Patrick Hicks never expected to become a Tik Tok star. He first opened his account in response to his wife suggesting a 30 day creative challenge; The couple had already produced a short lived podcast together, and while it garnered just a handful of downloads for each episode, it provided a much needed creative outlet. Without that pod as a regular endeavor, Patrick’s partner suggested that perform a creative task with accountability every day, for thirty days in a row.
As Patrick considered how he would engage with this challenge, he wondered if he could create a Tik Tok account that told interesting stories from throughout music history. It seemed likely that no one would watch, but if he kept it up for 30 days, Patrick would have a small basket of content and it would give him the opportunity to be creative every day.
And so, he posted his first video which got a scattering of views, and then he moved on to day two. Within just a few days, the views began to pile up. By the two week mark, he had hit a million views. Soon, individual videos were being viewed tens and hundreds of thousands of times. He even attracted the attention of massive artists like Green Day. Today, he finds himself with more than half a million followers on Tik Tok.
During our conversation, Patrick and I cover his shocking success on Tik Tok and the doors that success has opened up for him, including a pitch to MTV in which he was told, “We’re not making any music content right now.”
We discuss how it took hundreds of strangers telling Patrick that he was a good storyteller for him to begin to believe it himself. He shares his process of finding these detailed and hidden stories and talks about the ways that he looks for new angles and perspectives with each artist that he covers, even making it a point to share at least one rarely known fact about each subject.
Patrick even shares a pair of his favorite stories here that cover the wild tale of the man known as the Mexican Elvis and the way he was catapulted to stardom by the grace of a warden, a famous actress, and sheer luck. We discuss where Patrick would like to take his work in the future, including long-form video work like a TV show or documentary series that would allow him the resources and time to tell these stories in a more in-depth fashion.
This is a great discussion with a man who found unexpected fame by simply telling the stories from rock and roll that fascinated him. Come join me now for a chat with rock historian, storyteller, and Substacker, Patrick Hicks.
Cheers,
Matty C
Subscribe now to Patrick’s podcast, ‘The Guest List’ wherever you get your pods.
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