Short transcript excerpt from a Chris Collins YouTube interview in which Shawn Stockman recounts a pivotal junior-high audition for the Creative and Performing Arts High School. Lacking sheet music, Shawn almost skipped the audition; his father urged him to go, and he was accepted on the spot by Dr. David King. Shawn reflects that that single choice led to meeting future group members and shaped his musical career. The interviewer emphasizes that intentional parental involvement mattered more than wealth.
Questions this video answers
His father.
Dr. David King.
Chapters
Give you a story. I was in junior high school. A recruiter came to my junior high to speak about this school that was fairly new, called the Creative and Performing Arts High School. Again, I loved music. So when I heard about that, and then watching the show Fame, like, on television, you know, when you think of Creative and Performing Arts, you thought of that show, and I was like, man, if there's anything like that, I want to go, right? So they said, okay, if you want to sing, which I did, you have to have a certain grade point average. Got that? But then you're supposed to have three sheets of music in order for you to audition and get evaluated. I was like, cool. So I was in choirs before and everything. So I'm familiar with certain things like Ave Maria and all that other stuff. So I'm gonna grab those, I'm gonna find those sheets of music so the piano can play it, blah, blah, blah. Couldn't find anywhere in the city. I looked everywhere. So I go back home. It's the day of the audition.
And I said, dad, I'm not going. This is when I was living with my dad at the time. I said, dad, I'm not going. He said, what do you mean you're not going? Why? I said, because I don't have any sheets of music. I'm not going to go there with nothing in my hand. They're going to reject me. He said, you don't know that.
He said, you don't know. He's like, go.
And whatever happens, happens. But you're never gonna know if you don't go. So he said, take your. That's what he said. Take your black onto the trolley, go to that school and sing. And you never know what happens. If I didn't do that, if my father didn't urge me to do that, I'm getting emotional thinking about it.
I wouldn't be talking to you. That school allowed me to meet the four guys that allowed me to be in that group, allowed me to be successful. That moment.
That one choice.
I could either have gone or not gone.
And it could have changed everything. You know, we tend to augment all of the melodrama of things, of people. Well, he lived here, so he has to be like, that's not true. Because, again, I'm a product of that. I did not grow up in the suburbs. My parents were not rich yet. They gave me life.
Yeah, you don't have to have a lot of money to be a good parent. Right. You just have to be intentional and involved.
Love. Yeah, that's it.
So you go to the audition and what happens?
I got accepted on the spot.
But you didn't have the.
I didn't have anything. The teacher was named Dr. David King, God rest his soul. He told me to sing a few scales. I guess he saw that I could sing. He said, you're in. That was it. Wow. If I didn't make that choice.
I don't know where I'd be. That's amazing. Thanks, Pop.
