you're doing it all wrong.” So I asked him what
he meant by all wrong. He said, “After 9PM, ya
gotta take it to the street. Pack up and follow
me.”
He took me to 21st St and Atlantic Avenue, and
said ”this is where ya wanna be after 9.” Till the
bars close it’s nothing but people. So I said, ok
if you say so Mr G. And I unpacked and grabbed
a piece of sidewalk and began what I always did
everyday. Mind you I never asked a soul for any
money, or anything but permission to play in
front of their establishment. That night in 2
hours or so I made $150. I could believe it!!! I
was doing everything so right before, but in all
the wrong places. That would be the night I
realized music was gonna save my life.
I played that street corner every night for about
5 months. I have been called every name under
the sun by every race and religion. Lemme tell
ya, it’s a cruel world out there for a guy who is
just trying to get one foot back up on the step.
There were good nights and bad nights. I just
took the bad ones as learning and practicing
times. Another thing that saved me, is that I had
no desire to shoot dope or stay drunk all day.
Made it easy to save money. As the summer
and eventually fall came to an end, I received a
message from a long time family friend that
they had an empty room for rent. They would
not let me try to survive the winter and I am so
very thankful that they didn’t because it snowed
like 12 times that winter and there was 6 inches
of frozen snow on the sand where I would have
been sleeping.
Upon moving in and getting settled I wrote a
song about homelessness because I have always
wanted to express and make changes through
music. I learned about a man named Leroy
Bailey while I was on the streets. He was a
volunteer who through prayer and many
conversations with God has decided he is going
to walk around America to raise money to build
homeless shelters for vets and the homeless in
general. What he is doing physically is what I
want to do through music. I wrote a song about
him called ”Houseless Hollywood” which is on
Soundcloud under that name. My other single
Castles Made of Jade is on CDBaby for sale.
My will to make it is very strong. I don’t think I
used up all that might when on the streets, so
shoot, I’m gonna put my dream out there. In the
next 5 years I will have won a Grammy for best
song in a film or production. Who knows maybe
this life story could be made into a
documentary-ish piece.
My influences from Prince were his will to
make it and make things his own, and the fact
that the man was a phenomenal musician to
play almost any instrument that he picked up. I
really looked up to him and always will, as a
musician who did things his way… I respect
that.
’Purple Rain’ inst. cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Mq5HJ0SEUjQ&feature=youtu.be
’Houseless Hollywood’:
https://soundcloud.com/imtv/houselesshollywood-rick-bozart
Download ’Castles Made of Jade’:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rickbozart
*plays behind the June issue of 2016*
CD Baby Artist Profile:
http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RickBozart
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/rick.bozart