When I first met Bruce Bellott, I was a little frightened to be honest of his intense enthusiasm and energy. In today’s world with its hustle and bustle, we are too preoccupied with our problems and concerns to show genuine excitement or to even notice that our life is balanced with good along with the bad. Bruce Bellott doesn’t just acknowledge the positives in his life but he is genuinely grateful for all he has been given and makes it a point to share this joy with everyone he meets. Here is his story.

Bruce grew up in Southern Louisiana with a loving mother and an enormous passion for country music. Since Bruce was a little boy, he dreamed of being a country music star. When he graduated from high school, his mother bought him a one-way ticket to Nashville, Tennessee on a Greyhound bus. Bruce was on his own to make it in music city with nothing but his mother's beloved saying "Everything happens for the best". Bruce fell in love with Nashville and did land two singing gigs on Sixth Avenue. Unfortunately, he became ill and could no longer sing for tips so he was forced to return home.

Once Bruce returned to New Orleans, he went though the routine ups and downs of life. He did continue to play music locally until his first son Chase was born. He was married twice and had two more beautiful children, Mackie and Jenny, to his second wife. He was successful in starting his own car audio business in New Orleans called Busy B's Car Stereo & Alarms in which he used to support his family and then after eighteen years moved it to Slidell, Louisiana. Bruce had everything; a wife, three beautiful children, and a successful business until...one day he came home to find forty pages of love letters to his wife from another man. He had lost his entire family to a "Shrimp Man".

In the process of another divorce, struggling with Crones disease & having lost his mother, Bruce moved the business once again. This time the move was to be away from the Shrimp man who stole his family. During this time, Bruce was also sleeping on the floor of his shop as the Shrimp man took over his home and was even fishing off his dock! But then really bad got even worse…

Katrina

The people of New Orleans had always expected the "Big One" to hit any day and on August 29th, 2005 it did. Hurricane Katrina made land fall at 7:10 AM that morning and shattered the lives and dreams of everyone in her path. Among those hit was Bruce. Luckily, he made it to a three-bedroom cabin in Lake D’Arbonne with his wife and children. They stayed there for three weeks with three other families. After trying to reconcile their marriage and getting nowhere, Bruce and his wife parted ways. This left Bruce, once again, alone and stranded. Bruce never surrendered his faith however and in his favor the Christian people of Farmerville, Louisiana pitched in to help their neighbors from southern Louisiana. Bruce heard of a gift card offered by Wal-Mart that would be of enormous help. Unfortunately, the bus that Bruce took to the shelter arrived just after the last bus to Arkansas had left. Bruce was devastated! Officials told Bruce that there would be no other bus going to Arkansas and that it was the last day to get a gift card. As he turned away, a man named Calvin who had over heard the conversation offered to pray for Bruce in a restroom. Calvin also told him, "you will get your gift card". As soon as Calvin said Amen and they exited the restroom, a woman named Sharon grabbed Bruce by the arm and said "I'm taking you to Arkansas so you can get your Wal-Mart card, let's go!". About half way there, her husband called and asked her where she was. Not knowing where she was supposed to go, Sharon asked her husband if he knew how to get to Elderado, Arkansas. He directed her to the shelter just in time! While waiting for his number to be called Bruce was thinking he would need shoes to sing in when he made it to Nashville. Almost as an instant answer, a man came though the glass doors and walked up to Bruce and said "Where can I put this bag of shoes". They were Nunn Bush's & Sketcher Sports and they were a perfect fit! When Bruce made it back to Farmerville, he told Calvin what had happened. Calvin simply smiled and said; " I told you the lord can do anything if you just pray for it".

Bruce still had the dream to be a country music singer but now he had an even bigger goal! This goal was to pay back the people of Farmerville and his government for helping him and his family through the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He was going to write songs about Louisiana and create a benefit CD in order to help with the reconstruction efforts. He knew he needed a vehicle to make the journey to Nashville so he traded in his Wal-Mart card at a local used car lot and drove off in a 1984 Crown Victoria. Unfortunately for Bruce, the car was a clunker and it jerked and overheated all the way to the cabin. Bruce had offered the remaining space in his cabin to a family that had been staying in a tent. They had been rescued by boat and needed a place to stay during the remnants of Katrina. After hearing their story, Bruce was inspired to write his song entitled "Katrina". Bruce was invited to sing at the Louisiana Chicken Festival in Dubach, Louisiana where he performed his new songs with an acoustic guitar that had made it though Katrina in an upstairs bathroom. When Bruce told someone that his car was never going to make it to Nashville, they said "If you think that, then you better go put your name in the hat for that Chevy van. The drawing closes in fifteen minutes!" With a five-dollar bill and a couple of dollars for gas to make it back to Farmerville, Bruce took the chance of his life and fifteen minutes later the Slidell "evacuee" was the winner of a 1994 Chevy Astro Van!

