Tag: day13

#13 Jamie King.

How far would you go to get what you want, to achieve your dreams, to do more than you had ever imaged with your life? Jamie King was willing to go as far as it took to make in it the music business, even to hell and back, and he did, literally.

After years of struggling and playing shitty dives, with just his acoustic guitar to keep him company, it was becoming harder and harder for Jamie to see a light at the end of the tunnel. He spent his days driving in his beat up Ford to the next fifteen minute set with his name on it, and his evenings drinking until he was kicked out or passed out.

One night, during one of Jamie’s heavier drinking sessions, a man approached him. He wore a sleek black suit made by some famous Italian designer.  He said his name was Delvin, his business card claimed he worked for Pitchfork records.

That was all Jamie could remember in the morning when we woke up in the back seat of his car. He figured it must have been some kinda dream, his subconscious taunting him. That was until he found the business card in his back pocket. Scrawled across the back in red ink was a message that simply read, Jamie give me a call to discuss recording that E.P. Devlin.

The phone call was quick. Delvin asked how much he wanted this, Jamie told him it was all he wanted. They signed the paper work and Jamie was officially Delvin’s act.

Within six months Jamie was on tour supporting 7 Circles, this big time indie rock group from Detroit. Within the year he was on his own nationwide tour to support his album that Pitchfork records put out.

His career lasted four years, three E.Ps and one album, which went fucking platinum.  It ended on Jamie’s twenty seventh birthday, when Delvin came to collect.

See Jamie never read the fine print, why would he, he just wanted to make music more than anything. Turns out he’d made a deal with the devil. The price for his success? His eternal soul. He wasn’t the first and he wont be the last, a musician with so much to give, taken away at twenty seven.

This is the tale of how Jamie King went to hell. Now how he left again is a tale for another time.