We recently connected with Pamela Jean and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Pamela , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The release of my recent music video for my original song, “Small Country Town” has been my most meaningful project. I wrote the song in 2009 and it was dedicated to my sister when she went through a divorce. Our family never knew some of the things that were going on behind closed doors. When we found out how the relationship really was, and why she divorced the man she spent a decade with, my soul was crushed for her.
As a domestic violence survivor myself, 12 years later I was able to put this song to life with a music video. I was able to round up 2 young friends of mine to play this part. Lil Rose and Scozzari are my main stars in this video, along with myself and my dog Bella. I needed to portray what life is like in an abusive relationship. Things usually don’t start off bad or we wouldn’t be there in the first place. Small things start to happen, control builds, manipulation grows, and abuse thickens.
My sister’s 1st husband would laugh at her when she would put on lingerie. He would treat her as if she was ‘one of the boys’ and take her hunting and fishing for holidays and anniversaries. There was no romance. He also started controlling her in little ways that eventually start to take away from who you are as a person. She gave me some true to life ideas to run with for this video.
I had ideas of my own as a survivor. I can’t tell you how many times I left my abuser to try to start my life without him and he’d sit there and beg me to stay. I needed that visual that so many women go through added to this project. Jeremiah came up with the hot tub scene. As splashing and flirting are fun, abusers will carry this to another level.
Between my video producer, Dawson Scholz, Lil Rose, Scozzari, Jeremiah, my sister and myself, we came up with this powerful video that shows how domestic violence breaks you down over time. It also empowers women to know there is a better way to live and a light at the end of your seemingly, dark tunnel.
What I really wanted to portray is that there IS a way out and women can do this on their own with a little help from a good friend and a couple phone calls.
Video here:
Also, a huge thank you to Cindy for letting Bella and I live on her property for a year, in a beautiful cabin in the woods, with my RV parked out front, and letting us use her beautiful space to film this video! We love you Cindy!
Pamela , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m Pamela Jean, a self-employed, independent, touring Singer/Songwriter; published Photographer; Photojournalist and artist. In the past 20 years, I’ve called 6 states ‘home’, but originally hail from a rural town in Minnesota. Music found me on a karaoke dare at my senior all night party. I had terrible stage fright and thought no one was paying attention. I grabbed the microphone, and everyone walked in the gym and loved it. I decided at that moment, to stop being afraid of things in life.
Over the next 10 years, I learned how to write songs, performed in a variety of bands, moved all over the country and had a pretty crazy life. I was living out of my fantasy of ‘partying like a rockstar’ and really not applying myself to my music or my own self. Addiction had its ugly hands around me and everywhere I moved, the problems were still there. My mom’s prayers kept me alive throughout my 20’s.
In 2007, I had taught myself enough guitar to want to try an open mic night. Again, this was an opportunity for me to get over my new stage fright of playing my guitar in front of anyone. It was a complete disaster. My strap fell off of my guitar and it crashed onto the stage before I could even strum a chord, with a full bar of people staring at me. The open mic host begged me to play 2 songs, but I was wishing I could have run out of the bar instead. I vowed NEVER to do that again!
A year later, I found myself hosting open mics in Oceanside, CA. This was a great experience for me to learn my craft, get comfortable on stage and meet some lifelong friends. I started my own solo shows after I learned 2 hours of music, performed my own songs and kept writing and learning. In 2012, I became a Nashville Recording Artist with a 6 song, original EP, “Searching for Utopia”. I also had the opportunity to open for Little River Band in San Diego that year, with a band we put together in 3 days in my kitchen! This was a HUGE career highlight!
In 2016, I went on my 1st official tour. The opportunity to open for The Good Ol’ Boyz in NorCal on their Country to the City Tour was a blast! I was their opening act for several shows, along with one for Bubba Sparxxx. Things with my career were heating up, all while I was lost in a 3-year abusive relationship. I was too depressed to write, rehearse or do anything for myself anymore. The energy to just exist was draining my soul. I had nothing left to give.
In 2017, I found myself fleeing that abusive relationship out of NorCal, overnight, with a U-Haul truck and my dad’s credit card to pay for the move. My parents didn’t want me to be another statistic on the news, so they paid for 5 days with a moving truck and told me to start driving. My dad told me I could start my life over, anywhere I ended up.
It was upon that journey, still with no set destination, that Bella and I arrived in Post Falls, ID. We found a dog friendly room to rent with an awesome roommate. On this epic escape, Pedal to the Metal popped into my head. I decided I wanted to fulfil my lifelong destiny and dream of becoming a touring artist. As my father wouldn’t take a dime back for helping me move and saving me, I knew I needed a greater cause to my music than just singing my songs.
As I started this touring and traveling in a 20-year-old Toyota Corolla, with my one-eyed dog as head of security, I had no idea how to even get the ball rolling. But I did. And it was EPIC! I started donating 10% of all of my music proceeds to Priest River Ministries Advocates for Women. At every show I let people know that I had just fled to safety, all while staying under the radar for a bit so no one could find me. It was a scary yet exciting time.
Over the next couple years, Bella and I toured through 11 states, playing my songs, singing on Fox News, K-102 Country, numerous YouTube interviews, magazine write ups and more! (Still in that old car!) I upgraded in 2020 to a 23′ RV and did 11 states in that as well. Just the open road, me, “Bella and my guitar”…..
