My little brother got married last week. Naturally, it was a family reunion of sorts. The day before the wedding, I was hanging out with my 13 year old nephew who I hadn’t seen in a couple of years. He started talking to me about some current TV show that I hadn’t heard of. I told him, “I’ve never seen that one. We don’t have cable at our house.” He replied, “Uncle Dom, you travel all over the world and do all of this crazy stuff. You obviously have enough money to afford cable TV!” I chuckled, and mindlessly replied, “Well, it’s not because we can’t afford it. We just don’t want cable.”
The next day I was thinking about it and it occurred to me: “Actually, I’m not sure that we could afford cable, even if we did want it.”
How’s this for irony? I live, what seems like, a rock star life. And yet I can’t afford something that 90% of Americans pay for – cable TV.
I mean, let’s face it, I travel to these exotic places. I post pictures of my sick new studio, with beautiful interior design and awesome (and expensive) gear. I put out videos that are legit, I drive a pimped out tour van. People hear my music in places like Jamba Juice and Gold’s Gym all over the country. My albums are on the Billboard Charts, so on and so forth. Shoot, if I didn’t know better, I’d think I was rolling too!
But the truth is, I can’t actually afford to live the way I do. And honestly, it’s been like that since I stepped out to do full time music three years ago. Emily (my wife) and I purposed in our hearts, that we were going to do what we were called to do, and go where we were called to go, even if it didn’t make financial sense. And it’s been amazing. Sometimes downright scary. But always amazing.
Most of the time when I travel internationally, I don’t make a dime. Sometimes we have to empty our bank account just to get ourselves to these countries. And so, in those months, it requires a lot of faith in God to provide. And He does provide - most of the time through His people. For instance, my sick studio was built for us by a friend. He even rents the warehouse that’s it’s in. And everything in the studio (guitars, gear, even the decor) was given to us! Even my black limo-looking tour van is so dope because a friend donated his time, and his auto body shop, to basically “pimp my ride”! As for my music being played and displayed in cool places - it pays pennies. Literally. Pennies. But it’s spreading light and love, so who cares about the pennies.
As we’ve launched this campaign to raise funds for my new album, it has aroused the question: “How is it possible that this dude makes enough money to live like he does, and yet he doesn’t have the funds to record a new album?” Well, here’s the answer: I don’tmake enough money to live like I do. When it comes down to it, my music doesn’t usually generate enough income for us to do the things we do, or live the way we live. It’s legitimately because of the absurd provision and faithfulness of God, and the overwhelming generosity of the brothers and sisters around us.
The funniest part about this whole thing is that, for years, everyone (even a lot of my family) has assumed that we’re just raking in the dough (and I guess if I didn’t know better, I would assume that too). So… just to set the record strait - I do what do because it’s what I’m supposed to do. Sometimes that pays the bills. Sometimes it doesn’t. But either way, my commitment is to be as faithful as I can do the call. I have freely received, and so I choose to freely give. To give of myself, my voice, and my song.
