The Mavericks’ Paul Deakin – HuffPost 6.17.14

Paul Deakin: Get a day job. No. Honestly, I taught for ten years, and I was always very honest, I said, “Look, the chance of you making a living at this isn’t very good, but I really believe your best shot at doing this is to find your voice and stay true to that, whatever it is as a band or an artist.” Definitely please yourself first, don’t follow a trend, do what you want. Obviously we all are inspired by different kinds of music, follow your passion. Then, if it doesn’t end in the success that you wanted it to, you’re still ahead of the game because that’s your gift right there, being able to play what you love. Strangely enough, that’s your best shot at success in life.

MR: If you had any advice to give to yourself when you started out, what would that have been?

PD: Oh, good Lord… I don’t know if I want that printed! [laughs] Uh, floss? I don’t know. I look back on those early days and they were insane. I’m glad we survived it. The first time that happens to you and fame and success happens–I never really believed in the whole fame thing anyway, I was old enough not to really believe in that–we didn’t think it was going to end. When you’re in that moment and you’re on your up ride you always think, “Oh, it’s going to keep going” and nothing bad can ever happen, so you’re a little crazy and reckless, and we were. I probably wouldn’t have eaten so much room service, I probably could pay my mortgage with my room service bills. I probably wouldn’t change that much honestly because it was the experience of a lifetime, and to be able to experience it again with a different take on it, obviously we’ve grown somewhat more mature and it’s more about the music than it is about the partying. We probably partied a little too hard in our early days. That was one of the reasons we had to take a break.