any of that or bots or or any of that nonsense, man.

[00:09:00]>> [snorts] >> You know, here's the here's the deal.

[00:09:02]Most people quit digging 3 ft before they hit gold.

[00:09:07]And that's why I'll never quit and that's why I'll keep on this path and that's why I'll keep working and eventually eventually I'll make it.

[00:09:17]Eventually I'll make it on YouTube. I eventually made some goal reached some goals, you know, out of being in Nashville and touring and playing on records and doing different things. I eventually reached goals, right? And that made me go, you know what?

[00:09:33]Maybe instead of trying to keep doing the same thing I did before. Maybe I'll try something different and that's where it's really gotten interesting because I made connections with James Tyler Guitars and Dr. Z Amps and Synergy Amps and you know, Fender. I've I've done man, the amazing thing dude is a lot of a lot of the things that I thought I would achieve through playing I've actually uh achieved through trying different avenues.

[00:10:10]Look, the crazy the crazy crazy thing is creating this channel and and seeing that man, I had 373,000 views this month. That's that's absolutely insane.

[00:10:25]But what people don't see is the daily uploads. What people don't see you know, the copyright strikes and every now and then I'll I'll let uh my moderators know, hey man, I got a copyright strike or or whatever. What they what no one sees is the videos that I go, man, this this video's great. The members love it. I'm going to put it out. Uh I know this one's going to do good and it flops. You know what?

[00:10:54]People that want to watch it watch it and I see it and I go, you know what? It doesn't change what I'm going to do tomorrow. If this video right now that you're watching blows up and it resonates with people and and great things happen, it's not going to stop what I'm doing. I'm not going to stop trying to climb those stairs of life.

[00:11:16]I'm going to keep going and these are these are lessons that I want everybody that watches this channel to know. If my daughter 20 years from now when I'm if I'm not around, she needs some help in her life man, I hope she finds this video and it helps her to continue on.

[00:11:35]As man, it's never going to be easy.

[00:11:37]You're always going to get tired climbing those stairs. You're always going to feel it in your knees, you know? And here's here's the beauty.

[00:11:47]If you finally do get to the top, if you finally do get to the top, guess what?

[00:11:55]It's super easy going down. So, the hard thing you need to realize in all of this is, yes, life and success and the music business and anything you want to do in life, it's an uphill climb, man.

[00:12:12]It's not There's no elevator. There's a You know, for some for some few, they get an elevator and they get they get immediately escorted to the front of the line. It's kind of like if you've ever gone to a club, if you're a single male by yourself and just averagely dressed, you're going to be standing in the back of the line. The club Here's the thing, man. A lot of these clubs, they're not even packed. They'd have a velvet rope and they'd be keeping you outside and letting letting you know, people in and you waiting on the outside. Have you ever been on the outside of that velvet rope? Let me know. But let me Let me tell you a little story I learned at a young age being out in LA. I remember one time these two girls phoned me up and said, "Hey, um let's do something. Me and so-and-so want to do something." I I was like, "Cool." Blonde and brunette, both cute as hell, right?

[00:13:15]Here I am. I've got my car.

[00:13:18]I've got money in the pocket and and two babes, right? Sounds like Sounds like a good thing. So, we see I see Al Zeido's. Now Lyle Alzado was a very popular uh believe he was uh played defense for the Raiders, right? Brutal hard-hitting player and known for probably uh uh dipping in the sauce little too much, right? Not the booze, but uh the juice the juice.

[00:13:51]Lyle Alzado was a legendary player. He had this club in LA and I remember I said let's go to Alzado's. I'd always seen it there and thought, you know, I've got these two girls and go to the club.

[00:14:04]So we get we get to the front of the place, right? And we're you know, this is planning on we're going to have dinner or something, right? Or drinks dinner and drinks.

[00:14:14]And um there's a velvet rope and there's security guard out front.

[00:14:20]And I see four or five dudes standing standing in front in the line.

[00:14:26]And I and I see I know I'm it's me and these two girls and I go here's here's how we advance to the front of the line.

[00:14:36]I immediately put my arm around both girls and walked up to that front velvet rope like I was the king of the world.

