Phil Vassar encouraged and then promptly discouraged people who aspire to be country music singers when he spoke with Dial-Global recently. Vassar's quote starts out with a joke about getting a "real job" and then derails into something like a stab at unoriginality?
"I think just stay in school and get a real job is probably my advice. No, ultimately you really have to do what you do. When you start sounding like somebody else — 'man that guy sounds just like Willie' or 'he sings just like Conway Twitty,' or whatever it is, you're doing yourself a disservice because, when you're compared to somebody like that you're never gonna overcome it."
So what Vassar is saying is that country music rewards originality and frowns on anonymity. Sure, whatever.
"You really have to do your own thing and trim your own path," he continues. "Otherwise I think you're gonna go away. And finding your own niche is the hardest thing to do as an artist."
