Intro 0:14 – Intro
Welcome to "Scene Change", a podcast by the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts division. All about equality, opportunity, accessibility, and the arts. Here, you'll learn about the techniques from performers in the know. We are changing what it means to be blind at one stage at a time. Thank you for joining us today.

Lizzy 0:41 – Introduction to Joey Stuckey
Hello, everyone and welcome to 'Scene Change', where we do our part to influence the future of accessibility and the performing arts. I'm Lizzy Muhammad Park, the Vice President of the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts division, and your host of the show. We've been on a winning streak with our recent interviews. They've all been very, very great, and today we are so fortunate to have another professional award winning singer songwriter, radio personality, TV personality, guitarist, and sound engineer. I think I got them all. Joey Stuckey. Welcome to the show, Joey.

Joey
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it

Lizzy 1:25 – How does Joey describe himself and his music
We are so glad to have you here today. In my research, I've learned that you are quite the artists, your musical background is very eclectic. How would you describe yourself as a musician? And then outside of that? How would you describe yourself as a person?

Joey
Well, musically, I'm just so inspired by sound and I just love music so much that I really hate being pigeon holed as an artist, and as an artist, what you want to do is create and the goal is to communicate at the at our essence, you know, arts about communication, whether it's painting, dance, music, sculpting, writing, you know, whatever kind of artistic expression is, me at the end of the day, we're communicators primarily, and so I like to feel like I have the freedom to create any genre or style of music, that that communicates my message. That being said, you do have to also understand who you are, and you have to define who you are, and then you have to do that. Because you have to define who wants to listen to or consume your art, you've got to have somebody, you know, you can make the greatest art in the world. But if nobody knows about it, you're not going to be able to make that sustainable. So my my style is very eclectic. You're right, I kind of feel like I'm a renaissance man in the sense that, you know, I love so many different things, and I love so many different art forms and loves to make different kinds of music, and I just, I'm just inspired by sound, whether it's classical, which is where my background, I started playing classical when I was about 17, and I still, you know, have fingernails on my right hand for the classical guitar, even though I don't really play classical music much anymore. But But I mean, I just I just really love jazz. I love country. I love hip hop. I love heavy metal. I love reggae. I mean, I like it all. What I've done in recent years is to sort of redefine I have a couple of different groups that I run. So I have a sort of a solo acoustic singer songwriter thing that I do by myself and then I have sort of my rock blues. trio. Our musics a little bit more eclectic than that we we've made up a title called progressive Americana. Americana being a broad umbrella for a country and blues and folk music and things of that nature, and progressive usually denotes elements of you know, heavy rock and jazz. People call it progressive rock, and so we call it progressive Americana, which is just something we totally made up, and then I've got a full on, you know, jazz trio that does fusion and bebop and all these kind of things. So I do a lot of different things. But I've sort of the answer to your question and conclude part one. As a person, I brought my brand myself fairly broadly, and I have sort of a broad, you know, brand. But what I've done is I defined myself very broadly, and then I define each album that I create. So each sort of work of art that I create, very specifically very narrowly, so that people can find it, and you know, as a person, I just, I'm excited to share my story in my life with people, and music is the primary vehicle through which I do that. But I mean, I also do a lot of inspirational talks and I do a lot of music business, master classes and recording master classes, and I teach at the varsity level music technology for a couple of universities here in town, so I think a lot of different things, and at the end of the day, I just, I really just want to leave the world a little better than I found that that's kind of my overall mission, and so that's I mean, that's, that's a little bit about kind of, kind of the, the weird universe, that is me.

Lizzy 5:20 – How did Joey’s parents raise him
That's a great mission to have, especially as an artist, specifically as an artist with a disability. Because, you know, you want to leave the world better than you found it, and you know, too often people assume that we are people who need to be served, and that we cannot serve others. So I really love that mission, and I commend you for taking it on, and really, you know, committing to that committing to that passion. Now, I understand that part of this may have come from the way you were raised, your parents really seem to have raised you with a, as we say, in the NFB take charge with confidence kind of attitude. So my question is, where do you think they got it from? You know, because it's—

Joey
A great question. Yeah. I mean, that is a beautiful question. Because my mom and my dad, both, I mean, they were very, I don't know how to say it just really ahead of their time, you know, now, there's a lot of science and research about helping children and things like that, but they really did things at a time when that wasn't done my, my blindness, and the other health challenges I face come from a brain tumor, and so, you know, when, these days, they can go in and just have a very small incision, to remove the type of brain tumor I had. But but but back in the mid 70s, when I had mine, it was still kind of the dark ages of that kind of surgery, and, in fact, the very first doctor told my parents that that, you know, they do the surgery, but there wasn't really any point. Because I wasn't going to make it, and my parents said, Okay, well, you're not doing the surgery, and, and so the, the second factor was a little bit more positive, they basically said, Look, if we don't operate, we know your son's gonna die. If we do operate, there's a high probability that he will not survive the surgery, and if he does survive the surgery, he may not ever walk or talk. But my parents said, well, we're going to, we're going to do the very best thing based on the information we have, and we're gonna do the very best thing that we can to give our son the best chance for survival, but not only survival, because really, in my mind, I don't know what my parents were thinking at that moment. But in my mind, survival is not sufficient. Survival is is important, and it's something to be fought for. Don't get me wrong. But there also has to be a greater purpose. I want to I want to survive, yes. But I want to have a life of meaning and a life of intention is what I like to call it. So that's they did the surgery, they told my parents Look, if they become out in less than eight or nine hours, you need to be prepared. That's not good news. They came in came out in about three hours, and the doctor said, he felt like that he didn't really have a good explanation, but he just felt like a higher power took hold of his hands and lifted the tumor, and the damage was done by the tumor, not by the surgery, but by the tumor because it was basically blowing up. If you think about it, it was it was expanding at such a fast rate. But it's crushed all the wiring. Inside the brain, destroyed my optic nerves and destroyed my sense of smell, my sense of smell, it destroyed my endocrine system, so I don't, I don't have good adrenal functions and other stuff like that gave me some issue in my bones. But you know, we've got it done, and we did the best we could I spent about three between three and four months in the ICU afterwards, and it's been a struggle ever since. But my parents man, I don't know. They were just ahead of their time. They always found a way to keep me focused on what was possible instead of what wasn't possible, and always kept me focused on affirmation over fear, and it's I don't know how they came up with that. I really don't. I mean, my dad was the first person in his family to go to college. He grew up cutting down trees in a swamp in Georgia. That's, that's, you know, what they did, they owned, you know, some farms and stuff like that. We had a very rural background. My mom was the daughter of a Baptist preacher and they they just loved me and love life and knew that whatever was thrown at them, and whatever they had to do, to make sure I had the most fulfilling life I could is what they would do some way, one way or another. It's amazing to me and my mom, when she found out she was pregnant with me. You know, nowadays, people talk about this all the time, but back then they didn't choose to play like bird sound effects, and classical music and stuff, and a lot of people go Oh, now that's kind of a popular thing. Oh, play, even before the child's born play a lot of soothing or classical music and, and stuff like that in music was always a big part of our house that we celebrated and how we comfort ourselves, and so, you know, I was surrounded by love, and I was surrounded by positivity and surrounded by music. So I don't know how they had such a, such a brilliant way of helping me focus in a manner that was positive and in making sure that I felt, honestly, if anything, they probably did a good job, making me feel like I knew anything. Because I decided that when I was I guess I was maybe 11. A lot of kids at school, were swinging real high and then jumping out of the swings in the land on the ground, and I told my mom, I was like, I'm not I'm not sure, you know, when the jump, but she's like, Oh, well, we can figure that out. Let's do that, and so I tried it and broke my arm, under my under my parent's supervision. You know, a lot of blind people don't ride bicycles and stuff like that, obviously, you can't see where you're going, not the best idea in the world. I had a three wheeled bike and gave that a shot knock back two of my front teeth. But, you know, I had the experience. I'm not I don't, I don't do it anymore. I learned I learned my lesson. But But I mean, I've had the experience, and when I was in college, I mean, I thought, Oh, I can I can do I can be a conductor, just because I can't see doesn't mean I can't be a conductor, and of course, you know, one of the most important things in conducting is eye contact, that's not going to happen, and and then of course, you know, you have to memorize this massive score, and if you know and and if you are trying to read Braille music and conduct that is not going to work because you have to use both hands. So you can't read music and conduct at the same time. So I tried that class I got a 'B' I worked my butt off. I I've worked so hard and that class is the hardest it's probably the hardest I've ever worked for a grade in my life and I made but I am a terrible conductor. I am I what you call low side of adequate, and the thing is, I've got that experience and my parents were really big on giving me experiences. Yeah, I went to school, I went to college, I did all those things. But they made sure to give me lots of experiences in lots of just different ways to experience the world. Like just because I was blind, we still went to the circus. I couldn't see the circus, but I was able to feel the energy of the crowd, I was able to enjoy the music. So my parents never, never told me that I couldn't do something but at the same time, they always made sure that I had a realistic grasp of what was possible and what was reasonable, and and you know, never put myself in danger or never put myself in a position of trying to do something that's just you know, not not in the realm of reality. But But within those parameters. man you know, they let me do a lot of different things and help me to explore the universe explore the world.

