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By Michael Flanagan
Hometown Weekly Sports Editor
Athletes in today’s world see all types of adventures in their lives after hanging up the cleats. Some, like Manny Pacquiao and Curt Schilling, get involved in politics. Others, like Brian Bosworth, pick up acting. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.
When it comes to Alec MacGillivray, however, it’s safe to say that things have certainly worked out in post-football life, as the Westwood native has become an extremely popular country music singer locally and is now a Nashville recording artist.
After playing football at Boston College High School and Bentley University, MacGillivray opted to give up football following his junior season at Bentley to pursue a career in making music. MacGillivray says that life as a football player and as a recording artist have many similarities.
“With football, you kind of just learn things about perseverance,” said MacGillivray. “Getting back up when a play doesn’t work or when you get knocked on your back, you don’t get to stop the game. You have to get up and you have to have goals that you set for yourself and those around you, like every ten yards you need a first down. The mentality of not stopping and being able to deal with adversity was a major emphasis that my coaches at BC High distilled in us. In the music business, there are a lot of times where you think ‘it’s happening,’ and then it doesn’t. And then suddenly something else comes along and you think ‘here it is, it’s actually happening this time,’ and again, nothing. You just have to kind of do your best and take things as they come. It’s the journey, not the destination, and I think football taught me to embrace that struggle and to always keep pushing.”
Since last putting on the pads for the Falcons in 2014, MacGillivray has built his brand immensely, performing as an opening act for famous country musicians such as Florida-Georgia Line, Keith Urban, Dirks Bentley, Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett, as well as many other various high profile country artists. MacGillivray’s hit single “Bad Day to Be a Bud Light” has seen hundreds of thousands of video streams and downloads while his iTunes page has received over half a million streams. The former Eagle also averages more than 25,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
According to MacGillivray, music was just something that he did to kill time, be social, and release some steam after a long day of double session practices at Bentley.
“I played a little bit at the end of high school, but it wasn’t anything serious,” said MacGillivray. “I knew how to play, like, two songs and I would normally only play at bonfires with my friends. When I was getting packed up to head to football camp before my freshman year at Bentley, my dad asked me if I wanted to bring the guitar. He said I was probably going to want to have it so that I had a way to sort of get away from football and relax during downtime, so I agreed and took it with me. My roommate asked me a week or so into school if I played, and I told him ‘yeah, kind of,’ and so naturally, I sort of drew an interest in playing more and more. It became one of those things where people around campus talked and guys on the team knew that I played, so I started to embrace it and began being more comfortable playing in front of people. I started out just playing for my friends in the dorms, and before long, people would start telling me ‘Hey come play in my room tonight.’ So from then on, it just grew and grew and I started to learn more and more country songs to play for people.”
MacGillivray credited his sophomore year roommates and teammates as the ones who pushed him to pursue music and to get serious about it.
“My sophomore year, my roommates came to me after a football practice when I was just jamming in my room and said ‘if you don’t do something with this, then we are going to do it for you - you better email somebody and get something serious lined up, or we will,’” said MacGillivray. “At first, I wasn’t sure whether or not to do it because football was my number one priority. But I gave in and emailed a guy who was big into music at the school and he invited me to come open for him at one of his next shows. I went and there [were] 200 people and it kind of caught me off guard, but I embraced it and loved every minute of it after shaking off the nerves. From there, I sort of just started playing at house parties at Bentley, Stonehill, and other colleges around the Boston area. After things worked out at the house party shows I sort of just decided to give it a go, and the passion of doing it took over. I stopped playing football after my junior year and pursued music full-time.”
Obviously, a kid from Boston giving up football to pursue a career in country music saw its fair share of opposition from peers, but MacGillivray says that you have to do what you yourself are passionate about and not let anybody step on your dream.
“Usually, the thing that’s the right thing to do for you doesn’t really make sense to anybody else,” said MacGillivray. “You can’t let other people push their fears and insecurities onto you. If you know what you have to do then you have to go and do it, and if things don’t work out then at least you did it all on your own terms.”
Alec is currently back from Nashville for a couple months and will be playing various shows around the Boston area.
MacGillivray will be playing on November 2 at Royale in Boston to benefit the Corey C. Griffin Foundation. Part of the Corey C. Griffin Foundation’s mission is to provide financial and hands-on support to the most impactful youth-focused organizations in Boston. More information can be found at www.coreyfest.org.
For funny and incisive sports analysis, follow Mike Flanagan on his personal Twitter at @fLAno0, or read his blog at www.flannylive.wordpress.com.
