Dave Kushner on Building a Music Career: "Commit to the New Thing and Leave the Old Thing Behind"

In Episode 9 of Inside the Noise Season 3, Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto sits down with Velvet Revolver guitarist, Emmy-nominated composer and Guitar Center Senior Director of Artist Relations Dave Kushner for an honest conversation about building a lasting career in music. During the podcast, Kushner shares stories of perseverance, creativity, his lifelong friendship with Slash and why embracing change has shaped every stage of his career.

Starting on Guitar

“I started playing at 14,” says Kushner. “My mom had a classical guitar sitting in a corner and I tried to learn ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ It was too hard. So, I put the guitar down. I put it down again when I took a guitar class and the teacher wouldn’t let me play with a pick. I was like, ‘Ah, forget it.’ Then, Cathy Sample—who played in the band Mad Society—showed me how to play barre chords. I said, ‘What? I can just move this shape around and play all of these songs?’ That was it. I really got into playing and just obsessively played all the time.”

Going Your Own Way

“Mikey Fitz from Fitz and the Tantrums was a friend of mine, and we wrote these songs. I’m like, ‘Oh, maybe this is my big break.’ This was one of those times when I said, “If I'm going to play music, I'm just going to write exactly what I want to write—not what I think is going to sell or what's on the radio.”

Attending “Rock and Roll High School” with Slash

“I've known Slash since the 7th grade. We grew up together. Then, at Fairfax High School, there was also Tracii Guns and Rami Jaffe, and I think the guys from the Red Hot Chili Peppers had just graduated. It was kind of happenstance, because we all grew up in Hollywood and kind of hung out and played music together.”

Success Is Just One Aspect of a Music Career

"Velvet Revolver was a multi-million-dollar company run by five dudes with no real training on how to run a million-dollar company. That's like every band really. It's just a bunch of dudes trying to hone in on a creative vision and hopefully get to make money at it."

No Fear and Sons of Anarchy

“I was kind of leaning towards the composing thing while I was hanging out with this group of guys at Johnny Rockets. I kind of fell into it. My friend Bob Thiele said he was working on this show Sons of Anarchy, and asked me, ‘Hey, do you want to write something for it?’ At this point in my life, I was trying to take contrary action to my wiring, which was to say ‘no’ out of fear. I mean, everybody has insecurities and everything, I would be afraid people would find out I’m not as good a musician as they think I am. But I said ‘yes,’ and we ended up writing ‘The Life’ in one day, and it became the theme song for Sons of Anarchy and was later nominated for an Emmy.”

Guitar Center Connections

“Guitar Center Hollywood was always the cool place to hang out when I was growing up. Sometimes, your friends would be working there. I remember when Guitar Center bought Blackie [Eric Clapton’s composite ’50s Stratocaster was auctioned in 2004 to benefit the guitarist’s Crossroads Centre Antigua] and put it in a plexiglass case right in the store. To be able to be this close to an instrument Eric Clapton played that was worth a million dollars, you just wanted to get some of the mojo off of it. It was the first time I ever had that experience of being close to something that iconic.

“There’s another Guitar Center connection story. Karen Holland [Guitar Center Senior Director, Visual Merchandising] is one of my wife’s best friends. She was the Maid of Honor at my wedding. So, we’d often talk about visual merchandising in the stores, because she knew I’d been shopping at Guitar Center my entire life. The composing thing was dying down, and I told her, ‘I want a job, you know.’ She said I should look at the Guitar Center employment site. I think my wife found the music education position. Karen championed me with some of the people who work here and I got an interview. I talked to you [Dalporto] in this room. I got the job, started in music education and now, I run artist relations—which is the best job in the world. It was perfect for me without me knowing it was the perfect job for me.”

Get All of Kushner’s Inspirational Stories

Catch the full conversation and other episodes of Inside the Noise with Gabe Dalporto on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any of your favorite major platforms. When you subscribe, you’ll get new episodes every Tuesday at 3 p.m. PT.