We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jon Oswald. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jon below.

Jon, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I’ll start by saying that I never liked school. I made good grades but would literally have nightmares where I’d be told I’ll never finish school. I still have them sometimes. My older brother and sister both went to very good colleges and I was expected to do the same. I ended up going to Belmont University in Nashville to study music business in 2005. I (obviously) hated it and tried to drop out after 1 semester, but my parents wanted me to at least finish the year, so I did. One evening during that summer of 2006 just a couple weeks after I got home from Nashville, my phone started blowing up about my favorite local metal band needing a new drummer. I had been playing for almost 10 years at that point and was pretty good, but I had no idea if I was good enough to join a professional touring band. I ended up sending in a tape, then jamming with the band, then being offered the job. Less than a month after that, we were on a 3 month tour all over the country. I was 19 and I was truly living my dream, and I thought “this is it! This is what I’m going to do with the rest of my life!” The band had a good 3-4 year run of playing big tours all over the nation, but then our record label dropped us, followed by our manager, and in what felt like the blink of an eye, we were all unemployed. I didn’t know what I was going to do with the rest of my life but knew I wouldn’t be able to stand having a regular 9-5. I knew that for sure. Since then I’ve transitioned to acting and while it’s not as badass as touring with a band, it definitely scratches my creative itch.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

So as I said before, I was a drummer. I moved out to LA in 2010 to play music but wasn’t really finding anything that stuck. I was spoiled by playing for my favorite band for years and I couldn’t bring myself to play in bands I really didn’t like. My best friend from middle school was working his way up as a screenwriter and came up with a crazy role for me in his first big feature film. I had only done some comedy skits and web series up until that point and the next thing I knew I was on a movie set. The movie was called “Lowlife” and was released by IFC Midnight in 2017. I got quite a bit of press for the role and Quentin Tarantino even saw it in a private screening (and sat right behind me!) and loved it. That role certainly helped me get the ball rolling. I did a bunch of commercials while still in LA but then my wife and I started having little ones and moved back to Austin, TX where we grew up (and where our families are). My latest film “Off Ramp” has played at 7 or 8 film festivals so far this year and is set to be released later this fall!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Since becoming a father in 2018, my main goal is to take care of my kids and make them happy. My wife is incredibly hard working and has been bringing home almost all of the bacon ever since we had kids. We made the choice that she would keep working and I would take care of the kids and still be able to take some acting jobs every now and then. We didn’t plan on having 3 kids but I’ve now been a full time stay at home dad for 6 years. I get to leave town for a couple months out of each year to shoot a movie or two, but I certainly wished I worked more and definitely plan to once all my kids are in school! But what drives my creative journey really is just keeping myself happy so I can keep everyone else happy. There’s nothing like being on stage playing a metal show, or being on a film set getting to make a movie. It’s my happy place!

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

I can speak on this as a drummer and as an actor. Go to shows and go to movies! And buy merch at the show and buy your friend’s movie that’s $19.99 on Amazon Prime. Selling records used to be how people listened to music, now every song by every artist ever is basically free with streaming. You used to have to go to movies Friday night when they came out, now we expect everything to be on Netflix or Amazon or some other streamer. If nobody is paying for music or for movies then how are artists supposed to survive? Just because we like music and movies doesn’t mean they should all be free and available at all times. Buy music and go to the movies.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @jonnieozz

Image Credits

Property of Media Darling Productions
Property of IFC Midnight