I'd gone through periods where I didn't work live performances for probably seven or eight months at a time.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
As an actress, there were so many months, years even, when I didn't get work, when I wanted to quit.
When I was 13 or 14, I took seven months off from touring. I did a lot of weekend gigs in Louisiana. We have fairs and festivals every weekend. But I took seven months off. That's when I really started digging deep. I wrote a couple songs that year that I still play every now and then for people.
My overnight success was really 15 years in the making. I'd been writing songs since I was 6 and playing in bands and performing since I was 14.
I had some years of definite frustration. Auditioning and not working as much as I would have liked to, or working and being paid a pittance, and sort of scrounging by in New York and sleeping on a chair that folded out into a bed.
I survived on sandwiches, and I was on stage every night for six years of my life. I was working 16 hours a day between class, rehearsal, being on stage.
When I started performing, I decided that if in five years I couldn't earn as much money acting as I could as a teacher, it would be unrealistic for me to continue on the stage.
I was able to endure and play a special part in music history. And I always managed to keep working, even if I wasn't a big solo artist.
Like actors and writers who are on and off again in terms of employment, I had a very unstructured life.
I took classes and performed and did improv and sketch and wrote sketches and did lights and sound for other people's shows just so I could be around the theater. That was about seven nights a week for seven years.
My progression into acting was pretty slow. I was constantly performing in different kinds of small shows. One year I would be in a magic show, the next year in a circus show, then a small play, and then a dance show.