Lucky Daye is an American musician who overcame major obstacles to achieve success. He released his debut album in 2019 which had songs like “Real Games,” “Karma,” and his breakthrough hit, “Roll Some Mo.”
The album also received positive reviews from leading entertainment websites and newspapers and went on to receive four Grammy nominations, including Best R&B Song, Best R&B Performance, Best Traditional R&B Performance, and Best R&B Album.
But Daye’s rise was not without challenges. He recalled in an interview with Vice that one of his childhood churches had a strict rule against singing secular music. The church would later incur the displeasure of his mother, resulting in her leaving the church with her family.
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After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Daye and his family left New Orleans to Tyler, Texas, where religion separated him from his family. Daye would later pursue a solo music career under his birth name David Brown. While in Atlanta, GA., he snagged a gig with fellow New Orleanian August Alsina as a songwriter. He later moved to Los Angeles to further his music career but his move to LA was far from what he expected.
“I came to LA and I realized I didn’t know sh-t,” he told Vice. “There were a lot of deals I was in that I didn’t know I was in that I had to get out of. I was sitting in lobbies like I was Ice Cube and sh-t, thinking, ‘Somebody gon’ talk to me.’ I’m going through it, and I’m realizing it’s just a bunch of people listening to a bunch of people. Nobody wants to hear me say, ‘I’m tight’; they want to hear somebody else say it.”
He added, “It got to a point where I ran out of friends, money, and hope. Ever since I was a kid, people have always said, ‘You’ve got a gift.’ I realized maybe music ain’t for me, and it hurt because I swore this is my thing. This is all I’ve got.”
According to him, his time in LA was his“darkest tipping point,” adding that he had limited funds and resorted to water fasts, occasionally buying celery sticks.
“My darkest tipping point, it was in LA. I was out here. I was still going to sessions and I was in a terrible situation. Not terrible, but terrible for me, especially with all this purpose I feel like I’m supposed to be doing, and I’m stagnant, but I’m doing that and struggling outside,” Daye told Amazon Music.
“Ran out of money. Dude from Atlanta, got my bag, came out here, and I’m eating celery every day. I used ‘going on a fast’ as an excuse to not eat. Cause I couldn’t afford full food. So I would go on, like, water fasts. And then once it was over and I felt like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna die.’ I started buying celery stalks. So I would just catch the bus to my sessions, buy celery, and that’s what I would eat. And that was my lowest point.”
His ordeal led him to change his name as he saw the world through a different lens. The new name was to reflect how he braved the odds to find success in the music industry. He changed his name to “Lucky Daye” with an “e” like Marvin Gaye, per Vice.
Despite the setbacks, he remained committed to his music and eventually reconnected with engineer Dernst “D’Mile” Emile before launching his debut album “Painted” in 2019.
