As long as you're giving up quality records and you're makin' hit records, people are always gonna want to hear a hit, and they'll always want to be attached to something that's doin' great.
You know what I find truly amazing? I haven't had a hit record since the mid-'80s, and still people show up to pack up the places I'm playing.
The first hit record is easy compared to the second one. You've got to have two for momentum. If you have three, you're pretty much made. But one isn't enough.
I was offered seven deals from seven different major labels between 2009-2011, and to be quite honest... nowadays, you need a hit record, a great radio team, an amazing PR firm, social media, a big budget, a team that is ready to work extremely hard, and the drive and passion to win!
When you are in your 20's and 30's, you just want a hit record and you don't really care how it happens.
It's a very hard industry, and it's very cold. It's loving for when you have a hit record, but when you don't have anything going on, there's really not much support.
When I got involved with The Five Crowns who later became The Drifters, and we got this hit record, I still was looking at this as kind of a fun thing.
Man, we were so opposite. One guy sang high, the other low. One guy tall, one short. We were like a quartet without the two guys in the middle. If you were putting two guys together to make hit records, you wouldn't have picked Bobby and me.
I would like to say when I turn the project over to the label that I have been successful. And that's truly the way I feel. But, in addition to the self-pride in 'making' a good album, to be honest, I'd love to have a hit record.
I thought I would be an overnight star when I had a hit record in Brazil with my first album - but things didn't work out quite like that.
