Songwriting at 70 with Dennis Welch

The transformative power of words and music.

Singer-songwriter Dennis Welch shares his journey from a Texas childhood filled with libraries and country music to a creative renaissance that has earned him multiple Grammy ballot considerations in his 60s and 70s. 

We discuss the pivotal teachers who changed his life path, the moment he almost walked away from music forever, and how dinner with friends in a Mexican restaurant reignited his passion for recording. 

Dennis offers heartfelt advice on why adult creators should ignore cultural expectations regarding age, the benefits of creative pursuits for mental wellbeing, and the importance of perseverance in the face of uncertainty.

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Transcript

Dennis Welch: 0:08

And those two things happened because that sweet, amazing lady who could have just said, you know what? You're a jerk, or just sent me to the office and got me in trouble, instead, you know, she proactively stepped in and did that. And I'm forever grateful to that lady. And every day, I would call my little boys and they would say, dad, what's going on? When you coming home? And, you know, the answer was, I don't know. I was miserable and also a little troubled because here I am. I've been chasing this for a good part of my adult life, and now I'm looking right at what it's like, and I can't do this. I put my guitar in my guest room closet, and I told my wife, I said, I am not doing this anymore. I'm not even getting close to this. I don't even want to look at it. And when I got the mix back, I was sitting right here at this desk, and I listened to it. I broke down. I was so emotional. I was like, this is the best thing I've ever done. And I'm 65 years old. This is crazy.

Claire Waite Brown: 1:07

Hi, I'm Claire. For this podcast, I chat with people who have found or refound their creativity as adults. We'll explore their childhood experiences of the arts, discuss how they came to the artistic practices they now love, and consider the barriers they may have experienced between the two. We'll also explore what it is that people value and gain from their newfound artistic pursuits. This time, I'm chatting with Dennis Welch. Hi, Dennis. How are you?

Dennis Welch: 1:38

Hi, Claire. How are you doing? I'm doing excellent. Glad to see you.

Claire Waite Brown: 1:43

And you, too. Tell me, please, what your current creative outlet is.

Dennis Welch: 1:49

So I have several, but primarily it's songwriting and performing. I couldn't imagine, at 70 that I would be, you know, so busy on the creative side like that. And it's. It's wonderful, and it helps me everywhere. That's the interesting part. People, I don't think, think about that, but I have a day job where I've got to create, you know, emails and things like that for people. And those things interlock sort of. You know, I told somebody the other day that there's three phases for me in writing a song, and maybe this is true for everybody. With everything that you're creating, the first phase is, oh, what a great idea. And then the second phase is, oh, I'm not going to be able to finish this. Okay. And then you wrestle with that, and you wrestle your way through that. And then the third Phase is wow, this is a great song. I was right about this. I'm doing a lot of that and it's really true. I think of almost anything. Most of us stop before we get a chance to see how great it could be.

Claire Waite Brown: 2:46

Yeah. Because it's usually not as easy as you think once you start to actually make the idea happen. Let's talk about when you were younger, at school, at home, whether music or other creative activities, were they a part of your life? Were they encouraged when you were a child?

