How I Went from College Professor to Deli Worker

Yes..... I have a Honda Civic and a few guitars

Best option these days is a Honda Insight from 2000-2006. 45-75 mpg, big enough for the minimums, cheap, lasts forever (300,000 - 500,000 miles). Hybrid battery is optional. NYC to LA = 3000 miles/60mpg x $3.50/gal = $175. Driving Rick's 5500 mile trip would cost $320 in gas.

@Jath 2112 It's the journey with shifting destinations along the way. But the main aim is to hold on to who you are, to be honest and put it out there. Adapt. Do stuff. Listen to that voice inside that knows you have more. Rick said, "This CAN'T be my life" probably 6 times in this story, each time when it just wasn't enough or it didn't fit.

Icouldn't agree more. Especially if it's a manual.

@Pentium I turned 40 a few months ago, and this video was hitting me hard. Seeing this Philip Glass comment kinda felt like seeing a sunrise in Spring. ... life is absolutely terrifying. It's pretty awesome too

All the skill in the world will get you nowhere if you don't know how to network. As is always said; "It's not about *what* you know. It's about *who* you know."

I have neither of those.

amen

soft skillz are often times more important than the hard skillz

I have one of those

Buddy Rich might have been the exception to that rule

“Baseline” hehehe, get it? Good one!

Uh, did u guys listen to this story. All his friends and networking just created a coup,e decades of misery for him. He never made money to support himself. Music is important in my house, but I am educating my kids that it is a hobby. I don’t want my kids growing up working at a music store teaching piano and always being broke

Incredibly likeable personality and he's good looking. That helps massively. I'm the opposite and have no idea how to interact with people.

It's not what you know, but who you know. That will open more doors than anything.

Biggest asset: he's good-looking. Doors open. Let's be real.

And have a lot of friends or wind up homeless.

It's what I call the "curse of near great talent"... maybe "undiscovered talent" too. Glad I took the other path, cuz Rick, you are so very talented and like many others, you followed your dream. Much respect!

@10000Mistakes your absolutely right of course . The city used to nurture certain musicians. Music is subjective, what I think is irrelevant. I lived in Palo Alto, California at the time of the “Friends of Love” breakout - Do I have the name correct - ? I remember watching Carson one night, and saw Chuck on - I don’t know him - talking about this concert he had developed . I was blown away as was my gf who sad “ You know two guys involved in this “ ? Sadly Rochester as I knew is no longer . Be well J

@jacques Cousteau Honestly, I'm not qualified to say what position they'd take in the grand scheme of things (I'm far from a jazz historian, haha). Just pointing out that they're yet another widely appreciated couple of artists nurtured by the Rochester music ecosystem... so more of an endorsement of Rochester than of any particular musicians.

@10000Mistakes I always saw both brothers as middle of the road, like Mitch Miller ( another Rochester alum ) not really jazzers . I had two close friends that played with Chuck in the “ Friends of Love Concert “ Bat McGrath RIP ,and Don Potter were the draw - I think - it wasn’t my cup of tea but apparently many others loved it . Very middle of the road … But you’re right, the brothers are from Rochester .

​​@jacques CousteauOther greats from Rochester, Chuck Mangione and his brother, too.

Oh rich parents… cute.

Did you type. "the most amazing thing about this story"... is people letting Rick crash on their couch. "Amazing"???

Things were a little different back then.

As my friends always says, "who the fuck are you?!"

I don't even like reading your comments!

I thought that my brother was my only friend until he kicked me off his couch.

Important lesson: I never hit the snooze button. It’s the opportunity clock, not the alarm clock.

