Kat Deal: Success is Paying the Bills by Playing Music

Before she became one of Mobile's busiest singer-songwriters, Kat Deal was a kid from Troy who begged her parents for guitar lessons, but had to wait until hunting season ended. She picked up the instrument at seven years old and never looked back. In this episode of Dealing the Mobile Sound, host Eric Erdman sits down with Kat to talk about growing up on George Jones, Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, and Alabama before discovering The Beatles, "like experiencing fire as a caveman." She shares how a full scholarship brought her to the University of South Alabama, and why a Google search for "live music near me" changed her life. Along the way, she tells how local music legend Les Hall helped keep her working—and fed. Kat also opens up about the songwriting process–writing dozens of bad songs to find the good ones. And how a rough gig in New Orleans became one of her favorite stories. She also explains why success doesn't look like fame or fortune. "I pay my bills playing music. If you would have told me that as a kid, that's making it to me."