Dennis Welch: 3:05

Well, my father was a huge country music fan. And when I was A boy, probably 10 or so, in Houston, Texas, we only had three television stations that you might remember those days. And we got a fourth station, it was a big deal, a UHF station. On Saturday nights it had country music shows from five in the afternoon till the news came on at 10 o' clock in the evening. And my dad and all of us would watch those shows every Saturday. And I was a fan of some of it. But here's the thing. Both my older brothers could really sing and my oldest brother, who was 10 years older than me, he played guitar. But there wasn't any, what's the word, any sort of program inside the home for us to learn an instrument these days. I wish my mother had made me go take piano lessons because I write now, some on this piano behind me here, this little tinker toy piano. And you know what? It's easier for me in some ways to have the music in front of me like that, but I'm learning about. Okay, Waite a minute, if you go up one here, what happens is that, you know, if you flat the third. Oh, that's a, that's a minor, you know. So I'm learning all those things now. But there was no formal music training. And the only thing I will say, Claire, that is was a shock is after I started writing songs in my late teens and started making records, I came into my mom's house one day and my father had passed away in 1978 and my mom was living alone and I walked into her house one day and on her bar there was a song publishing contract with a company called Hill and Range Music. And it was a song she had co written with a famous country western star in the 50s and she knew him well. I went, mama, what? You didn't even think to mention this even when you found out I was writing songs? And she says, well, I just knew how hard the music business was. Only your mother can say this. And she said I didn't want to Give you too much encouragement. And so it turned out the song was demoed with this guy, and he didn't put it on an album, but she wrote it with him. She wrote the lyrics. And so that's the closest that we came to any kind of formal, you know, anybody in the family being in the music business. So it wasn't really encouraged by, you know.

Claire Waite Brown: 5:31

Yeah. So what was your education like then? And what were your expectations, or perhaps other people's expectations of what would happen after formal education?

Dennis Welch: 5:44

We were sort of an inner city group, you know, and sweet. And I loved our neighborhood, and there wasn't a lot of trouble, that kind of stuff. But everybody was kind of poor, really, so there wasn't a lot of education at all. I could read and spell before I started school. And my parents. The way they found out was my mother came home from the store one Christmas and said to my dad, I've been to see S A N T A C L A U S. And I said, santa Claus. And she said, what? You can spell? And so anyway, before I started the first grade, we met with the principal. And so we sat with her, and she had this big desk, and it was very imposing. And my mother sat next to me. And so Ms. Macri hands me a book, and it's open, and she said, okay, Dennis, do this for me. She said, read these two pages and close the book, and then tell me what you read. And so I did. And when I closed the book and handed it back to her and told her what I had read, she looked at my mother and she said, you know what, Patsy? He doesn't need to be in the first or second grade. He needs to start in the third grade. So my mother, to her credit, because that might have been a cool thing to talk about in her group, say, you know, my. My son skipped the first, right? But instead she was looking out for me like she always was. And she said, no, you know what, Ms. McRee? I don't think so. I think that what y' all need to do is figure out what to do with him. That encourages him. But I don't think skipping grades is going to help him. I don't think that's the proper thing to do. So what Ms. McReady did. And again, I don't know if this could happen today, but on the first day of class in the first grade, I didn't go to kindergarten, but I started the first grade. And when the day started and it was time for our reading circle, I was in the first reading Circle, because I could read. And so I was getting ready to go do that, and Ms. Macree walks into the classroom unannounced and says, dennis Welch, come with me. I thought, oh, my gosh, I'm already in trouble. So I stepped out in the hallway with Ms. Macari, and she held my hand, which was really sweet. And she walked with me down to the library. And I'd never been in a library of any kind in my life. And we walked in, we walked over to the far window, and there were all the kids books down here, you know, Cat in the Hat and all these others. And she said, listen, Dennis, when your reading circle gets together in your class every day, she goes politely, excuse yourself and come down to the library and you can pick out any of these books for the first, second and third graders. And then this was the thing that made the difference. We turned around, she's still holding my hand, and we looked at what seemed to be a cavernous library. But, you know, it probably wasn't. It probably was a little tiny library. But anyway, and she said, and by the way, you can also choose any of these books because you can read them. And so just come down here and read. Well, Claire, I mean, how can that not make you fall in love with words? And so I read most of the works of Mark Twain before I got out of elementary school. I read the Mickey Mantle story, I love sports. But the book that really changed things for me, I think, was the book Charlotte's Web, because I was so moved by that story. And I thought, wow, you can do that with words. You know, I'm interested. And that made me fall in love with words and books. And I think was a harbinger for what now, 600 songs and two books later. It was the catalyst, you know.

Claire Waite Brown: 9:23

Yeah. Did you go to college? Were you able to do that?

