In an interview with Radio.com, Mike Posner explains why he sold his sports car, donated his shoe collection and closet full of clothes to charity.
Mike Posner Sold His Belongings and Traveled the Country in an Old Van. Here’s Why.
A while back, Mike Posner sold his 2014 Porsche Cayman and his Air Jordan collection, bought a “creepy conversion van” and hit the highway.
Why on earth would he do that? Here is his story.
Posner didn’t know if he’d ever have another hit song. After a smash hit with “Cooler than Me” in 2010, and a string of high-profile songwriting credits, Posner spent the next few years in record label limbo with no new releases. He disappeared from the public eye almost as quickly as he’s entered it. Although he was still writing songs at near breakneck speed, he found himself further and further from the spotlight that he’s worked so hard to reach. Money continued to roll in, but his fame was quickly fading. He began to question who he was and what he stood for.
So he traded his sports car for a 1994 Dodge Conversion van, complete with a bed and kitchenette, and became a vagabond for more than five months, spending time visiting friends in Utah and various western states.
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“I know it may sound like a first world problem, and it is a first world problem—you make a little money—you can start to feel fear,” confesses Posner. “You feel fear about losing what you have. During the roller coaster ride of my short-lived fame, my self-identity became all tied up in being young, rich, and sort of famous.” In Posner’s case, he had a nice Porsche, a Air Jordan collection, and a nice house in the Hollywood Hills. “Because of that fear, I felt trapped by it,” Posner admits of his new found wealth and status. The guilt and insecurities set in. “This stuff started to weigh on me.”
Posner asked himself if he could be happy without the material goods, and then he took it a step further. He forced himself to challenge who he was by selling off anything he thought to be excessive or “distracting.” He sold the car and donated his shoe collection and closet full of clothes to charity.
“I just drove away.”
The singer-songwriter found himself driving across the California desert to Utah where he had friends, followed by a trek to Burning Man, the annual holy land for hippies and those interested in communal living. Within a few months he found he’d grown a fairly mangy beard, which he felt fit his mindset.
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The people Posner spent time with helped him to put things in perspective. They were quick to point out that he was only practicing poverty, which was offensive to those who deal with actual poverty.
“What the hell is this living in a van thing?” a friend asked. “The difference is that when you’re really poor you have no options… no options to leave.” Friends noted that he had a “parachute”; he could return to his nice house in L.A. whenever he wanted to.
“You just need to be grateful for what you have,” they told him. “Enjoy what you have. Don’t ‘play poverty’ like it’s a vacation or some game, because that’s offensive.”
Posner took that sentiment to heart.
“I do have nice stuff. I am wealthy. I don’t feel guilty about it. For whatever reason my fans pay me money to do what I do,” he says with a laugh. Two things apparently stuck from his journey; perspective and humility. “Now I’m just trying to be really grateful and enjoy what I have, knowing that other people may not have it.”
And perhaps fame may return after all: at press time, Mike Posner’s song “I Took a Pill in Ibiza (SeeB Remix)” was ranked No. 1 on the iTunes Dance Chart, No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100, and had been played over 60 million times on Spotify.
