Whenever people talk about what their parents’ jobs are, I always get a little surge of excitement to talk about what my dad does. My dad is a musician, and I think that’s the neatest thing in the entire world. I get so excited to talk about what my dad does, how amazing he is, and all the fun details about my life living with my dad as a musician. In almost twenty-one years of life, I’ve found that there are a few things I tend to tell everyone I talk to about this. So, here are some things I know to be true having a musician as a dad…
1. Click tracks are the worst
Click tracks are the bane of my existence. Every time my dad was working on a new track, reworking something from before, or just going over the song again to go over it, all I heard was “1. 2. 3. 4. Du duh da du duh da du duh da du duh…. Over. And over. And over. I don’t mind them the first ten minutes or so. But a couple hours? It gets annoying. Don’t get me wrong though, I do find them endearing -- I’ve found myself singing them to myself to go to sleep as they helped me go to sleep when I was younger. They remind me of my dad, so I would listen to them over and over and over and over again. They may annoy me, but I love my dad dearly, and anything that reminds me of him is worth the annoyance.
2. You know more songs from the 70s and 80s than you do from today
People always ask me “what kind of music does your dad do?” He does tribute shows mostly, the more popular ones being Billy Joel and Elton John. Play a song on the radio from today? There’s a pretty good chance I don’t know it unless it’s been around a couple years. Play a song from Billy or Elton? I can sing every word, every guitar solo, all the backup vocals, everything. If there’s ever an 80s karaoke night, I’m going to crush it.
3. You're hired as a roadie who works for free.
I’m not the strongest person ever, but I do have some muscles from being my dad’s free roadie. At least once a week, I have to help him unload and then reload the trailer. If I had a dollar for the number of times I’ve dropped guitar cases on my foot, I would have enough money to reimburse me for all the roadie work I’ve done.
4. Christmas starts early.
For most Christmas crazy people, Christmas starts, at the earliest, around the end of October. For me? It starts in March. My dad remixes Christmas songs and makes Christmas CDs. Because of that, he started working on the music in March. Yes, that’s right. I was listening to Christmas music in March. And I LOVED IT.
5. You get to do the most amazing things.
On top of performing, my dad also partners with toy companies and does voice-overs for various toys. Sometimes my brother and I get to help out. For example, I’m the voice of a talking kitchen, and my brother is the voice of a talking stuffed animal. We’ve also done voice overs for audio books -- it’s really cool to hear my voice in an audio book. We also get to go to some amazing places. He played at Disney World for a couple years, and we got to go to Disney with him for vacation. Some of my favorite family memories come from being with my family at Disney world, sitting with my mom, watching my dad sing “This is the Time.”
6. Separation is hard.
My dad travels a lot for his job so I don’t get to see him as much as I would like. This is really hard for me, so the times I do get to spend with my dad are extremely precious to me. During the summer when he’s not home a lot, my favorite thing to do is take a nap in the middle of the day so that I can stay up until 2:00 or 3:00 watching movies with my dad. As of recently, however, I’ve been falling asleep, but just being with my dad is so special to me. I will take being tired and exhausted the next day if it means I can spend time with my dad watching movies or Cops (his favorite show).
7. My dad has the coolest job in the world.
I really and truly believe this. Sure, the click tracks are annoying sometimes, and I’m often tired the next day from staying up late, but I wouldn’t change that for anything. To me, my dad is the coolest person in the world, and I wouldn’t want him to have any other job. His job is his passion -- I love seeing him onstage performing, doing what he loves, and bringing other people joy and entertainment. Not only does he have the best job in the world, but I have the best job in the world. Just because he’s not there all the time doesn’t mean I don’t feel supported and loved by my dad in everything I do.
Daddy, this is for you. Thank you for everything!
*PSA - That picture is my dad, not the guy from Rascal Flatts. My dad does a Rascal Flatts tribute because of the uncanny resemblance.
