Paul Thorn
It's all about word of mouth.
"I call myself the most famous guy you never heard of," said singer/songwriter Paul Thorn.
"The first time I played the Southgate House, I don't know how many years ago, I opened for Junior Brown," he said. "Then I opened for somebody else, then somebody else. Now when I come back, I'm not opening anymore and every time, the numbers keep going up.
"If you go to a place once or twice a year and do a good show, people will keep coming back."
Thorn has earned his reputation as storytelling singer/songwriter, many of his songs coming from his own colorful experiences.
The son of an evangelist, he began performing in churches in and around his hometown of Tupelo, Miss. (also Elvis' hometown) at the age of 3.
"My first paying gig was at a revival with my father when everybody came around and put money in my tambourine," he said. "After the service, there was a little girl, also about three years old, who I had a crush on.
"I stuffed the money I got all down in my pockets. After the service we sat around the back of the church and I bought her a Coke with the money I'd earned. That was my first paying gig, and I guess my first date."
The transition to singer/songwriter was a long, gradual one, he said, but he learned more about performing from the preachers he knew than anyone else.
"Being a preacher is also being an entertainer," he said. "You have to be able to hold a crowd's attention. You read a little scripture, tell a little joke. It has served me well."
His musical aspirations, however, were interrupted for a while when Thorn pursued a boxing career, which culminated in a nationally-televised bout with Roberto Duran in 1988. After that, he played guitar in a Tupelo pizza joint at night while he worked in a furniture factory during the day.
Word-of-mouth served him well there, too, and record company executives started dropping in on him, perhaps hoping to find the next Elvis.
"I was never allowed to go to concerts as a kid," he said. "So the first concert I ever went to was one where I opened for Sting."