To date, I’ve now released 3 music videos. One showing my battle with addiction, one showing the struggles of life in a domestic violent relationship, and one lighthearted, fun video for “Gemineyes”, featuring Bella and I in a 1958 Convertible Corvette! (My dream car.) I have new EP dropping in March of 2023 and every one of my recorded originals has had radio play! I have personally raised and donated over $5,000 towards women’s shelters around the country, through my Facebook posts and tip jar. This journey doesn’t stop, and it has been nothing short of amazing. The people who have helped me along my way will never be forgotten! It is YOU, the “little people”, who really aren’t little. You are the BIG people that have helped make this dream and career possible!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
In 2020, right before the pandemic hit, I invested in a 23′ RV and SUV to pull it. This was going to be my new “tour bus” and I also knew at some point, Bella and I would be living in it. The only part of RV life that I had any idea about was how to tow and back it up. The rest was a mystery about to unfold. The journey that laid ahead took more resilience than I ever expected!!
My loan got approved just days before I was departing south, on my 4 More Legs Tour to the desert. People will tell you to take your RV for a trial run, close to home, long before going on a huge journey. Especially a solo one. I didn’t have that option. I already had booked my tour. Like everything else in life, I threw myself into RV travel with zero experience and learned it all on the open road!
One thing about RV life, is that the people you will meet along the way are SO helpful. They have all been there before and are the most gracious, patient humans you’ll probably ever encounter. From a campground host helping you learn how to dump your tanks and connect your “poop tube” for the 1st time, to a family stopping to help you tie up your awning that blew off in the wind, to a professional driver and man in a business suit stopping on the side of I-15 to help you change a blown tire. RV lifers are like angels.
In October of 2020, Bella and I went on the Apocalypse Tour from Idaho to Wisconsin to see my family. It only had 2 shows and one canceled from Covid. When we returned from this trip, I needed an affordable place to live so I could save money for more recordings and music videos. As an independent artist, one must sacrifice other luxuries in life to pay for these projects. My dear friends Kyrsten and Jon, let Bella and I move onto their 5-acre farm in Athol, ID for only $200 a month. This is where the REAL journey begins!
I didn’t know I had invested in a non 4 season RV. I didn’t even know there were 4 season and NOT winter friendly models. Everything froze at one point or another, even with proper skirting. I used my gym membership to shower more than to work out. There was no running water on the farm. We would take turns driving to the water station to fill a 400-gallon tank and then fill up holding tanks. Sometimes the water tank on the truck would freeze and we’d have to put a heater under a tarp to dethaw the water tank itself. My PLAN was to be a touring snowbird, but the pandemic threw a wrench in those plans too with no live music.
I did this RV life for 14 months. 1.5 winters in North Idaho and then threw in the towel. It did however allow me to save for 2 more songs and one more music video! If you’ve lived this lifestyle, running water is something you will never take for granted again! (On my YouTube Channel, Pamela Jean Unlimited, you can see the entire, RV life journey if you need some good laughs!)
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I could keep this VERY simple and just say, COME TO A SHOW!!! But I’ll elaborate! If an artist (like myself) is self-employed and independent, we literally pay for everything from the ground up, and pay for it with money we make from our music. If you have a favorite artist that you respect and want to support, coming to our shows is HUGE. Live music venues do not keep hiring artists to play if the venue doesn’t have enough business to justify paying us to play there. Even if you pop in for one beer or soda and catch 3 songs, that helps us more than you’ll ever know.
Each song and video costs us money to record. Some artists may have home studios or talented friends and do things very affordable. Others may pay studio musicians in Nashville to lay down their tracks. This is the route I am on because my producer, Victor Broden and his dream team, are musical gods. I spent years recording things for “cheap” or “free” and you truly get what you pay for.
When you see your favorite artist release a new track, please click the 99-cent download button to help with our recording costs. We pay to have our music distributed on Spotify, Pandora, Alexa and all the other services and most of us will never see a dime off of that. Supporting your artist by paying for a digital download or buying a physical CD helps us a TON.
Share us with your friends! If we are independent, we are marking ourselves too. No management team is out telling people about us. If your favorite artist has a YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram or any other social media, just click follow and let others know about them. When we get to a certain number of followers, we are able to make a little extra money with that as well.
If your favorite artist has merch, find something cool at their booth or on their website and support. Our merch is very costly too, but people love to have a little piece of the show! I pay my designer $50 a logo (Tonya is a VERY dear friend!!) Most logos cost much more than that. Then I have Corder Design print my merch. I buy koozies, hats, shirts, beach bags, dog bandanas and more to have available for people to purchase at my gigs or off of Facebook. I had a guy ask me one night for a free t-shirt. Without being rude, I had to explain to him that I actually have to pay for these shirts and the logo that is on it. Asking an artist for “free” stuff is probably about the biggest insult we can get.
For example, I am still making payments on a song I released in October of 2021 and on my latest music video. I get lucky that some of my producers or studio engineers take payments and let me release things before they are paid off, so I can continue to put out new content.
If you love our show, our mission, our brand, our music, it really doesn’t take much to help support our craft. A little bit of love goes a long way!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pamelajeanunlimited.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/pamelajeanunlimited
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/pjunlimited
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/pamelajeanunlimited
- Other: www.pamelajean.bandcamp.com
Image Credits
Jeremiah Phillipe, Les Radnor, Stephanie Lynn and myself on the scenic photo