INSIGHT Magazine April 2017 | Page 31

and a couple Martins , and we started playing cul-de-sac parties . Lots of them ! Then we landed a regular gig two or three nights a week at a wing ’ s joint near campus , and started putting three and four hundred people in there . And that … that ’ s when I really said , “ this is what I ’ m going to do for a living someday .”
WE : So you went to Auburn University so you could major in Building Sciences is that correct ? Is that how you ended up in Nashville , was it for a job originally or because of the music ?
DW : Yes , I graduated in August of ’ 07 and moved in October of ’ 07 . I took a job with a general contractor , doing concrete work , but the move was specifically because of the music , because it was a place I could go to really work on , and put myself into the music . I knew nobody when I moved here [ Nashville ] other than one guy I went to school with . I just started going into the bars , listening to the music , meeting people and networking . That soon led to playing some of the same places myself . Then turned into almost a full time job playing music around Nashville .
WE : So , you ’ re in Nashville , you ’ ve decided music is what you ’ d like to make a living doing , so what was the defining moment when it seemed apparent that you were meant to dump the construction career and pursue the music full time ?
DW : You know , 2008 was a hard time for construction companies , and lots of them were downsizing , but … to kind of just cut

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