It's been a while since my last post. This is mostly because I've been so busy with performances, booking appearances for 2011, upgrading my website, and a laundry list of other things that would be too long and boring to go on and on about.
But here I sit, in my hotel room in Columbia, South Carolina, at the beginning of my first tour of 2011, and I've been giving deeper thought to a question that someone asked me earlier today.
"What's the hardest thing about being a musician," was a question that a gentleman asked me, who has a son thinking about majoring in music in college. Of course, I explained that the level of competition is extremely intense and that it isn't enough to be really good at your instrument. I also mentioned the thick skin needed for the numerous rejections one receives over the course of time. However, now that I think of it, none of those things are the hardest thing about being a musician...at least for me.
To me, the hardest thing about being a musician is leaving my family and loved ones for weeks at a time when traveling for tours.
Touring isn't the partying night after night that MTV, VH1, and the movies like to portray it as. Just like everything else about being a musician, it's A LOT OF WORK! In order for a tour to be profitable, you need to cram in as many performances within a given time span that you can. In the case of the tour I'm on at this very moment, I will be doing 26 engagements, in about 17 cities, in 5 states, over the span of 3 weeks.
Yes, going on a tour is exciting, but if you were to ask me if I'd rather go on tour or stay home and spend time with my wife and daughter, then that is a complete no brainer...stay home, of course! There are things that help bridge the distance...Skype, for example. I always look forward to calling my family on Skype because then we can both hear and SEE each other. But it's still not the same as actually being there.
When you're traveling far from home and leaving family behind, there are the added stresses of wondering if everything is alright back home, did you forget to take care of anything important before you left, etc.
In any case, I guess I should wrap up this blog post. I'm looking to go to bed early. It's just that I found it funny that, as much as I was excited to be able to go on this tour (or any of the other tours I've been on for that matter), I'm just as excited, if not more so, to get back home to play with my daughter and spend time with my wife.
By Shenole Latimer
