Music Star JD Hinton On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry

An Interview With Guernslye Honoré

Carry a voice recorder. I find myself humming melodies a lot. Sometimes riffs. Words often hop on for the ride. I could write down the words, but I don’t want to lose that melody or that “feel” from the tempo. Carry a voice recorder.

As a part of our interview series with leaders, stars, and rising stars in the music industry, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing JD Hinton.

As a singer/songwriter, Hinton has graced stages in Los Angeles and New York with sold-out shows at iconic venues like Rockwood Music Hall, Vitello’s, Rockwell, House of Blues, and Viper Room. He even had the honor of performing at the Vatican for the Pope. Hinton’s music, described as heartfelt as Hank Williams, draws comparisons to artists like Leonard Cohen, Peter Gabriel, and Robbie Robertson. In addition to his musical prowess, JD Hinton has a diverse career, including a stint as a midnight to dawn disc jockey on a top-rated R&B radio station in Los Angeles. His improvisational skills, honed during his radio days, led to acting roles in popular TV shows such as “Dynasty,” “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles,” and “Jane the Virgin.” Now living in Los Angeles, Hinton plans to release a set of dynamic new singles ahead of his “Five Smooth Stones” EP this spring.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about your “origin story”. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

How I grew up is threaded through where I grew up. Waco, Texas was the “big” town next door. It was growing west toward us, but it had not arrived yet. Where I lived we had 2 gas stations, 3 churches, a café and the school. There were 68 students in my high school graduating class. Now, everything’s bigger and this area’s considered part of Waco. I miss some small town things, but I think it’s better now. Church going plays a significant role in my music background. My dad was a Baptist pastor so I’ve heard hymns and choir music for as long as I can remember. Every church member, young and old, could be counted on to get up and sing once in while. My mother was an elementary school teacher. She made sure I had piano lessons. Pianos were common in my family. We had one. My grandmothers and aunts had one. Everyone was ready if called upon to play piano in church. I’m sure this is why my mother saw that I had piano lessons early. Life has gifts you can’t explain! To this day I know my older cousin’s record collection was a gift. As a teenager in the 50s, Cousin Jack bought records(45s) every week. I was a boy, clueless as to who even sold records. On holiday visits, I’d camp out at Jack’s record player. Little Richard, Chuck Berry, The Coasters and Buddy Holly songs lit up

the future I would soon learn.

What inspired you to pursue a career in music, and how did your journey begin?

I was always around songs growing up: Church, school programs, and my older cousin’s record collection. Thinking back on it, Buddy Holly made me want to have a band. Paul Simon made me want to write songs. Bob Dylan showed me how songs could make a difference. Radio kickstarted my career in music. I was a teenager doing well in high school speech tourneys when Waco’s top radio station, W-A-C-O, hired me as a disc jockey. That put me through college and opened a door to California. KROY brought me to Sacramento as a disc jockey

and made me the station’s Music Director. Record companies started calling. I chose the songs for the station’s playlist. You can learn a lot about music by playing hit songs for hours every day. I also learned a lot about spotting new bands and up and coming singers from the releases record companies sent every week. I learned how important record company promotion teams are to the success of a song. In Sacramento I decided I could write songs. I had a music background, and I knew what radio stations needed to hear in a song. There were folks at the record companies I knew how to call. I moved to LA.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Several things jump out and endure: Singing at the Vatican for the Pope on Christmas day. Watching Celine Dion record a song I wrote for an indie film. The day the Atlantic Records promo man brought me a test pressing of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” No label. Not released. I was one of the first people to hear it. After listening to it. I called all the other DJs in the radio station into my office so they could hear it. It’s a classic now. That day, we were all at the edge of history. Love That!

In the early 2000s, I was a guest sitting before the stage at an AMFAR event at Cannes. A charity auction was underway. Out of the blue the Hollywood producer who was emceeing announced they could raise some serious money if Elton John and Ringo came up on stage and

played a song. The bidding took off and ended up well over $100,000. As the bidding began, I looked at Ringo and Elton. You could see the wheels turning. No rehearsal. No 2 nd takes. Cameras everywhere. What song? What song? Seconds ticked by. I wanted to suggest something to Ringo when Elton looked over and said “Great Balls of Fire.” Perfect choice. Pressure under (ahem) Fire. This is from the rock ‘n roll canon. This is a song we all grew up with and they played countless times before we knew their names. They rocked the place. It

was a moment. You had to be there, and I was.

Sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Just after I started visiting LA music publishers, I met a Paramount Casting Director who thought I’d do well as an actor. She introduced me to an agent who signed me. A few weeks went by and my new agent sent me to meet Don Kirshner at CBS Television City. At that time, Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert was a weekly TV show. All the top bands and singers were on it. Don had also produced The Monkees, and he was planning another TV series built around a band. This, I thought, was meant to be. I borrowed a guitar for the meeting. That sentence should tell you how this turned out. I changed guitar strings and did my best to tune and stretch the new strings and retune… and retune. (This was before you could buy tuners you see guitar players use now.) I wanted to get it right. I lined up a guitarist to tune my guitar just before my meeting at CBS. The meeting began well. Don was friendly. I knew a lot of his backstory because I’d been reading his name on record labels for years. He asked me to play something. I pulled out the guitar and started to play a slow ballad. My first strum sounded like “schkrawwmmm… ” No key at all. Just notes crashing into one another. I stopped immediately and said. “Wow, I just tuned this guitar and it’s way off.” Don said, “That’s okay. It sounds better than the other one we have here. Go ahead and play your song.” Don listened to a verse of the ballad and jumped in.“Do you have anything up tempo?” I nodded and started a riff. After a verse, I found a way to end it professionally. I think we (cough cough) had all heard enough. My CBS lesson: Your “shot” may happen at any time. Always be ready. A sign in my first radio station control room taught me a great lesson: “Never make the same mistake twice. Go ahead and make some new

ones.” After this, I bought a guitar I played and loved. I change the strings regularly or at least periodically. I never change strings right before an important meeting or stepping onto the stage. Live and learn is the old saying. I’ll turn that around. Learn and Live. If things don’t go the way you hoped, start again where you are. Learn and live. (That CBS TV Show was never produced.)

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I’ll always be grateful for what I learned in the late Charles Conrad’s acting class. Charles interest in the creative process taught me to see and listen at a level I would never have learned had I not been in LA for those classes. I learned how to trust my instincts in creative situations. I learned “talent” can answer creative moments in ways you could not think up. What I learned through Charles, I use now in every song I write and every time I take the stage.

Dwight Case was a second father to me as I planted myself in Hollywood. Dwight had managed the Sacramento radio station where I worked. He moved to Los Angeles a year before I did to become President of RKO Broadcasting, the chain of legendary radio stations such as KHJ in Los Angeles and KFRC in San Francisco. Dwight mentored me in my early LA years. He made phone calls to help me get my feet on the ground. His advice helped me pursue and reset my

goals. If you had lunch with him or dealt with him, you’d know Dwight had a way of saying things. Two lines I’ll keep forever: “No is a good answer.” “You can lie one time in Bakersfield.”

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

I recently sang at a benefit in Beverly Hills for our veterans. Heroes Linked hosted 6 Medal of Honor Recipients that night at the Beverly Hilton. Gary Sinise was given the Distinguished Service Award. I performed 3 of my songs for the event. It was one of the greatest nights I’ve ever had… a privilege and an honor. I’ve been invited to sing again for the Heroes Linked event being planned this fall in Austin, Texas. Right now, of course l’m excited about the songs being released from my new EP “Five Smooth Stones.” For a couple of years now, I’ve been writing a lot and going into the studio regularly. I am back in the studio again now. I’m looking forward to this being a good year.

We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share… why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in music, film, and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?

Diversity carries creativity in its core. It allows us to see something we think we know in a way we couldn’t imagine. Ray Charles sang “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and I saw Hank Williams, his song and what I had called country music in a whole new way. Now what category is that

song in? What category is Ray Charles in when he sings a Hank Williams song? Creativity is a prism. Layers of color fuse together and light the world. We need all the colors. We need all the voices. We need all the imagination that floods from the lighthouse. We need the prism. “The Symbol of all Art is the Prism.” — E.E. Cummings

As a successful music star, you’ve likely faced challenges along the way. How do you stay motivated? How do you overcome obstacles in your career?

A sincere motivation helps. I really want to write songs. I truly believe songs make a difference. That keeps me going. If you do something to be rich and famous that’s not enough. That won’t be enough on days when things get hard, the hours get late, and nobody cares if you call

them back. Talent matters, but you see pretty quickly it’s just the entry fee. There’s a moment when you know you’ve finished a song that’s just different. No matter what happens to the song, no one can ever take that moment away from you. That moment keeps me going. I don’t take obstacles personally. I see them as obstacles… not dead ends. I look for ways to answer or solve what’s in my way. Large obstacles or a consistent obstacle may be a gift. They may be signals to look again at what I’m trying to do and how important it really is.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started”; and why?

1. Take notes. Carry a pen. When you get an idea, write it down. Don’t trust your memory. At home, be ready if you wake up in the night with an idea to write it down. My notes can (and do) end up in my songs.

2. Carry a voice recorder. I find myself humming melodies a lot. Sometimes riffs. Words often hop on for the ride. I could write down the words, but I don’t want to lose that melody or that “feel” from the tempo. Carry a voice recorder.

