I entered the year 2015 knowing it would be my last year to work in private industry, before retiring to go into business for myself. Making that transition from “working for the man” to working for myself became the first line on a growing bucket list of things I wanted to accomplish before I died. World Energy Consultants, LLC was founded on January 16, 2016. Boxed Checked!
I had always regretted not going back to college to get a Masters degree in Business Administration. I began that journey while still working for BP in 2014. In May of 2016 I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Ole Miss, receiving that most cherished MBA and becoming the oldest MBA grad in Ole Miss history. A record that still stands today. Boxed Checked!
There were many items on my bucket list. Most days I let work and life get in the way of checking off those other boxes, but today I’ve accomplished a new one. It took me 49 years to accomplish it, but by golly I’m happy to proclaim another box checked! Not only was it checked, but I gift it to you today as proof.
The item checked, and the gift I speak of, is my bucket list item to “publish a song” before I died. Not just any song, but a song titled “Nashville Dreams.” It’s a country song that I wrote the lyrics to while driving in my car from Shreveport, Louisiana to Magnolia, Arkansas in 1974 at the age of 26.
I use the word “wrote” loosely, because the term is strictly a metaphorical description of how I crafted the lyrics to “Nashville Dreams.” Unlike any other poem or song I have written, this one was written “in my head,” singing the lines over and over to commit them to memory until I could check into my Magnolia motel room and write the lyrics down on paper before I forgot them. The feat is a great example of how gifted my brain was in my mid-20’s. Today, when I try to enter three sets of numbers into an Excel spreadsheet I have to look at the list of numbers three separate times and enter them one at a time.
I couldn’t help but chuckle when one of my granddaughter’s asked, “Why didn’t you write it on your iPad Grandpa?” I said, “Honey, it was written before man ever invented the first PC, laptop or tablet. Her eyes almost popped out of her head. I was almost tempted to tell her, “In fact, I wrote the song before we had pencils or pens. I had to carve the lyrics on the wall of a cave.”
One reason it took 49 years to complete the publication of this song is because I lacked the talents to write the song’s melody. I have probably purchased 6 or 7 books on songwriting to teach myself to write the melody but never had the time to read them. In 2017, I had a stroke in both my optic nerves which destroyed 100% of my vision in my left eye and left partial vision loss in my right eye. Once that happened I lost the will to read long book because my right eye tires out so quickly.
So how did the song get published? Rather than hire a professional, I purchased some AI software and learned how to use the software to write the melody for my lyrics. The software even created an AI-generated voice that proved to be much better than my own voice.
In a world filled with hatred and millions of people worried about how AI is going to destroy the world one day, I have opted to do what I always do when new technology arrives on the scene — embrace it, learn it, employ it and make my life easier. In doing so, I’ve been able to stay younger than my peers and stay caught up with the times. I’ve been using various AI software bots for the past two years.
It’s not important to me whether anyone likes my song or not. The ONLY thing important to me is another goal achieved. Another box checked! Because . . . I know that as long as I’m still checking off bucket list boxes it must mean that I’m still living. LOL
I still have many more boxes to go. My wife, Jonette, seems to think that some items on my bucket list are impossible for anyone to achieve. She’s even gone as far a saying that a few of them are ridiculous. I asked her to name a couple. She looked at my list and said, “Appearing on stage with Katy Perry? Taking a road trip across America with the rap star, Ludacris? C’mon, you don’t really think either one of these two events is going to happen, do you?” My quick response was — “Nashville Dreams baby! Nashville Dreams! Now I’ve got a song to sing, Katy just needs to give me a chance. It could be my big break. Me and Katy taking a world tour. And a close friend of Ludacris once told me he loves seafood gumbo and Cajun jokes! They don’t call my ass Boudreaux for nothing, sweetie. I’ll keep him fed and laughing the whole trip! Heck, I’ll even publish a rap song called the “Propane Rap” to sing on our trip.”
I swear, I had no idea that little woman could generate such big eye-rolls. “Okay I said, don’t say you didn’t hear it here first baby: Propane up, butane down, if you don’t believe it ask the Whitley Clown. Get it on now! Get it on now!” Where’s my dang AI software? I need a beat to go with that jive.
Download my song by clicking here. When I die one day, play it in my memory. And eat a bowl of gumbo please!