Jack Nelson

Jack Nelson is a life-long Texan. He currently is based in College Station, he was born in Corpus Christi, spent his early years on the nearby King Ranch, and got an education at Sam Houston State in Huntsville. He says, “Aside from the five years I spent in the Navy, traveling around the world…I’ve called Texas home…”

Jack has had a life-long connection to music. “They like to joke that I came out of the womb screaming on pitch,” says of his father and uncle, both hobbyist musicians, who supplied him with his first guitar at age four. “I’ve always been singing and I never shut up,” Jack laughs.

Despite his obvious musical inclination, Jack didn’t envision a career as an artist, admitting, “I never ever intended to grow up to be a full-time musician…”

It wasn’t until he returned to Texas after realizing his dream of being a Navy pilot that Jack found himself pulled in that direction. As he neared completion of his college education, he took his gigging on a test flight from hobbyist into pro territory, and found it to be preferable to a more traditional work-style future. After graduation, Jack says he “walked away from a quarter-million-dollar-a-year job…I figured I’d be much happier making my own schedule, living my own life, doing something I absolutely love, as opposed to waking up and going to the box every day.” For 11 years now, Jack has been living the full-time musician’s life. [Editor’s note: On our podcast interview with him, Jack gives a great, detailed description of a “day in the life” of a full-time, independent musician. Don’t miss it!]

Jack’s current release, Going Places, is a culmination of sorts. Regarding the collection of songs he says, “There’s so much that went into all of these, so many years of just hard times on the road; it could be a whole movie behind the making of the songs on this album.”

To find out more, visit www.jacknelsonband.com. Hear the full interview here.

By Dan Walsh