Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to James Bullard. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

James, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

The late, great Hank Williams once said: “You don’t have to suffer to be a great artist, but it damn sure helps.”

I’m not sure I’ve ever been 100% happy.
I was very fortunate and blessed to have the career I did, but it was all happenstance and luck. Unfortunately talent and skill alone do not matter in the music business. It’s all about who you know and how much money they have to push you.
I was blessed with some very kind people who believed in me.

Looing back at my age, I can clearly see that most of the things I’ve done in my life, both good and bad were a futile attempt to fill a void. Like continuously pouring water in a bucket with a hole in it.
Happiness comes from within, and as a creative person, sadness and suffering are just par for the course. Almost a prerequisite for the job. Look at it this way: All great modern music started with the blues. You can draw a straight line from rock, country, rap, all of it, right to the blues, and blues came from suffering and the need for salvation through creativity.

I had several “regular jobs” before my artistic endeavors were fruitful. I worked in a video store eons ago when those still existed, I was a tax assessor file clerk and I was a journalist for a newspaper.

I absolutely wonder what might have been. I used to look out the window on long rides on tour and daydream about a conventional life; A wife, kids, a 9 to 5, the picket fence, the whole 9 yards!
I do have one son who’ll be 18 soon, and I could not have prayed for a better more amazing kid, but the rest of that life was not meant for men like me., and going from people standing in line nightly to get your autograph and a picture with you to nothing, or back to a regular job is almost impossible to bear. I have other artistic endeavors to bide my time and bring in money, but it’s still a adjustment.

James, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born and raised in the rural South, my father was a musician, I was always surrounded by music. My dad was into Hank and Waylon and Johnny Cash, etc. Then my mom was into Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, etc. and I had 2 older half brothers who were into Kiss, Blue Oyster Cult, Alice Cooper, Elton John, and so on, so I had it in every direction. I started out in a rock band, as all young men with guitars do, and that band had some regional success and went on to be named one of the top 5 unsigned acts in the entire Southeast. Then as most bands do, it just fell apart. By 2001 found myself back to my roots, and stared doing country music, but I refused to do modern country because it just sounded like boy bands with fiddles, so I discovered that there was an entire underground movement of artists carrying the torch for “real country” like the old Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, George Jones sound, etc. A neo-outlaw movement of sorts. So I found my new niche’. I wrote day and night and had my first 3 solo records written in less than 3 months.
Time went on, I had false promises and shady contracts dangled in my face here and there and just kept pushing myself, without the help of a label or management, until around 2010. I met Missy Davis Jones, who remained my manager until I walked away from the industry in 2019. She also owned the record label. And that’s when the success started. Any attention or money I made was a direct result of her ‘behind the scenes’ work ethic.
It wasn’t overnight. I made 5 records with her label. but one song suddenly took off like a shot. “Elizabeth.” A song I actually didn’t think would do well at all (even though I wrote it) and I fought against it, but Missy was always the better, more diplomatic judge of these things, and sure enough the record I released after that kept me on tour for 2 and 1/2 years.

Writing and the craft of it was never a problem for me. Yes, I had writer’s block at times like we all do, but the process just came easy to me, I never struggled to write a song and to this day there are roughly 120 of my songs published under ASCAP.
As far as discipline, I never had that. Ha! I got into rock and roll to be irresponsible!
So by 2019 I had had enough of it all. My body, mind and emotional health were beginning to suffer, I was teetering on the edge of ruining 13 years of sobriety due to it all and I decided it was time to call it a day. After 2 and 1/2 years of touring, I called my manager and my booking agent, canceled the last 5 shows I had booked made a U-turn somewhere in Mississippi and never went back.
I came home, went to see my doctor, took care of my health issues, and while on the mend from a back problem I had due to an accident on the set of a music video, I was in bed having a pity party about my career when I happened across a Dennis Hopper documentary on Hulu and I was blown away and basically given a new lease on life. Dennis was not just an actor as we all know, he was also a photographer, a painter, a poet, I mean, some of the best songwriters in the world even wrote songs about this guy!
So it immediately occurred to me that I was mourning one small part of myself when I had so much more to offer the world. So right there from my bed I grabbed my laptop went online and got diplomas and digital photography and editing and took 2 filmmaking masterclasses. Also during that time I found all of my old notebooks from the time I was 17 until my mid 30’s and there were poems and journal entries and I decided to release them to the world. so I wrote a book that you can now buy at Barnes & Noble or Amazon called “Dead Man” and it’s just a collection of those poems and journal entries.
So though one door closed, four more opened. Then, as if I hadn’t already put enough pots on the stove, I decided to go back to my first love and start a new metal band and make another record. this time however with no intention of landing a record deal or touring at all. Just myself and two friends who are amazing musicians and want to make the kind of record we would buy even if we weren’t on it. And for the first time in years I’m having fun making music again.

So right now I’m doing photography, working toward the new metal record, re-igniting 2 horror films my business partner and I wrote that were put on hold due to my touring schedule and then Covid, working on a second book and I also picked up 2 modeling gigs for Silver Fox Fashion and Lucky 13 Tattoo Co.

The photography/videography and modeling I do as work for hire also and can be contacted via my email: [email protected] for inquiries.
I don’t do social media, no personal Facebook or Twitter, but I do have an Instagram: @jamesscottbullard And you can follow my career updates on either my verified Facebook Artist Page (look for the blue check or it’s not me) or at my website: www.jamesscottbullard.com. …And a good old fashioned Google search will keep you in the loop as well. :)

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

In my case it was good management and luck. I went from 4,000 or 5,000 followers to 21,000 followers roughly a week after one song was released. But my advice is to post and engage in comments with your audience.
But be careful; Leave your religious and political beliefs out of everything! Because no matter what you believe, you stand to lose 50% of you demographic if they disagree. That sounds unbelievable when I say it out loud, but unfortunately it’s the political climate we now find ourselves in.
Otherwise, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Everyone’s a judge, but don’t be phased by them, they only judge you because they don’t have the guts to put themselves and their passions out there.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

BUY! BUY! BUY! From the artist! Not the corporations. Sure you can get my t-shirts on Amazon, but I only get 25 cent per sale from that. But if you buy from my website, I get it all. Technology realistically is a double edged sword. You can certainly get you name a presence out there fast!
But you lose money daily due to streaming, downloading, etc. I only get paid .16 cent for every stream.
People need to understand how the music industry was destroyed by the internet.
True story:
In 1977 Peter Frampton released “Ooh, Baby I Love Your Way.” It sold 55 million singles. His label made $30 million for it, (and rightfully so, because they probably put that much into releasing it, they simply recouped their investment,) Mr. Frampton made $25 million from it. A very fair paycheck for a single artist in 1977.

Now, fast forward to 2017, 40 years later. The very same song had 55 million streams on Spotify/iTunes, etc. and from all those streams Peter Frampton made $17 …That’s not a typo.
The film industry has followed as well. Even Martin Scorsese released his last film straight to Netflix, because the theater industry is dead as well. It is almost impossible to have a career in entertainment now, but not completely impossible…yet.

I hate to be a downer, but this is the reality of the industry.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jamesscottbullard.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/jamesscottbullard
• Facebook: facebook.com/jamesscottbullard
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-scott-bullard-54a29ab4/
• Other: allmylinks.com/james-scott-bullard

Image Credits
Photo Credits: Cooper Smith (Modeling Shots of James Bullard.) Art shots photographed by: James Bullard.