Lizzy 13:45 – Where did “Blind Man Drivin’” come from?
Now you said something just a moment ago and it sparked a question that I had originally planned for later but I'm gonna bump it up to the top What did you say it was something about going for anything and your parents you know essentially encouraging you to do everything within reality. Now where did the inspiration for your song I think of the name of it right? Is it "Blind Man Drivin"

Joey
So because we're here in the south, I'm hearing in the in the southern rock capital the world Macon, Georgia, and so we spell it we always say the blind man's driving. So we put the apostrophe at the end but that is a song that's about it. Well, first of all it has it has two purposes. The first purpose is it's a kind of fun play on words because the hook of the song is loving you is like a "Blind Man Drivin", and, and that just means it's a terrible idea. Blind men driving is a terrible idea and loving this particular person's a terrible idea, and so that's kind of the hook of it. But I like to, I really want to teach people that blind is not a dirty word. I, I want people to know that the word blind is not synonymous with some kind of insult, I am intelligent enough to know if I'm being insulted or not, and while I certainly appreciate people being sensitive to my feelings, and I do, you can call me visually impaired if you want, that's fine. Nothing wrong with that some people prefer it, I don't really care what you call me, as long as it's in a loving way. So you can say blind, because I'm visually impaired, you can say visually challenged, honestly, the most accurate way to state my visual condition is blind. It's not like I can see to read or I can wear glasses, or, you know, to me that's more visually impaired or whatever. But I just want people to know, you know, if you're not comfortable in your own skin, then no one can be comfortable around you. You have to, you have to know who you are, you have to love yourself. Because until you do that, you just you just you know, you're just harder to, you're hard to interface with, it's harder to be accessible if you don't have this thing, and so I remember that I was talking at a school and a young lady came up to me and said that she'd been in a wheelchair for 17 years, and that the people at the school didn't treat her well that she had experienced some bullying, and I've experienced that bullying when I was in, you know, grammar school and stuff like that as well, and she said, People just don't like me, and I said, Well, we can't control other people. The only thing you can control is yourself, and my question for you is do you love yourself? Do you believe that you are a unique creation, that you are special and worth love? And you know, do you believe that because if you don't believe that, if you feel awkward, if you feel shy, if you feel if you feel uncomfortable with who you are, then nobody else can be comfortable with who you are. Because we send out all kinds of messages on a daily basis, the way you hold your head, the way you hold your arms and hands, your posture, the way you walk, the way your voice sounds, the clothes you choose to wear all these things send out signals, and people really can't help it in my opinion. But we form instant our brains like a puzzle, and our brains like to connect the dots, and even when we're not aware of it, sometimes we're making judgments and we're not aware of it, and so, you know, if you send out signals that you're not approachable, that's going to complicate things for you. So it's really important to be open and feel approachable and feel comfortable in who you are, and I'm totally comfortable talking about being blind, I'm totally comfortable about talking about being overweight, I'm totally comfortable about talking about being a musician. I am not a perfect being. That's something I work on. But I am worth of love, and I am I am someone that loves and you know, and so, you know, I just I really think about that. So Blind Man Drivin', and especially the video that goes with it.

Lizzy
Which is hilarious by the way

Joey
Thank you very much. I appreciate that. It's really about saying it's okay, sometimes being blind is funny, and it's okay to laugh. It's okay to laugh. Sometimes it's funny. I mean, I've got lots of stories about scrapes I got into, because I couldn't see what I was doing, and you know, something silly happen. So sometimes it's funny, I just want people to know it's okay to laugh, it's okay to say the word blind. So that's really kind of the greater message of "Blind Man Drivin" for me anyway, is is to break down any kind of barrier of awkwardness or shyness. But by saying, Hey, I can laugh myself, and you can last me too. Now that does not mean that I think that people should be insensitive, that doesn't mean that I think people should be cruel. Or, in fact, I just I wasn't one of these private Facebook groups that have full musicians, and I recently posted an article on a website about how to stay healthy in the entertainment business because the entertainment business has a very weird schedule. There's not a nine to five job, and it's real hard to stay healthy. I'm talking about mental health. I'm talking about physical health, spiritual health, it's real difficult. So I wrote an article about it and somebody posted a really nasty comment about saying that I was overweight and said that, you know, when you lose some weight get back to me about being healthy. Had they bothered to read the article, instead of just looking at the picture and making that Snap, I'm, I'm sort of make quite washing a bit. I mean, it was a lot ruder than that. But but but but but I hadn't bothered read the article they would have, they would have noticed that I talked about during COVID, I've lost 85 pounds, and, and that was one of the things I did to stay positive during COVID was to find a way to improve my life while I had a little extra time, and so, so anyway, let's I'm not in any way saying that people shouldn't be sensitive to other people's feelings or anything like that. I'm just saying that, for us to maximize the opportunity to make friends and to make a positive impacts. We've got to start with ourselves and love ourselves first. So that's a lot about a blind man drive it to me encapsulates that entire philosophy of it's okay to laugh, it's okay to talk about things that are uncomfortable, and it's especially important for adults to have conversations, if they don't understand what it's like to be blind, or they and they want to know, I'd rather them ask me a question that feel uncomfortable, because if adults can't handle it, children sure cant and--

Lizzy
You know what? I’m sorry, go ahead—you, no—

Joey
You go ahead

Lizzy
I find it interesting, actually what you just said, I actually find that children can handle it better than adults, I find that adults are the ones who stifle the children, if you ever think about it, right?

