3 Keys to Success in Music - Ask Zac - 147

Hello friends and welcome to Ask Zac
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today we're going to talk about what I
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have seen as the three elements of
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success that I've seen play out in the
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hundreds of interviews that I've done
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with famous guitar players and the two
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of them you have control over in the
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third one which we'll call luck we don't
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but of course we we do have the we have
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to have the other two elements and then
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we have to put ourselves out there to
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where we can take advantage of luck and
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timing or happenstance whatever you want
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to call that third element so we're
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going to talk about those three elements
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and give some examples from some of the
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interviews that I've done through the
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years and uh yeah just gonna have some
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fun and I want to challenge you and
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myself and others I want to challenge us
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all to think about these three elements
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and how you know we are you know hitting
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on the ones that we have control over
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and how we're taking advantage of
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opportunities and taking risks and and
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such to grow as whether it's musicians
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or human beings or as business people or
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what have you so we're going to talk
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about that today
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all right let's Dive In
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so again
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I've done a lot of interviews Through
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The Years first in print for vintage
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guitar magazine then started with the
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true tone lounge and you know and have
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done a lot of long-form interviews so
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these haven't been like the little short
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things where someone lists off their
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five favorite records and what piece of
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gear they've bought but where we've
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really you know kind of dug in deep
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about their career and what has helped
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them you know through the years
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and one of the things I started uh you
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know thinking about over you know over
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the last couple months was just the
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elements that connect all of these
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interviews together
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and I started seeing three what I see is
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three elements that every successful
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musician you know that I've interviewed
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has had and number one would be hard
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work
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so they work hard they practice they
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learn they have their gear together all
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those things there's hard work
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preparation so let's let's put that in
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one category
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extremely important if you don't have
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that you're not going anywhere
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second category and this is one where a
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lot of people fall by the wayside and
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that's risk taking and so risk taking is
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taking that gig that is really going to
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be difficult that you're really going to
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have to put a lot of extra work in that
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you could fail miserably that you could
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fall flat on your face producing your
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first record whatever it is it's that
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it's asking over and over again hey do
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you need a guitar player to a songwriter
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night it's uh it's just that being
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willing to put it out there and probably
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be told no a whole lot until finally you
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get the yes and that kind of ties into
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the third element now the first two we
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have control over
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but the third element we don't
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the third element you could call it luck
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or timing or happenstance
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and
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and that's something that just
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you have to have the first two
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and then you kind of have to keep
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putting yourself in situations where the
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third opportunity can or the where luck
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or happenstance can can happen can take
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place
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so I'll give an example uh from you know
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a couple of the interviews I've done one
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would be John Jorgensen who I'm a huge
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fan of and have a ton of respect for
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John Jorgensen went to The NAMM Show in
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Anaheim California one year and at the
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time he was playing at Disneyland and
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not working with any major artists
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and he on his own was learning a lot of
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the music of David grissman
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who's a kind of a new grass mandolinist
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and
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he saw him at The NAMM Show in The Saga
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booth and he was kind of doing demos
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with his new signature model mandolin
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well John Jorgensen asks him said hey
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can I sit in with you
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that's pretty risky he could have been
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told no but he had the preparation
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beforehand he had been practicing David
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grisman's music and he knew a lot of his
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songs so David grissman now comes in the
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luck part David grissman happens to be
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in a good mood
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and is willing to give John a chance
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even though he doesn't know him from
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Adam
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and he says yes
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so John Jorgensen gets up with David
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grissman in a nam Booth playing you know
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kind of new grass music
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well then more happenstance comes into
happenstance
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play
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Chris Hillman who had been told about
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John Jorgensen but was not going to give
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him the time of day because he felt he
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was too young and inexperienced uh he
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had just kind of passed on John but he
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comes up to the booth he sees David
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grissman and he sees John Jorgensen
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playing together and they're playing
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together beautifully and he decides to
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uh to hire John to play with him to
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replace Bernie leddon in in his band now
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from that comes the desert rose band and
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also through that connection you know
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his his work with Elton John and so many
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others but that was this this pivotal
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moment where his career really made this
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major turn in the right direction and it
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was all because he was prepared he took
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took a risk and then there was this luck
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happenstance element where Chris Hillman
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happens to walk up
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I'll give another one this is with my
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good friend JD Simo so JD was he had
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moved to town
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and I had helped him make a record I had
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played rhythm guitar on it and uh one of
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the
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one of the other musicians on it was
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David Rowe
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who is a you know famous bass player who
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has played with Johnny Cash and Dwight
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Yoakam and also of course played with
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the Don Kelly Band off and on for many
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years
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so here's where it all comes together of
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course JD made this record
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he went shopping at around to labels and
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no one bit on it and he was forlorn and
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out of money he had no money he was
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renting a room in someone's house he
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didn't have money for rent and so he
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went down on Broadway here in Nashville
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and he started busking with an acoustic
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guitar and had his acoustic guitar case
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out
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okay I remember before I told you that
