I was almost up there.

We were in a band, touring college towns before DJs inherited that market. As our reputation grew we started to become the opening acts for major stars like The Four Seasons, The Association and others.

Bob Seger was making number 1 hits on Detroit radio which had been 'owned' by Motown for quite a few years, so Berry Gordy wanted an all-white band (business, not racist).

We had been opening for Motown Acts including a big revue in Cobo Hall and we were the first choice to be that all-white Motown act.

Our managers and lawyers started negotiating with Motown. Motown's last offer was 2 cents per record. Out of those royalties Motown would deduct inflated recording costs, inflated distribution costs and inflated promotion costs.

In addition to that they wanted all the publishing rights/royalties and have a Motown 'ghost writer' on all the songs so Motown got a piece of the songwriter's royalties even though they didn't write a note or a word.

When our team held out for 2.5 cents per record, Motown quit talking to us and chose another good band. Their second choice was "The Sunliners". Of course Motown wanted to own the band's name so they could hire, fire and run 4 bands around the country doing concerts at the same time, so the Sunliners changed their name to the Motown owned "Rare Earth" and I have no idea what kind of a deal they settled for.

It was disappointing at the time, but life doesn't always go the way we want it to. We were the first choice and clearly the better band.

But after that our band started fighting and broke up so I joined another.

I've made a life doing music and nothing but music for most of it. I did have 2 day gigs while investigating what it was to be normal, which I found to be terribly overrated. wink

I never got to play that enormoudome as a headliner, only an opening act, but I got to be treated as a peer by the top musicians of the day. I met a lot of lovely ladies, traveled all over the USA, married the woman of my dreams, and I'm living a happy life.

I wake up in the morning, go to bed at night, and in-between do what I want to do. That's success.

I have no debts. That's freedom.

There are a lot of us out here. We could be playing in a Holiday Inn in Valparaiso Indiana or Athens Georgia, but we're playing music and making a living at it. Many of us will be better musicians/singers and write better songs than the international stars and idols. That's just life. The best seeds don't always fall in the best soil. But we're not wage slaves to some faceless corporation and we're making a living doing what we would do for free, even if we won powerball.

There is more than one level of success.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks