SINGER-songwriter Bamboo Mañalac, or popularly known as Bamboo, has said that being a good citizen is by far his biggest achievement.
“A good citizen. A good human being. It’s not my career. It’s just being the person I am. I’m just happy and proud of that,” said Bamboo, when asked about his biggest achievement, during an interview on “Tonight With Boy Abunda” on ABS CBN.
Bamboo recalled living in the US after he separated from the popular group Rivermaya in 1998.
Asked what it was like staying abroad after a successful musical career in the Philippines, Bamboo said: “I truly enjoyed it. The people I’ve met from working odd jobs. I had one gig kasi I had a friend who was working at a hotel and he was saying ‘I got something that we could do together. It pays pretty well men. It’s the Circus de Soleil but you have to be in the VIP room and you have serve and stuff like that.’ I go ‘how much do you pay?’ And then ‘they pay pretty good.’ So I said ‘I am there.’ I did it for a couple of days.”
Bamboo, 41, admitted that it was difficult at first taking odd jobs like being a bus boy or selling shoes and he had to make some adjustments.
“It was initially hard. But it would be harder for people who were around me at that time,” he said.
When people asked him what he was doing in the US, Bamboo said: “I just talk to them. I said ‘I’m back to school. I’m just working like everybody else.”
Bamboo appeared on the late-night program to promote his shows in the US dubbed “The Oven” 2017 US Tour featuring Morissette Amon and Elha Nympha happening this month. The musical director is Ria Villana-Osorio.