The aspiring rock star’s indispensable guide to surviving a life in music, with advice from those who know best. This month, glistening pearls of wisdom from the original ‘Soul Man’, the incomparable SAM MOORE – one half of legendary duo Sam & Dave, and possessor of the most electric voice in soul.
Learn!
Do something that all we entertainers and performers should do – learn the business. Watch your money. Watch your business. Don’t be so quick to just leave it up to your managers or your attorneys or your record companies to take care of you.
Who do you trust?
You trust your instinct to leave it up to the person that you feel is going to take care of you. But it’s very rare that you’re gonna find anybody to really take care of you. My wife is now my manager, and she learned the business. Then she said, ‘Okay, this is what’s happening with your money… This is what they owe you…’ And you don’t find that today.
Don’t be naïve.
We weren’t dumb. We trusted. We believed. They would tell you – the attorneys or your managers – ‘Don’t worry about it. I got you. You just sing and dance and we’ll take care of you.’ Now, granted we should have had enough sense to (check the money) at the end of the night or at the end of the month, but when they sent me the statement, I should have (looked at it) instead of watching some girl…
Do what you have to do.
There was a club in Miami called The King Of Hearts. We were passing by the club and my friends see this sign in the window that said, ‘MC/singer wanted’. So, you know how your friends are; ‘Hey Sam, I bet you won’t…’ Well, you wanna impress them, so I went in and put in for the job. The guy is looking at me and he said, “What do you do?” So you lie. “Have you been an MC before?” “Yes.” “Are you a comedian?” “Yes.” “Where you worked at?” Well, I’d visited many clubs, so I just recalled one off the top of my head. “When can you start?” “When do you want me to start?” He said, “How about tomorrow?” I didn’t expect that! But on the first night I blew it. I got up there with the ‘Knock knock’ jokes, and the guy was looking at me like, “What is that? What is that fuckin’ ‘Knock knock’ shit? What song do you know? I asked you could you tell jokes, you said yes. A comedian? You said yes. And you’ve only sung one song – ‘Danny Boy’ – in a club like this, a black club? Shit… Find some other song to sing. Don’t tell jokes. Do the amateur hour.” And I did that for a week. Then Dave came out the club where I was working. He’d been doing a lot of amateur shows in the predominantly black clubs in Miami, so he’d eventually migrated out to the club where I was working. That’s how Sam & Dave got started together. But it wasn’t a design for Sam & Dave to do that – actually it was a fluke. He and I were there and he was singing this Jackie Wilson song. He was nervous and he dropped the mic, and I reached to get the mic, and of course I’m nervous and he’s nervous, and we both went down together. It looked kinda good to see two guys going down to get the microphone. Everybody thought it was an act! It was the public who put us together!
Work hard on your act.
It was our passion. When we got on that stage, we would do anything to please the audience. It wasn’t like we had all the smoke screens – oh, we dressed rather colourful – not Liberace colourful, but we dressed colourful in nice suits, but we did that purposefully because we weren’t dancers – we would do little movements and stuff and jump around like in church – but it was the focus and the love, to the point that we wanted to please that audience. We wanted to get them jumping up and down like they do at church. We believed in that, because we had nothing else but that.
Pay attention!
I remember once we were playing, and we were so engrossed in what we were doing, I jumped off the stage and I ripped my whole kneecap. I was so into it, but as I got along with it I was getting weaker. I was losing blood and I wasn’t paying attention, so I was getting weak. I was wondering why I was so weak. I was saying to Dave, “Take me to the hotel.” Usually I’m not like that – the longer I’d go, the stronger I’d get. And then finally I looked down and there’s the blood. But you know what? It wasn’t enough for me to go to the hospital to get stitched up – they just tied a tourniquet around my thigh to stop the bleeding, and I went back on stage. Oh my God, they went crazy! I couldn’t believe it!
Get all you can out of it.
Today, it’s a show. It’s a business. Records don’t stick around six, seven, eight, nine weeks like they used to anymore. If you can get two or three weeks out of it now, you’re lucky. So, learn, get all you can out of it, because you’ve only got one shot at it. Get it, invest it, do what you think is best for you or your family, find a business that you can invest in or whatever, and get away. Go. Don’t stick around, because if you stick around, it’s going to sink you. You don’t have no second or third or fourth chances at this.
Interview by Simon Harper
