58 Who Do You Think You Are?
or eight, playing songs by ear. In high school I was learning an instrument
in a week or two and then when I was in college I started writing songs.
I’ve always recognized it. I remember reading a little snippet of an
interview a slightly bitter at the time John Lennon, in which he said that
he always knew he was a musical genius and he couldn’t believe that no
one else saw it in him. It was just something he knew about himself his
whole childhood. I always knew I had a musical gift, and it came out in
small ways over the years, playing piano and writing songs, playing
trombone in high school and college and that sort of thing.
Even though I knew I had this musical ability, I wasn’t raised to
be an artist. I was raised to be a lawyer, or a doctor, or something with
intellectual credentials. Therefore I was induced to do my homework,
study hard, get good grades and go to college. I majored in economics in
college, and having the life of an artist never occurred to me until after
college. I was twenty-one. I was listening to Sarah McLachlan on a
Walkman, and all of a sudden it occurred to me that this is a woman who
sits at a piano, plays a song, records it, sings it, sells it, and that is her
job. But, even then, it didn’t really permeate my awareness of what I was
to be until years later.
In 1997, when I was twenty-seven years old, I had the realization
that computer programming (which is what I was doing at the time) was
really not my life. I’ve always had the natural inclination to give joy, to
make someone smile. I used to visit my grandmother in the hospital and
sing to her. When I’d sing for her in the hospital I would always find
anyone else on the floor who was open to hearing music and visit them
as well...I’ve always done that. I realized that this was mine to do! The
exact form of it wasn’t clear, but in 1998 I moved to Los Angeles and
started saying “yes” to every musical invitation I could find. Rather than
doing the computer programming I’d been doing, I just dove all the way
into my music and allowed it to take shape however it was going to take
shape. What ended up happening was that this music with a message,
this inspirational music for humanity, filled with songs of healing,
compassion and connection, music that I innately write, found an audience
in a magnetic, beautiful, graceful, organic way.
Now, eight years later, after bringing these songs to whoever will
have me, singing them for hundreds of thousands of people, being very
persistent using the other side of my brain, and doing all of the business
work necessary, I find that my exact purpose in life is being fulfilled. I
am now in a position to sing songs for all of humanity in every language
they can be translated into, and at every event around the world that will