Michael Bolton Discusses His Music Career on "Yeah I F***ed That Up" Podcast

 Musical artist backlash is a mysterious phenomenon. It's hard to pinpoint its origins and how it sustains life. Canadian group Nickelback certainly felt the wrath of fans and non-fans for some amorphous musical or cultural indiscretions. 

Another musical artist who suffered the same "mass shunning" was Michael Bolton a generation ago. In the most recent episode of Interval Presents’ ‘Yeah, I F***ed That Up,’ podcast host Billy Mann talks with singer-songwriter Michael Bolton. 

If you haven't heard, Interval Presents, Warner Music Group’s (WMG) in-house podcast network, has a new series, Yeah, I F*cked That Up, which challenges the stigma of failure as the podcast highlights stories of defeat from prominent figures in the entertainment industry.

The interview series premiered July 11 with featured guests Kelly Rowland and Steven Van Zandt.

I've listened to every episode and with no need for a spoiler alert, I can tell you that both episodes are so fresh and elegant in their narrative about "what I've would have different."

The maestro here is the podcast's host is Grammy-nominated hitmaker Billy Mann, who has produced and written songs for some of the world’s most well-known musicians over the course of his 25+ year career.

In this episode, host Billy Mann is joined by Michael Bolton as they discuss various stages of his life and mega-career starting as a struggling artist working hard for success, along with the challenges of a career in the music industry while having a family.

Check out a clip from the episode HERE. 

 Episode Highlights:

●      5:50 - Michael discusses his relationship with his mother and all of her support. 

○      Michael Bolton - “She was more than supportive of me. I was living out her life because she wanted to be a singer…and she didn’t get to pursue her career, but I did. And so when I look back, I have so much appreciation of my mother and the support she gave us that was non-stop through some very, very tough times.”

●      7:50 - Michael talks about his parents’ divorce when he was a child and then going through his own divorce, which brought him to therapy.

○      Michael Bolton - “It wasn’t until I was going through my divorce a lifetime later that I had the ability to spend time with a therapist, find out what motivated me, what was really going on, what I was really meaning to say, what I observed. And to come out the other end of a lot of therapy, feeling much more clear about everything and having compassion for both of them ‘cause they weren’t happy, and so I learned a lot from that and a lot that I was able to use, to apply, with my own kids who were going through quite a bit of what I went through as a child.”

●      15:05 - Michael discusses getting his first record deal with Epic Records at 15-years-old, then receiving a letter that they were dropping him.

●      18:36 - Michael was in his 30’s by the time he had his first big hit as a solo artist, when he was raising his daughters and on food stamps. Michael shares the challenges of a career in the music industry while having a family.

○      Michael Bolton - “There was no plan B. And I can be grateful of that even though there’s a lot that comes with the music industry, a career in the music business that is so challenging for a family, if you’re an artist. Downtown New Haven, there were a lot of aspiring artists, mostly one guitar, acoustic guitar, and a sleeping bag, and you could crash at a friend’s house for a couple of days. When you have a family, where do you begin and how hard that could possibly get? We had rent checks that were bouncing to a landlord who was a nice guy, didn’t want to kick us out. We didn’t have the term homelessness back then, at least I never heard it, but we were close to that.”

●      20:55 - Michael shares how he got started singing jingles, a career that took off for him.

●      24:38 - Michael talks about the first time he heard his huge breakthrough song, “That’s What Love Is All About,” on the radio, which was followed by one of his jingles.

●      32:30 - Billy asks if there’s a moment for Michael where he thinks “I f***ed that up.”

○      Michael - “I may have f***ed up in taking myself too seriously in those beginning years, even during interviews, not being a joker and not trying to find something funny in everything everybody says. I think I just took it all too seriously. And so the irony is, the good news is, you can still have fun at your own expense, and it’s a bigger laugh and more fun. I don’t regret much, except for all the time that I may have been able to spend more with my kids during the edge of starvation zone of raising them and feeling completely overwhelmed that I don’t know how we’re going to survive.”

●      34:55 - Michael shares the advice he would give to people around the world on how to deal with moments of failure and self-doubt.