We recently connected with Petunia Petunia and have shared our conversation below.

Petunia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

My girlfriend of a couple years had just dumped me and left for Europe. I had been making my dejected and heartbroken way through Egypt with a backpack. Just finished having paid for the whole month in Egypt by selling bottles of moonshine in Dahab (which worked out perfect!), I made my way back to Tel Aviv, Israel, to the youth hostel there in Jaffa, the older, formerly Arab part of town at that time. I quickly made pals with Irwin, amongst other pals – Irwin had a guitar. He could play one. Both things that were mysterious and enchanting to me. I SO MUCH wanted to be able to play a guitar and sing along. Irwin and I were on the roof of the hostel late one morning. It was a beautiful sunny day. We were eating fresh Arabian flatbread that we had picked up at a bakery, with yogourt and apples. Irwin had his guitar with him. We finished breakfast and he started playing and singing a couple songs. I started singing along with him, picking up some of the repeated verses. I can’t recall how the next thing happened, maybe Irwin was sensing something in me or maybe he liked playing while I sang along? Next thing he was dictating me the words of 3 songs that I wrote down, so that I could sing while he played. I learned a John Prine song. I think it’s called “Gonna Walk That Line”, an alternative Depeche Mode type song that had a chorus with the word ‘Apathy’ in it, and a 3rd song that I can no longer recall. It was the first time in my life that I had been singing a song while someone accompanied me on an instrument. It was a giant thrill! We decided to take it to the streets of Tel Aviv. We went downtown and found a subterranean crosswalk with a little foot traffic in it. We spent the next 2-3 hours busking there. We made 10 shekels each. It was absolute excitement and ecstasy at it’s best for me. I can still feel the smile that I had plastered on my face. A feeling of innocent joy at having accomplished something that only hours ago I had so longed for, something that had felt a million miles away from me. Ten Israeli shekels may have ben worth 2 USD at the time. So it was the first TWO dollars that I made at something that, little did I know, would be the source of my livelihood up to the present day.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a full time Roots Americana musician, for lack of a better genre descriptor. I have 13 self produced albums. I tour perhaps 150-160 show dates a year, including many music festivals. I play principally in Canada and the USA although I have also toured to Europe 4 times and South America twice.. I acted and starred In a pilot episode that has won awards all over the USA at indie film fests. It’s called, “The Musicianer”. You can watch it online for free at themusicianer.com. I have a wonderful underground following that I have created through playing music, first on the streets of Canada, then into actual indoor venues. Gradually playing bigger and bigger venues. concerts, and events. My most recent album “Callin’ Me Back” made it onto and might still be on the FAR charts. It reached and spent a few weeks at #37 and #41 on the folk charts, just a couple spots behind Asleep At The Wheel. Pretty good for someone who barely promoted the release.
As you might have guessed from the origin story, that I just told you, the one in Israel, I found music by accident. In fact, I found my way into the world as a creative mostly ‘by accident’. A life in art was anything but encouraged in my youth. Quite the opposite. And once I declared to my family that I had found art as a way of life, it was wholeheartedly discouraged. To say the least. So perhaps ‘by accident’ isn’t the whole truth. Something in me was yearning for the life that I have now, and I listened. I didn’t understand how or where to look or go. I feel like I just took advantage of the opportunities that were presented to me. and through the darkness I blundered until I found some light.
So maybe that sets me somewhat apart from most creatives whom I talk to about their starts? Many were supported by a friend network and/or family, unlike my beginnings. Perhaps that accounts in some way shape or form, for what some people call, “The unique” quality of the music that I create?
I’m most proud of my daughter that I helped raise (with her mom) as a touring musician. I’m proud that I have a self-made career in a highly competitive field, and in an equally obscure niche of the music world. I’m proud that I get to make and present the art that is of my own choosing, not necessarily dictated by money or influence. I’m proud that I made my art under my own steam, funded by MYSELF. I suppose that those things also set me apart from a great many other artists in my world at similar stages of their careers.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I hope to INSPIRE.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

BUSTER KEATON. Reg Hartt. Sheila Gostick. So many great books besides. Meditation. Clowning with DMac.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://petuniaandthevipers.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petuniaandthevipers/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PetuniaTheVipers
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PetuniaAndTheVipers

Image Credits

Photos by Saroyan Humphrey
@Saroyan62

except the one in from of the brick wall solo bio by Francis A Wiley @theneopictorialist