One day I'm riding a bicycle in my neighborhood, the next day I auditioned for Menudo and was on a plane to perform in front of 200,000 people.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Auditioning is the most terrifying thing I've ever done. There must have been four or five of them where I completely froze up and walked out of the room. My palms get sweaty just thinking about it.
I landed about one a year. Just enough to make me question the gas money and all the driving in rush hour. When you audition for commercials, it's a lot of driving. What I netted wasn't exactly matching the hours I was putting in. I figured I'm not a face that makes people want to buy Lysol. Then I auditioned for Progressive.
Playing in front of an audience was just such a turn-on for me, and you have 200 people in the audience and it's like doing live theater. And filming something that goes to millions of people several weeks later, it's an interesting dynamic.
There are times when I've had ideas walking down the street that I thought were great, and the minute I got onstage, I would think of them and go, 'Wow, that would never work,' even before I did it in front of the audience.
I had my first concert in front of 80,000 people at the International Soca Monarch Finals.
I took a plane from New York City to Los Angeles for an audition. I met all the people. After that, I was told to have another audition, but I didn't want to go there again.
I found I could perform in front of 200 people, but I would still feel nervous having a one-on-one conversation.
I'd never been on tour until I met the Rudimental boys. Never done a live show in front of an audience.
A few years back I was asked if I would go and meet a director and his various acolytes, and it occurred to me halfway through the meeting that what I was doing was auditioning. And I thought, 'Well, hang on buddy. I've done half a century of this.'
I came to New York with two bags, my guitar and my laptop. I set my stuff down and immediately ran to an audition.