Daily Inspiration: Meet Jan Buckingham

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Jan Buckingham.

Hi Jan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in St. Louis, Missouri. My dad was in the FBI, and I had a stay-at-home mom. I wrote my first song on piano when I was eight years old and taking piano lessons. I got a guitar in high school and noodled around just a bit on it. After my first divorce, when I was 25, I wrote my first two songs one day and realized how happy it made me to write songs.

That’s when it really all started. I entered the American Song Festival and got a little pamphlet that told me I needed a publisher. That is when I started making a few trips to Nashville to look around. Then, when I was married to my second ex-husband, we moved to Nashville in 1980. For the next ten years, I wrote a lot of songs in Nashville. Then, by 1990, I was in a lot of the Billboard charts and got my first number one, with Lee Greenwood singing I DON’T MIND THE THORNS WHEN YOU’RE THE ROSE.

I moved to Los Angeles in 1990 for twenty years but went back and forth from LA to Nashville every so often. I received two Grammy nominations during that time. In 2009, after doing some acting in LA, being a Realtor there, and also having a little greeting card company I had started, I went back to Tennessee to continue writing full-time for the rest of my life. I also began mentoring a lot of young twenty-something writers, and it turns out that they were mentoring and encouraging me, too!!!

I started singing my songs in a lot of Nashville venues, and I also started releasing my songs once a month, through Distrokid, onto all the streaming platforms in the universe!!! Now, at 76, I have become a recording artist!!! I believe that I am happier than I have ever been before because I am doing what I love full-time. I believe that the secret to true happiness is doing what you love.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Life is never a “smooth road.” We learn things by the mistakes we make.

Even though what I loved to do most was write songs, I also had many different “day jobs” to help me make enough money to get by. I have been a school teacher, a Realtor, an actor in television and film, and I had a greeting card company. I looked at all those jobs as “getting paid to do research,” and that is where I got the inspiration for many of my songs.

Keeping a positive attitude and a good sense of humor are the two things that help you live a happy life.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Again, I am a hit songwriter. I have those two Grammy nominations and a lot of gold records on my wall.

I guess that, most recently, I have become known for my funny songs. I love to make people laugh. Also, pain plus time equals humor. That is what made my hit CLEOPATRA-QUEEN OF DENIAL so popular. The singer was cheated on long ago, but then, in the song, the singer laughs at it when singing CLEOPATRA.

I guess I am most proud of finally having the confidence and courage to sing my songs myself instead of hiring others to sing all my demos… and for loving to sing my songs in front of big audiences.

Maybe what sets me apart from many others is my determination. I keep at it. I keep a positive attitude and a good sense of humor. I let my rejections go and try again. I love the saying my mom used to tell me: “If at first you don’t succeed, try again!!!”

What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The most important lesson I’ve learned along my musical journey is to let the bad stuff go and start over. My dad used to say, “Do the best you can all day – Go home and forget it.”

The point is to do the best you can. Why would you beat yourself up if you had done the best you could do??? Then, if a day doesn’t turn out great, go home and forget it!!! You can start new the next day and, hopefully, do better!!! That’s a positive attitude.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.janbuckingham.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jan_buckingham
• Facebook: facebook.com/jan.buckingham1
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-buckingham-a84967287/
• Youtube: youtube.com/@JanBuckingham
• SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/jan-buckingham
• Other: www.reverbnation.com/janbuckingham