Robert Ian McNabb (f. 1960) er måske den bedst kendte sanger og sangskriver, men har dog sat sine spor i engelsk musik. Han var med i bandet Icicle Works (firserne og siden gendannet), har spillet sammen med Ringo Starr, Neil Young og Crazy Horse og mere til. Han har haft en lang solokarriere, der har resulteret i 13 soloalbums plus det løse. Og så er han fra Liverpool. Hans erindringer hedder meget passende Merseybeast.
McNabb er 63 år er kommet i den alder, hvor man naturligt begynder at tænke på, hvordan resten af livet gerne skal være og ikke være. Og hans tanker og overvejelser (fra hans Facebookside) fortæller meget om det at være udøvende musiker i vores verden og om hvad der i sidste ende betyder noget og ikke betyder noget:
The person who bought my Telecaster off me is a long term fan and guitar collector. Some of you seem worried I’m in a financial jam, I’m not – I just don’t see the point of guitars laying around collecting dust in my cellar that I hardly ever touch.
The cool thing is I only bought great instruments and they hold their value and often increase. The fact that I owned them and played them on a lot of records some people adore doesn’t hurt their worth.
At this stage in life I am edging towards what I hope will be a secure future. I’ve never been wealthy – but I’ve pretty much always been able to do whatever it is I wanted. I get my pension soon – I now own my house outright so no one’s kicking me out anytime. That’s a real weight off my mind I can tell you. I wish my mum was here to enjoy this – we forever worried about repaying the mortgage.
I’ve never had any inheritance – we had to borrow money to bury my father and my mother sold the family home decades ago for a pittance and moved in with me. When things got scary she’d pawn her jewellery. She believed in me.
I’ve been broke and in serious danger of losing my gaff more than once. I’ve never had to get a REAL JOB and I know a lot of people in similar situations to mine have had to do that. That’s hard shit to deal with.
I was lucky I had a couple of sizeable hits when I was younger. One of them global. My songwriting has always been a lifeline – sometimes I went right down to the wire before providence showed up.
In this game you either soar or struggle. There isn’t really a middle ground. Especially now. It’s never been easy. Icicle Works were never a big band – we did OK but never moved into the big league. As a solo artist I’ve achieved more. I’ll never really understand how it works.
As a songwriter I followed up Love Is A Wonderful Colour and Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream) with Hollow Horse and watched aghast as it tanked. I knew there would be trouble ahead from that moment on. It was then I realised quality did not automatically mean you won.
I’m 64 now and I can still sing like I did when I was 24. I have no idea why. I am very grateful. I’ve still got plenty to say. I’m halfway through a new album – it’s great so far.
Anyway – I may sell more guitars. Do not worry. I have a lot of them.
Into tomorrow …
Ix