THE SUNDAY SELFIE SERIES #58
Bill Demain
SUNDAY SELFIE SERIES #58: The magnificent Bill DeMain.
Bill and I shared friends for decades, but didn’t meet in the middle of the Venn Diagram that is our lives, like so many lives in the Nashville community, until just a few years ago. He is a true polymath — talented and accomplished as a songwriter, journalist, author, chef, walking tour host, and he also happens to be one of my favorite francophiles.
Check out his band Swan Dive:
1. What has humbled you more than anything else? Losing my home and most of my belongings in a fire. Not just for the lesson it taught me about how quickly life could be turned upside down, but also because it forced me to think more deeply about anger and forgiveness (the fire was caused by someone in a neighboring condo), impermanence, material possessions and what I need to be happy.
2. Do you feel like you’ve gotten a good education? My formal education sometimes feels like a museum full of useless things - chief exports of Angola, rational numbers, gerunds. It turns out what mattered most along the way were two teachers who not only encouraged me to pursue writing but made me feel like it was okay to be different. Thanks, Carol and Rao. Also, I still think one of the best days of my life was when I got my first library card, at age six. I checked out Harold & The Purple Crayon.
3. Do you believe that forgiveness benefits the forgiver or the transgressor? Both, I'd imagine. I come from an Italian family, where two generations back, there were lifelong grudges and silences. And often the transgression was something absurdly small, like not sharing a recipe for soup. It's uncomfortable to admit that I've inherited some of that temperament. I've carried resentments around way too long. Like after the fire. I think I've improved at making peace with these situations, but I'm not sure I've learned to truly forgive. I hope I can get better at this before check-out time.
4. What is your proudest accomplishment? As windows have inevitably closed in my professional life over the last thirty years, I'm proud that I've managed to keep reinventing myself. Weirdly, the thing I might be proudest of is, on the surface, the silliest - my two books of prank letters. Knowing that they've made people laugh makes me feel like I've put something good into the world. I'm also proud to have so many ridiculously talented friends.
5. How would you like to live out your golden years? I daydream of being a boulevardier in Paris. But probably I'd get bored doing that. So, I'd like to just keep doing what I'm doing now for as long as I can – writing songs and stories, making art, hanging out with my girlfriend, seeing friends, traveling, cooking, drinking coffee and wine. Maybe in Paris?
And just a fun fact: Bill’s brother, Jim, engineered parts of my first record and the entirety of the third, and is now a mastering engineer who has one of the best sets of ears I’ve ever been in a room with.
How is it that I’m the only one here all day liking and commenting on this cool man? I hit this when it came out with a like, but I’m a little more than miffed that no one has shown him any respect, or this medium, for that matter. The comment about being from an Italian Family resonates for me. Literally over a soup recipe! Yes, indeed. We know how to feud, as well as anybody. I can freely admit that I carry resentment. Now is not the time to say why. It’s Bill’s day. (Also, this is probably the closest answer to what I could possibly give regarding forgiveness.) Also, I for one am relieved to not have to go on Social Media to get my daily dose of AM. I will anyway, but it’s different in here (though there has already been one commenter who angered me, I kept my mouth shut.) I can tell already and I like it.