The artistic world is getting closer to psychedelic research approval, as evidenced by VIP ticket donations for Nashville-born Daniel Donato’s US concert tour.
Whether or not you know his music, his personal story is truly fascinating. As a child and young teenager, Donato suffered from ADHD. After many years of medication, he tried psychedelics, which helped him mentally and spiritually.
Now, years later and with a successful music career, Donato is donating a third of all VIP concert ticket sales to benefit the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
Now 27, when he was 16, Daniel was one of the most captivating guitarists in the lower honky-tonks of Broadway in Nashville, playing regularly with Robert’s Western World and the Don Kelley Band while doing against hyperactivity.
He was put on SSRIs and prescriptions until his first psychedelic experience which helped him quit drugs and finally feel like himself.
A glimpse of this transformation can be heard in his debut album, The country of a young man. Recorded at the Sound Emporium in Nashville in just two days and produced by guitar ace Robben Fordit refers to the record’s singular style as “21st century cosmic country”.
The message contains the central tenet of Donato’s philosophy: find the courage to chart your own path. And the artist extends this philosophy beyond music, in social media channels, where he has built a considerable community of followers.
It also produces “Daniel Donato’s Lost Highway” podcast, which brings together like-minded creatives to get to the heart of what drives artists. Some of the past interviews feature the Osborne brothers, Brent Cobb, Orville Peck and Garry Talent of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
Where and how it all started
As he recalls, listening to Guns ‘N’ Roses’ “Paradise City” at age 12 changed his world forever. “It was the first time I had a vision in my life. Then I took one of my dad’s old guitars…and literally fell in love with it.
After that, Donato lived and breathed the music, training around the clock and ending up down Broadway eight hours a day on weekends for tips.
Regular night sessions with the Don Kelley Band were a tremendous education for the young musician, and playing with Nashville’s most seasoned players – who may have played in the bands of Buck Owens, Dolly Parton or Alan Jackson – has broadened his musical vocabulary while perfecting his stage presence. . At the same time, he discovers the ins and outs of the music industry.
How to get the VIP tickets
The NFT format allows VIP tickets to be packaged with multiple benefits that otherwise cannot be programmed for traditional tickets.
Each of these special tickets includes animated mushroom artwork and an immersive mushroom poster from Half Hazard Press, plus other perks like meet-and-greet Donato at the show, full airdrop recordings of every show on the tour, and more.
This is Donato’s third project with ticketing and music company Web3 YellowHeart, which released debut album NFT and NFT Tickets with Kings of Leon in early 2021.
WE tour dates can be found here.
Photo courtesy of Ant Braaten.
