TYE 128: P!nk bassist Eva Gardner on rock stardom and overcoming rejection

The YES Effect

Eva Gardner could have easily been given a golden ticket to music stardom. But the fact that she wasn’t drove her to go get it on her own. Eva grew up in a rock and roll family as the daughter of Kim Gardner, a notable bass player in the 1960’s British Invasion music scene who played with acts like The Creation, Ron Wood, The Birds, Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart. But while Eva found great influence in her father’s career path, she wasn’t immediately encouraged to follow.

It wasn’t until a holiday to visit a family friend, The Who’s John Entwistle, where that all changed. Eva went on to study music at UCLA before beginning a career as a professional touring musician with acts like The Mars Volta, P!nk, Gwen Stefani, Cher, Tegan & Sara, Moby and Veruca Salt.

She’s on The YES Effect Show to talk about her journey from growing up in a rock and roll household, making a name for herself as a bassist, to breaking norms as a female musician in the male-dominated music industry.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why Eva’s dad Kim initially didn’t encourage her to pursue being a bass player
• How The Who bassist John Entwistle influenced Eva to start playing bass guitar
• What Eva learned after failing her music school audition, and what she did to improve
• Why you should surround yourself with people whose skills are are better than yours
• How the initial rejection from her dad inspired Eva to pursue a career as a musician
• How Eva got a job as P!nk’s bassist
• Eva’s most memorable moment playing on stage with P!nk
• The one thing everyone should do to find clarity on their path

Quotables:

“It’s those NOs that made me want to turn them into YESes even more.”

“The path isn’t always clear at first…until you take the first step.”

“When you’re with people who are bettering you it really makes you step up.”

“Someone asked me ‘why do I do what I do?’ Ultimately it’s about connecting with other people.”

“I feel like if it was handed to me I probably wouldn’t have wanted it. I probably would have taken it for granted.”

Links mentioned in this episode:

Eva Gardner’s music: https://www.evagardner.com/

Eva on IG

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