GEORGETOWN, Ky. — It’s a sound that this music school hoped they’d never hear. Silence.

James Dean is the owner of James Dean Rocks music school in Georgetown. For the past 6 years, he has spent his days teaching students of all ages how to play a variety of musical instruments, but that all came to a screeching halt thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dean says, "To say that it affected me, affected my business, it completely turned it upside down."

Upside down to the point of having to close the doors for good. Something Dean couldn't have predicted.

"I didn't expect that 90% of my income would go away and be gone this long. It was a lesson learned and, I don't know, I just never guessed that the school that I worked so hard to build and I build my clientele and to build all that would be gone in a matter of kind of a quick moment, no."

A quick moment that Mr. Dean hoped would never come as he continually searched for a way to save his business.

"I went out and applied for the Payroll Assistance Plan, but unfortunately, I'm a contractor and my other teacher's a contractor so I immediately got shut down and they said, 'You can't do that.' So, they said, 'You need to apply for unemployment.' I applied for unemployment, still haven't gotten unemployment. Can't get ahold of anybody. Same story everyone else has had. I do know that I'm in the system and maybe, maybe it's going to happen. I also applied for the Small Business Loan Assistance, but it went dry really quick."

With all avenues of opportunity appearing to be exhausted, Dean’s dream was shattered and his music school a casualty of the COVID -19 war.

"I built this dream. I was excited about the growth and the change in the direction in my life, without a doubt. To have to make that decision and make that call, I've always said to people that I'll figure it out, whatever it takes, I always figure it out, and it was the first time that I had to go on Facebook and announce that the school would be closing that I felt like a failure, that I couldn't figure it out."