I absolutely love when he tells his life stories I watch them a bunch of times it’s super interesting. I wish I had the same mindset, the drive he had to keep going and not give up when I was in bands! I just don’t know how he kept going. In my opinion the hardest part about trying to make a band work is finding the right musicians people that put music first before everything who take it very seriously can actually play show up willing to tour move out of state be broke out everything they have into the music and everyone musically gets along! If you get the right musicians and make good music you can play shows, you can tour there are garbage bands that tour you can get a certain level of success that doesn’t mean you will be rich or famous but a decent band can make some good noise, can play shows with bigger bands you really can do some really cool stuff even if ur not getting famous in any way it’s really not out of the question but getting the right musicians is just the hardest thing to do idk how he mentally could deal with being in so many bands over and over again. It’s like trying to find that perfect employee they almost never exist you either get an employee that does absolutely great work but doesn’t show up half the time or an employee that shows up but sucks lol

Totally agree, Col Carter!

Set me up with a drink and I'll listen for three hours!

You definitely feel like this is how he would tell you his story in person. It does feel very honest and quite intimate. Makes him endlessly watchable.

@jake london I couldnt have said it better. I have been in the game for..lets say more than a decade...NOONE DOES IT ALONE. Every kindness shown. Every tip in the tip jar. It's what keeps me going. Lets be clear: The bizness is really in a bad way. It has never been harder,in some ways. But Music is divine...and is its own reward.

@physics2112My takeaway is that talent, craft skill, plus luck, hard work, and community support were deciding factors. Nobody does it alone. Like most people, without the support of family and friends, Rick might have had to abandon the dream. But in addition to musical talent and good luck, Rick also had the training to be able to jump into a lot of different kinds of situations and use his musical talent. So if the gig required reading music or picking stuff up really fast, he had the training to do that. Same goes for teaching guitar lessons or bass. He wasn't just a good player. He had the skills to teach, some of which he no doubt learned in music school. There are many great players who don't have that kind of training. So they are not as well situated to make money doing the less sexy music-related stuff, like teaching guitar, picking up a cover band gig at the last minute, or playing 3 hours of solo chord melody on a classical guitar. To the extent that there's a middle class of musicians, a lot of them are doing those less sexy things. And they're doing them because they acquired those skills at some point. This story is a good reminder of that. I appreciated Rick's candor here. On the one hand, he was brave enough to give up something secure (the teaching job) to pursue something more speculative. Many people can't or won't do that. On the other hand, he got a lot of help, he wasn't too proud to do what was required, and his skills helped him to a good outcome.

@physics2112 well my comment isn’t so much about the outcome. More about what drives the behavior.

And so many of the people you find in a life of music are really lovely and giving

@physics2112 It's mostly luck

@Eddie Neal haha

@Craig Usselman Think of it as thirty-eleven.

Prison time for you? Change isn't always for the better.

59, story over.

I’m 65, “This is not where my story ends.”

God bless all the beautiful souls who lit your way and shared their homes with you! “I’ve seen all good people…

Simon, I was trying to work out how to express the same thoughts but you have put it perfectly there.

Rhett has the motivation for this: There IS no Plan B. While having that is wise for most of us; how many of us would have worked much harder had we nothing on which to fall back?

@aakkoin Heavy but true.

Heavy.

Did you ever listen to "Me" by Paula Cole? "I am not my house, my job, my songs. They are only stops along my way." This song inspires me.

@Back Off The 90's music scene was really cool. Even those who hadn't had formal training could pick up a guitar and start playing with a few power chords. When I started I knew nothing. No theory. Put in that situation you learn quick though. It doesn't matter what you do. If you truly love it, It's infectious and it flows through to all parts of your life. I can understand where Rick's passion comes from.

Was that a comment or a plug, ha,ha!!!

@RuthlessMojo Yep I realised that! Part of the potential fun of public comments is you can never be sure what people will pick up on! What I put was just a little bit of Latin meant in good fun.

@RNS Corrected. I was referring to being part of a collective group but could have worded it better.

Alumni is masculine plural in the nominative case in Latin 🧐. Alumnae is the feminine equivalent. However in English the accusative plurals of alumnos and alumnas are not used - just again alumni and alumnae. 'Graduates' was far less problematic.

I think it could easily become a book

if i hadn't dropped out of cowboy school back in 1972, at least i would have a horse by now.

many seem to end their music careers at " 27 " !