Dennis Welch: 9:28

Well, I wasn't going to go to college. It's a lesson about how one single person in your life can and change the pivot and the direction of your life. If it's the right person. I mean, it can go either way. But in this case, it was a positive. So we were in school. We were in high school. I was planning to be a machinist because my dad was a machinist. I thought, well, I can do that. You know, I couldn't have done it just so you know, but I thought I could. And we had like January of a. Of a school year. Our social studies teacher just disappeared. He just didn't come back. Well, they replaced him with a Lady named Dorothy Wilson. And she came in. We were smart, Alex. You know, we, we, we thought we knew everything because we were, we were 15 and we were in the South. Nobody had told. Taught me how to, to be fair minded. And it was time. And this is how I learned it. So she said, okay, it's February, and so we're going to study Black history for the month of February. I'm not proud of this story, by the way, but I'm proud of how it turned out. And she said, so. So does anybody have any questions? And I raised my hand and I said, so when is White History Month? And you know what she did, Claire? She did me the biggest favor anybody could do. She said, you know what? Why don't you step out in the hallway with me and I'll tell you when White History Month is. What I didn't know is she's a trial lawyer as well. She could whittle you down. And she stepped me out in that hallway and she started, she said, dennis. And then she started cutting me down to size to about this tall. And you know what she made me do? She said, now here's what you're going to do. You're going down to the library here at Burbank Junior High School. You're going to check out black like me, and you're going to check out this book and that book, these famous books from the era, right, that exposed all of this stuff that I didn't even know about because nobody ever told me that. And she said, and you're not coming back in my class until you read them. And then you're going to come in and you're going to make a presentation to your smart alec friends and you're going to tell them why we're having Black History Month. So you know how your behind tingles when you know you're in trouble and you got to go home and tell your parents. I'm like, oh, they're going to kill me and bury me in the backyard. Okay? But I'm going to tell you what I did. I checked those books out, I went home. And that night I read through everything and I made notes, copious notes. And I was appalled at my own behavior. And so I went back in the next day And I said, Ms. Wilson, I think I'm ready to give the presentation. And I was hoping to God that it worked. Because you know what? Because if I was out for two days in the class, it was going to get back to my parents. At that point, they didn't know So I gave a presentation and when I finished, she said, okay, Dennis, step back out in the hallway with me. For a minute I thought, oh man, this didn't work. We stepped down the hallway and she said, so let me ask you a question. This is how it start. Not even, not, not another word. But let me ask you a question. What do you plan to do with your life? I said, I'm going to be a machinist. She said, no, you're not. You're not going to be a machinist. She goes, that was brilliant. And she said, there's nothing wrong being a machinist. That's not what you're going to do. And I'm going to help you. We're going to figure out how to get you to college. And she had me, she had me apply to Harvard and stuff, so I wouldn't have gone to college. And I have two degrees from University of Houston, I have two business degrees from there. And those two things happen because that suite, amazing lady who could have just said, you know what, you're a jerk. And just ignored me or just sent me to the office and got me in trouble, instead, you know, she proactively stepped in and did that. And I'm forever grateful to that lady. And that story has wound up in several books of people who are writing about teachers and stuff. They said, tell me that story again. And so it winds up, you know, being published different places. And I'm again, I'm not proud of where I was at that point we started, but I was open to change.

Claire Waite Brown: 13:39

Wow, that's a brilliant story. So business, then you studied business and you didn't become a machinist. So what did work life look like?