Joey
Well—

Lizzy
Kids—yeah

Joey
That’s a good point because you're right. I mean, there's there's, I think, I think it's, I think it's a double edged sword. I mean, you're right, a lot of ways. Children don't care about some things that adults care about, and they don't, they don't even notice it. So but then again, you know, then again, I have had that experience where kids are like, pedaling the bike will no big deal. But then I've also had instances where, because I was different, and because they couldn't understand me, there was some there was some hostility from children as well. So I've seen it both ways. But you're right. But I think I guess my better point would be that the adults need to lead by example, and how to set an example, and And if it is, you know, they need to understand how to make how to, if the children's do have questions, how to how to handle that one of the great experiences for me, I was in Chicago, on tour playing, and I had gone to the Cloud Gate Park, which they have this there's this huge sculpture that locals called 'The Bean', I think it's actually named as the Cloud Gate. But it's this giant bean shaped sculpture, and it reflects the skyline. So you can come and get these pictures of you in Chicago, with with the skyline behind you, and it's this, this is really a huge piece of artwork, and I was over there, walking underneath it and listening to the acoustics of it, when you could go underneath and it just kind of clapping my hands and kind of listening to it and feeling it feeling the surface and how smooth it was, and all this kind of stuff, and there was a little child that they didn't realize I can hear them, and but I have my hearings, pretty acute. So they didn't realize i could hear them. The little child was I he must have been four, maybe five, and he was asking his mom, like, why is that man groping the statue? Why? What is what's happening? and his mother said, Well, he can't see, and that's the way he's experiencing the statue, and, and, and she did a really good job of explaining that it was a beautiful thing, and I did not intrude on on their moment. But I was really pleased to hear how beautifully she handled it, and again, she handled it like it was no big deal. There was no nothing to see here kind of thing. But But she was answering all the questions, but answered them so beautifully said, That's nice that I don't know who that lady was. But I thought wow, that's a mom, that's got it going on.

Lizzy 24:04 – Uncomfortable performers
Shout out to her. Yeah I think, um, things are definitely getting better, especially with social media. Because people are more exposed to things that other they would have, they would not have otherwise interacted with or learned about. That's true. So I do wonder like, if that is part of it, I think I'm you know, I'm seeing that more and more as well, in different travels and different things that I'm doing is that people are a lot more aware and able to explain things to their kids. But I think you're exactly right about all of it. Even back, you know, and with your answer to the first question was, you have to know who you are. Before you can tell your audience who you are, you know, like you have to, you have to first become real with yourself, and I think that's a huge part of performing and being a performer. There's nothing worse than an uncomfortable performer. That's gotta be that's just awkward to watch, you know.

Joey
You hurt for that person when you when you see someone that feels awkward, and that's what I tell my students and my class. Look. I'm a bantery, any kind of guy, I make a lot of stupid jokes. I talk to the audience, I tell stories. That's my that is just a natural extension of who I am. So for me on stage, that's very comfortable. I'm comfortable with one person. I'm comfortable. 10,000 I don't care. If no, it really isn't different from me. But if that's not your thing, that's totally cool. Just do you. I saw a video the other night I saw Of course, but us just using the comments. But I was watching the video that night at a club in in California, where we played which is the world famous whiskey a go-go, and they were having a live stream, and they had a band on there that was trying to throw like banter, and it was painful. They weren't they were they were really awkward. They felt uncomfortable, and wow, just you know, do you if you're not if you don't talk to the audience, and that's not your thing. That's okay. Don't worry about it. Just do it be you. So but I think, you know, we talked about space, the final frontier, right? I think self discovery is really the final frontier, I think it's a really worthy pastime, and it's a real introspection, I'm, as you can tell, I'm an extrovert. I just am and I'm a hugger, and I like to hug people, and that's just how I am. But I mean, I spend, you know, maybe 45 minutes a day, thinking about things and very deep, philosophical, introspective level and asking myself questions, and, and I think that's really important, because it informs, you know, it informs everything I do, from business, to art, to human relations, you know, all these things, to speaking as an inspirational speaker and that sort of stuff. I mean, it just, it's really important to know yourself, and, and, you know, you change over time, so that's okay, too. So but but just spending a little time to get to know yourself is a worthy, real worthy pursuit in my mind.

Lizzy
Yeah, I would say it's, it should be at the top of everyone's list. Because, I mean, we've been, you know, saying this, but if you don't know who you are, where are you going? What are you doing? You know what I mean? Would you know, you, you have to know yourself first? Yeah, and you have to know who you are? Deep down on the inside, not just who you want to be as a performer, and I feel like they can be different people, which is why I asked you that question about first, which is, who are you as a musician? Who are you as a person? Because I think it's possible to be two different people, you know what I mean? As long as you're comfortable with those.

Joey
We are, we are we are multi multifaceted beings, not just one thing and--

Lizzy
For sure

Joey
But I think for me, though, I mean, honestly, I'm really and my wife will tell you this, I am no different. I'm slightly more amped up on stage, but I'm really no different; sitting here talking to you that I am on a stage somewhere, I just, there's a little bit, I'm a little bit, a little bit more energetic, because you're playing music, and you're doing all these things that are physical and, and so that amps you up a little bit. But it's not. It's not like a totally different situation. I will say this, though, I do believe in cloaking yourself with authority. When you are an expert in your craft, and you want to go out and execute that craft, I do think you have to have a mantle of authority. So when we go on stage, we do believe that we're talented, we do believe that we're going to give you an amazing time, and it's not an arrogance, it's a confidence.

Lizzy
Yeah

Joey
Then when the show's over, that, that all falls away, and it's time to be humble and grateful, and so I but I do believe you've got to have even if you have to fake it at first, you've got to have confidence. Without it, you just cannot be successful. I mean, you just you just cannot, and you've got to go out and, and you've got to go out and for me, we're doing a show. So you've got to go out and sell that show, you got to go out and make that performance entertaining, you got to make an impact from a spiritual level, you've got to entertain inform and lightened. But but if you don't believe in, and that's another reason you should be yourself, and that you should discover who you are because you need to believe in what you're selling. If I don't if I don't believe in my music, why should you? You know?

