The Story Behind the Song
When I was in my mid-twenties, I started realizing that Kenny Rogers was probably right when he said success in the music business was 1% talent and 99% luck. Growing up poor in Alaska, with little education and limited musical networking opportunities, didn’t enhance my probabilities of stumbling into the requisite luck I needed to make it as a singer/songwriter.
And, although I continued to try to make my own luck, over time, my priorities shifted. As the song says, “Life just [kept] me dizzy.” And not in a bad way. But eventually, I woke up with the unexpected realization that my wife and family completely dominated the top spots in my life, as they should in every man’s life. And I didn’t see those priorities changing. Nor did I want them to change.
Still, occasionally, there were times when I felt an overwhelming sense of loss that in all likelihood no one would ever really hear my music, which meant so much to me. It was during one such period of melancholy that Somebody Listen to My Songs came out of me. It contains more of the raw emotions that I normally sequester deep inside of me than any other song I have ever written. It was my primal scream at the universe over the inevitability that my music would remain in obscurity for the duration of my life.