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It’s hard enough for working parents to balance their jobs when raising children.
It’s harder still for rock musicians, who occupy a realm where endless youth is revered and myths of a freewheeling, partying atmosphere linger like stale smoke from another after-party.
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For bands like the Continental Drifters, in which both parents – Susan Cowsill and Peter Holsapple – have a role, there’s no one to watch the child at home. “We don’t make a ton of money,” Cowsill said at the conference, “so it generally goes to the sitter.”
Cowsill has a unique perspective on bringing kids up in the music industry since she was a child star, as the youngest voice in the family band the Cowsills, who had chart hits like ‘Hair” and “The Rain, the Park and Other Things” in the last 1960s.
“I couldn’t join Brownies. I couldn’t have my tonsils out. I couldn’t get braces,” Cowsill said of her time in the group, which consisted of her four big brothers and her mother. “But it was an amazing experience.”
She doesn’t wish the same for their daughter, Miranda, though.
“I don’t want her in a band,” she said. “Frankly, I want her to be an accountant.”
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Panelists agreed that real issues, like problems getting insurance, should be addressed in the music industry by those in power. “Madonna should set that up,” Cowsill said.
And while the music conference itself was enlightened enough to hold a panel discussion on parenting, it has yet to provide day-care at that event.
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