PJ Vogt

And in particular, with this one small part of their mythology. I'd heard about how the singer, Craig Finn, had supposedly had a very strange path into his music career. And the story of that path gave me a kind of hope. What I had heard on the internet was that before The Hold Steady, Craig Finn had languished in a drab office job. In one version of the story, he was an IT guy at Goldman Sachs.

And this legend, it was believable because Finn was a balding, horn-rimmed, glasses-wearing guy with a pretty nasal voice. The joke in the reviews of the band was sometimes that he actually looked more like an accountant than a rock singer. In the version of the story I'd heard, he'd basically become an accountant, and he'd had to make peace with it.

And this legend, it was believable because Finn was a balding, horn-rimmed, glasses-wearing guy with a pretty nasal voice. The joke in the reviews of the band was sometimes that he actually looked more like an accountant than a rock singer. In the version of the story I'd heard, he'd basically become an accountant, and he'd had to make peace with it.

And this legend, it was believable because Finn was a balding, horn-rimmed, glasses-wearing guy with a pretty nasal voice. The joke in the reviews of the band was sometimes that he actually looked more like an accountant than a rock singer. In the version of the story I'd heard, he'd basically become an accountant, and he'd had to make peace with it.

But then, after years languishing in a job he didn't want, he started this new band, just for fun, to hold steady. And that band had taken off. It had rescued him from his life. And there was a little more evidence for this story, the story of a guy who late in life had escaped a job he hated and found one he loved.

But then, after years languishing in a job he didn't want, he started this new band, just for fun, to hold steady. And that band had taken off. It had rescued him from his life. And there was a little more evidence for this story, the story of a guy who late in life had escaped a job he hated and found one he loved.

But then, after years languishing in a job he didn't want, he started this new band, just for fun, to hold steady. And that band had taken off. It had rescued him from his life. And there was a little more evidence for this story, the story of a guy who late in life had escaped a job he hated and found one he loved.

When I'd see them play live over and over again, there was this thing he'd almost always do towards the end of the set— He started to tell stories. And then on the stage, he'd offer something that felt almost like a prayer.

When I'd see them play live over and over again, there was this thing he'd almost always do towards the end of the set— He started to tell stories. And then on the stage, he'd offer something that felt almost like a prayer.

When I'd see them play live over and over again, there was this thing he'd almost always do towards the end of the set— He started to tell stories. And then on the stage, he'd offer something that felt almost like a prayer.

Where he would just express pure gratitude that his life had worked out, that he got to do his job for a living.

Where he would just express pure gratitude that his life had worked out, that he got to do his job for a living.

Where he would just express pure gratitude that his life had worked out, that he got to do his job for a living.

And I came to understand that maybe I was going to all these concerts really just for that moment. Maybe I really needed to believe that someone really did love his job, that everybody else wasn't just faking it the way I was faking it. But being constitutionally incapable of not becoming obsessed with things, I started to think about it too much.

And I came to understand that maybe I was going to all these concerts really just for that moment. Maybe I really needed to believe that someone really did love his job, that everybody else wasn't just faking it the way I was faking it. But being constitutionally incapable of not becoming obsessed with things, I started to think about it too much.

And I came to understand that maybe I was going to all these concerts really just for that moment. Maybe I really needed to believe that someone really did love his job, that everybody else wasn't just faking it the way I was faking it. But being constitutionally incapable of not becoming obsessed with things, I started to think about it too much.

And I started to wonder, like really wonder, what if Craig Finn was lying? Because I knew that even most dream jobs eventually become jobs. They become onerous. And if Craig Finn had ever just once publicly said in some interview that he loved his job, and if people had responded to that, he would have been bound to that fiction forever.

And I started to wonder, like really wonder, what if Craig Finn was lying? Because I knew that even most dream jobs eventually become jobs. They become onerous. And if Craig Finn had ever just once publicly said in some interview that he loved his job, and if people had responded to that, he would have been bound to that fiction forever.

And I started to wonder, like really wonder, what if Craig Finn was lying? Because I knew that even most dream jobs eventually become jobs. They become onerous. And if Craig Finn had ever just once publicly said in some interview that he loved his job, and if people had responded to that, he would have been bound to that fiction forever.

For years, stuck in my own unhappiness, I wondered about his happiness. Wondered if it was real. I would plot and scheme about ways to ask him about it or I might get a real answer. In 2014, I bid in a charity auction where the prize was you got to go jogging with Craig Finn. I had this idea that if I asked him when he was sort of winded, then I'd get a real answer.