Music Helps Steven Moorman Express His Life

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Steven Moorman often plays his guitar in downtown Oskaloosa. The words to his songs tell the story of his 41 years of life.

“I feel like people look at me like I’m a bad person,” Says Steven. “I don’t know what else to do.”

Steven says he started school in Putnam County, Missouri. “My mom always tried to teach us right.”

But Steven learned to hide a lot during his youth. “It was tough. Really tough.”

He did that because he worried about what others thought of him.

Eventually, Steven and his siblings were separated by a court process, and he never graduated from high school. But he says, “I’m okay with that.”

Steven Moorman shared the first version of a song he was writing to honor his mother who had just passed away.

He hides the scars of his youth with tattoos. “We always carry a burden on ourselves that we shouldn’t have to. I don’t live with regrets at all. It’s just pointless, for you can’t change the past, but you learn from it.”

Steven says he knows people look at him as a “druggie” but believes folks don’t know how hard he and others in the homeless community work to earn a living. “We bust our asses every day. We hunt cans and scrap. We clean up the damn place.”

It does make him angry when others don’t pick the trash back up after searching for scrap.

Steven finds a place to sleep at night but won’t share where that spot is. He is also able to stay with friends on occasion, “but I don’t got the money to pay. I don’t know what to do. I’m scared.”

Even though his position is often precarious, Steven still loves to help others. “That’s the most exhilarating feeling because you know you just changed something for the better.”

“I love to help people; just tell them to believe in yourself, [have] faith in yourself,” Steven explains. “It’s okay to believe in ourselves and have faith in ourselves and love ourselves for who we are, not what everybody in society thinks.”

“I want to be better again,” says Steven.

Steven helps himself by writing songs that help him express his experiences in life. He then plays those in the alleys, under shade trees, and more.

I learned this about him a couple of months ago when I walked down an alley to a local coffee shop. Singing and strumming his guitar was someone I’d seen many times but not had the opportunity to chat with.

He was working on a song to honor his mother, who had just passed away that day.

He played it for the camera this past week but said it’s different than the version I’d heard in the alley that morning. “It’s gonna be a little different than what it was before because I’ve been changing the thinking about it because that one was like personally, physically, emotionally crazy that day.”

He later plays a song for the camera that helps him describe his feelings for his children, Zach and Christopher, who passed away 19 years ago.

Without music, Steven says, “It helps me. If I don’t got my music or even headphones on, I don’t know where I’m at or what it is that’s conflicting for me. I don’t like to use pills. I can’t do it.”

When it comes to home, Steven believes home is “Whether it’s family, blood or not blood, where you can see each other through who you are and through each other’s eyes. [It] doesn’t matter where you lay your head down when there’s only you, it doesn’t matter where you go.”

“As long as you can find that connection between people. If you’re happy, that’s home,” Steven explains, saying, “I know I’ve done things wrong, you know, not knowing it or didn’t understand.”

“Home is inside you,” Steven added. “Just don’t give up on yourself no matter how hard it is, because it is hard.”

Watch the video for more of our conversation, and a couple of songs performed by Steven.