Well, the first time I sang in public, I was about 18 months old. LOL

Grew up singing in school and in the church choir and then got a guitar when I was 17 and was soon accompanying myself with it, singing at parties, the occasional "hootenanny," campfires, etc.   

But my first PAID gig as a singer/guitarist was a 15-minute set for The Clay County Coonhunters Association (Clay County, Missouri), when I was a senior in college. My gym teacher was a member and got me the gig - for $10.   

Pretty bad experience, in many ways. First, they fed us -- You guessed it. Baked raccoon was the main entree (and it tasted like burnt rubber). -- and then told me I could either sing right then or go on right after a 30-minute movie on fishing.   I chose not to try to follow the film, lest I push people's attention span too much, but that meant trying to sing right after eating greasy food, so I wasn't in my best voice.

To make matters worse, I totally misjudged my audience's musical tastes. Naïvely, I thought they'd enjoy stuff like Wildwood Flower, Old Blue, and other songs I'd learned from Joan Baez and other folk singers.   Nope. They were probably into current Grand Ol' Opry stuff, which, at the time, was not part of my repertoire.   

I survived it, but let's just say my audience was a bit underwhelmed.

§;-D