Lizzy
It’s true

Joey
But But I also want to say, you know, I do talk about a lot about knowing yourself, but it's also okay to admit that you don't know yourself and realize it's a journey and not a destination. So it's okay, you should be excited to explore that. Because you're gonna find out all kinds of interesting things and talents you didn't know you had, and, and I think so I mean, if someone's listening right now, gosh, I don't know who I am. That's cool. That's okay. But start the exploration so that you can make more informed, more intentional choices for your life and you're just going to be a lot happier.

Lizzy
I totally agree with and I would even add that if you don't know yourself, that is the first step to self discovery, that's the first step to getting to know yourself is knowing when you don't know yourself. Because if, you know so--

Joey
I think, go ahead

Lizzy 30:20 – How do you get to know yourself?
And finish off what you were saying. But I was gonna say, how does someone start? How does someone, in your opinion, start getting to know themselves? For the listeners who don't know themselves? How, what? What's something that they can do to start getting to know themselves?

Joey
Well, I think, I think for me, you know, one of the things you have to do is be brave sometimes, and being brave is not the absence of fear. being brave, is being afraid. But moving forward anyway. So I think, you know, if you look at the people that are most successful in whatever fields, you want to pick, whether it's engineering, science, you know, politics, and it doesn't matter what it is, you know, these people believes in something so much, and we're so motivated and inspired by something that they took chances were maybe up, you got to have a little bit of that, take a chance attitude. I'm all about plans, I don't think winging it as a plan. So I don't believe in that I believe in, I believe in planning, I believe in and careful strategic thought processes, and all that kind of stuff. But I also believe in taking a leap of faith, and I like this sort of quasi sort of quasi Buddhist statement that says, leap, and the net will appear. So I kind of I kind of believe in that. I also believe in the idea that success is when opportunity and preparation meet. So I like I like the idea that you you have to go out on faith, but that faith is based on the fact that you are really to be honest, obsessed with something. Something that you're going to be good at is something you're obsessed with something that doesn't feel like you're working when you're doing it. Something that no matter what time of day it is, no matter what's going on, you're still excited about and those are the things that you should focus on. I think to be a well rounded person you be exposed to lots of different things. But you don't have to be good at all those things like I for example, am a terrible bowler. I am I mean that all day long. But it I don't care. It doesn't bother me. I mean, I'm not a good bowling so what that doesn't mean that I won't go bowling my friends if that's what they want to go my if my friends will say, Hey, you guys, my bowling Yeah, I'll come, I'll come be last I don't care. I don't, I don't feel compelled to have to be good at everything I do to enjoy it. You know, I can enjoy the camaraderie even to a jokes at my expense if you want to. You know, I'm a terrible golfer, I go out and golf too, and I'm abysmal. But if somebody wants to do it, and you know, hey, we'll do it. So, you know, I was just saying that. My idea is that exploring the universe around you, until you find that thing that really motivates you, and that thing that really defines you and for me musics a big part of what defines me, but it's not a vocation for me, it's not a career for me. It's not a hobby, it's it's really, to be candid, it's an obsession, and it is just a natural extension of my spirit. It's it's what I live for outside of my friends and family is just the thing that motivates me. I mean, I wake up in the morning, and my two favorite things that I do first thing in the morning, one thing I get my cup of coffee and make that that's, that's fun, and then I go and find this particular spot in my house where I can hear the birds chirping, and that's how I wake up every day because they are musical. So everything, you know, sound and music is just such a huge part of my spirit, and just excites me every day. It doesn't matter. If I've had a bad day, I mean, always still motivates me even even days that are hard and is a business and there's a lot of us. I still go home thankful that I'm able to do. So you know, you can go out and find that thing. That's a natural extension of who you are. that inspires you every single time no matter what's going on, and I think that's a perfect way to start your journey of self discovery and to start finding the way you want to make a difference the way you want to live a life of attention and purpose is finding that thing again. For me. It's music for you. It might be who knows what, you know, maybe it is bowling. For some of you out there. I don't know. I'm sure there's a great blind bowler out there somewhere. I just don't happen to be that.

Lizzy
Yeah, I love that because you're not saying that you know you're not good at all these things because you're blind. You're just not good at it because no one's good at everything, and I think the people who feel the need to be good at everything, I think that's a sign of like insecurity. I think that when you truly are confident you can recognize your strengths and your weaknesses and we all have them.

Joey
Listen, I'm all about, I'm all about letting every part of me work for me, and what I mean by that is that even my flaws can serve a purpose. Maybe they serve an educational purpose. They help teach me things that I don't want to do, or things I shouldn't do, or, or things like that. But for example, I'm not a very, I'm not patient, with myself, I'm patient with other people, but I'm not patient with myself. That's that's a problem. But my impatience works to my advantage, because in one way, because it means that I get things done ahead of time, that I am, I am always exceeding people's expectations, when they give me a timeline, I always get it done early. I'm always the first, I'm always the first person there. I'm always the last person to leave. Because because I have that real, you know, impatience to move forward and to get things done, and so even that I try to let work for me. But I think that failure is not a bad word either. I think failure is okay to in fact, I think it serves just as valid a place as success when it comes to teaching you, who you are, and what things you want to do what things you don't want. So that's cool, and again, yeah, I just happen not to be good at bowling or golf, and it's cool, and like people, sometimes people will ask me questions. You know, I teach I teach these master classes in music theory, and I teach master classes in improvisation that seems to masterclasses in music technology, and music, business and all this stuff, and sometimes someone asked me a question, and I can honestly and without shame, say, you know, I don't know the answer that question, but I'll do my best to help you find out. So I did not feel compelled at all to feel like I have to know everything, I have to be good at everything, and I think you're totally right. I mean, it's it's insecurities that tend to make people want to pretend that they are other than what they are, and you know, whether that manifest is trying to be a thought they have to know everything, or whatever, and I don't think that's particularly helped me, but you know, nobody's perfect.

Lizzy 37:27 – Get it done early mindset start
Right, exactly. Now, you said something a minute ago, you like to get things done early.

Joey
I do

Lizzy
And I read the you graduated high school at what, 14 or something like that?

Joey
That is true

Lizzy
After being home schooled?

Joey
Yeah

Lizzy
Is that? Does that play into? Have you had this get it done early mindset. Since then? Or?

