What would you give to follow your dream?

A couple of years at college? Months of practicing?

Recently I had the honor of meeting a man so unique that I couldn't say no to telling his story.

He walked right into our building here at KXII and asked, “How can I get my name on the air?"

This morning we're literally on the road with Dean Strickland, telling a part of his tale of how he's walking across Texas.

"I do this because I can't think of anything that I would love to do more than play the guitar, write songs, and perform, and sing."

"It’s really out of a love for all these things that I walk down the highway."

Dean Strickland is a man who calls the highway his home.

"Thousands and thousands of miles I’ve actually walked, but it's hard to put a number on it."

If his roof is the sky, and the trees are his walls, then Highway 82 on this day is just a long stretching hallway as he makes his way to Sherman for a little publicity and a humbling performance at the boiler room.

"I’m my own PR person, booking agent, and transportation without a vehicle except my two legs."

Strickland has been a traveling musical man for nearly two years, and his two legs are his only mode of transportation unless someone picks him up because "thumb-in" just isn’t his style.

"I’ve been through five pairs of tennis shoes, three pairs of boots."

"Being on the road for 19 months has been very trying, at times, and it's nerving when I jump into a strangers' car."

But he does it anyway, making stops in a couple dozen cities, walking to newspapers and TV stations, getting his name out in public.

Strickland is unlike anyone you'll ever meet.

By the time he was in his late 20's, he had all his bill paid off, and he made good money as a water meter reader.

He had a house, a new truck, a dog, and a fiancée who once told him he paid more attention to his guitar than he did her.

"I once had the American dream... that they call the American dream... I once had that."
"The American dream is what I speak of when I say the house, car, pet, wife…but that's not everyone's dream, that's not my dream."

Strickland would like to make money. He'd like to buy a big tour bus. He'd like to make a nice living by singing his songs, just like coming to Sherman and performing for people at the boiler room.

"But if that never happens, I don't think I’ll ever let that phase me, I’ll just be a poor musician forever."

Everyone asks him why he goes to this extreme? Why do you live on the street? Why give up your whole life to walk the lonely streets of Texas?

His answer is very simple.

"Playing music and somehow trying to get music out there, is really the only thing that goes on in my mind."

"I’m in it for life, I feel like."

Dean will be back in Sherman on August 16th to play at the Boiler Room.