Local performer reflects on pandemic

Marshfield’s own Nashville Star has returned to the stage after live concerts were shut down for nearly nine months. The country music performer was able to play for a live audience in January after withstanding the trials bought on by the pandemic.

Justin David graduated from Marshfield High School in 1992 before heading to Branson. He played with Roy Clark on and off for the next decade and a half, when he found himself on a TV country music competition, Nashville Star.

“In 2010 I started working with Craig Morgan, Joey + Rory, Jimmy Fortune from the Statler Brothers in Nashville and that’s about the time I was thinking ‘What was my next move?’ in music,” he explained. “That’s about the time I got the call from Colt [Ford]’s camp.”

The singer and multi-instrument player jumped on board and has been with Colt Ford for the past nine years. With 29 years of professional music experience, he has also become the band leader and tour manager since joining the band. 

“I’ve seen the best of times and the worst of times… but we’ve lived through some of those in the last 9 months,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate on my end to have an employer as great as what he has been throughout this whole thing.”

According to David, the most disheartening part of not performing is seeing the affect it has had on so many of his friends and peers within the industry. Not only from essentially losing their ability to work and not being able to play music, but the mental-health aspect of it all as well.

“I’ve watched friends make life altering decisions, not be able to be patient enough or at a place in their life to let this thing play out,” he explained. “I think we’re all just ready to get back on solid ground… the music industry and just everybody in general.”

The pandemic began for Colt Ford’s tour in March. The first part of 2020 was a busy stretch for the band, working over 30 dates prior to the shutdown and keeping them on the road for 60 straight days. They traveled from Southern California at the end of January, all the way up Northern California, Portland, Seattle, across the northwest to New York and were back down to the eastern part of the country, in Florida by the first of March.

“At that point, we had five shows left in Florida and I remember management calling and discussing options and telling colt, wow this is a real deal. We’re getting ready to get shut down.. for the last three days of it I was just waiting for the governor of Florida to make the call,” he recalled. 

The last show he did was March 12 for Daytona’s Bike Week. Daytona got shut down the day of their show however, they were able to still play that night since the venue was outside of Daytona county.

“The very next day, the whole state of Florida shut down… for us, that’s when the pandemic started. Fortunately we were coming off that long trip and we were going to be home for a couple weeks,” said David. “I told the band – hey we’ve got a couple weeks off and got a handful of dates in April. I figured by then we’d be up and going again, but hindsight is 20/20.”

Since the pandemic started, Colt Ford has played less than 15 shows in varying degrees of social distancing. In February, Diamond Resorts held its Tournament of Champions, a celebrity pro-am in conjunction with the LPGA Tournament, which marks the start of the LPGA year. Colt Ford has participated in the tournament for six years now. However, according to Justin David, the opportunity to be onstage performing at the moment Is a privilege.

“Colt and I kind of laughed before the pandemic and we were saying worse case scenario – if things get bad for us we’ll always be able to go out and play live music. We’ll always be able to make a living playing live music,” he explained. “Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that would get taken away from us.”

One highlight of the downtime has been the amount of time he’s spent at his homes in Nashville, Tenn. and Garrison, Mo. On an average week, he and his family are used to him making the trips from Nashville to Missouri at least once a week. Typically he’s on the road working for a couple weeks before being home for a day or two at a time… but right now it’s flip flopped. 

“I may be gone for a day or two and then I’m home for two or three weeks at a time,” he explained. “Abby looked at me 16 days into the pandemic and said, “‘Do you realize this is the longest consecutively that you’ve been home in 15 years?’”

When it comes down to it, the biggest perk of the pandemic has been spending extra time with his wife and daughters. Whether it’s putting on a family concert from their living room for Facebook, working on home projects or simply watching the kids play or helping them with homework.  

“Honestly, that aspect of it has great. In 30 years I’ve never had this much time at home period, so it’s been a little bit refreshing but I certainly wanted that to happen on my own accord and not have it ripped out from under me like it was,” he said. “But we’ve made the best of it. It’s been a true joy watching my daughters grow up in front of my very eyes rather than over FaceTime or the internet. We’ve all had to do some extent of home isolation to help get back to normal.”

Colt Ford has numerous dates coming up that are already booked, but they have their hands tied by how the virus proceeds, as well as how the government handles it moving forward. While the venues that have held live music shows, such as Diamond Resorts, have required COVID testing to participate, require masking and social distancing as well as provide hand sanitizer to those in attendance – they have had to consider potential problems or risks that haven’t existed previously. 

“We want everybody to be safe. I think we can all say we know somebody, a family or friend who’s lives have been forever-altered by his virus and we don’t want to be the ones that create that problem… yet the stage is our platform and our way of making a living,” he explained. “It’s not just the musicians or singers, it’s the stage crew, mechanics, club owners, everyone who is involved… we want to find solutions to problems that haven’t ever existed before… It’s just been a gut buster for all of us.”

According to David, the performances at Diamond Resort in January were well thought-out and everyone involved seemed to be focused on safety first and foremost. Seeing so many people participate in an event in a safe way gives them hope that some sense of normality will return to the music industry. 

“We want to work but we want to be as safe as possible,” he added. “The music industry will come back, I just hope all of the great people that I’ve met along the way still have the opportunity to get back in the business.”