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What does it look like to spend twenty years doing the thing nobody could make you stop doing?
In Episode 16 of Creative Evolution, independent music and creative business podcast host Josi J welcomes back her dear friend and guitarist Mandy Wilson, aka The Virgin Mandy, for one of the most honest, funny, and genuinely moving conversations of the entire season. Mandy is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and guitarist for Knoxville metal band Summoner's Circle who has spent twenty years playing across genres, bands, and stages of every size. He started playing guitar at thirteen in secret under headphones because in his household music was not just something he loved. It was something forbidden. And the more they tried to skip past it the more he had to have it.
In this conversation we dig into what it really means to build a long term creative career when the only thing keeping you going is the love of the thing itself.
In this episode we dig into how Mandy cultivated his entire musical identity in secret under headphones and why music was not his first love but his first mistress. The benefit concert that changed everything and showed him for the first time that music could create tangible measurable good in another person's life. Why true talent means doing whatever is in service of the music and not in service of yourself. His dad's most powerful piece of advice: if you want to catch an owl you study the rat. How he learned to put on incredible shows for two or three people at a time and why that humility became the foundation of everything. What it is actually like to tour in an Econoline van with seven people, two generators, and Planet Fitness memberships as your shower strategy. Why he keeps a thing of Narcan in his guitar case and what that says about who he is as a human being. And his final gift to every independent artist listening: remember to water the plants and take care of the people who make all of this possible.
This is the pure conversation, start to finish. No music sweeps, no breaks. Just you, Mandy, and twenty years worth of hard won wisdom delivered with equal parts humor and heart.
Talent gets you the gig but professionalism keeps it. Questions always lead to answers. Keep asking. 🎙️
🎬 Connect with Mandy Wilson:
summonerscircle.com
facebook.com/thevirginmandy
🌐 Learn more at:
josijanddessert.com/creative-evolution
linktr.ee/creativeevolutionpodcast
Credits:
Guest: Mandy Wilson aka The Virgin Mandy
Host, Producer, Copywriter, Research, Art Director, Editor, and Designer: Josie "Josi J" Jones
Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.
