How Bushman Survived A Whole Year Without Doing A Single Show
Published September 21, 2026
Bushman sits down with Irie Jam Radio and finally explains why so many of his biggest songs Remember the Days, Call the Hearse, Grow Your Natty, never got music videos, and why people still know his voice better than his face.
He takes it back to the start: signing his first deal with no manager of his own, a contract overseen by the same person who managed and represented his producers, and a three-year exclusivity that he says left his biggest records sitting still. He talks about his first trip to New York in the mid-90s, standing in the Q Club the night Red Rat and Goofy made their debut while nobody on the mic even called his name, a $2,000 Boston show he came home from with a fraction of the money, getting labelled the unruly artist for staying to hustle, and surviving a full year on dubplates alone. He also goes back to recording straight to dub with no Pro Tools, what Steely & Clevie did right as producers, the We Are the World idea behind Remember the Days, his upcoming project Timeless, and why he says the culture that used to break bread all the way down to the gateman has turned into bad mind.
0:00 Breaking bread vs bad mind
1:00 Bushman in the building
2:30 The UK tour and the Timeless album
4:00 From cassette to the cloud, voicing straight to dub
6:30 Algorithms, robots, and what the music is up against
8:30 Man in the mirror, staying true to yourself
10:00 Remember the Days and the We Are the World idea
11:30 Why his biggest hits have no videos
13:00 No manager and a conflict of interest
14:30 Q Club 1996 nobody called his name
16:00 The $2,000 Boston show
17:30 Labelled the unruly artist
18:30 Surviving a year on dubplates
20:00 The weekend his career changed in St. Thomas
22:30 Breaking bread down to the last man
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