Adam Minor

Adam Minor was born Michael Adam Cook in Memphis TN in the summer of 1985 to a struggling musician father, a stay at home mother, and two older siblings, a brother Scott, and a sister, Amanda. As a small child, his family moved to middle Tennessee to pursue his father’s music career, and although his father never played for more than a few hundred people in the bars and music halls of Columbia and Nashville, Adam attributes his desire and passion for being a musician to these few years of wa...

Adam Minor was born Michael Adam Cook in Memphis TN in the summer of 1985 to a struggling musician father, a stay at home mother, and two older siblings, a brother Scott, and a sister, Amanda. As a small child, his family moved to middle Tennessee to pursue his father’s music career, and although his father never played for more than a few hundred people in the bars and music halls of Columbia and Nashville, Adam attributes his desire and passion for being a musician to these few years of watching his father struggle and eventually give up on his own dreams. In 89’, Adam’s parents divorced leaving his mother to raise her three children alone, and being a stay at home mother for the previous half a decade, hardship was inevitable. The family returned to Memphis in 1992 after another failed marriage by his mother ended up stemming a full family intervention aimed at “sheltering” Adam and his siblings from their highly abusive stepfather. Plunged into the “street survival” style teachings of inner city schools, Adam learned all the habits of an inner city street kid. In 97’ Adam’s mother remarried and moved the family to a small town in northwest Arkansas named Alma. It was here that Adam found his calling. “One day I was in my room, grounded, probably for skipping school, and I saw my brother’s guitar sitting in the corner. I’d learned a few chords over the years, so I could understand what the letters meant, and his Christian praise and worship sheet music was sitting on the floor, something I particularly resented at the time. But, for some reason, I just started playing it…I could never forget the feeling…” Adam continued to play any thing he could find in sheet and soon developed an “ear” for hearing how the music was constructed. This “ear” allowed him to play all his favorite songs just by hearing them in his head, and soon Adam was playing at parties and teenage gatherings throughout northwest Arkansas. In 2001, Adam took a job as personal assistant to then technical director of the Alma Performing Arts Center, Jeff Beaver. Jeff’s expertise and connections allowed Adam to work with some world class acts ranging from dance troops and stage performances to opera and veteran musicians. One day Adam was asked to fill in for a cancelled act during a 50’s rock themed beauty pageant. “I was terrified. I’d never played for more than a few friends and relatives, and now I was going to play in front of thousands of strangers. I asked my older brother to be my wingman, and started a slow, melodic version of “Earth Angel”. The people just sat there still, and I knew I was losing them, so, for the first time in my life I stepped outside the box to bring the people inside with me. I screeched my guitar to a halt, and asked the people if they wanted real rock-and-roll. The first lick of “Johnny B Goode” sent the building into an uproar. Nearly two thousand people instantly hit their feet and began cheering. By the end of the song I’d found that confidence I was lacking…” In 2003, while on vacation, the first in his life, he found a struggling band in Gulf Shores Alabama that was looking for a singer/guitarist and returned to Arkansas only long enough to pack and say goodbye to the world that molded his youth. Adam began booking for the band, then known as “The Flipside” and although not yet old enough to legally get into the bars, still managed to book several dozen shows throughout the gulf coast. “We just didn’t have any business etiquette. We’d show up late for sound check, do a half-ass show, and wonder why few bars ever asked us back. But, it taught me that the people are the only thing that matters, and connecting with them is the only thing that works. Even a good band is only slightly more entertaining than the radio. The connection is what keeps people entertained.” In 2006, complications between band members resulted in Adam leaving the band to pursue a solo career. Adam Moved to Detroit to be with his long time girlfriend, Andrea, and began college for Business and Musical Theatre. In all the time he’d been with “the Flipside” they’d only written and recorded one song, “Slow Train”. But, Adam had been writing since Arkansas, and by the time he began recording in college, had a song list of more than seventy originals. Adam spent the next year building a basement studio and testing his developing engineering talents on his own collection of songs. “…I never wanted to be a star, even as a child. I just wanted to have fun and eventually be able to help someone else reach their dreams.” Adam played several times a week in the college coffee shop, student union, and the King Theater, before landing his first major solo booking May 9th 07’ in the Emerald Theater Mt. Clemens, MI. “Music is my way of reaching people, I realized that if I were going to put myself out there, I needed to be sure I wasn’t misleading people…” In August 07’, after an emotional end to his four year relationship, Adam packed his studio and moved to Seattle to help his older brother record his first album. But Ill prepared for the high economy and west coast cost of living, he found himself farther and farther in debt. Working as a construction laborer, recording, and attending an occasional open mic session in the evenings, Adam spent the winter booking the following summer’s festivals, and preparing to release his first album. Narrowly escaping financial collapse, and managing to save enough money to complete the artwork and mass production of his new album, he began the first tour of his life in May 08’. Shortly after leaving Seattle, Adam received word that his older brother had attempted suicide and was forced to cancel several dates and return to Seattle. Adam spent several weeks in the hospital, leaving only to play music on street corners and bars for the money needed to be able to rejoin the tour. The cost of returning to Seattle had broken the small fund set aside for food and gas, and Adam knew that rejoining the tour would take a miracle. But he somehow managed to make enough playing in the streets of Seattle to return for the last three weeks, ending the summer with the Rocky Mountain Testy Fest and Sturgis Bike Week. “I was introduced to GOD… I’d never imagined losing someone that close to me, and faced with reality, I think it just changed something inside… people on the streets could hear the sincerity in the songs I sang, and pretty soon were throwing tens and twenties in my case… it was enough to make it to Montana and survive…” Adam returned to the studio for the winter, vowing to make an album that better represents the person Adam has grown into, as well as capturing a better his writing and performing talents... That album is NOW FINISHED!!! "Lighthouse" Hits stores in December of 2010! ***All quoted comments taken from 9/08 interview by Sean Avichouser.***