The aspiring rock star’s indispensable guide to surviving a life in music, with advice from those who know best.
Brenda Holloway is one of Motown’s best loved divas. Her enduring hits include ‘Every Little Bit Hurts’ and ‘When I’m Gone’, and she stands as one of the few Motown artists who wrote their own songs. She supported The Beatles on their 1965 US tour. Having just returned to singing after retiring, Brenda has a lifetime of showbiz wisdom to impart.
STAY IN SCHOOL
I am so happy that I finished school. You always have to have a back-up, in any profession that you go into. With the crunch that we have now with the economy, people that have degrees even have to have a back-up. And they have to be willing to do things that they wouldn’t necessarily have to do if they could find a job in their profession. So, you always have to have two professions or two vocations.
THE GIFT
I’ve learned during my lifetime that your gift will always make room for you, no matter where you go. If you have a gift, it’s a legitimate gift, and it will make room for you if you are very persistent in it, if you study and try to be the best. You have to always know that there’s more to life than what you are, your circumstances. If you look up and have vision, if you can see it, you can be it. If you can put it in your mind, ‘this is where I want to be, this is what I’m working towards’, eventually your work will pay off and you will be where you want to be. You look at it as a God-given gift – you don’t see God as a person who doesn’t want you to succeed; he always wants you to succeed, no matter how many rules society lays upon you. Religiously, you are to use your gift, you are to use it well, and you are to treasure it.
WATCH THE DOLLARS
Money: it can be the root of evil and it can be your best friend. They say a fool and his money soon depart, so you have to be well versed in money. You can’t spend everything, and that’s a thing that I find in my society, or my race as an Afro-American: we spend everything. We don’t save and that’s what we have to learn: there will be days when you don’t have a hit record out, there will be days when you’re not in demand for periods of time. You have to always save at least ten percent, you know what I’m saying? That’s what I’ve learned; you can’t spend it all.
READ YOUR CONTRACTS
We were signed up for almost ninety-five years! Really! That seems unbelievable, but Motown signed us up for a lifetime. To get away from that contract you’d have to get away from it legally, and I’m still going through a few things with publishing but it doesn’t interfere with my royalties or anything. We were signed up for a lifetime to Motown and we didn’t understand that as young people, but now we do. I looked at my signature when I first signed it with Motown and it’s almost like baby scribble; you can tell I was a kid. I’d advise before signing anything, you must have legal counsel. There’s friendship and there’s business. If you’re going to sign and you’re looking for a future, and a bright future where you’re going to be happy as well as the people that are putting the money behind you, you must have legal counsel. They need to look at those contracts and let you know what you’re in for.
HAVE FAITH AND PATIENCE
After I left Motown, Smokey Robinson called me. He called me and he asked me to come back into the studio and I should have listened. When you’re young, you’re just focused on one thing and you can’t see on the right side. You can’t see, you’re just focused on, ‘I wanna be a star. I wanna be the same calibre as everyone else’. You need to really think; when people are pulling at you and they have a track record like Smokey Robinson, you should listen to that. You can’t just be wanting your way, and that’s the way we are when we’re young; we just want our way. We see the other stars that are in the company and we want to be just like them. [Motown boss] Berry Gordy was a man of timing, and had I waited, I feel like I would have reached my complete and full potential.
STAY GROUNDED
You stay grounded because you know you have people that are looking at you and they’re basing their life and their experiences on it. The words that I’m speaking now, someone’s going to be listening and they’re going to get their life in line with what I’m saying or they’re going to get something from what I’m saying. You stay grounded for your public and for your own soul’s sake. You have to know that life is short, and in an instant it can be gone. So, while you’re here you wanna make an impression and you want it to be good. A lot of times I’ve just wanted to go haywire, but then I think I can’t afford do that, I’m Brenda Holloway, so I have to stay grounded for my public. They’re the ones that keep us alive, so we have to do our best for them.
