I always say my first job is my building trade. The rest comes and goes.
The day I went to see my father to say I wanted to become an architect, he was a bit surprised, because for him being a builder is much more than being just an architect. He was very angry, and I never thought I could do something else.
When you go to Nashville and start co-writing, you start doing it as a job and the more you do it the better you get. You know if you build houses for 30 years you're better than you were the day you started. You know the ins and outs, you know all the nuances.
I don't think I've had a job since I worked for my father's construction company.
I'll always build houses.
When I was a kid, my dad was in construction and used to move the family back and forth between central Florida's east and west coasts.
Industrialization of the building trade is a question of material. Hence the demand for a new building material is the first prerequisite.
To tell you the truth I thought I was going to be in the building trade, I worked in a builders' merchants in Stoke.
My first job in construction paid my way through art school. I was building to pay my bills.
I thought I'd be a professional rugby player or go to university and get some degree in construction.
My father was a builder. During my high school years, I worked for him. One summer, I was working with a guy who had just come back from Vietnam and had been a tunnel rat. He wouldn't talk about the experience, but it sounded really scary to me.
After school I went to work at a builders' merchant in Stoke. After we finished on a Friday, it was down to the Duke of York for a drink with my mates and a game of darts. Unfortunately for them I had a natural talent and nobody could beat me.
My cousin Joe was just the coolest kid and I wanted to be like him. He had girls, could do whatever he wanted and he was a bricklayer, so I decided to do that.
In high school, I majored in brick masonry. We had the wood shop, the machine shop, so I know about all that. I wanted to build buildings when I graduated from high school. I do know my way around that stuff.
If I had been a bricklayer I'd still have been a journeyman.
I pour concrete. I'm a construction guy.