Joey
Yeah, you know, I don't know how many people have listened to the musical "Hamilton". I kind of feel like that's the-- it's one of my favorite things, and there's a wonderful line that in "Hamilton" that says, 'Why are you writing like you're running out of time?', I will admit to you that I have always been a bit concerned, in the very deep, deep recesses of my psyche, about running out of time, when you've almost died a couple times, that is something that becomes, you know, a part of the reality you have to cope with, that you've been near death several times, and there's no guarantee of it tomorrow, and I don't say that in a abysmal way or in a sad way. But I do have to admit that it's a little bit of the drive that I have, because I have so many things that I want to accomplish before my time's up, and so there's part of that, and, and, and I, you know, I almost died, you know, most of my significant illnesses were as a child. So there was there was some of that and there were days where I couldn't go and be all my friends, that I was too sick. There was some really exciting opportunities that I had to miss. My dad was very involved in politics, and we had a chance to go and watch Bill Nelson who was a senator who was on the spot the space shuttle missions back in the 80s we have a chance to go and watch them launch into space from Mission Control at Cape Canaveral, but I was too sick to go, and that was a being a space enthusiast, and a science enthusiasts that was a real bummer for a kid. So there's some of that there's some of that there. There's also the fact that when I feel good, I feel good, but there are times when when my physical limitations do get the better of me they're not often because my willpower is so strong and I used to just push through, but every once in a while, you know, because I don't have normal adrenal function. There are days you know, with with chronic fatigue and stuff like that, that just geingg better so, yeah, I always had, I've always had a little bit of that let's I love to get things done because then I can move on to something else exciting. But when I was, when I was a child, I, a lot of it was I was really more focused on survival than any kind of deep, philosophical bent as a kid. So what happened, the reason that I graduated so early, was that the high school I was going to i had to be home-schooled for that summer prior to graduation. That that, I guess it was maybe about six months, it was maybe summer and fall, I had to be home-schooled because I had been really sick with pneumonia. The medicine they gave me to help cure that made me start throwing up blood, which was pretty pretty. Let's just say it wasn't fun, and it was dangerous, and, but but I had already taken because I had such accelerated, I've always had good comprehension skills, and I've always placed in a 98 to 99th percentile in my SATs and stuff like that. So I had a really active mind, I still very active mind and very active brain, and I just processed information and just chewed it up really fast and remembered what I was told, and so I had just, I had done everything that the school could offer me, I'd taken all the classes required, I even took two college classes that they offered, and then they said, look, you've done everything we can do, you got to go. It's time to move on. So that's that's kind of how that happened. But I just always was reading ahead, I was always ahead of people in class, you know, it just just I just was always very active and I read a lot. I do know Braille. I'm not a I'm not a speed reader. I'm very clumsy with Braille to be honest, because I didn't learn it till I was about 12 or 13 years old, and, and because no one in my area taught it. Yeah, and the closest person was like, 400 miles away. So we we didn't do that. But finally, when I was about 13 years old, there was there was a lady that taught it at one of the local schools, and she was incredible. She'd actually read it with her eyes. She just you know, she knew how to sight read it, and she taught me but I'm clumsy, and I didn't really spend a lot of time with it. Because I think if you've kind of figured out if it if it doesn't work. If it doesn't work for me, then I move on to what does work for me, and I didn't like the books. They were huge. I was like, I'd rather listen, I'd rather I'd rather use tapes, and you know, I speed Listen, even now I have you I'm sure you do too. I have jaws and voice over and all that screen readers cranked up to really high speed. Yeah, people come to the studio, they hear this little voice bedroom. My favorite one is this guy goes, Hey, is that Cantonese? He's like, I'm glad you think I speak Cantonese that I'm that kind of guy. But, it's English, if anything, it's Creole. But yeah, so I mean, you know, as a kid, I always listened, and you know, I was very, very sick, and so I was reading books. I was reading like Canterbury Tales and stuff. When I was in first grade, second grade, I was reading, I was reading things like, I read something called "Goodman & Gilman's: The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics" when I was about eight, because I wanted to understand why I was taking so much medicine, how medicine work, how it had an effect on my body. So you know, my wife and I, when we were first married, we've been married 18 years this June.

Lizzy
Oh wow

Joey
Yeah, and when we were first married, she said, the first month or two she, she said, You know, I started thinking that you just didn't weren't listening to me that I'd say something to you, and ask you a question like, ask your opinion on something and you just go, No, that's my opinion, and she'd say, God, he didn't even think about what I asked him, and then she chew on it for a couple days, and she come back and go, I reached the same conclusion. But I had to think about it a couple of days, and I said, well, honey, I don't do that I analyze the information I have, and if there's no other information that's forthcoming, I make a decision. That is part of that. You're going to die if we don't take the (branch number?) out, you may die if we do, we got to get this done and just do the best we can do and move on. That's just that's part of my (). So I you know, I don't agonize over decisions. You know, I just I analyze the information I have, if I have more information that's going to be coming to me in the future, then I'll wait now I'll wait till I get that information. But if there's no other information coming, there's no point agonizing for five, six days over a question. That's not going to be information. It's not changing. So I don't do that. Just sort of Well, here's Here's the best decision I can make, based on the information I have, let's get on with it.

Lizzy
That makes sense, and that actually, I'm sure it makes you a better leader, because you're so decisive in what I mean, you don't have to, you know,

Joey
You're never going to wonder what I'm thinking or what I expect. You know, and again, I do it with love and kindness, but, but you have to be I just really believe in honesty, I think, is the absolute critical component to living a life that you're proud of, and you just, you just need to tell the truth, you can tell it in a way that's not hostile, you can tell it in a way, that's not rude. I'm not for being rude. There are a lot of people that say, I'm just being honest, and actually, they're just being mean. So I don't, I'm not espousing that. But I'm just saying, you know, tell the truth and be honest about who you are, and what my wife and I had, we never have arguments, and people, when they hear me say that they're like, That can't be true, but it is true, and the reason that's true, is before we got married, I sat down and had a very serious, you know, two hour conversation with my wife and saying, I want to make, you know, I want us to spend our life together. This is what I think marriage is this, what I think it means, these are the things that I hold sacred. If you don't feel the same way about some of these things, it's not going to work out. So we need to know that now, and, you know, it was just the saying, you know, these are, I mean, if you, if I love Star Trek, and you want to watch Sex in the City, that's something we can get over. But, but but if, if I'm someone that has a heart for service, and you don't, that's going to be a problem, and I've got, I've got a friend who had a marriage didn't work out because he wanted to be in a heart for service, and he wanted to dedicate his life to helping other people. So he spent a lot of time doing that, and rather than his spouse being engaged with him, in that process, they want to go off and do something different, and that's cool, if both of you were okay with that. But they weren't both, okay. So that honestly comes back to play, you just need to be honest about who you are, and what works for you, and I'm not a big fan of judging other people. I am a big fan of judging myself, and I'm, I'm okay with saying, This is what works for me, and if it doesn't work for you, no harm, no foul, but this is what works for me, and for me to be happy. I have to abide by these principles. So you know, that's just that's kind of how I feel with that. But I've always had that decisive and honest, you know, thing, and I think it really helps me, especially when I work with clients, as a producer, as a recording engineer, as a session musician, as a mentor, you know, I have to be able to be honest with them, and I tell them upfront, like, Look, I'm always gonna give you my honest opinion, you don't have to, if I tell you something, you can take it to the bank, because I'm going to tell you what I believe, and I'll stand behind what I believe. I will put it in writing. If If I give you a compliment, you can take it to the bank, and I'll tell anybody that that wants to know that I gave you that compliment, and I will always tell you if I think you're wrong, and then at the end of the day, you're the boss, it's your career, if you want to ignore my educated opinion, that is your prerogative, and you are well within your rights, and sometimes I'm wrong. I can't I mean, there are several times where I tell somebody, I think this is a bad idea. I think you're wasting your time and your money, and then go ahead and do it anyway, and then afterwards, well, you know what, you were totally right, I was totally wrong, it work. It made the difference, that I'm glad you stuck with your gut. So you know, that honestly, I think the key component to being to kind of circle back around to where we kind of started. It's, it's a key component to getting to know yourself and to live in a happy life, and, and it's, you know, it's a big part of who I am. It's just part of what just part of how I roll. I mean, it's just, it's just me and me and nothing else. For good or ill.

