Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought (Topic: “The feeling of performing onstage”)

Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought (Topic: “The feeling of performing onstage”).

Brett Jolly’s Daily Thought (Topic: “The feeling of performing onstage”)

Mr. Jolly, what is it like to perform onstage? Do you ever get nervous, and what do you think of while you are performing? Do you prefer small crowds or large ones and are you ever afraid of making mistakes?

Michael Jackson once said that “There is no other feeling in the world like performing onstage” and he was right. While I would never equate my status to that of Michael, I can honestly say that having a mass crowd while you are doing your thing is “incredibly awesome.” Personally, I have had the honor of playing in front of crowds as little as 3, and as big as 300 thousand. As crazy as this may sound, I would probably be more nervous playing in front of just 3. The bigger the crowd, the more I feed off of it, and the more I am likely to “show my tail.” Whenever I did shows like this, I would often jump up and down, turn around and just “stick my head” in any camera that came my way onstage. I absolutely LOVE bigger audiences. As for my thoughts while I am performing onstage, they often vary. While I am playing I will often glance through the audience to try and see as much as I can (my daughter says I am naturally nosy). Depending on the lighting in the audience (and the venue itself) I may be able to see all of the members. Usually for indoor events, I rarely get to see past the 3rd row. I am trying to find a tasteful way to describe what it is like to have a massive audience digging your performance, but the best I can tell you is that it has a “mental” aspect of “having sex” with the audience. Before you judge that statement harshly (and I know some will do that), I am only saying that the bass (and the drums) in a song are what people “feel.” Every other instrument is basically just heard. Since I am controlling what people feel, then in essence it is like I am having sex with the audience (because I am controlling the pleasure they are feeling). I love having that type of control and I do my best to make it work. I hope that no one misunderstands this statement. Finally, I can remember doing a special live DVD show with Teddy Pendergrass in Los Angeles. I remember going through the whole “entire” program and on the very “last” song I said to myself, “Wow, I made it through this whole show and didn’t make any mistake at all.” At that point, I actually “hit” a wrong note. I am saying this to state that “mistakes” happen frequently in shows. No one is perfect, and no musician or singer is perfect. The question is whether or you not you can tell that a mistake has been made. Most musicians try not to show it with their expressions onstage but just about everyone has made a mistake. I never worry about it and I always love to have fun. I hope this gives you a better perspective of what it is like to perform in concert, and I thank you for inquiring about my world. I hope you have yourself a great day.

 

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Billy Paul and Brett Jolly in concert in Tunisia, Africa