The next morning Bruce was invited to do a testimonial during the Sunday service. Afterwards, the town’s people of Farmerville were delighted to tell Bruce that they were paying the tax and license fees on his new van. Bruce then sold the other car for gas money on the trip to Nashville.

After winning four raffles at the recreation center (Sonic cards, phone cards, food baskets) Bruce looked at this as yet another sign to continue his journey. There were lots of church groups feeding and praying for everyone in the shelter, but Bruce performed for them and the evacuees and told everyone that he was starting to believe that you could pray for anything! They told Bruce he would make it in Nashville because they were praying for it to happen. The night before Bruce left for Nashville, he was asked to sign autographs! Bruce was sitting down for lunch and wondered why all these good things were happening to him. He thought back to a time just weeks before when he helped a homeless person who stopped by his business by paying him $300 dollars to fix a leak in his roof! I personally think God is helping Bruce out because he knows that Bruce will pass it forward when he can.

Once Bruce made it Music City, he had trouble finding his way around or a place to park so he could get some sleep. He managed to find an old gospel radio station that had played one of his patriotic songs he sent them after 9-11. He met a man named Hoyt Carter who was working late that night and wanted to hear Bruce's songs. After hearing them, he said "I'm closing up and you're coming with me to a Motel. You're not sleeping in no van". Hoyt befriended Bruce and took him to eat at a nice restaurant, bought him a P.O. Box, paid for two nights in the Motel, and told Bruce that if he ever needed anything to call him. By this time, Red Cross assistance had ended in Nashville but on his third night in town, Bruce slept outside the Red Cross in hopes that they could help. After hearing his story, they made an exception and put him in a Hotel. Like the time he was extended a $50 gas card and the time the community center mailed him a check for $500. I’m beginning the think that Bruce Bellott has a lot of overdue Karma coming due.

The first studio Bruce called was Shadow Lane Studios where owner/producer Phillip Wolfe had him sing a bit of "Katrina" over the phone. After hearing his song, Phillip agreed to record the song and give him a steep discount on making his benefit CD, "Evacuee Meets Tennessee” which was done with two other evacuees.

Bruce believes whole-heartedly that God is his co-pilot. This belief became a reality when he became lost one day in Nashville looking for ASCAP. He had an appointment and being lost almost made him miss it. He rolled down his window to ask for help and believe it or not, the first person he asked said "I was there last night, follow me"! As they drove off, Bruce asked God if he was in the passenger seat. He made it through rush hour traffic, following the man with his floor buffer on a trailer, just in time to make his appointment. The ASCAP screener, Herky told Bruce that his song would work on the Grand Ole Opry, let me see what i can do! A few days later Bruce set out to find all the television stations in order to share his amazing story but was worried about running out of gas. He happened to turn a corner by mistake and every television station in Nashville were lined up outside a Government building waiting to catch a story. Of course, Bruce parked his van and gave out his story!

Since then, Bruce has performed his songs at the Blue Bird Cafe, two Katrina benefits, and the bars of lower Broadway. On one occasion, at a Dick Cheney event, Bruce was mistaken for a terrorist and restrained. After taking the handcuffs off and listening to Bruce's songs, the secret service agents apologized and said that they would give Bruce's patriotic songs to the President's staff with high recommendation! He also performed in Hendersonville at their annual Fourth Of July Fest. Bruce is currently re-starting his business in Hendersonville called Busy "B" Window Tint.

Having been recently diagnosed with Lupus, Crones disease, losing his car audio business, his Toyota Tundra, the chance to see his children grow up and everything he had worked for to Katrina then thow in the "Shrimp Man" who befriended Bruce only to write 40 pages of brainwashing love letters to his wife…losing his mother suddenly (who I hear danced every chance she could get), and his tory ending up in the New Orleans Magazine with the caption "Life As A Country Song". Bruce still remains the most positive and optimistic man I know. His faith rivals most and he still believes that...."Everything happens for the best".