CONTESTS, THE GOOD, THE BAD OR THE UGLY.
Peggy, the question you ask has a REAL PERSONAL componant. Once upon a time, I was a rock star. At least in my mind. I started playing music in Birmingham at 14 years old, when I stepped on a stage at my future High School, TARRANT HIGH SCHOOL in Tarrant City Alabama. I had been called by Ray Parker, the guy who was like my brother at the time. We hung out all the time, did elementry school things. Including dismantleing a car down to only the front bench seat in 8th Grade Shop class. Around that seat, a bunch of us sat around doing doo wop songs. I didn't even know I could sing, but became the lead. I ended up leaving that school and going to another one, but Ray caught up with me on Christmas Eve, 1973 asking me to be in his band. The next Friday, March 17th, at 1:00 in the
afternoon, I stepped on stage singing Mac Davis's "I BELIEVE IN MUSIC', and my life changed as women went crazy. That was all I needed. My two former careers dissapeared, Football, which I had wanted to play, could get you hit, hard, and the Military (I wanted to be an Army Ranger, you know those guys who go behind enemy lines) COULD GET YOU KILLED! This was an easier way to meet women.
Over the next few years it was all music. I learned to play bass, and was pretty good. I was always the lead singer. That band, BITTERSWEET was a good local band, taking second in our first battle of the bands, contest. From there, we morphed into 24 KARAT, when a tall, very attractive African American guy, JESSI LEWIS approached me at one of our shows, telling me to "fire the guitar player, get him in the band and actually learn how to do this." Think Denzel Washington, and you have Jessi. He was tall, great looking and more charisma than anyone I had ever met. He completely changed my life, and we went to writing real songs, and rehearsing 6 nights a week about 5 hours a night. If he had not died in a car accident, we would be saying "President Jessi Lewis" not President Barak Obama. Because they were JUST ALIKE. When I see the President, I think "I've seen all this before". He could sell igloos to Eskimos.
WE changed, and people quit, Especially Ray, who had always been the leader of our bands. Now he was outclassed and simply gave up. He thought I would quit with him since we were so close. I didn't. Took him years to forgive me but to this day regrets ever doing that. Because we became really huge in Birmingham and throughout the Southeast. Jessi pushed us to limits of endurance, performance, writing. He taught me more about being a musician than anyone I ever knew. And he replaced me at bass because I couldn't sing and play at the same time. That REALLY hurt my feelings at first because I was a pretty damn good bass player.Like that other left handed bassist, Paul McCartney, I thought in very melodic bass lines, and really added a lot to our band. Just couldn't do it live. So I just became the lead singer since I had a better voice than I was a player. And we did REALLY WELL.
THE CONTEST POINT OF THIS!
Then we heard about a contest being sponsored by our local rock radio station, I -95. It was called the MILLER HIGH LIFE ROCK TO RICHES NATIONAL TALENT SEARCH. It was pretty famous, all over MTV, all over the airwaves. It was 62 regions in the US, Northwest. Southeast, Midwest, West Coast, Northeast. All local radio stations would have their own album, (an actual record in those days), would pick ten of the local artists, put them on that record, it went into stores (we had RECORD STORES in those days) and all would get radio airplay. Inside the album would be a ballot, voting for your favorite artist. So you had to BUY the record.
This contest had been going on for three years and we had heard of a couple of the participants. In 1981, a group called TWISTED SISTER had come in second. In 1982 a guy named JON BON JOVI came in second. In 1983, a group named 'JON BUTCHER AXIS, kind of a Jimi Hendrix hard rock trio, had come in second. Funny, the SECOND PLACE PEOPLE always went on to great fame and fortune. Never heard of any of the winners. I'll get to that in a minute.
So this was a big deal.
Taking one of the songs that Ray had written, STAY WITH ME, we went to Atlanta to record. In Atlanta, there was a big studio called WEB IV. That was owned by PAUL DAVIS, the guy who would go on to great country classics, like "COOL NIGHT, 65 LOVE AFFAIR and many others. But his main huge hit was a country and pop standard, I GO CRAZY. That had built his studio and as usual our leader, Jessi, had wormed his way into that because he got to know Paul and a group that recorded at his studio, KANSAS.
We went over and I was introduced to the engineer, ED SEAY. Ed had produced Marie Osmond, engineered on Kansas, ISSAC HAYES, and many other enormous hit acts. So he was like a celebrity. The first I would ever work with.
SIDE BAR
We spent all weekend working on two songs. We recorded all the tracks, guitars,keyboards, on Friday and all day Saturday, and around 1:00 in the morning, they finally let me START my vocals. About 3:00 I was still singing and they were all in the control booth. As we listened to play backs and no one was saying ANYTHING TO ME, I got pissed and bored. I noticed I was standing next to the dial that controlled the lights in the main room of the studio, where I was.So while I watched all them ignore me in the control booth, I very slowly turned the lights down till it was totally dark in my room. No one even paid the least attention. So I took off all my clothes, and turned the lights back up very slowly. They kept talking and finally all look up at me, standing there in my birthday suit. At once they all disspeared as they fell off their chairs onto the floor laughing their butts off. Took about twenty minutes to get going agin.
