Have you ever wanted to be a singer, or even work in the music industry? Music Times reporter, Star Connor, had a chance to speak to music icon, Mathew Knowles, about what it takes to become successful in the business of entertainment. Beyonce's father is introducing a new boot camp to inspire everyone to learn about new careers in the music business.

Everybody who wants to be a rock star only sees the glitz and the glamour, the fame, the parties, the money -- but they never really understand what it takes to get there and are probably clueless about other industry jobs besides being a singer or a dancer.

The father of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter played a major role in his daughter's career and has served as executive producer for more than 100 award-winning albums in multiple genres. He has developed acts like R&B sensation Destiny's Child into global phenomena. And guess what? He has never recorded a note.

Over the weekend, Knowles is offering a one-day entertainment boot camp he calls "The Entertainment Industry: How Do I Get In?" taking place at downtown Houston's Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. In preparation for the workshop, he advocates five careers in music that still let you get backstage at the Grammy's, but don't require any musical skills.

Those five careers include: Record Producer, Recording Engineer, Music Journalist, Publicist and Tour Coordinator. During the chat with Music Times, Knowles revealed just what he is looking for not just over the weekend, but in the future with his new clients.

Star Connor: What made you come up with this new idea to bring a music boot camp to Houston?

Mathew Knowles: "My passion is to educate, to motivate, and I've done that for years. I've done that in sales, marketing, in music, entrepreneurship -- so I educate and motivate."

He adds, "I do that in two areas. I do it in entertainment, and I do it in entrepreneurship. About two years ago, I did my first "Entertainment Industry: How Do I Get In" seminar and I did it at Houston Community College. That went so well, I had a sold out crowd, 400 people, the Today Show came down and covered it, MTV.com came down and covered it and so as a public speaker, now I'm booked in multiple places around the world."

Mr. Knowles claimed that there are "millions of people that want to get into the entertainment industry and don't know how. We have a horrific failure rate even when people do get in, and I want to do something about it. I've had a lot of successes, not just with Destiny's Child, Beyonce and my youngest daughter, Solange, but I was fortunate and grateful to have built the number one Gospel label."

Star Connor: The camp is called, "The Entertainment Industry: How Do I Get In?" Can you talk about that?

Mathew Knowles: "I'm talking to folks that obviously want to become recording artists, but I'm also talking to people that want to get into the behind the scenes part of the music industry -- people that inspire to be managers, folks that are songwriters, and producers, dancers, even attorneys that will have a whole room of people that will need legal help. This is for folks in the entire industry, not just people singing behind the mic."

Star Connor: What makes your boot camp and session different from others?

Mathew Knowles: "I'm not aware of many other all day seminars that really go into detail in every aspect of how to get into the industry from networking to terminology to just the basic building relationships and networking part of the industry."

Knowles revealed that he was going to "give feedback." He said that he was going to "give opportunity for the audience to ask hours and hours worth of questions. He explained, "People have a lot of questions on how to get into the industry and there's no one really that they can really ask that's had experience. And guess what Star? Before I got into this industry, I probably went to about 20 of these seminars around the country, because knowledge is power."

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To find out more about how to get your foot in the door, you can attend Knowles' workshop this weekend (and the other weekends he shares in the chat). Attendees will learn how to build a foundation from the ground up. Besides a comprehensive presentation by Knowles himself, the entire second half of the boot camp will feature a six-member expert panel that includes some of the industry's most successful attorneys, managers, record label executives, artists, songwriters and vocal coaches.

The boot camp will take place on Saturday, October 24 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Zilkha Hall in The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, located at 800 Bagby in downtown Houston.

There is tier pricing for Early Bird, General Admission, Student and VIP tickets. Attendees can register online at www.GetInMusicBiz2015.EventBrite.com. VIP ticket holders can enjoy a lunch with Knowles, and also personally present him with a resume, demo CD, or other collateral.

Good Luck!

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