So, what’s your story?
I was born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, to a nurse and a paper mill worker. These days I live in Fall Creek, Wisconsin, at the edge of the Driftless. What keeps me coming back to the “deep” Driftless is the opportunity to perform in unique venues in a landscape of sweeping breadth and coulee’d mysteries before audiences familiar with both field and philosophy. Folks interested in the arts and the ineffable but also that one about the guy who got kicked by a dead cow.
Tell us about what you do for work or your business, and how long have you been doing this?
I’ve been self-employed since 1992, when I left my job to be a writer. I had pretty much no plan. Jumped out of the plane, I like to say, and knit my parachute on the way down. I’ve since wandered into musical and humor performances and scriptwriting and voiceover work and speaking, but none of it happens if I don’t sit down and write, and mostly it’s still books.
Tell us about a project or accomplishment that you consider to be the most significant in your career with your business.
Pulling off the interstate in the middle of the night somewhere in Iowa while on a book tour to discover my book had hit the New York Times bestseller list. I was driving a 1989 Ford Tempo with a stick shift. Rollin’ large.
Why did you decide to become a business owner here in the Driftless?
Life just kinda decided it for me. I’ve spent a big chunk of my working life on the road, but my home address is Driftless.
Tell us about a recent project or improvement that’s made your business run smoother or more efficiently.
I’ve had just enough success to make a living but not so much that I can stop hustling. The advent of electronic payment systems has been a godsend for small mobile operators like me–especially when it comes to merchandise sales at live events.
How has your business evolved since you first started?
I was writing frozen pizza ads, used car ads, brochures, whatever it took to get my foot in. Then for about a decade I made my living writing for magazines. Nowadays the magazine gigs are few and far between so I had to read the future and adjust. Also when I started writing, e-books and digital audio-books didn’t exist. I always tried to anticipate and adapt rather than resist. But I also never lost sight of the fact that the heart of it all was my writing, and that remains my focus.
Who’s one person you’ve met in the Driftless that’s really made an impact or stood out to you?
It was my profound pleasure to have the opportunity to meet and converse one-on-one with Ben Logan, the late author of “The Land Remembers”. I read and re-read that book long before it had ever even occurred to me that I might be a writer or that I even COULD be a writer. Mr. Logan was one of many who planted a subconscious seed in my mind that maybe a farm kid from rural Wisconsin might have a story worth telling. I remain deeply grateful to him.
What do you wish other people knew about you or your business?
Oh, I’m just happy to be allowed to do what I do and don’t need to bother folks about what I wish they knew. But I guess mostly folks might not realize how much business goes into the business of being a self-employed artist. For instance, this morning I got up, made a great cup of coffee, sat down in my writing room at my writing desk and did…Quickbooks. I don’t mind, though. The business side of it just buys me more time to do the art side.
What makes your business unique?
The fact that it exists at all. Unless you’re a million-seller influencer type, this is not the age to be making a living as a writer. But here I am, and happy I am to be here. Maybe what makes it unique is I approach a softhanded craft with a working class mindset.
How do you balance work and personal life?
I don’t. But I also know when it’s time to pay attention, to present and be present. And my wife and two daughters are my most trusted confidantes. They are my keel, rudder, and beloved tether to humility and the things that matter.
How do you stay motivated?
On the practical front, I write for a living and have long joked that my muse is the banker who holds my mortgage. I don’t write another book, he takes my house away. In fact, I wake up wanting to write. I have more books and songs and performances I want to create than I’ll ever manage no matter how much time I have left. Outwardly I am a slow-moving flat-footed plodder; inside I burn to do the next thing.
If you could give your younger self one piece of business advice, what would it be?
Form that S-corp BEFORE you have that one good year.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about building a successful business?
Anticipate change and adapt in advance, but never compromise the essential core of what brought you success in the first place.
How would you describe yourself and what you like most?
A writer who loves to write.
What’s something that no one would guess about you?
If you watch the lyric video of the song “Birch,” by Big Red Machine featuring Taylor Swift, that’s my handwriting.
When do you feel most alive — sunrise or midnight?
Before kids: Midnight. After kids: Sunrise.
What color socks are you currently wearing?
Gray. Always gray. See my treatise on the Unified Laundry Theory.
If you were an animal, what would you be and how would you spend your day?
A Holstein cow in a field of Wisconsin green, chewing cud in the sun.
If you could have any superhero power, what would it be and why?
The ability to convert pain caused by heartless people into a boomerang that would smack them in the snoot, but then turn them kind.
Do you have a life philosophy that you live by?
Run low to the ground because we’re all bound to fall.
What’s something you’ve been learning about yourself lately?
Age just makes me hungrier to do more.
Tell us about a time life humbled you.