Dennis Welch: 13:51

Well, the world is a better place because I didn't become a machinist because I would have been a horrible machinist. Okay, I finished college. My father passed away in 1978. I would have been graduating from college at that point and, and that whole year was troubling. I never saw him even be sick. He was like Clint Eastwood, you know, this really strong man. And all of a sudden he's dying of cancer. And I was so troubled, I couldn't really do college. I was distracted. And I had a little part time job at a furniture store, bedding furniture store. And so I worked there. And then I dropped out of college to help my mom right after dad passed. And then I married in 1980. And in 1982, my wife, Sweet wife Susie, she said, listen, how many hours do you need to finish this degree. And I said, I think it's 13. She goes, okay, you know what, let's go, let's go to the college, let's get you back and let's finish this. And so when I went back, I found out I needed 20 hours, but I did it. I finished my undergrad and then, you know, I was pushing hard to be a musician at the time. I was writing songs and, and had bands and stuff. And so for the early years of our marriage, I was trying really hard to be a touring recording artist, basically. And in 1980 I made a record. In 1985 I made a record, a rock and roll record that did really well. And I was right on the edge of it. My stuff was on the radio all the time, which was so encouraging. I mean, I could drive around Houston, I could hear my stuff on the radio. It's like, well, that's legitimate, right? But then, you know, around the early 90s or so, my wife went to work for a band called King's X and I and they're a famous band in Europe, by the way. They're much more famous there than they are here. They're the best three piece rock band I ever saw. But anyway, one day her manager called me, called me and said, hey, I know you need the money and so I want you to go out as the lead singer. Doug Penix BASS TECH they're going out with Billy Squire and a band called Blue Murder and they're going to be out for however long. It's 500 a week and a per diem. Well, I never toured like that. And we had little sons at the time and I was mama, daddy, I was home with them all the time and I loved it. I could have been a house husband in a minute. So I flew up to Minneapolis to start this tour and it was 80 degrees when I left Houston and 10 degrees in Minneapolis when I got there. I was freezing. I already was hating it. And I got my credentials and we started this tour and every day I would call my little boys and they would say, dad, what's going on? When you coming home? And you know, the answer was, I don't know. And they were adding dates to the tour and all this stuff and I was miserable and also a little troubled because here I am. I've been chasing this for a good part of my adult life and now I'm looking right at what it's like and I can't do this. And so I lasted three weeks. I got to Salt Lake City, Utah. I was driving a Truck. And I called, called the manager and I said, you know, Sam, I've never been drunk. I've never taken drugs. I said, but if I stay out here a year, which is how long this is going to last, the way they're adding dates and stuff. I said, you know what? I'm afraid I'm going to be doing both of those things, and I'm afraid it's going to kill me. And I said, so I don't think I can do this. And he said, well, you know what? Good on you for knowing that you can't do it. He said, sometimes the ladder of success is against the wrong wall. He said, why don't you come home and figure out what you're going to do with your life to make a living. But I'm going to ask you to do something for me because you kind of owe me, kind of leaving me in the lurch here. So I want you to do this for me because I want you to keep writing songs because I think you're a great songwriter. He said, don't let this discourage you from doing this work. Well, I did let it happen. I came home and I was angry at the whole process. I think I'm a pretty smart guy. And I just wasted all these years trying to do something that when I got up to, I couldn't do it. It's terrible feeling, right? So I put my guitar in my guest room closet and I told my wife, I said, I am not doing this anymore. I'm not even getting close to this. I don't even want to look at it. And so almost a year went by and I woke up early one morning, middle of the night, maybe three or four o'clock in the morning, and got out of bed, went down to my guitar, took it out of the case, and in 20 minutes I wrote a song called Jacob's Ladder. And everybody loves this song, by the way, but it really wasn't for other people, really was for me. And it has some lines in it like, I've seen the angels when they're going to and fro. They don't have to know the reason. He just speaks and off they go. In other words, who are you to name the terms for something that I've given you to do that you know, you don't get to name the terms. You just figure out how to do it right. I sung that song in my church the next week. It's not really a gospel song, but I sang it in my church and people went crazy. They came up to Me and said, oh my gosh, where did that come from? And I'm like, well, a broken heart, quite honestly. And that started the resurgence. And then we made a record in 95 with some crazy great musicians. The principal cellist in the Houston Symphony, Peter Gabriel's percussionist, played on it. We had all of these amazing people that played on it and they also did my live shows with me and we were doing one or two of those a year. But I was starting to write again and get in the mode of writing. So we did one in 95, we did a record in 2000. And then I decided, you know what, I'm not going to do this anymore if I'm going to be the producer or arranger, because I'm not either one of those. I'm doing this because there's nobody else to do it. But I think there's another gear that we can hit with these songs. And I don't know how to do it. And so you know the story. 18 years went by and I continued to write as if I was going to go in the studio, but I never did. I never even visited a studio. And then a friend of mine in Nashville who plays in Little River Band, had been in the band for 20 years, was writing, co writing their songs and producing and stuff. I mean, I love this guy, but I never would have asked him to help me with anything because I'm like, why would he help a no name Texas songwriter even though he cares about me, right? And so he heard a song of mine and this is how he heard it. We go to dinner with him and his wife and their kids and we're sitting in this big Mexican restaurant. Had good reverb by the way. And so he said, hey, what are you working on? Because I know you're always working on something. And I said, well, I got this new song called why Not Me that Susie loves and she thinks it's the best thing I've ever written. And he goes, really? What are you going to do with it? And I said, well, I don't know what to do with it. I'm going to put it in a drawer with all the other stuff, you know. And he said, well, why don't you sing it to me? And I said, right here in the restaurant? He goes, right now? He goes, just sing it acapella to me. And so I just started singing here There's a mountain wide and high it reaches halfway to the sky. And I started singing it to him and I only got through the first verse in chorus. And he stopped me, and he was emotional. He said, oh, my. First of all, Susie's right, as usual. And second of all, I'm supposed to help you with this. Did you know this? And I said, no, I didn't know this. He goes, I am. And he goes, let me produce this demo, because this is fabulous. Let me help you with this. And so I said, are you going to get some great Nashville session singer or what do you want to do? And he goes, no, no, I want you to sing it. And that was the beginning, Claire. You know, we. This whole renaissance that I'm in right now started with one conversation with somebody who changed the pivot of my life. So we did that song, and when I got the mix back, I was sitting right here at this desk, and I listened to it. I broke down. I was so emotional. I was like, this is the best thing I've ever done. And I'm 65 years old. This is crazy, right? So he called me and said, what else have you got? And I said, well, I've got this love song about forgiveness. It's kind of a Roy Orbison ish thing called I Can't Remember. And he goes, well, let me hear it. And so we record that song, and it, too, was ridiculous. And so after that, he called me and he said, look, I've been doing this a long time. I didn't know you had this kind of material. And he said, so, let's make an album. So we make an album. And in 21, what love makes Us do came out, and it made the first Grammy ballot in five categories.

Claire Waite Brown: 22:38

Amazing.

Dennis Welch: 22:39

Then 23, if I live To Be a Hundred, came out, and it made the first Grammy ballot in five categories. And then last summer strong. So we've done 30 songs, you know, we've done three albums since then. And, you know, Claire, there was not a whiff of anything that this could happen. There was no nothing that you could see. And then there it was. You just turn the corner and the guy is standing there going, can you just sing it for me?

Claire Waite Brown: 23:05

Yeah.

Dennis Welch: 23:06

I'm talking too much, but, you know, I think a lot of people quit before they have a chance to stumble into that thing. For me, at least. And I can't speak for everybody, but there's a lot of things shrouded out here that, you know, if you don't set sail when you can't see it, you can only see it when you're sailing. You can only see it when you're moving forward. And then all of a sudden, it Unshrouds itself. And you go, wow, really? I try to encourage young artists, especially young artists, because they're sort of impatient. I was, too. You know, it's not happening fast enough. Well, I know, but that doesn't mean anything. Don't let other people tell you what age means. The culture will tell you that at a certain age you should stop. And if you have the soul of an artist, you can call BS on that.

Claire Waite Brown: 23:57

Yes, it can be, and very often is, unexpected. Serendipitous. Exactly as you're explaining. And when you're younger, you might be planning for something to happen that you hope will happen that doesn't happen. Or in your case, what wasn't quite what you wanted it to be when it did almost happen. There's two questions, and they're from both sides of the story. They're from the young the young you and the now you. Okay, and the young you is. You mentioned that there wasn't a musical education. So how did you. Did you teach yourself guitar? How did you come to be writing songs? And how do you logistically do it? Do you have musical reading? Music knowledge? And then the second one I'm going to throw at you now just to confuse you. When you were writing but not producing it, were some of those songs the songs that then came onto the albums later?

Dennis Welch: 24:50

Yes. So when I wrote my first song, I was driving home from a date late at night, coming back to my house in Houston, and I wrote a whole song out of nowhere. And so the next day I went into my. Again, here's another serendipitous. And you know what, Claire? If this happens one time in your life, you go, oh, that was probably just dumb luck. If it happens 30 or 40 times in your life, you go, that's something bigger than us, right? This is one of those. I go in the next day to my job, and I sang the song all day because I was trying to remember it, you know, And I just walked around. I was selling furniture, and I was humming it to myself. Well, my boss, young, cool guy, always kept his guitar under his desk at the office because he was a musician, too. So finally, at the end of the day, he goes, dennis, can I ask you, what is that you're singing? And I said, well, it's a song I wrote, you know, driving home, you know, I don't know whether it's any good or not. And he goes, let's find out. So he took his guitar out and he played, and we sang the song together, and that was that. The Hook was set. He said, dennis, this is a really fine song. It has a chorus, it has the right structure. He goes, how did you know how to do this? I said, I don't know. He said, well, go buy a cheap guitar and if you don't like it, you can just give it away. But I think you gotta go see if there's more here. And so I went out and bought a guitar. I bought a John Denver songbook because his chords were easy, you didn't have to borrow them and all that stuff. And I started working on it and learning chords. But as I learned chords, I heard the story. You know, it's like Paul McCartney said on 60 Minutes last year, the young lady interviewing him, she said it was a great interview till the very end. And then she says, so like, I wouldn't have asked this, but she said, so you don't read music? And he said, you know how jaunty he is. You know, he said, no. He goes, but I see music. And you know what? There was no follow up question to that because it's unexplainable, it's inexplicable or whatever you don't call it. So I still am surprised when I write a song. I still marvel at it as if it was the very first one. And so in answer your second part of the question, quite a few of those songs made it onto the first album, the second one, yeah, I used a few less of those songs. I was writing more than I was inspired to write. And then this last album was mostly new music that we had written in the last year or two. And I think this next album, and we'll go back to Nashville this summer and do some more recording and then hopefully do another record and put out another record in 27. And it'll be mostly new co writes with people too. Some of the people, Claire, that are co writing with me now, these are dream co writes. I mean, one of these people was a platinum selling artist who called me and said, dennis, I've been down a rabbit hole the last two days on YouTube listening to your new, your new material. It goes, what happened to you? It's like, well, what happened to me was Rich Herring, this producer who knows what he's doing, he raised these songs to another place that I couldn't take them. And wow. I mean it's. There's nothing like that.

Claire Waite Brown: 28:07

And you mentioned being inspired by getting back into this again and having this in your life and then that pushes you on to do more and more. Where do your songs Come from. I mean, I know they come from your head because you said you was. You just made up a song on the way home from the date. But, like, now that you have more life experience, is it about you? Is it about family? What kind of things inspire you to write?

