Garrett Goodwin began his career playing in the backdrop of worship movements across the country, including Zoegirl, Jeff Deyo of Sonicflood, Lindell Cooley, and two-time Dove Award winner By The Tree. He has since transitioned fluidly through the musical world. Most recently, Garrett has spent the last seven years as the drummer for Carrie Underwood. He’s also performed live with Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith; on Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Fallon, The Grammy Awards, The American Music Awards, The People’s Choice Awards, Billboard Awards, among others.
Garrett resides in Nashville, Tennessee, where you’ll find him co-leading KMLMNYC, a nonprofit organization with the mission of sending bags filled with educational material to children in need. Throughout his career, Garrett has played for over 1 million people…for each tour he’s been on, and was named #1 up and coming drummer in Modern Drummer Magazine in 2013. All of this, and he’s just getting started.
Table of Contents
5:12 – If you had to describe yourself as a band, song, or genre, what would it be?
6:42 – How did you get started in the music business?
12:01 – Looking back at your career, what stands out to you as your proudest moment?
19:04 – What’s been one of your biggest failures, and what lessons did you learn from that moving forward?
22:14 – Three things artists should be doing today to grow their fan-base and move their careers forward
If you had to describe yourself as a band, song, or genre, what would it be?
I’d have to say Ryan Adams, because I tend to fall on the introverted side. I like to be by myself a lot. But at the same time, when it’s the right people and when it’s the right thing, I love to have a good time. He has those ballads and slow songs that are dark, and then he’ll come out with an album that’s completely rock and to the point. I’d have to say Ryan Adams for sure.
How did you get started in the music business?
I grew up playing in church. I got my first drum set when i was ten years old. I was involved with a pretty big church down in Pensacola, Florida. They had youth church services all throughout the week, so I was there as much as I could be. I would stand behind the drummer, and learn and take in as much as I could. That kind of progressed, and thank God my parents were fine with me having a drum set in the house and with driving them crazy as I learned.
When I turned 18, I moved to Nashville and I tried to meet as many people as I could. I took every gig that I possibly could. I was still playing in church all the time, I was traveling. I was doing all that stuff, and it kinda snowballed. One thing led to another, I met this person and that person, and this person asked me to try out for the Carrie-gig. And that was the base from which all this came from.
Looking back at your career, what stands out to you as your proudest moment?
Definitely when I got the gig with Carrie. It was an amazing day. It was one of those things that I always dreamed about, having a big gig. It was unreal and I feel beyond blessed to work with amazing people. I’d have to say that was it. It’s kind of a no-brainer, I kinda wish I had a more creative answer, but that was definitely my proudest moment.
What’s been one of your biggest failures, and what lessons did you learn from that moving forward?
I wouldn’t say that it was in the middle of my music career, but something that sticks out to me was when I took the one drum lesson in my whole life. I was about 12 years old, and I went to the local music store and my parents signed me up for drum lessons. So I went in for my first weeks drum lesson and my teacher gave me all this homework. I went home, I learned it for that week, and I went back the second week. And he said, “Okay, do what I told you.” So I sat down and I felt like I did what I was supposed to do as a brand-new drummer, as a kid, and the guy looked at me and said, “You’ll never be a drummer, and you might as well look into doing something else.”
As a kid, that messed me up. And it’s always stuck with me. It’s formed who I am as a drummer. It drove me, you know? It was like a shot a to the heart. But it drove me to where I am. Every time I got frustrated, or a gig that didn’t work out, I’d go back to those words, “You’ll never be a drummer.” You know what? I will be a drummer because it’s what I want to do.
Three things artists should be doing today to grow their fan-base and move their careers forward:
- Social media is a huge thing. It’s a cool thing and pretty amazing because back in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s there were all these huge musicians that were untouchable. And now it’s such a cool thing, because now it’s touchable. If you want to tweet to your favorite musician, or whoever, you can. And there is a chance that you will hear back from them. And as far as promoting, everything is social media now.
- Networking is huge. Getting out there, and getting off your couch. Being as good guy to hang around, a good person.
- Being a good person. Someone was just telling me a story that they were at a Kip Moore show. He’s an up-and-coming country guy, and he’s had some great success recently. They said that they were waiting to get in the show, and he came walking through the line just shaking hands with people and saying hey. That guy is a genius, because that guy is making connections with people. Some may feel that he is untouchable, but he’s not. He’s just like anyone else.
The best ways to reach Garrett:
On the web:
http://www.garrettgoodwin.com/
http://www.kmlmnyc.com/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/musicpro
https://www.facebook.com/kmlmnyc
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Ggoodwin
https://twitter.com/KMLMNYC
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