[00:14:44]And they immediately picked up the velvet rope. Boom, right this way, sir.

[00:14:51]It didn't even It wasn't even a question. It wasn't even a question. And people were looking like And look, man, you know who I was? I was probably at that time I was a guy either living in the shock house, which was a $200 a month room with a LA rock band living in it or I may have been living paying 100 bucks rent living in some girls uh pool shed the out in the valley.

[00:15:23]But, I walked up there, one, two beautiful women, and uh an attitude an attitude, right? An attitude of confidence.

[00:15:34]And that that that velvet rope just immediately opened up for me. So, think about that, man.

[00:15:42]Um you know, [snorts] that having the right attitude, carrying yourself uh that you are a high-status individual.

[00:15:52]That's part of it, man. That's part of it, but it's still it's still that's a temporary fix.

[00:15:59]That's a temporary look at getting behind the velvet rope. But, man, when it really comes to getting somewhere and getting something done like I'm doing here on this channel, putting in the work each day, all of that stuff, when it really comes down to that, it comes down to getting up each day and doing the work.

[00:16:21]Here's the deal, man. Everybody wants the harvest, but very few people enjoy planting season.

[00:16:30]And here's the deal, man. Shortcuts usually cost more. The funny thing is that shortcuts often become detours.

[00:16:41]Cheap gear that breaks on a gig. That was a shortcut. Instead of saving up and getting really good stuff, I took this cheap stuff out there and it broke. And now I'm taking two steps down in my boss's eyes.

[00:16:57]Learning songs halfway, that never works. Showing up for gigs unprepared.

[00:17:06]Man, there is no excuse for that.

[00:17:09]>> [snorts] >> Showing up unprepared with your gear, scrambling and fumbling. Man, I remember one time uh this guy basically was being given a gig, basically given a road gig. It wasn't even an audition. All he had to do was show up knowing the songs and show up with a decent rig. He didn't even have to have the right rig. It It literally was like, "Oh, this is who I want." So, okay, here's the guy.

[00:17:42]And this is a crazy story, man. But we didn't know what was going on behind the scenes because he got a shortcut.

[00:17:50]Nobody had actually, you know, seen him come up through the clubs. He had had a little bit of a reputation, but he was kind of a wildcard.

[00:17:59]And sure enough, man, it came the day to rehearse the show so that we could take it on the road.

[00:18:06]And the guy literally had to wait for Fender uh the the rep at Fender to open up cuz he was asked literally asking me, the other guitar player, to borrow some chords. So, he didn't have guitar chords. He had an amp that was about this big. This We're talking about an arena gig.

[00:18:27]And he had charts that looked like Egyptian hieroglyphics. I It was literally like the uh the scribblings of uh Syd Barrett. It's like if Syd Barrett had been given the gig uh uh a pop country gig and now he shows up for the uh rehearsal.

[00:18:48]And look, man, again, there are no no shortcuts, right? The problem we had is we gave a guy a shortcut and he really wasn't ready for that. The main thing is people should be selected that earned their way there the hard time.

[00:19:07]Here's the thing, man. You can't buy followers on YouTube or Instagram or all that, it's cheating, man. And it's not going to It's not going to result give you real results. If you save time today, you'll lose twice as much tomorrow because it's false gains. The fastest route is usually doing it right the first time.

[00:19:33]And look, man, the compound interest of effort. Most careers aren't built from giant moments. They're built from practice sessions, multiple practice sessions, multiple videos, multiple gigs, multiple connections, multiple good decisions. And these good decisions and connections and gigs and videos and practice and all that, it all compounds into great amounts of interest. And that repeated over and over again is the key to success. The people who last aren't always the most talented. They're the most consistent. Success isn't usually explosive. It's often invisible until one day it isn't.

[00:20:27]When I look back on my life, the biggest opportunities didn't come from shortcuts, bro. They came from preparation meeting opportunity, from being ready when the phone rang, from doing the work when nobody was watching.

[00:20:43]Because in the end, you could cheat a test, you could cheat a game, but you can't cheat experience. And experience is still the most valuable currency in the music business.

[00:20:57]The dream isn't built on the big break.

[00:21:00]It's built on all the days you didn't quit before the break >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]