Pete Seeger is the guy who I saw when I was 8 years old that inspired me to want to make music and tell stories in such a way as to leave the world a better place.

Check out this article about Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Tribute Concert

Here's a song I wrote a while ago to the "Pete Seeger in my Mind". I was at a place in life where it was incredibly painful to sing my songs in public. All I'd ever wanted to do since I was 8 years old was write and sing songs for people to enjoy. But getting people to actually listen to songs they had never heard before seemed increasingly daunting.

Pete Seeger is inspiring to us because he has lived and continues to live an authentic life in his own way.

I realized at the time of writing this song that I had to stop trying to be like Pete Seeger and start being authentically myself.That realization led me to set the whole music thing aside for awhile in order to do the challenging work on myself that eventually led me to study NLP...

I heard a great quote once: "God's delays are not God's denials." So many years later my music is starting to be heard around the globe via the internet...

Heroes are wonderful. What's even better is striving to become like them without abandoning our own uniqueness...My challenge to you today is become your own hero!

If you like the song please share it! - Mark

All I Wanted by Mark Shepard Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

All I Wanted | 7/13/1991 | Song #162

The sudden realization strikes me with a start
I thought that I had courage, I thought that I had heart
I thought I was important, I thought I had control
I thought I had a purpose I thought I had a goal

But everything is ashes, dust and bones
I have no place to lay my head I have no place to call home
I am just a pilgrim, barely just a fool
I stumble when I walk and every day is like a day at school…

Refrain:
All I wanted, all I wanted
All I wanted was to be like you
All I wanted, all I wanted
All I wanted was to be like you
I turned out a lot like me…

I thought I was a prophet, I thought I was a seer
I thought that I had songs that maybe people would want to hear
But no one seemed to listen, no one seemed to care
It seems that to be noticed today you’ve got to walk around in your underwear!

Refrain:

Now I see I’m nothing, a speck out in the void
And you know? I feel much lighter and so very much less annoyed
Now I’m ready to move onward, I’m ready to be new
And most of all I’m ready to stop trying to be you!

Refrain

All I Wanted by Mark Shepard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.