I sang a John Prine song in front of approximately 10,000 people, one of them being John Prine himself. ‘Round about the fourth verse I flubbed it big time and we had to hit eject. I was devastated. Not life-and-death devastated, but deeply disappointed. Then I started getting emails and messages and comments from folks saying how much they loved the performance and I realized while there was no pretending I didn’t blow it, I did blow it out of proportion. “No matter what,” a musician buddy once told me, “Just keep strummin’ and smilin’,” and right he was.
What’s one thing you’ve had to overcome in your life?
Pathologic procrastination.
You’re driving solo, cruising down a backroad – where does your mind wander?
It doesn’t, because even on the backroads it seems like every other knucklehead I meet is doing everything but driving and HERE HE COMES OVER THE CENTERLINE.
What year would you do all over again?
I wouldn’t. Forward motion. That’s the key.
What question do you always want people to ask you about yourself?
Do these teeth make me look funny?
Who is the most important person in your life?
My wife is my absolute confidante. It is a rare gift in this life to have someone from whom you have no secrets. I am loyal, faithful, and true, but that is not to say I am a joy to live with. In fact, had she known what she was in for she may have chosen differently, and that’s not some wink-wink joke. But trust. How I cherish our trust.
What did you learn about yourself from any of your previous relationships?
They are so far in the distant past, let us leave sleeping lovers lie. Although I did once write that the two greatest influences on my concept of romantic comportment were cowboy books and Neil Diamond and as a result, “I owe a smattering of perfectly classy women signed letters of apology.”
How or where did you meet your best friend?
I don’t care for the term best friend. It’s too brittle. Friendships shift and adjust along with the rest of your life.
Who would you… Ride a bike with?
I used to race bikes and crashed a lot, so maybe a medical attendant?
…Canoe or kayak with?
More of a john boat sorta guy. Let’s fish.
…Hike with?
My wife.
Have you read any good books lately you would recommend?
Currently reading “Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck” by William Souder, and it’s terrific, although filled with reminders that for better but even more often for worse, human behavior is, in terms of pneumatic tires, a retread. I got the same thing from reading a giant biography of Voltaire.
What is your favorite music, or your all-time favorite song?
I would never narrow it down that way. But I can tell you the Steve Earle album “Exit 0 [zero]” knocked me off the path of standard employment and into the tantalizing uncertainty of the writing life.
What skill or instrument would you like to learn or play?
Guitar. I can plonk some chords, but that ain’t PLAYING.
If you woke up fluent in another language tomorrow, which one would it be?
Spanish. My wife is fluent. Many of my relatives speak it as their first language.
If you could hit pause on life and teleport anywhere, where would you go and what would you do?
1951, to sit in my International pickup the day it came off the lot and drive it through Wisconsin just to see the farms the way they looked back then.
Describe your most funny or bizarre life experience so far.
Too many to rank, but I’ll go with two: meeting folks who’ve tattooed themselves with something I wrote, and the fact that my name appears in the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame (you gotta squint).
Tell us a short clean joke or pun!
Never stand behind a sneezing cow. Although that’s not clean.
What is another name you would give the Driftless?
I would never presume to do so.
Tell us about a place in the Driftless that holds a story for you.
A bunch of them. But once a man from the Deep South found himself trapped in the basement of Spring Green’s Arcadia Books during a tornado warning. On his way down the stairs he grabbed a random book: Population 485, by me. Twenty years later he would invite me down to Alabama to perform in a roadhouse and a barbecue joint.
Have you ever been somewhere else in the world that felt like the Driftless?
Basically, nope. Although bits of Mineral Point, WI remind me of my time in England.
What hidden gem do you love to eat at?
Driftless Cafe. Off the charts.
If you were giving a stranger one reason to visit the Driftless, what would you send them to experience first?
I’d encourage them to attend a show at the Mineral Point Opera House, or the Temple Theatre in Viroqua, WI or an equivalent venue. I recently mentioned the opera houses of Wisconsin in a Hollywood pitch meeting and got a snort in return. At which point I commenced a little lecture on the subject and now there is a producer in L.A. who knows better.
What would you LOVE to do if Money didn’t matter?
Write.
What odd or delightful item do you always pack when you travel?
Narcan and a packet of BleedStop. Out of habit as a first responder.
What 1 message would you put in a bottle?
PLEASE RECYCLE.
Which fascinates you more — the mystery of space or the deep quiet of the ocean?
Mystery of space. The implication of infinity knocks the slats out of everything we think we know.
If you were a brand, what would your slogan be?
Yep, still here.
If your life were a brand, what would it stand for?
The idea that art can wear barn boots.
Do you have a self care ritual, practice or product you couldn’t live without?
I hope not.
What type of music or performance would you be most excited to see at Discover Driftless, Lone Rock’s premiere event space?
Well, if you can reincarnate Waylon Jennings, I’ll be right over.
By Michael Perry
Photos sourced from Lee Butterworth Photography