3. Make at least one call every day for your career. In ways you don’t always see, this is a “Who you know” business. Meet people. People can’t like you (or call you) if they don’t know your name. Everything takes longer than you think. If it’s worth it to you, be prepared to stay with it. Keep giving them you until you is what they want.

4. You need stamina. To build mine I opted to run. I sing songs (under my breath, in my mind) to keep up the pace and to focus on something beyond running. I rehearse shows or go over lyrics I’m in the middle of writing. (The consistency of doing this is more important than how fast

or how far you run.)

5. Do one less thing a day. Years ago I had an important afternoon meeting at Universal Studios. I decided I’d go buy a great jacket to wear. A good friend heard my plan and told me to wear a sharp jacket I already had. She said “You’re going to be distracted going to 2 or 3 stores. Your mind’s going to be on finding the “best” jacket instead of concentrating on this meeting, and driving around is going to be stress you don’t need.” Great insight. Terrific advice. I took it. I had a relaxed and very focused meeting that day. These days, every time I notice I’m going 90 miles an hour, there’s usually something that doesn’t have to be done right away. I decided to do one less thing that day. It makes a difference. It almost feels like I’ve been given a gift.

Can you share some insights into your creative process? How do you approach songwriting? How do you approach musical collaborations?

I have this vague intention of having “writing” hours every day along the lines of formal “office” hours. Until that happens (and unless I’m writing for a project) I just make an arbitrary choice to write something. I wrote my song “Mulholland Drive” after lunch in a Sunset Strip brasserie. I thought, “Songwriters write songs in restaurants. I’ll write a song here.” I wrote the lyrics over dessert (apple tarte tatin). The music came later when I was at home with my piano. I don’t have a formula. If I don’t have some sudden inspiration, I review my song ideas notes for a word or a title, maybe a line or a couple of lines that go together. I like visual images because theater of the mind is at work in good songs. Songwriting for me is something of an improvisation. The music evokes words or the words lead you to the music. I love the stream of conscious process. What happens next? What do you say after that? I’m after what my subconscious knows. In some collaborations, I’ve written the words to tracks or a song where the music is already in place. On the occasions I have words but no melody, I look for musicians and songwriters I know who’d have the best feel for the lyrics. I prefer to have the lyrical direction set or at least outlined before getting to the writing session, but in the right collaboration some very spontaneous ideas turned into very good songs. It is apparent (and fun) when writers synergize each other’s best efforts and the songs soar.

Your music has resonated with so many fans worldwide. What do you believe sets your music apart?

When something REAL is in a song, the listener hears it. My story may not be your story, but when I tell my story, the listener knows their story matters, too. I think songs are conversations. In a music sense I’m trying to create one to one communication.

How do you connect with your audience?

So far I’ve built my audiences by word of mouth. Friends became fans and fans became friends. I like people. I think that comes across when I’m around someone in person. That probably comes from my dad. He loved meeting people and coming home with stories to tell.

With your busy schedule and demanding performances, how do you prioritize self-care and maintain a balance between your personal life and career in the music industry?

Ahhhh… balance. A work in progress. I mentioned earlier I took up running. At first it was for health reasons, but I found it was integral to the quality of my work. I began to see it was part of my job. Routines don’t work very well for me, but intentions do. I adjust my day or week to support the way I need to focus at that time. Time and distance are no match for my friendships. My friends and I know how to pick up where we left off. Life’s busy. Work can be crazy. In school

days, “finals” swamped all your plans, but finals weeks end. For me, projects may dominate days or weeks. You get through them. You pick up where you left off with your life.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

My answer would be some person to person notion. Something that comes from the inside… that happens from the inside out. Kindness and grace would be involved or implied. Nothing to buy or wear. It would have to be something anyone could do readily. In a big world where it’s easy to get lost, maybe it’s something simple like “Say Hello” “Wherever you go, say hello.” My middle name is David. Maybe we’ll start “the Dave Wave.”

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

Steve Martin. Steve was born in Waco. His uncle was a salesman at WACO radio where my career began. He’s creative. He loves music.

How can our readers continue to follow your work online?

I’m on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (X), YouTube, and all the

streaming and download sites. Thank you for the visit. Next time let’s do it in person and order apple tarte tatin for dessert. — JDH

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

About the interviewer: Guernslye Honoré, affectionately known as “Gee-Gee”, is an amalgamation of creativity, vision, and endless enthusiasm. She has elegantly twined the worlds of writing, acting, and digital marketing into an inspiring tapestry of achievement. As the creative genius at the heart of Esma Marketing & Publishing, she leads her team to unprecedented heights with her comprehensive understanding of the industry and her innate flair for innovation. Her boundless passion and sense of purpose radiate from every endeavor she undertakes, turning ideas into reality and creating a realm of infinite possibilities. A true dynamo, Gee-Gee’s name has become synonymous with inspirational leadership and the art of creating success.