Artist Information
Dean grew up in a musical family, which both helped and hindered his success. "My Dad is the late Roger Miller. My Stepmom sang with Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. I was exposed to a lot, good and bad," Dean says. "By the time I brought my songs to Nashville, I thought I had it all together. Boy, was I wrong!"
Dean developed his craft, signed and lost some record deals, had some hits with other artists, worked some day jobs and, eventually, developed a method of dog training (his other passion). Making a career for himself was anything but easy. "When your Dad is one of the most revered songwriters in country music, people tend to sit back, fold their arms and say, 'You think you're any good? Prove it!'"
"I finally stepped back, distanced myself from other people's opinions and began writing music for myself," Dean said. "I'm a lot less 'results oriented' and mainly just writing songs that excite me. I hope they excite a few other people, too."
"These days, I try to live by a quote I heard from Deepak Chopra," Dean says. "He said, 'In order to feel successful, you have to give up your attachment to the result.' So if you're a performer and you're performing for four people or 4,000 people, you're still just a guy holding a guitar and singing a song. People make the mistake of getting caught up in the result."
"That," he says, "is definitely my philosophy of life. You should never have a sense of entitlement about life. You should be grateful for it, because it can be taken away from you tomorrow."
