Life & Work with Matt Tucker

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Tucker.

Hi Matt, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I picked up a guitar in 2008 after my son was born and I taught myself how to play while I was already working on my voice through a karaoke machine for fun. Six months later, I played my first gig. At 22 years old, this was my escape to be around my friends and make money while doing it.

A few years later in 2013, after realizing my full potential and how much I’d fallen in love with music, I made my way to Nashville to record my first EP with producer, Pat Holt (Alabama, Johnny Cash, Waylon, Willie), and to network with other artists and writers. Through the years, I’ve kept those relationships. I’ve worked with management companies, a small label, big producers, big writers, I’ve had great highs and very low lows, all the while playing 150 plus dates every year, balancing family life, getting married, divorced, restructuring my family life and working during the week.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, I released a new single with a music video, “We Need to Talk”. I’ve really worked on my writing skills and recorded a full-length album with the best material I feel I’ve ever created, to this date. With the music industry just waking up from a long shut down, a release date for that material has not yet been set.

In 2020, I founded my own roofing company in the Charlotte NC area, Blue Collar Roofing LLC. With a 5 year background in roofing, this would help keep me busy in the downtimes of the music business and help keep my dream alive. Now that gigs are back, I’m pretty busy day to day running a roofing company and the everyday life of a musician.

Music is an art that speaks to people’s feelings and I love connecting with my audience through my songs. I hope you will join me on my journey.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
If you are in this business for any substantial amount of time you will definitely experience ups and downs.

I’ve experienced highs of feeling like a superstar and lows of wanting to end it all. I’ve been helped, taken advantage of, loved by audiences, and not loved by audiences. I’ve released great material and material I now may have a second thought about releasing.

Music is a journey that some get to experience on a guided trail and some do it the long way around. Either route you go, you will find out how much you love doing it and what kind of sacrifices you will make to stay in or remain relevant in the game. Through the years, every person that I’ve met in this business has all experienced one or all of these things. That’s just the nature of the beast.

The most important thing I think we all have to remember is to not forget where you come from and what defines you. Be yourself and have confidence in and love for what your releasing or writing. That will make the ups and downs a lot easier to handle.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I treat my “nine to five” and music careers as businesses of their own. While I was still in the “corporate world”, I founded my music business as Guitbox LLC in 2016. In 2020, I founded another company, Blue Collar Roofing LLC, as another source of income to help during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With a long background in music and five-plus years of experience in roofing, I’ve been able to keep these two things in balance and be effectively productive. I’ve accomplished a lot in my music career over the years as well as establishing a great reputation with my roofing company customers. Music definitely taught me a lot of people skills and these skills have carried over, helping me run another company in the height of COVID-19 to make ends meet.

At the end of the day, my love for music gives me high hopes for a long and bright future. My other company in roofing is a great way to keep me busy and I can also rely on it as a main source of income, should music ever just become a hobby.

We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
It was a secret in the beginning but not so much now, I have a huge love for cooking. I’ve actually talked a few times about having my own restaurant one day or having my name and recipes branded as the restaurant, should I not be able to oversee it.

Before music, I loved drawing and painting. I was a part of many art exhibits at local fairs and art shows, winning many awards during high school and into college.

Contact Info:

• Email: booking@matttuckermusic.com
• Website: www.matttuckermusic.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/matttuckermusic
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/matttuckermusic
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/matttuckermusic
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/TuckerMusic85

Image Credits
Unify Visual, Moments Kept, Matt Tucker, and Kati Russell