I'm most in my element on tour, with a gig that day, like today. I'm on the road where I am supposed to be. I will be where I'm supposed to be at nighttime, on stage, in front of people, doing my thing.
I hate complacency. I play every gig as if it could be my last, then I enjoy it more than ever.
When I was younger and did a stand-up gig, it would take me two weeks to recover. Sometimes I'd get so panicked that I would stutter.
I've never missed a gig yet. Music makes people happy, and that's why I go on doing it - I like to see everybody smile.
The best practice you can get is on the bandstand, but in between gigs I feel I have to stay in shape.
I don't really care about clothes, but it's about wearing something that gives you social confidence.
Now I'm fortunate to have a good band in CA, and play many solo gigs as well. My point is that I stopped playing in bands and played solo for four years, to get back into the groove and pulse of writing and singing and who I am on stage.
I've had a few gigs where things have got out of hand and there has been a huge crush with my fans. They are important and I don't want them being hurt. They are a mad crowd.
I think after 1970 or so, after I sold Soul City, I took off for awhile and didn't do too many gigs.
My nerves before a gig got worse; I had terrible bad nerves all the time. Once we started... I was fine.
I dare not drink before a gig because I'll get tired and blow it. So I have to sit drinking tea in a caravan.
I ended up an actor, did my first professional union gig in 1974, and I've been doing it ever since.
Every time I listen back to solos of mine I'll hear something I like and then another phrase that I can't stand. You have to live with what you play. And the recording medium puts that on us. When I play live gigs I don't think so much like that.
It's very difficult to learn not to take nasty heckles personally.
I mean, look, I wear makeup in films. I don't wear makeup in real life. It's just part of the gig, that's all.
I can't imagine doing an hour-long dramatic series because it's so much work. A sitcom is a wonderful gig. You work from 10 to 4 every day, it's fun, and you get to live at home.
In college I had a weekend gig at a restaurant, a solo thing that was the best practice I could have ever had. That's where I learned to coordinate my singing and my piano playing.
I entered the work force cleaning breast pumps at a pharmacy! It was a part-time gig while I was at school... no interview required.
Well, I got pretty good and went on the road with a group. We starved. At that time I didn't realize that you'd work one gig in Kansas City, the next in Florida and the next gig will be in Louisville. You know, a thousand miles a night. That was really rough, man.
Working on 'Gossip Girl' was a fantastic experience. It was my first real gig and I'm thankful for it - I got to learn a lot. I'm glad I got to explore getting comfortable in my own shoes in the background on a show like 'Gossip Girl.'
I went in [Sweet Basil band] and played with them, maybe half the gig for almost eight years or more.
Having done a normal job for 10 years, as a psychiatric nurse dealing with emergencies, I know what terrible, hopeless lives some people have. So in many ways, it's great to be able to wield the financial power that I can, and do gigs, fundraisers or give money. I feel lucky I can help out.
What you do is, you just do the gig, enjoy, get on with it, and treat the rest as horse doodle.
My first pilot gig; in fact my first job in television; was 'Freaks and Geeks,' and the experience of directing that pilot was probably the single most formative of my directing life.
[Eddie Locke] had a huge impact in my life. He was a great jazz drummer. He was mentored by Papa Joe Jones and he played for many years with Coleman Hawkins and Roy Eldridge and actually got me on a gig with Roy Eldridge when I was 20 that I'll never forget.
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