Singer Lucky Daye talks about being broke and water fasting

Lucky Daye is an American musician who has overcome great obstacles to achieve success. In 2019, he released his debut album with songs such as “Real Games,” “Karma,” and his breakthrough hit “Roll Some Mo.”

The album also received positive reviews from leading entertainment websites and newspapers and was nominated for four Grammy Awards, 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 its challenges. In an interview with Vice, he recalled that in a church he attended as a child, singing secular music was strictly forbidden. The church later aroused his mother’s displeasure, which led to her leaving the church with her family.

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Daye and his family left New Orleans for Tyler, Texas, where religion separated him from his family. Daye later pursued a solo career under his birth name, David Brown. While in Atlanta, GA, he landed a songwriting gig with fellow New Orleans native August Alsina. He later moved to Los Angeles to further his music career, but the move to LA turned out very differently than he expected.

“I came to LA and I realized I had no idea,” he told Vice. “I had a lot of deals that I didn’t know I had that I had to get out of. I would sit in lobbies like I was Ice Cube and stuff, thinking, ‘Someone’s going to talk to me.’ I’m going through that right now 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 drunk’; they want to hear someone else say it.”

He added: “It got to a point where I had no friends, no money, no hope. Ever since I was a kid, people always said, ‘You have a gift.’ I realized that maybe music wasn’t for me, and it hurt because I had sworn that this was my thing. This is all I have.”

He said his time in LA was his “darkest turning point,” adding that he had limited resources and had to resort to water fasting and occasionally buying celery sticks.

“My darkest turning point 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 the goal that I was supposed to be pursuing and I’m stagnating, but I’m doing this and fighting out there,” Daye told Amazon Music.

“I ran out of money. A guy from Atlanta picked up my bag and came here and I eat celery every day. I used the fast as an excuse not to eat because I couldn’t afford a full meal. So I did something like a water fast. And then when it was over and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to die.’ I started buying celery sticks. So I just took the bus to my sessions, bought celery and that’s what I ate. 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 meant to reflect how he defied all odds to succeed in the music industry. He changed his name to “Lucky Daye” with an “e” like Marvin Gaye, according to Vice.

Despite the setbacks, he remained true to his music and eventually reconnected with sound engineer Dernst “D’Mile” Emile before releasing his debut album “Painted” in 2019.