Fifteen years later, I am sitting at a showcase at Douglas Corner in Nashville. A very attractive woman sitting behind me passes me this bar napkin note. On it, it reads, "Are you still singing in the nude?" I turn around and it is ED SEAY,who has been one of the top producers and engineers in Nashville for years. We had a great laugh and talked after the show.
And the punch line
On Monday, I am producing a session on some of my songs written with a band from Birmingham. I just found out the engineer on that session is....you guessed it...ED SEAY!!!!
OKAY, BACK TO THE CONTEST STUFF
That record got us on the ROCK TO RICHES ALBUM. And oddly enough, we won our region. We went to Atlanta to perform live and did a show with BACHMAN TURNER OVERDRIVE. Actually, at that point it was more like BACHMAN TURNER OVERWEIGHT, since the entire band weighed about 400 pounds each. I think they have all gone on Weight Watchers since.
Boom! We found ourselves in Los Angeles, California for a week of hanging out and being rock stars. We were limoed all over the place, had one of those ROOFTOP PRESS PARTIES. Ever see the movie "This is Spinal Tap?" That scene where they are at the tour end party on the roof of this big hotel? That is the SUNSET HYATT HOTEL (also known as the Sunset Riot because Joe Walsh and Keith Moon would destroy hotel rooms, throw televisions in the swimming pool and drive cars into the lobby. Every major artist would stay there. So much that one night we heard a lot of girl's screaming down below us. Being the egotist I always am, we went out on our balcony and waved.
We found out the next morning that it was BILLY IDOL four floors below us, coming out naked on his balcony. I guess he heard about my singing episode and was trying to take it to the next level. LOL!
We played a club called "THE CENTRAL" which ended up later being the VIPER ROOM, owned by Johny Depp, where River Pheonix died on the sidewalk in front of it after overdosing on a speed ball just like John Belushi. We got see a great site when we were at a red light in our limo and a group of hot looking California blondes,pulled up next to us in a red mustang. On their radio was our song, STAY WITH ME, and those girls were singing along at the top of their lungs. We were screaming our selves but wanted to be really cool so we didn't roll our windows down. Man, we missed an opportunity that time!!!!
We were taken all over the town, great resturants. Got to see some shows and played real celebrities. I met Robin Williams on the street next to our hotel. It was in front of the COMEDY STORE the top comedy club. We caught the Tuesday night OPEN MIC. The comedians on that night were Robin, Jay Leno, Sam Kenison, Paul Rodrigeus. It was ASTOUNDING. They were all onstage,trying out new material a bunch of which I would see over the next few months and a few that made it on to Saturday night Live.
We were taken to record companies, publishing companies, and were touted to be the NEXT BIG THING in music. I thought we had hit the big time. The ending of one night, I was driven to the top of this big mountain. The guy driving, Scott, a friend from Birmingham, made me keep my eyes closed. It seemed to take forever. Then he said, "Open your eyes."
I did. And in front of me was ALL LOS ANGELES! Incredible. Lights that went on forever! I could see everything for miles and miles. The most beautiful sight I had ever seen. I was right above the HOLLYWOOD SIGN at Griffith Park. If you ever saw REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE with James Dean, this is where that was.
I was a ROCK STAR!!!!!!
The next night was the live show at THE PALACE theater. This is a HUGE club, directly across the street from the CAPITOL RECORD BUILDING. That is the one that looks like a stack of records. THAT WAS THE BEATLES AND FRANK SINATRA'S label. The Palace, is one of the old style HOLLYWOOD theaters. Was a movie palace back in the 20's and 30's. If you have ever seen the movie AGAINST ALL ODDS or a lot of PHIL COLLINS videos, that is the setting. A big movie set for big club scenes.
So we were in Hollywood and going crazy. The show, that night was the four main bands to play 20 minutes, then the closing act, NIGHT RANGER, would close then announce the winner. MTV was there. Entertainment Tonight was there. Cameras were everywhere. The audience, about three thousand people, were screaming all over the place. One of the bands, Brighton, was from LA and were local hometown heroes. It was kind of a forgone conclusion that they would win everything. This included an MCA recording contract, $50,000 in sound equipment, guitars and other instruments from RICKENBACKER, all the beer you wanted (MILLER BEER WAS THE MAIN SPONSOR) and a LOT of press and hoopla. We were underdogs.
We were last to go on. I think they went by Alphabet and I guess we were last but whatever. The emcee, was FATHER QUIDO SARDUCI, from Satruday Night, and his intro went "AND NOWA FROM A BIRMINGHAMA ALAMABA....24 KARATAAAAAA!!!! The huge curtian rolled up into the sky. And along with it,the microphone stand from Jessi.
We were off and running. For the next 20 minutes we rocked with an absolute vengence and passion that only guys from the South can do. WE WERE MAGNIFICENT! LOL!