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he had hired David Rowe to play bass on
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this record that uh you know we all
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helped him out on
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well Dave Rowe comes walking by on
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Broadway and he sees JD
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and JD was extremely embarrassed and he
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said at that moment
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I could either tell a lie and say hey
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I'm just joking around this is I'm just
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doing this for fun or he said I could be
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honest and tell him hey
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I'm out of money and uh you know I'm
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dead broke and and I I gotta make a buck
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and he chose the latter he took the
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really risky route and he was you know
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brutally honest with Dave Rowe
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and Dave Rowe kind of you know felt bad
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for him and wanted to help him so Dave
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Rowe took him immediately down to Don
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Kelly and introduced them and so that is
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how JD started working with the Don
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Kelly Band and how his you know he got
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so much experience and training with
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that group and it was all from uh from
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his hard work
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and then you know putting it out there
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and then Dave Rowe happened to be
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walking by
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it's amazing how I mean this this just
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happens over and over again uh it could
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be with just a no strander who you know
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kept going to writer's nights asking you
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know the uh you know the Riders if they
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needed a guitar player and they would
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keep telling him no and they even kind
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of got ugly about it and then fi he just
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keeps showing up to this writer writer's
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night keeps showing up finally someone
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doesn't show up
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and all of a sudden they're desperate
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for a guitar player and they're willing
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to take a chance with him after they've
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told him no dozens of times
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so these are you know these are the
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things these are kind of the elements
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it's there's hard work preparation how
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you know I think about Derek Wells who
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now is of course a very well established
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session guitarist and producer
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you know Derek Wells used to be ready
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every morning for a session even though
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he didn't have one because he was
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waiting for someone not to show up
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because there's always going to be
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someone that gets sick they're in a car
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accident their kid breaks their leg
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whatever it is and so he would wake up
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every day have his gear ready to go and
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he would and he would just be prepared
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for that
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and it paid off because eventually he
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did get calls and he and he saved the
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day where some guitar player didn't show
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up and that was his foot in the door
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so
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I just want to challenge all of us to
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think about how am I being prepared how
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am I putting in hard work how am I
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taking risks am I just sitting at home
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waiting for the phone to ring or am I
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really putting myself out there and
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putting myself in situations where I
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have the opportunity to grow because we
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don't have control over this third
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element you know this happens dance luck
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thing that's timing but it's always
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there but if we don't have the first two
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the third can never happen
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and the more we take risks the more
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we're out there
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the more likely it is that we're able to
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hit on the third one and we can have
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those pivotal moments in our career
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I think about myself
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and I think you know one of the pivotal
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moments was uh
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frankly meeting Brad Paisley in college
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and just he wasn't you know he was just
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another student at that point but do we
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you know kind of developed a friendship
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and
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he ended up opening a lot of doors for
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me by working with him and just the
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reputation that I earned you know from
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that and there were so many other things
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that happened from that pivotal moment
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and that was for me risk taking that was
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me moving away from my comfort zone
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which was South Texas where I was kind
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of a already kind of getting to be
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somewhat of a big deal guitar player
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down there and then I moved up to
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Nashville where I was a complete nobody
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in a zero and took a chance and was you
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know meeting people and I'm kind of an
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introvert and I had to kind of get out
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of that and really get to know other
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people and you know make friends and it
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paid off so
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all right well I hope that you can take
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those elements think about them and
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think about them in your life
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all right we're going to have a short
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musical interlude and then we're going
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to return with Zach's Book Nook
musical interlude
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[Music]
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foreign
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[Music]
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thank you
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[Music]
Book Nook
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all right it's time for Zach's Book Nook
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this book is unfortunately out of print
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as far as the print edition however you
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can still get it
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um you know digitally and this is Fender
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amps the first 50 years by John teagle
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and John sprung
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this is one of the most important
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reference books that I have in my entire
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Library I love this book I refer to it
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all the time this is the greatest book
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on Vintage Fender amps
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why well it's because it's divided up by
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model so many other books might give you
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all sorts of information but it's all
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Here There and Everywhere
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this book
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you know published in 1995 they they
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separated it by model and they take the
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model through all its different
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iterations of course it only goes up
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through 1995 but that's most of what we
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need to know because of course
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information on later amps is a little
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easier to find on the on the interweb as
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it were I love this book
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I have you know tried not to wear it out
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it has beautiful photos of all the
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different models and uh and fantastic
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information even recommendations on amps
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beautiful photos uh excerpts from from
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catalogs uh highly recommended and I
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really hope that Hal Leonard will uh you
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know produce a updated Edition or at
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least uh you know kind of uh re reprint
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this one but this is uh again probably
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if you find it on the line the print
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edition probably your people are going
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to ask some crazy money but if you can
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get this for under thirty dollars highly
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recommend it or just go ahead and get
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the digital Edition which is available
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on Apple books and other sources
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all right guys well thank you so much
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for watching today's episode I hope
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you've enjoyed it and again I need to
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thank TruFire for sponsoring it and I
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hope you have a great week bye