Steve Miller performing with his band, July 1975.
Michael Putland/Getty
I’ll die happy if I never hear “Abracadabra” or “Rock’n Me” again. In fact, I can’t hit thumbs down fast enough on Spotify or Pandora when I hear 90% of classic rock. BUT, my-my-hey-hey, how a fella can get a pertinent kick in the teeth and have their perspective changed.
In this fantastic Texas Monthly article “Growing Up With Steve Miller,” we get to peer inside the mind of a scrappy creative who combines right brain artistry with left brain steel-toed operations. This for example:
“If I wanted to “climb the mountain,” he told me I’d need a routine. I’d need to master my songwriting voice: writing every day, charting other songs’ chord progressions, feeling out the rhythms of words and the arcs of melodies. I’d need to tighten up my guitar voice: practicing scales every day, exploring tone in my fingers and through an amp. I’d need to find my singing voice: practicing scales, studying harmony, controlling my breath, learning to shape tones in my throat and phrase them through a line. I’d also need to find the right musicians, practice until we were a single organism, and figure out how to bring a song to life in a crappy venue with a bad P.A. Of course, we’d also need to develop an aesthetic and learn how to produce. Then, if we pulled all that off, we’d need to set up a publishing company and sign a contract that preserved our blood in an industry famous for leeches.
After that, I’d really have to get to work.”
That, my friends, is the attitude of a startup mapmaker to use my preferred word. Some folks follow a map, others draw their own. Steve Miller rolled up his sleeves and ground it out. Much of the quote above is applicable to any organization, exploring tone, creating culture, practicing until the team becomes a singular focused organism staying on message. All endeavors require unbridled tenacity for any level of luck to occur. In other words, luck doesn’t find the fortunate, it finds the sweaty, bloody souls who shut themselves away and WORK. And yes, the favor of the Lord is a must as He sprinkles grace dust as protein.
The Steve Miller Band visits 40-50 cities each tour. Back of the napkin math looks like this:
40 cities x 5000 fans each show x $50 min ticket = $10M gross for 90 days of work
30 yrs of tours x $10M gross =
A $300M FU to my snobby attitude re classic rock
That FU comes as he puffs Cuban cigars while splitting time sailing around the San Juan Islands in Washington, and a home near the ski village of Sun Valley, Idaho. You go ya big Space Cowboy. Thank you for the humbling reminder of what professionalism looks like.
I’ve had several people ask how I wrote my book. I relied on lessons from Julia Cameron’s classic The Artist’s Way. She says write for 15 minutes or write three pages. Every. Day! Even if you repeat “I have nothing to say” over and over until the timer dings. I did the same, I wrote for an hour Mon-Fri from early Oct till Thanksgiving. Some days the words flowed, plenty of days I shook my head with disgust as I plinked out “Me no how write good… dammit!”
And so it is. Every project, painting or business I’ve begun has included slogging through the fear, the inevitable suck, the doubt of finishability. Expect it, don’t hide, lean-in and produce output.
See ya next time. ML