Your ‘Do Not Play’ List May Give You the Hits You Need

As a wedding DJ, any time I book a client, I send them a form asking what they want played and, just as important, songs that are on their “Do Not Play” list. 

A couple should never hear songs they hate on their wedding day. For most couples, the “Do Not Play” list include popular line dances. That’s fine. “Cha-Cha Slide” is not one of my favorites, either.  

What is funny is, more often than not, a guest will come up and request a “Do Not Play” song, sometimes even going so far as getting the bride involved. Then, the bride, who specifically declared that she didn’t want this song played at her wedding, watches as the song is played at the guest’s behest and dancers flock to the floor. 

It’s a perfect metaphor for life. Sometimes the things we reject end up being exactly what we need later in life.  

I, in my life, have my own “Do Not Play” tune. It’s called plumbing. Most people don’t know that if radio doesn’t work out and I lose my DJ business, I could load up my truck and be a plumber tomorrow. My dad is a plumber and so was my uncle. I grew up - reluctantly - helping and learning the business. My dad wanted to make sure I always had a skill I could use to make a living. I don’t use it a lot but, the skill is there. 

The problem is, I despise plumbing.  

When I embarked on my radio journey long ago, part of my reward was knowing that I’d never have to crawl under a house or dig a ditch again. I was ecstatic about leaving that life and those skills behind.  

And then the dirty side of radio revealed itself. It’s a turbulent industry and, occasionally, it’ll spit you out. The bills keep rolling in, however. So, what is a struggling radio person to do? For me, it was plumbing. It was always plumbing. 

When my great Las Vegas experiment of 2018 blew up, I found myself in that all too familiar scenario - back home, without a source of income and a family to provide for. So, I packed up my tools and went to work for my cousin’s plumbing company, CMS Plumbing. It’s the company that my dad and uncle started together years ago and a company that I had worked for, off and on, since I could legally work. It’s also a company I had come to despise and that I had vowed to never work for again because, well, plumbing. I do hate digging a ditch. 

I ended up working for that company for about three years and it wasn’t all bad. I got to hang with my cousins every day and I made some really good friends. I even learned a bit more about the industry that I had written off years earlier.  

The point is, this job that I had come to despise, like that song on the “Do Not Play” list, ended up being the exact thing I needed. Over the years, I’ve come to hate it less and I’m thankful for my dad’s persistence, ensuring I had those skills.  

But I still hate digging ditches.