Q: Is it hard getting kids through their teen-aged years?
A: If you’ve done everything right before they become teenagers, and you’re lucky, you’ll all survive it.
Owen went on the road with a band when he was 16 and the people on the bluegrass circuit looked out for him.
He dropped out of high school like I did. But he was in a band, and earning a living, and the community looked out for him. Older musicians, fans, vendors, promoters.
Q: What about Balder.
A: Balder did well in high school. He was a star.
Then he joined the Marines, and was a trumpet player in a band.
He learned how to manage a band. The logistics of it.
When he got out, he was a bandleader. Not just a sideman.
Q: Duke Bardwell helped him.
A: Uncle Potter helped him. I didn’t say he didn’t learn it. But he knew it could be done and found out how to do it. Figured out who to ask.
We got them through their teenaged years without them getting hooked on dope, going to jail, having kids out of wedlock, or, and this is a big one, to me, selling out. Going for the money. Doing unethical things to get ahead.
They’re upright, moral people. Humane, caring people.
Mature people. Their wild oats are sewn. They’re not going to go middle-aged crazy because they weren’t repressed.
Look at what happens to someone who doesn’t have a normal childhood.
Look at Michael Jackson. Or Tiger Woods.
As soon as they become millionaires they go nuts.