Lizzy 48:49 – How did Joey become the music ambassador of Macon
No, that's, that's really great, and, and I love that you put honesty, as a part of that. knowing who you are, because it is you have to be honest with yourself, and you have to be a part of being honest with yourself is knowing that there's certain parts of yourself that you will and won't like and you know that you can improve that and that you know, you can always get better if you want to, you know and if you want to, you know with us, it's all up to you and you know and who you want to be and who you want to become. But I want to get to something that jumped out at me when I first I don't remember what it was that I read about you what it was if it was a bio or was it online? I don't know. But the question that I've been wondering is how did you become the music ambassador of your city of Macon?

Joey
Oh, that's a great question. So I'm one of my key, I guess I'll say attributes is that I don't complain about something, if I'm not willing to fix it, and so, so I'm not gonna, I'm not going to, you know, sit around and moan about something, and not be willing to get out and do the work to make it better. So I think if you want to complain about something, that's, hey, that's fine. But if you're not willing to help make a difference, so that if that problem stops being a problem, then I don't really want to hear it. So I have been a huge advocate trying to build the musical infrastructure of town back in the late 60s, and throughout the 70s, we were the mecca of Southern rock music, and then that infrastructure for a lot of different reasons I won't bore you with disappear, and Macon still has an amazing amount of talent, and amazing amount of soul it's still a really vibrant, artistic place. But for whatever reason, there wasn't really any leadership you know making you know helping to make things happen, and so I, I said, 'Well, if I don't like the way things are, then I need to get out and change that.' So I just started making those changes, and some of those changes were just just to enumerate a few, I started a local radio show where only local artists were featured. That was an uphill fight. Because a lot of the terrestrial radio stations terrestrial meaning AM/FM stations didn't see a value in that community service I think of as community service, I think of it is, okay, you may have half an hour or an hour of time, if you're not selling ads, with the big guys, but you're doing a community service, and I think in today's modern age, with on demand programming, that radio stations really better wake up and get back to being the heart of their community. Because without them, there's they're going to lose, they're going to lose the necessity. Because I can watch or listen to anything I want on demand anywhere I'm at all over the country all over the world. I don't have to be tuned into 97.3 or whatever. So you know that that so I have always fought and advocated for radio stations taking an interest in the community, and so I worked on it, I started providing programs and several different radio stations that here in town where local artists could be featured, I did all that in no charge. I wasn't trying to make money, I just tried to make things better. I also started offering songwriting, music business workshops at one of the local music stores at one of the big box electronic stores in town because they had a really nice area in the back with a bunch of TVs, we started having little acoustic concerts, where bands come in and play acoustically for a really nice, a nice place where people were having coffee and pastries and stuff like that. It's before Starbucks, and before Barnes & Noble and stuff like that happened, this is all in the 90s. So I was doing all these things, and then I was, you know, leaving my mark on music. I was been opening for Ted Nugent and Bad Company and the good some different things like that and play into some some, you know, some arenas and stuff like that, and so I was just out promoting my hometown, because I love it, and so in 2006, the mayor and city council recognize that in a more, you know, substantial way, by saying we want you to be our official music ambassador, and we want to give you the support of the city and let people know that you are truly an ambassador for our our ethics, our artistic integrity, music, that sort of thing. So that's how it happened. The mayor and city council in 2006 said 'hey, we want to we want to put you know, bestow you with this honor,' I mean, is primarily an honorary title, but I take it very seriously, and wherever I go, you know, I talk about my hometown, I try to leave a little piece of it with people when I'm gone. Sometimes that's through my music or through my T-shirts or whatever, but also have the official Joey Stuckey kazoo that I give away at various different times, and the reason for that is that Macon is one of the two or three places in the US that claims to be the birthplace of the kazoo. Now I am going to, I am not going to definitively tell you which one of them is right, because I don't know. But I will tell you that a lot of famous people including like Gene Simmons of KISS, and Charlie Daniels, and all the guys from Spyro Gyra and all the guys in the band. Yes, they all have Joey Stuckey kazoos in honor of Macon, Georgia. So I have left With lots of little, lots of people from from kids that I do inspirational talks to to celebrities, and it's just a way to remind them that there's, there's a place out here, that's a real incubator for music, where art and music is really valued, and I think any true society that is worth being part of has a vibrant arts community, because as artists, we act as historians and philosophers, and we hopefully accelerate people in the new ways of thinking, you know, the history and other things that we need to remember. So I'm really big on it. So that's kind of how it all happened.

Lizzy 55:33 – What motivated Joey to make changes
So it sounds like you're really committed to, like a literal scene change, like, you're literally committed to changing the music scene and to making it into something, you know, into a place where it music, something that you love, and you want to, you know, you want to make changes so that it could I guess, continue to be that like, is it? I guess what I'm asking is, why did you what motivated you to want to make those changes? I know that you saw that you want it different, but what motivated you to make those changes?

