Around the time when I was in high-school and college, there were two really popular bands in Tulsa. One band was Midwest Kings, who are now known for having been the home of David Cook. The other band (the more popular of the two) was called The Hero Factor.
Most of my friends preferred The Hero Factor (uh...I should say "were obsessed with The Hero Factor"), and of course - being the way I am - I decided on general principle to not like them. I had never actually heard their music before, but hey, they were unanimously adored; that was enough to make me stay away.
About three years ago, The Hero Factor split up...and I listened to their music at last. Uh...yeah. "Impressed" would be a gross understatement. I finally understood what all the fuss had been about.
Seriously, The Hero Factor was an awesome band. I mean, they sounded like professionals - like what you would hear in concert in an arena. And yet, they had gone unsigned, they had split up, and their ever-popular lead singer Ben Kilgore was back to square one.
And that's only half the story...
(Now, if the next part of this story contains any inaccuracies, I ask for forgiveness from those of you in the know. I was told this story by an ex-girlfriend of Ben's/old friend of mine, and while the big picture of this story is verified, I might have a couple details wrong. Disclaimer accomplished. Continuing on...)
About four years ago, when The Hero Factor was still together, Kilgore had a meeting with some of the bigwigs at Sony Records. Sony offered him a record deal...but they told him that he had to lose the band. The band "wasn't marketable," they "didn't have the right image," and blah blah blah. Kilgore did the noble thing, and he told Sony that he would only take the record deal if they would take the band. Sony, of course, did the music-business thing and took the deal off the table. About six months later, the band split up, and everyone said that Kilgore was an idiot.
Yesterday morning, I was at my church (where Kilgore and his wife lead the music portion of the service), and I was thinking about how tough that would be, to make it so close to that level all artists strive to reach...only to have "missed out" and ended up languishing in a forever-world of *almost*.
A couple minutes after I was thinking this, the service started. Our pastor called Ben and his wife up front for an announcement...and Ben announced that he has been offered a record deal by Interscope.
This is three or four years after his last brush with the top. Three or four years (especially in the music industry) can be an eternity. Three or four years can be enough time to give up, to stop fighting, to stop persevering.
For all of you artists - for all of you writers, painters, musicians, actors, directors, everything - who have ever felt like giving up, remember: You're never guaranteed that something will happen if you keep persevering, but you are guaranteed that nothing will happen if you give up.
You might be in your "eternity" of waiting right now. If you are, keep in mind this example set by Ben Kilgore. Keep on pressing!
Happy Monday, people.
(Happy writing, writers.)
~J
Play nice and share with others
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment