K-OODI Magazine May 2016, Issue 5 | Page 115

you're doing it all wrong.” So I asked him what he meant by all wrong. He said, “After 9PM, ya gotta take it to the street. Pack up and follow me.” He took me to 21st St and Atlantic Avenue, and said ”this is where ya wanna be after 9.” Till the bars close it’s nothing but people. So I said, ok if you say so Mr G. And I unpacked and grabbed a piece of sidewalk and began what I always did everyday. Mind you I never asked a soul for any money, or anything but permission to play in front of their establishment. That night in 2 hours or so I made $150. I could believe it!!! I was doing everything so right before, but in all the wrong places. That would be the night I realized music was gonna save my life. I played that street corner every night for about 5 months. I have been called every name under the sun by every race and religion. Lemme tell ya, it’s a cruel world out there for a guy who is just trying to get one foot back up on the step. There were good nights and bad nights. I just took the bad ones as learning and practicing times. Another thing that saved me, is that I had no desire to shoot dope or stay drunk all day. Made it easy to save money. As the summer and eventually fall came to an end, I received a message from a long time family friend that they had an empty room for rent. They would not let me try to survive the winter and I am so very thankful that they didn’t because it snowed like 12 times that winter and there was 6 inches of frozen snow on the sand where I would have been sleeping. Upon moving in and getting settled I wrote a song about homelessness because I have always wanted to express and make changes through music. I learned about a man named Leroy Bailey while I was on the streets. He was a volunteer who through prayer and many conversations with God has decided he is going to walk around America to raise money to build homeless shelters for vets and the homeless in general. What he is doing physically is what I want to do through music. I wrote a song about him called ”Houseless Hollywood” which is on Soundcloud under that name. My other single Castles Made of Jade is on CDBaby for sale. My will to make it is very strong. I don’t think I used up all that might when on the streets, so shoot, I’m gonna put my dream out there. In the next 5 years I will have won a Grammy for best song in a film or production. Who knows maybe this life story could be made into a documentary-ish piece. My influences from Prince were his will to make it and make things his own, and the fact that the man was a phenomenal musician to play almost any instrument that he picked up. I really looked up to him and always will, as a musician who did things his way… I respect that. ’Purple Rain’ inst. cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Mq5HJ0SEUjQ&feature=youtu.be ’Houseless Hollywood’: https://soundcloud.com/imtv/houselesshollywood-rick-bozart Download ’Castles Made of Jade’: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rickbozart *plays behind the June issue of 2016* CD Baby Artist Profile: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RickBozart Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rick.bozart