Joey
So I mean, we had all this talent, including, you know, what I thought of as my talent, but also all my friends and all all the people I work with, and clients demand from the studio had all this amazing music, but nobody was was, yeah, there was no, there was a vacuum. Nobody was listening. So we needed to find ways to make make that change. So I did that a couple different ways. I wrote for a couple of local papers about bands in the area, and we talked about them that way. I had the radio show and talked about them that way. You know, a couple about six, seven years ago, I had a music show on the local NBC station here in town. So I did a TV show, and that all came about because I was really sort of frustrated with the fact that I was asked to play on TV a lot. But the TV stations weren't really set up to handle audio, and the sound quality was really poor. So we did a great job. But the sound quality was was really poor and and really was embarrassing, and I said, Well, I can fix that, and so I came, I talked to a couple TV stations, and the NBC affiliate here in town was the one that we worked out, you know, something with, and I said, 'Look, you guys have the lights in the cameras, I'm blind, it's stupid for me to even talk about using cameras and lights. I mean, I'm not, that's not what I do. That's clearly not where my expertise lies. But you guys got the lights in the camera, and I have a recording studio. So once a month, you come over to the recording studio for three or four hours, and we will film enough bands to feature one a week, on Friday morning, and and then we can do a repeat you know later on the day or whatever, and we'll we'll do interviews and music, and we'll we'll do it in the studio so that it sounds amazing, and then you you'll bring the the quality of your video and lighting and all that stuff.' And that's what we did. So I, I've done a lot of stuff like that, then the second thing I'm real passionate about. So number one, you have to have a platform so people can hear you. But number two, you have to educate yourself in the business of music. There's that pesky word business. But if you want to make a living, doing what you love, you got to have the business stuff. So I started educating not only myself, but my fellow musicians and people here in town, about the business side. You know, how do you write a great song? How do you record a good song? How do you what what, what are some? You know, how do you represent your craft on your taxes? Should you form a corporation? How do you do a copyright? You know, all these things? So my goal has always been building infrastructure. I am for I don't I don't worry about other recording studios, I say, look, there's room for as many as we can sustain. I can't record everybody in town. I mean, I'm glad for new studio to open up here in town, that just means that what we're doing is working because there's that infrastructure. So you know, I don't I don't I don't worry about the pies only so big if you get a piece and that means my piece is smaller. I don't I don't think like that. I know people that do and it makes me kind of sad. But no, I'm all about promoting infrastructure. So the arts can grow and stay here what i what i don't want, what I hate to see happen is for a great artist, and I know several of them. You have a great artist, he's super talented, but they feel like they have to move to Nashville or New York or LA or somewhere like that to have a career, and really, with the way things are now. By and large. That's not true anymore. I'd say it's about 70% not true. There's there are a few jobs that you really have to be in LA or Nashville or New York to do. There's a few of them. But by and large, you can spend most of your time in your hometown you can give back to your homes. You can help grow your hometown, and all that kind of stuff and not have to live, you know, somewhere else if you don't, if you don't want to. So, you know, that's that's kind of what I'm dedicated to is the idea of growing the infrastructure, because when you look at Macon, Georgia, you look at Nashville, Tennessee, you look at New York City, you look at Los Angeles, you look at London, the things that separate them from Macon is really just infrastructure. So you know, it's just there's, you have to have, you know, you have to have a way for the arts to be created. So you got to nurture the creative process, then you got to figure out how to distribute the artistic creations. So you got to have that distribution chain, and that distribution chain can be record stores that are that are, you know, locally owned, or independently owned, it can be clubs, it can be all kinds of different things.

Lizzy 1:00:59 – Are there any changes to make the music scene more accessible to Macon, Georgia
So, I know, you said that people don't have to leave their hometown to do music anymore. Are there any changes that you do feel need to be made to, say, the music industry or local, the local music scene, you know, in your town or your area? To make it more accessible? Or more adaptive, or more welcoming, or anything along those lines?

Joey
Well, yeah, you know, it's, it's kind of funny story. I was I'm not gonna name the the organization. But I was part of a diversity and inclusion committee, for a pretty big outfit here in here in our states, it wasn't for Macon it was statewide, and a lot of really big players were part of this diversity inclusion board, and what was fascinating they had, they had a tool called diversity inclusion wheel. But the interesting thing about that tool, while there was nothing about disabilities, and I waited for about three months, without saying anything, waiting to see if that was going to change, and it did not, and so finally, I said to them, I said, 'my friends, you know, I've been on this committee now for about four months, we've had a meeting in my studio, we have come to all the meetings and and I've, we've talked about all these things we can do to make sure that everyone is included, everyone is valued, everyone has an opportunity to succeed, and it is, it has been too long and coming for, for females, and for people that are LGBTQ, and for people that are African American, I mean, all these things are important, and I'm excited about the progress we're making, there's still a lot of work left to do. But I do find it a bit interesting that for four months, you can sit across from a blind man at a table here, and we still aren't talking about disabilities, and, you know, I don't want to talk about how what a vibrant workforce there is, and the disabled community or the disabled market, I don't want to talk about that, because talk is cheap, I want to show I want to prove it, and we need to organize events that allow us to do that.' So there's a lot of work still to be done, just get disabilities on the radar. In the music business, in particular, the the real fight, and the thing that I find kind of ironic is that music is about sound, it's about your ears, you would think that the music industry would be the most accessible place for a blind person to be. But in fact, we have with the technology, we have gone so much to graphical representations of things, that it is very, very difficult to stay accessible, and to stay competitive with your sighted counterparts. Because everything is computer based, and not only is a computer based, but its graphical interfaces, and so you're actually clicking a knob with your mouse and turning the knob because they're trying to emulate the hardware stuff on your screen. You know, and and so I am disappointed in that. But as I said earlier, I don't I don't complain about stuff. I helped make change. So I'm working really hard with a number of other blind folk, and sighted folks as well, to help corporations understand that there's not only, it's not only the right thing to do from a moral perspective, but it's a good business decision to make sure that you tap into the blind market, because everyone, regardless of their physical ability, or lack thereof, should have the opportunity to experience music. Now, that doesn't mean you're going to necessarily be able to play it. That doesn't mean you're going to definitely don't make it into a living. But you should be able to at least experience it, and you know, the great percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who's deaf, plays barefoot, and plays a percussion you plays like vibraphones, and marimbas, and all these things. So I know that music can be accessible for everyone. It's such a powerful language, that it can be understood, I can listen to French music and not understand the words and still be moved. So it's a powerful language that really is open to everyone, even the hearing impaired, they can experience it through vibration. Is it the same thing as the way I experienced it? No. But it doesn't mean that it's not important or it's not valid. So I am really into accessibility, and the big thing about that is, we want to make sure that people think about accessibility from the ground up, that they're they're, they're making it a part of their product, rather than trying to retrofit a product. So I don't want to know about the current version of your software being accessible, I'm not worried about that, let's look at the future version that you're going to bring to market yet. It takes about two years to bring a new product to market, and by the time you start selling it, it has a limited lifespan. So I'm not asking companies, I'm a small business. So I'm not asking them to do anything that I wouldn't do. I'm not asking them to spend a lot of money, retrofitting something that's not gonna be able to market that much longer. What I am asking is that they take accessibility into consideration from the ground up with their design, and if they do that, I believe and I think that I can prove that is very affordable, and that they will at least recoup their expenses of making it accessible through the blind market, because there is so anyway, yeah, I mean, there's, you know, that there's, there's challenges of that I also spent some time in a wheelchair, I had something called avascular necrosis, which is that latent bone issue that happened from the brain tumor, I lost my right hip to that. So I have a metal hip, and then I also have a metal shoulder, and so I spent some time in a wheelchair, and I worry about music venues and public spaces and private spaces, being accessible so that you can have dignity in a wheelchair, and that you can go to the restroom, and you can get in and out of the venue. You know, it was the same dignity that everybody else gets to go in and out with, and when I tour and travel there's issues being blind, the airport. It's interesting that I, I tried to you know, I don't know how, I don't really know how better to explain that what blind is, except to say that I can't see I don't know how to make it any more simple, and honestly, what happens most of the time when I express the fact that I can't see, and I'm trying to go to the line, they motion for me with bigger gestures, and then my wife sort of has to laugh and go, No, no, no, he can't see that, and because I have metal parts, I have to go through the, you might be a dangerous person line because I set all the metal detectors off. So that's a real thrill, and and like there, there have been some times that I've been singled out the airport, and people have been really rude. I'm talking about TSA, people have been really rude to me, and so I think we need to work on that. So that's that, to me, is all part of music, infrastructure travel. So there's a lot of stuff like that, but you know, I'm hopeful. It's it's parts of the accessibility world are better than they used to be when I was a kid parts of it's worse. But regardless, if enough people talk about it, and enough people work on it and believe that it's important. I know we can do great things.