Dennis Welch: 28:33

That's a great question. And I don't know if this is true for every songwriter, but the music itself tells me the story. Like, I have a friend who played with Andre Crouch for years. He's a Grammy nominated composer and producer, and that's not what he does best. What he does best is play the trumpet. It's like Gabriel blowing his horn. It's beautiful. Okay. Well, he moved to Austin a few years ago, he and his wife and he called me and we had lunch and he said, dennis, I have all this music in a drawer and I'll never write lyrics to. Would you be interested in hearing any of it? Well, that's a rhetorical question if I ever heard one, of course. Right. And so one of the first songs he sent me was this haunting, beautiful piece. I listened to it, and I was so moved by it, and I called him as soon as I. The last note played, and I said, you know what, Fletch? I know what this song is about, but I don't know how to tell you what it's about yet, so give me some time. And I didn't set out to write a song about love and loss, but this song, Twilight in Paradise, which somebody else, a young lady in Nashville, recorded it. And I didn't go into it to write that song, but the music made me write it. The music told me what the story was. And so, you know, very rarely, Claire, do I go into a room and say, here's what I want to write about. I just start tinkering around with music and hearing things. And I don't keep a diary of ideas or any of that. I just don't. And so I just tinker around until I find something that moves me. And, you know, Robert Frost, the poet said, no tears in the poet, no tears in the reader. And so that's how I know, you know, when the hair on the back of my neck stands up or when I'm moved so that I have trouble even singing it. That's a. That's a sign.

Claire Waite Brown: 30:23

Funnily enough, I had a guest called Steve Goldberg, and he has a similar story in that he creates while doing, and he does it on the piano, and he calls it his goosebumps moment. When he gets the goosebumps, he knows

Dennis Welch: 30:37

he's onto something, but that doesn't happen unless you're present. It's a lot of work to find the third rail and get the goosebumps. It doesn't just happen. And so that's the part that I think people who. Like. I was in the Austin songwriters group for several years when I first got to Austin, and I was the song doctor on Tuesday nights, everybody would bring their songs in and play them for me. And we. I'd give suggestions, which I love doing. And I was always careful with people's egos and all that. But when I would say to somebody, you need to go back, probably rewrite that last verse, that doesn't mean go and take five minutes and rewrite it. That means go back and rethink the whole idea. How do you really want to finish this song? And I think a lot of people who do songwriting, maybe as a hobby, they don't know what songwriters that are doing it for a living. What great drops of blood they're sweating over a single line or a word.

Claire Waite Brown: 31:37

Absolutely. Tell me about surrounding this. So what other benefits in life do you feel you experience or that you can attribute to this creative renaissance? Both the songwriting, the songs being made, and now, as you said earlier, the actual performance. How does that affect other aspects of life for you?

Dennis Welch: 32:01

Well, I met my wife on a blind date in 1979. August of 79. I've never gotten over it. And I married the perfect partner for this. You know, she. She rolls up her shirt sleeves and she makes merch for us, and she. She books the tours and does all the travel plans and all that stuff. Leaves me to do the creative part. It's like the perfect partner. Well, I keep writing love songs about her because I can't find enough ways to do it. So, you know, in that way, it's enhanced my marriage. So that's really important. My sons both sing, and my oldest son is a. Is a fabulous. He's 10 times the singer I am. I hear him in here. He's living with me now for a while, and I hear him in the shower, and they're singing Al Green or something. I'm like, dang it, that's as good as Al Green. So now I'm looking for a way for him and I to go in the studio for this next record to do a song together. Think how much that enhances our. Our relationship. And then, you know, and the other thing is, I'm a relational person, and so the hundreds of really great friends, creative people who are encouragers, and they're like, they're seeing this and going, wow, you know what? If you can do it, I can do it. I'm going to go back and, you know, friendship, my marriage, my relationship, my sons. You know what, at the end of the day, I'm 70, I could die soon, who knows? And you know what? The thing I'm going to leave behind is, I hope I'm going to leave behind some, some no doubt information about what I believed was true and what was important. And instead of having to guess, just turn on you go to YouTube and see what your grandfather thought. Right. And I'm writing songs for my granddaughters. To my granddaughter and my grand one grandson. I have three granddaughters, have a grandson. Each of them have a song on these records. And the new one, the youngest one, I've been struggling to write something for her because she kills me. She's a little redhead that I can't get over her, okay? And I don't want to. And so I finally wrote something for her and it's a jaunty little 60s sounding song and that will be on this next record. And so, you know, what a. What a gift.

