Well, I had a record deal since I was 18, and it got me where I am.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I never sought out a record deal. It caught me with my pants down. I was just a musician doing my thing, I didn't even send my records out.
It only took me six months to get a record deal, but it took me 20 years to have a hit.
I started young. My first record came out when I was - what? 18? So I was in the studio when I was 15, 16.
I started singing when I was 18 and landed my first record deal with RCA when I was 26 after a lot of grafting singing in pubs and clubs.
Before I had a record deal, I was living in New York and playing anywhere I could, from somebody's house to an open mic to coffeeshops.
When I was 15 I became a full-time singer in a band. At 18 I made my first record.
Since I was 17, I had been just making records and promoting them.
I'm one of the few that comes from this vantage point: I never tried to get a record deal.
By the age of 17, for me, we had got an recording contract, and, boom, I was gone.
And it took me about 11 years to get a record deal, and I just had to work around and come to terms with the fact that what I was doing was going to be different, and I just had to wait until somebody was ready to jump on the bandwagon.