In this bonus episode I welcome back Shawn Nelson of Lovesac to share an awesome story about when his kids opened for the I Love the 90s Tour!
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Lovesac - Modern Furniture
@shawnoflovesac
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** Transcript Auto-Generated**
00:00:00:10 - 00:00:38:15
Matthew Krekeler
Welcome back. This is Girl Dad Nation. I'm here again with Shawn Nelson, the CEO of Lovesac. And Lovesac has been involved with a lot of amazing concerts. Sean has had the opportunity to meet many musical guests, musical artists, and I wanted to ask him as a dad, how has music been involved with his life and what cool stories does he have with his kids?
00:00:38:15 - 00:01:06:21
Shawn Nelson
So one of the most satisfying, proudest moments of my life happened just, I don't know, six months ago, standing on a stage as a co-lead singer in our little family band in front of a thousand people in a ballroom in Salt Lake City, opening for Montell Jordan, Rob Bass, the entire I Love the Nineties tour who was going to perform for my company.
00:01:06:21 - 00:01:37:13
Shawn Nelson
So I had this unique opportunity to invite, you know, I had legitimate act to our big company party that happens once a year. And I indulge myself by volunteering our, you know, my kids to be the opening act. And it sounds like, you know, a cool thing to do, but it's it's not easy because as someone who played in a cover band like his whole life, I'm not going to stand on that stage with a professional sound system.
00:01:37:13 - 00:02:10:23
Shawn Nelson
A thousand people, not all of them. My employees, like we had guests coming in, all kinds of people there to open for real artists that are standing backstage. Unless it's legit, unless it's a solid performance. So what the audience didn't see were the weeks and months of rehearsing that went into about a 20 minute set. We're going to play some nineties rock, everything from sublime, you know, to blink 182 and we're going to do it seamless without any breaks.
00:02:10:23 - 00:02:16:17
Shawn Nelson
And so I've got my nine year old Valentine on the bass. She's she she can't she can barely hold this instrument.
00:02:17:09 - 00:02:19:00
Matthew Krekeler
And it was a full size bass.
00:02:19:05 - 00:03:01:15
Shawn Nelson
Full size bass. I've got my 11 year old daughter as our lead singer that we trade off doing lead and backups together and and rhythm guitarist. I've got my oldest daughter doing her first solos on electric guitar, you know, trying to play Def Leppard solos, trying to play some of these Phil's sublime solos. And I've got my son on drums and they're kids, and it's their first full gig, and I've watched them push themselves out of their comfort zone by going to play on the boardwalk.
00:03:01:15 - 00:03:27:10
Shawn Nelson
When we when we visit San Diego, they go play for money. They go play for Taps. Just my daughter and her guitar and a microphone. And it works. And that was her first taste. But it took some bravery to do that. It takes bravery to stand up there and play music that could be terrible. Thankfully it wasn't. And just that whole experience is kind of a culmination of many, many years of music lessons.
00:03:27:23 - 00:04:03:13
Shawn Nelson
But most importantly, the many weeks and months of getting to rehearse with the family. And trust me, many of those rehearsals ended in tears. This kid's mad at that kid. Someone was plugging in, unplugging, stepping on someone's cord. This gets messed up. Someone messes up, someone speeds up, someone slows down, someone gets the words, someone's guitar is out of tune and I want to stab my eyes out because it's hard enough tuning your own guitar and getting the volumes right, whatever, just in your own living room to rehearse and get ready for this, but to manage for children that are that are just learning the names of the strings on the instruments still, like even
00:04:03:13 - 00:04:22:22
Shawn Nelson
though they've, you know, there's just a lot to all of this and what's amazing is they pulled it off, they pulled it off, they played that set. And the day, the week, the week before, we had to travel up to Salt Lake from Saint George to go to this event. The few days before, it was like an egg on a roof.
00:04:22:22 - 00:04:35:15
Shawn Nelson
Maybe we'll do the gig. Maybe. Well, maybe we'll back out. And we could have backed out. We could have just, you know, the deejay could have opened up the show and then those professional artists could have come on, it would have been fine. But I really wanted to push it. And my wife was like, Are you sure you want to do this?
00:04:35:15 - 00:05:14:07
Shawn Nelson
They're at each other's throats. They're upset. They're angry half the time. But man, when we exited that stage, having played a 22 minute set without stopping, not flawlessly, but pretty well, well enough for a bunch of kids. Well enough to rock the crowd. You should have seen it when my daughter on the bass, she hadn't said a word for the first four songs and then, you know, spotlight over to her because we're we fade in two Beastie Boys down and then you wake up late for school and you don't want to go.
00:05:14:07 - 00:05:35:10
Shawn Nelson
There's nine year old just shouting in the mic with a bass in her hand and keeping up with the bass line. The whole crowd is just dying because she screamed. And Beastie Boys, they all know the words. And, you know, we trade around, they all sing a line and it worked and it came off well. And those kids were pumped and they achieved they accomplished their high fiving.
00:05:35:10 - 00:06:00:08
Shawn Nelson
Montell Jordan backstage. They opened for, you know, a nineties legend, their first gig. And look, I'm in a unique position to have facilitated that right. But I did I could I could have not gone through the weeks and months of prep, which, by the way, had to happen at night, because I'm busy running a company. Yeah. And by the way, they're busy going to their lessons and they're busy doing whatever they're doing as kids.
00:06:00:08 - 00:06:32:16
Shawn Nelson
And this was extra. But you know what? That video that I now have of that performance will live forever. And by the way, the confidence those kids garnered from that, not just the performance, but from my everything that led up to it and it leveled them up ten times. It's amazing that Wonder Bike race, that one live performance, these kinds of events level your kids up in ways that, you know, ten sessions of practicing can't do because because, by the way, the practices included, you know, to be able to do something like that.
00:06:32:16 - 00:06:50:09
Shawn Nelson
So it was a blessing for me. Thankfully, the egg rolled the right way. We we we booked that gig. We committed to it. We did the gig. And on the other side of that, the kids are stronger for and our relationship is closer for it. Like we did that together. What a blessing.
00:06:51:21 - 00:07:01:14
Matthew Krekeler
That's such a great story. I love that. And a core memory, I'm sure, for your family. Yeah. Looking forward to the next gig. Hopefully. That sounds awesome.
00:07:02:04 - 00:07:02:15
Shawn Nelson
Thank you.
00:07:03:02 - 00:07:33:07
Matthew Krekeler
Shawn, thank you so much. And yeah, I would encourage all of my audience out there. Just do something, as Shawn would say, whether it's booking a gig, taking a lesson, but encourage your kids, find those cool opportunities that are unique to you and your family. And until next time, go be a dad.