Allowing people into my private life has always been very hard for me. Hence my social media activity. I used to be terrible at posting. I would either not remember to post to the social media outlets or I wouldn't feel secure enough to post on my private life. Through this journey of learning who Chuck Starr is. You will get to know how guarded I can be. How stubborn I can be. How dominant I can be, and how I am realizing how my dominance can be intimidating to some and or taken the wrong way by others. I will open up to you about my journey of finding out how to love myself and accept myself. How I recently looked into the mirror and realized that there are things that I am doing wrong that I can fix, like facial expressions, tone of voice, and hearing the other person speak. You may have good intentions, but if those intentions are perceived another way, then you didn't accomplish what you set out to accomplish. I will open up as to how I am learning to be more patient and the importance of that. There are a lot of things in your own personality that you can't see. Some things that we can see but try to avoid as humans, and some things you have to face head-on. It takes things happening in your life to put you in the correct direction of your life's purpose. At least that is what has happened to me. Last but not least you will find out why Music is my passion. Why I inspire to be the best at my craft of being a performing artist, and how I inspire to be an inspiration to people. I have so many stories to tell lol. I laughed because if you are in my inner circle, you know that I can get very long-winded with my stories, so since I'm going to share who I (Chuck Starr) am, then I can and will be as long-winded as possible. I am now ready and prepared to let you into my world.
I was born Charles Boyd, on Oct 13th, in Columbus Ohio. I had a huge Afro as a baby, and I had a lot of energy. I grew up in church, and every Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, you could find me at church. My Father and Mother used to hear me singing around the house, so they decided to have me sing in front of the church for a Christmas Program. I was 5 years of age and I sang Away in the Manger. That is where it all started.
As I was growing up I began singing in the church junior choir, traveling to other churches, PAW conferences singing, and performing. It was an awesome experience. At the time I also was very much an athlete. I loved sports. When I was younger I wanted to play all the sports with my cousins, but they would say that I was too young. I did not like that at all. I felt that I could play with them, so I began practicing by myself every day so that I could one day be good enough to play with my older cousins. This process was developing me in a way that would define me as a youth, into my teenage years, and followed me into my adult life. (I will explain later) I developed a chip on my shoulder. I just wanted to compete. Competition became an addiction to me, but it also created a do not lose personality. I hated to lose, and if I lost, then I would work even harder not to lose the next time. I put so much of my time into sports that music ended up taking a back seat.
I played football, where I was a 4-year starting Varsity Award Winner, Freshman of the Year, All-City First team, Numerous Players of the week, All-District First team, All-State, and All Regional First team. I was a highly sought-after recruit from many Division 1 colleges such as The Ohio State University, Notre Dame, Michigan, Indiana, Nebraska, and Wake Forest just to name a few. I also was invited and attended the wonderful 100 which was an event for the 100 top high school football players. I also played Basketball where I was a 2-year starting Varsity Award Winner. I was 3rd team All City and All District honorable mention. Then there was track. A sport that only got one season out of me. That was a funny experience because I couldn't imagine doing a sport where I was required just to run. I actually hated running but decided to run just to get into better shape for my senior season of high school football. Track didn't look too promising for me at first, after 3 weeks of running for conditioning, and passing the baton for the relay, I did not have an official event. Most of the track athletes ran before and already had their perspective events chosen, it was my first year and I had no clue as to what I wanted to do.
Even though I did not have an event chosen. I knew that I could jump very well, so I decided to go try the high jump, I did very well on my first jump and it felt easy so, I said let's raise the bar and I will attempt another jump. That jump was a disaster. As I was running to attempt the jump, I took my step to jump and slipped, my arms flew back I actually hit the ground but somehow hit the bar, so I was on the ground with the bar on top of me, definitely very clumsy. My coach and teammates were laughing at me, to be honest, I had to laugh at myself, it was embarrassing to say the least, but it was funny. My coach told me to go try another event. (I will be honest though, I just slipped but I would've done very well at that event.) so I went over to the long jump. I had a great friend who also excelled at that event and was at the long jump pit working on his craft, so I joined him and he gave me the basics. Next was my turn to try so I ran down the runway and jumped. It was silent and my friend Carrick, left me at the long jump pit, without saying a word, next thing I know my coach had come over and instructed me to jump again, so I jumped again and my coach told me that this was my event. I know I am becoming long-winded so I will shorten this story. I ended up jumping my first track event in Jordan's and I won. I went on to buy track shoes and went all the way to winning the district with a long jump of 22 feet. I came in second place in the regional, where I jumped 22 feet 4 inches. I then went on to the states where I jumped 22 feet 6 inches. I was disappointed because my final jump was well over 23 feet (Which would have been the winning jump) but I fouled by having my toe cross over the board. I ended up placing 7th in the state (boo).
Sports gave me an understanding of how to express my passion, sports provided the discipline needed to remain focused when under pressure. Sports provided the drive needed to not give up on yourself. Sports provided the confidence to believe in yourself and your abilities. Sports also allowed me to gain the tools of becoming a leader. The problem I ran into with sports was that I couldn't separate it from life when I got older and stopped playing. I spent a lot of my adult life time-warped on all of my past accomplishments. You can't talk to people in life as you would talk on the football field. These are some of the many lessons I had to learn and that I am still learning. I was blessed though, because another dream and passion of mine, came to life, and it allowed me to bring all of the attributes that I learned from sports and apply them. That dream is Music.
Music has always been a part of my daily routine. Even though it took a backseat to sports, It really didn't take a backseat to sports, because I was always singing. I was that guy listening to slow jam music before games. I was that guy singing songs before games but felt weird singing slow songs very nice and in key, before a game or practice in front of a bunch of high school boys, so I would sing the songs off-key as if I couldn't sing so that they would sing along with me. The funny thing is when I decided to sing for real many of them didn't believe me and were shocked that I actually really could sing. The path that I took for sports provided me a physical and mental platform to do something that has always been in my heart and that is music. I was in NYC and I went to an open mic event the song that I decided to sing was "Ordinary People" by John Legend. The way I felt onstage, made me realize that music was my calling.
My Pathway to music has definitely been a journey worth sharing. I heard an old video of me singing the other day and I realized just how far I have come even through all the tests and trials that I faced. Make sure to keep an eye out on my website, I will be releasing Who Is Chuck Starr Part 2. My next blog. I will open up to you about my test and trials in the music industry. I will discuss why I became guarded in life and talk about my stubborn ways. I will also open up about what my first original stage name was, before Chuck Starr. If you would like to know something specific about me make sure to ask and I will discuss it also. Let's interact. Thank You for your time. I hope that you enjoyed this read. I have so much more in store for you.