Singer Kim Hyun-chul shared a surprising story about receiving a “money bag” from the CEO of Dong-a Planning after initially turning down a debut offer.
On May 14, a video featuring Kim Hyun-chul as a guest was uploaded to Hong Jin-kyung’s YouTube channel.
Kim Hyun-chul talked about how he fell in love with music, saying, “When I was in second grade, my father, who worked for a construction company, was assigned to Saudi Arabia, so my whole family moved. While living there for four years, a coworker of my father’s gave me his guitar when he returned to Korea.” He added, “I was teaching myself guitar back then. Unlike classical music, there was no one to teach me popular music. My mother hated taking me to Saudi Arabia, but she likes it now.”
He recalled his connection with Dong-a Planning, the agency that produced legends like Kim Hyun-sik, Deulgukhwa, and Poet and Village Chief, during his time as a student preparing for college. “At the time, there was a cafe called Simple Life in Yeoksam-dong, which was a hangout for the people at Dong-a Planning. While I was having coffee with Jang Dong-ik, Choi Sung-won from Deulgukhwa came up and said, ‘So you’re Kim Hyun-chul.’ I almost fainted. He asked me to sing, so I sang ‘The Seasons Fall Like This’ and ‘The Wind Passing Through Summer.’ Just being there was an honor, and through Choi Sung-won’s introduction, I even got to meet Park Hak-ki.”
He continued, “At that time, Dong-a Planning was an agency that every musician dreamed of.” He revealed, “The CEO asked me to release a record with him, but I rejected it twice. It wasn’t that I was playing hard to get, but I had plans to study abroad. I knew my family would freak out if I became a singer, so I refused. Then, the CEO just threw a money bag containing 30 million won at me. In today’s value, that’s about 300 million won.”
Kim Hyun-chul also shared the story of how he eventually chose the path of a musician: “My mother found the money bag while cleaning and panicked. She asked if I had joined some criminal organization and told me to return the money immediately. But I had already made up my mind to become a popular musician. Then my father told me, ‘If you love music that much, go for it. I’ll handle your mother,’ and told me never to regret it.”
