2021-Annual-Report-FINAL-Single-Pages - Flipbook - Page 16
Michael’s
Story
On March 13, Michael was waiting
backstage at the Fillmore in
Minneapolis when his tour manager
told the band to pack up their things.
They were going home.
The pandemic had hit the U.S. During their
16-hour drive back to Nashville, shows
began to fall off their calendar. Eventually,
their tour was canceled.
“All the money I was expecting to make
was evaporated. I had about $1,000 in my
bank account and my rent was coming up,”
he said. “It’s a scary feeling when you’re
completely out of resources—and I’m not
someone who likes to ask for help.”
He and his wife were expecting their first
child and he says they went into survival
mode. He called studios in Los Angeles
to see if they had any work. But all the
studios were shutting down. Michael said
after hours and hours of brainstorming on
how to make money, he realized it wasn’t
going to happen.
“Financially, that first week was terrifying.
You can’t even go work in a restaurant,”
he said. “It kind of felt like … oh, this isn’t
really happening and people will go back
to work in a couple weeks. That’s what
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