Here's the Truth with Erin Billings

E3. Talent is the Floor, Character is the Ceiling

Mon, 09 Nov 2026 05:00:00 -0500

Fifteen years of hiring every kind of creative skilled labor has taught Erin one hard truth: talent will always get someone in the door, but character decides whether they stay. This episode is a run of cautionary tales from the trenches — the hires that should've been obvious red flags and the ones where her gut knew before her brain caught up.

First up: the nepo baby drummer who beat out a far more talented, far more professional candidate — and lasted six weeks before hygiene issues and habitually showing up high got him fired the week before tour. Then there's the trumpet player who ghosted every piece of correspondence before a major musical, leaving Erin scrambling for a last-minute sub (miraculously, a top-tier player happened to be flying in from Paris) — only for her to later learn he'd been quietly battling addiction and losing gig after gig. The most serious story closes things out: an audition for a father role in a family musical where Erin's intuition screamed "no" despite a great read — a feeling fully vindicated when a background check turned up multiple domestic violence charges.

Her takeaways are simple but non-negotiable: trust your intuition, even when it's inconvenient or unpopular; build in contingency plans before you need them; lead with empathy but never sacrifice the quality of the work; and — bottom line — hire the people with integrity.

A note on this episode: This episode includes discussion of substance use and addiction within the creative industry. If you or someone you know is struggling, resources like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Celebrate Recovery, or SAMHSA's National Helpline (1-800-662-4357) are available 24/7 and free.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Talent vs Character

01:37 Nepo Drummer Disaster

03:59 Professionalism on Tour

04:46 Trumpet No Show Fallout

08:41 Addiction and Getting Help

09:41 Audition Red Flags

11:43 Trust Your Intuition

13:14 Rules and Hiring Standards

14:53 Wrap Up

Connect with Erin Billings on Instagram or Facebook, or visit her website for more information.

CREDITS

Podcast Post Production by Isaac Moreno

Music by Erin Billings - Recorded by Erin Billings on Keys, Zach Hord on Guitars, Ryan J. Lee on Bass and Drums, Mixed by John Hendrickson

Artwork by Allie Fern

E2. Art as Resistance

Mon, 02 Nov 2026 05:00:00 -0500

Erin steps a little outside her comfort zone this episode, starting with the Epstein-Trump projection stunt at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner. From there, she pulls the thread all the way out: we're living in tumultuous times, and like the people behind that projection, creatives need to start treating art as resistance, not just entertainment — and start staging their own.

Drawing on her music history education — taught alongside art history and world events, not in isolation — Erin traces a lineage of art as rebellion: Martin Luther putting hymns into the vernacular during the Reformation, Shostakovich smuggling defiance into his symphonies under Stalin's eye, the blues as coded resistance in Sinners, and even Misty Copeland's Grammys comeback as a pointed clapback. Her conclusion: everything is political — music, dance, theater, social media, all of it — and with midterms approaching, creatives have a responsibility to use their God-given voice to push back, inspire others to create, and start a ripple effect toward a better world. As always, she's not asking you to agree with her — just to think critically and question everything.

00:00 Why Art Must Resist

01:46 Hamilton as a Blueprint

02:25 History Shapes Art

03:57 Protestant Reformation to Shostakovich

05:51 Modern Parallels Today

07:09 Taking Power Back

08:27 Everything Is Political

11:02 Wrap Up

Connect with Erin Billings on Instagram or Facebook, or visit her website for more information.

CREDITS

Podcast Post Production by Isaac Moreno

Music by Erin Billings - Recorded with Erin Billings on Keys, Zach Hord on Guitars, Ryan J. Lee on Bass and Drums, Mixed by John Hendrickson

Artwork by Allie Fern

E1. Welcome to the Unhinged, Unfiltered Truth

Sun, 01 Nov 2026 20:45:00 -0500

Connect with Erin on Instagram or Facebook, or visit her website for more.

Erin Billings is done sitting on this one. After nearly two years of thinking about it, she's finally hitting record to introduce herself (and this new podcast) the only way she knows how: completely unfiltered. She lays out what the show is (a personal diary, a creative brain-dump, zero filter) and owns the "unhinged" label she keeps hearing online, arguing it's exactly what makes her good at what she does. From there she gets real about nearly 16 years in music and entertainment — the burnout, perfectionism, and self-sabotage nobody warns you about — and torches the myth that a creative career is glamorous just because it looks good on camera.

The core of the episode is a rant about the gap between music school and the music business: how conservatories teach craft but never taxes, marketing, or how to actually build a career. Her takeaway: surround yourself with people smarter than you in your weak spots, and if you're the smartest person in the room, find a different room. This is Here's the Truth — she's not here to tell you what you want to hear, she's here to tell you what you need to.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome to Here’s The Truth

01:52 Meet Erin Billings

02:30 The Glamour Myth

03:56 Craft vs Business

04:51 PJ Morton

07:41 What School Misses

09:02 Find Smarter Rooms

09:52 Wrap Up

CREDITS

Podcast Post Production by Isaac Moreno

Music by Erin Billings - Recorded with Erin Billings on Keys, Zach Hord on Guitars, Ryan J. Lee on Bass and Drums, Mixed by John Hendrickson

Artwork by Allie Fern