Imagine this scenario.

There's a kid named Clem. He can sing. I mean REALLY sing. Clem isn't on a label yet because he can't get a good listen from anybody who can get him there. Clem spends his days singing a capella as he walks along the streets of Nashville collecting aluminum cans to recycle so he can come up with a buck to buy a newspaper to take back to the dumpster he lives in to look at later, after he practices his guitar for a few hours, so he can try and find a job at a fast food joint or convenience store. Clem knows if he can just get enough money together to make a decent demo he has a shot at making it. Clem also knows he needs a quality song to record on that demo and becasue he is not yet inside the walls of the forbidden city he has no shot at having a music publisher refer him to a professional writing team to get that one good song.

I want to meet Clem. That's who I need. Clem.

I have NO desire, intention, aspiration.... to try and become a "songwriters stable member" for a label. I want to hear one song I wrote on TV or the radio one time. That can be on "Nashville's Next Big Star" when Clem makes his debut, on a televised local talent show, an ad for a local business...

This is a bucket list thing. To those not familiar with the concept, it means "if this happens once I can die happy". That's all I care about. If I got one royalty check for 12 cents from a song playing on the radio I would frame it and hang it on the wall with other certificates that show I have accomplished something in 61 years. My degrees, some old baseball awards, the one 45 single that I played a minor part on in 1970 (a minor part, but I played on it!).... Also on that bucket list is driving a car 200 mph for 4 laps. And to cook one meal for a professional chef and not send them to the emergency room with food poisoning or convulsive stomach pains.

Nobody with an ounce of brains would ever consider me a potential source for hit after hit, and people who get to the place where they hire and fire writers have a lot more than an ounce. Matt Serletic doesn't return my calls. Music isn't even what I actually do. I keep servers and networks running, but nobody is going to remember the guy who kept the network going past 3 weeks after he's gone.

I have no legacy, and everybody should leave something behind when they die other than a jar of ashes. I saw my father die suddenly at 74 with a bucket list he never even got to start on. My mother was on her second time through her list when she died 10 years later at 79. My health will not likely allow me to get past 66 or 67, so time is running out for me, as none of these things are as simple as driving somewhere or buying a plane ticket, like "see Niagara Falls".

I built an engine from the ground up. Check.
I won a drag race on a real track with that engine. Check.
Played on a record that made it to the radio. Check.
Served my country and lived through a war. Check.
I had 2 kids. Check.
Finished college with a degree. Check. Check. (Twice.)
I rescued some dogs from euthanasia. Check.
A couple more, um, "personal" ones that I can't list or risk being banned.....

I am not looking for a career change here. That is simply not on my program. So if it takes selling out and writing a piece of garbage for Clem to sing, where do I sign?

I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.

1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.