Lizzy
I totally agree, and actually, that's why I asked you that question. You know, like I'm, I'm a fan of your your motto and your philosophy of, you know, not complaining about things and instead just changing them, and I think that one way to start changing it is to raise awareness about it and let people know what's going on, and also, not only the people in power, but other you know, other blind people, other blind artists who are saying, 'Oh, you know what, I haven't even thought about that before.' And then they can use their platforms to raise awareness about the same issues that you're awareness about you know, and just reaching, you know, several different audiences, I think that's one of the most important ways to start changing and to spark it is to start the conversations and let people know what's going on and really raise awareness.

Joey
Yeah I mean, the thing is, you know, I, I do understand the frustration, I have several blind people that I talked to, and they're just so upset, and so frustrated, because they know that they have the ability to do great things in music, and they feel like they're being left out, and they feel like they're not being thought about, and to a certain degree, that's true. But the thing is, while I understand the anger, and I'm not saying, look, if I was happy all the time, I'm a generally happy person. But if I was happy all the time, something would be you should be worried, something, something will be wrong with me, it's okay to say I don't like this, it's okay to say I'm not happy about this, it's okay to say I'm frustrated with this. But it's not okay to stay there. Because you need to move from that frustration into action, and so the best way to get the positive results that we want is to be always be pleasant, always be patient, always try and understand the other person's perspective, and I think primarily, most of the accessibility issues we come that we deal with, come from a just a lack of understanding the need, and not a desire, not like some sort of resistance to help. So I think that's where it mostly comes from. I mean, there are some people that are like, Oh, well, you know, too bad for you. But that's not the majority.

Lizzy 1:11:26 – How to get in touch with Joey
Yeah, I totally understand that. I think that recognizing what's going on is, you know, that that's the first step to it, to to addressing the issue. So I appreciate the work that you're doing, I definitely think it's, it's it's going to make the right impact is going to make the impact that we need to see, as things move forward. Because I think you are correct, I don't think that people are intentionally leaving people out. It's just that they don't know it's a it's a lack of awareness. So if we were to raise awareness, just like we're doing here on the show, I think that's, you know, that's the that's one of the first steps and that's going to definitely put us in the right track. But listen, I have just one, I have about a million more questions for you. But I think we're gonna have to have you back on the show, and I'm perceiving I'm perceiving quite a panel, possibly with you and another music, blind music tech teacher, who are professors, and I don't know, I think you guys would be a good pairing for a panel. But if not, I'm seeing a couple of other ideas for you to definitely come back and join us again. But last, the last thing that I want to leave our audience with is Do you have any sort of resources, websites, Twitter, anything where people can go to learn more about you about the causes that you're working toward? Just whatever you want to share, so that people can learn more?

Joey
Yeah, absolutely. So firstly, just say I'm always at your service. So if you know anything you want to do, I'm up for it. So I'm happy to come back and talk a time as you can tell, I've run my mouth quite easily. I was actually I was actually dubbed I'm proud of this moniker. A friend of mine, Scott Travis is the drummer for Judas Priest and for Thin Lizzy, and he has dubbed me the mouth of the South. Ah, I. I. Accept that title with pride. But yeah, the best place to find me and to sort of get in line with the Stucky-verse is at Joey Stuckey dot com , so that's J-O-E-Y-S-T-U-C-K-E-Y dot com. That's a real catch all website that has studio stuff and music stuff and articles and all kinds of stuff like that. There's also my recording studio if you're interested in that the websites a little out of date or going to revamp it totally this summer. But it's called shadows found studio and that's just all spelled together. So shadow Sound Studio dot com I am on Twitter and Instagram. At my handle there is at the letter J Stuckey music. So at Jay Stuckey music, I post a pretty good bit on Twitter. I don't do as much on Instagram on a regular basis primarily because it’s such a visual medium

Lizzy
Uh huh

Joey
And you know if I'm going to do picture’s I’m going to have someone else take them. There was a time where I was doing just for fun because I was bored. I just started taking pictures of stuff and say ‘okay what is this, I don’t know. I just took a picture, you guys tell me what it is.’ So we called it ‘blind guy snaps’, and we did that for a while. It was actually kind of popular for a bit there, but I need to get back to doing that. I’m also on Facebook so it’s Facebook dot com slash joeystuckey for my personal page or Facebook dot com slash joeystuckeymusic for the music fan page, and then I’ve got a YouTube channel. I have a record label that I publish my own music on and a few of my friends I’ve put on there, but the record label is called senate as like the congress, so senate records. You can find my YouTube channel under that, but if you go YouTube and search my name, you’ll find a ton of content everything from stupid videos of me at baseball games, to live performances, to interviews on different news organizations. I mean there’s probably, I don’t know there’s probably 1500 videos up of varying quality, some are just cell phones, some are specially produced. I actually do have an audio described video for “"Blind Man Drivin"” if you’re interested in that.

Lizzy
That’s cool

Joey
Yeah that’s out there, it’s you know, it’s a funny video I think and I really think that if you, unfortunately I don’t think the audio description is as funny as the video, I think there’s some things that just don’t translate, but it’s still probably worth watching; but yeah there’s a lot of fun content there, my most popular video that has I think 200,000 views, is a 24 second video of me showing you the Johnny Cash dollar bill guitar technique, and I’m not going to say anything else about it, you’re going to have to look at it if you want to know, if you want to know what that is, you’ll have to look at it on YouTube.

Lizzy
Oh my goodness, well let me tell you something Joey, you are just a wealth of knowledge. I think that our listeners are gonna really enjoy this episode. Thank you for joining us today.

Joey
My friend it is my total pleasure. I’m so glad to meet you and I’m glad to be a part of anything that you’re doing, and I’m just so excited to speak to other people, who are facing you know, not the exact same journey that I’m going through but something similar if I can be any kind of inspiration or source of knowledge that is a job that I am so proud to take on.

Lizzy
Well you certainly have been an inspiration for us today. Thank you everyone for listening today, a huge shout out to Chris who is hosting us over Zoom™ and doing um, you know helping us out with production. Shout out to Shane because he will be the final editor of the show, and thank you to the entire podcast team, our listeners, and of course to Joey Stuckey. This has been another episode of “Scene Change”. Thank you.

Katelyn 1:17:34 – Outro
I'm Katelyn MacIntyre, president of the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts division. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of "Scene Change". If you like what you heard, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and visit our website at NFB dash pad DOT org (nfb-pad.org). There you'll find links to our social media, membership, and resources for blind performers. Thanks to everyone who makes this show happen. "Scene Change" is produced by Shane Lowe, Chris Nusbaum, Seyun Choi, and Precious Perez with music by Ryan Strunk and Tom Page. Remember, you can be the performer you want. Blindness is not what holds you back. We'll see you next time.