Claire Waite Brown: 34:16

Absolutely.

Dennis Welch: 34:17

Did I answer your question?

Claire Waite Brown: 34:19

Yeah, no, definitely. And it's one that I don't hear very often, is actually about the relationships. It's a really, really good answer to that question. Now, from your point of view, what advice might you give to anybody else looking to reignite a creative passion?

Dennis Welch: 34:39

First of all, if you know you should be doing it, you need to make time in your life to do it. Don't ignore that because that's bad for you. I think it's bad for your health, I think it's bad for your mental health. I think it's just bad. So just find time, schedule time to go in a room and write your book or write your song or whatever. The second thing is, pay no attention at all to what the culture at large thinks about your work. Just pay no attention. So don't compare yourself to somebody else. Don't compare your success, whatever, however you define that, to somebody else's version. Because you'll always come up short and you'll feel like, you know what? I'm not making enough progress here. You know what? Creating something is progress. Creating something beautiful and putting it out in the world, that's progress. If you seek success like that, then you never are discouraged enough to just throw it away and say, you know what? I'm just never going back and doing this again. Because even I tried to do that. That was foolish. I didn't know what I was saying when I said, I'm not going to do this anymore. That just. I just didn't get it. And the last thing I would say is, and this is coming from a place of what these six or seven years have done for me, is don't stop doing it. Stop. Just keep going. Because you don't know what's around the next corner. Don't let you know the fact you're not making any money at it, or you don't have a giant audience or you don't get a lot of recognition or any of those things, because what it's doing for your soul is ten times better than any of that. And then if you get some recognition and money from it, well, great.

Claire Waite Brown: 36:16

Yeah, that's the bonus.

Dennis Welch: 36:18

Yeah, that's the bonus, exactly.

Claire Waite Brown: 36:20

Brilliant. Thank you so much. Dennis, tell us how we can connect with you.

Dennis Welch: 36:27

I have a website that I don't pay enough attention to. It's called Dennis WelchMusic.com. you can go there. I don't mind giving out my Gmail address and responding to people if somebody have questions or any of that stuff, because that's what this is all about. And it's just very simple. It's just Dennis welch with a ch1956mail.com. So if somebody wants to reach out to me to book a gig or to ask a question or whatever, that's how to do it. And then the music is everywhere, which is a very cool thing about the culture we're in now. You know, a lot of people complain about, oh, you know, it's not like it used to be. No, it's not. When I finish a record, my producer has a record company and he pushes one button and it goes to the whole world at once. You know, this, all this music is on Spotify and Apple Music and YouTube Music and YouTube and all that stuff. And so you can find it now, which is wonderful. You just have to mail stuff to people and all that.

Claire Waite Brown: 37:25

That's what I love about podcasts as well, because you just make it and you press the button and it can be heard anywhere. That's right in the world, on any podcast app.

Dennis Welch: 37:33

And Claire, you don't know. And this is very cool, I think. And so you don't know who all you're influencing, Claire, when you do this. And so good on you for staying your course as well.

Claire Waite Brown: 37:43

Thank you. Thank you so much and thank you for this chat. It's been absolutely fabulous.

Dennis Welch: 37:49

Me too, and I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you. Very much for having me on.

Claire Waite Brown: 37:53

Definitely. You're very welcome. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, perhaps you'd like to financially contribute to future episodes at buymeacoffee.com/creativityfound There's a link in the show Notes if you are listening on a value for value enabled app such as Fountain, TrueFans or Podcast Guru, feel free to send a few sats my way. And if you have no idea of what I'm talking about, you can find out more by listening to my sister podcast called Podcasting 2.0. In practice.