Actually we did. We had hot songs, we all looked good, we sounded good. If you remember the bands of the 80';s like Journey and Loveboy, that was us. Five piece, drums, guitar,bass, keyboards, me on vocals. We kicked a WHOLE LOT OF BUTT!!! I even said it in my first yell at the audience as the first song kicked off, "HEY LOS ANGELES, WE ARE 24 KARAT FROM BIRMINGHAM ALABAMA AND WE ARE HERE TO KICK SOME ASS!!!!" And we did. And the crowed swarmed the stage. It was just like yuo see in the movies, all kinds of people crushed against the stage, hands in the air, REALLY HOT GIRLS scantily clothed, it was like all the rock star videos you saw in those days. We were a hair band, except I didn't have long hair. Our bass player, Buddy, who was kind of a Van Halen nut, did, spandex and bandanas everywhere, our Keyboard player Yance Hall, all four foot five of him, with those huge keyboards around him, looked like his hero, Johnathon Cain from Journey were the long haired guys. The drummer, Barry Dobbins (the holdover from BITTERSWEET), and of course Jessi, in leather pants and rocking black silk shirt, doing his Eddie Van Halen shredder guitar parts. I was in a white jacket, black leather pants and hat great hat that kind of looked like Crocidile Dundee. Don't know who thought up that outfit, had bought it that day from some high priced store on Rodeo drive.
But we were on FIRE!!!! Everything worked. I was hitting notes that I think drove every dog in the neighborhood crazy. I had 6000 pairs of eyes on me and I stared them right back down. Especially the hotties who were everywhere!
And we had ONE MORE TRICK UP OUR SLEEVE.
Somewhere along the way, I had discovered that our song, Stay With Me, had a part in it that mirrored the current Miller Beer slogan,"Welcome to Miller Time." That theme song was everywhere, on all the commercials, had been a top commercial during the Super Bowl, which had been a month before, this was March of 1984. March 17th, to be exact. St. Patricks Day, ten years to the day before I first stepped on stage. I just realized that. Weird!
So I came up with idea to end our song, break it into a drum solo, and I woudl sing "WELCOME, TO MILLER TIME, IT'S ALL YOURS... IT'S ALL MINE!!!!! BRING YOUR THIRSTY SELF RIGHT HERE, YOU GOT, THE ONE YOU HAD IN MIND, WELCOME, TO MILLER TIME!!!!!" That was the commerical. And DAMN WE WERE GOOD!!!! I am kind of joking, but we really were on our game 150% that night. Even some Hollywood celebrities, like Dianne Cannon (who I was IN LOVE WITH!!! WHY COULDN'T MY ROCK STAR STATUS PAY OFF THAT NIGHT??????) and Dan Hartman. (Instant Replay and bass player with the EDGAR WINTER GROUP), who were judges on the contest, were blown away. They were all over us, taking pictures (which I can't find anywhere) and just having a great time. We were in the food room backstage and all the other groups were congratulating us.
Night Ranger played and then in what seemed like slow motion, Father Guido said "ANDA THE WINNER....IS 24 AH KARAT!!!!!" The crowd went crazy and so did we. We came out, accepted a trophy about the size of the Stanley Cup, thanked everyone and began our all night revelry. Don't remember a lot about that, and don;t need to go into it, lets just say I really lived the rock star life for a while. I do remember that among the crowd was my Dad, my stepbrother Billy and step sister Susie, whom I had not seen in 20 years. Was quite the non-family reunion. A lot of fun.
Afterward we signed the contract, were all over the place, did intereviews, press conferences and two days later loaded back on the plane to Birmingham. On the flight the pilot announced we were on, and we signed autographs all over the place and had pictures take with the whole plane. I didn't know it at the time, but my Dad was sitting next to the woman who would become my fifth stepmother. When we got back there were about a thousand people at the airport. We were THE BEATLES!
For the next few months, we rode the rock star bandwagon. We did shows all over, our song (the one we had recorded for the contest) was on the radio, I got a left handed, 4001 Rickenbacker bass guitar, like Paul McCartney's, got free meals in resturants, did television and radio shows, another show with BTO, and had a great time.
But we noticed another interesting thing. There was really no support from the label,no meetings, no promotion, no tour, nothing. We were kind of on our own. And after a while, the beer started running out. That REALLY PISSED US OFF. We couldn't get anyone from MCA to return our calls. Finally we had a band meeting to find out what had happened. Our lawyer/manager told us something he knew, but didn't want to tell us. THERE WAS NO PROMOTION. there was NO TOUR. And it was ALL IN THE CONTRACT WE HAD SIGNED TO GET INTO THE CONTEST IN THE FIRST PLACE.
It was simply for a single that we had already paid for, a bunch of prizes, and then THEY WERE ON TO THE NEXT CONTEST. We were last years heroes. And the contract went on FOR EIGHT YEARS. We couldn't record with anyone else, couldn't do anything else. We were damaged goods. HASBEENS. Overnight successes and failures.
WELCOME TO CONTESTS.
THE MORAL TO THE STORY
We sued to get OUT of the contract we had gotten into. The three record deals we had been offered BEFORE WE WON were off the table. We were 24 KARAT WHO? This was why you never heard from the winners. They were tied into a no where record deal, and yesterday's news.
THIS IS ALL CONTESTS!!!!!!
Contests are about a lot of publicity, building interest IN THE CONTEST. The businesses that promote them get attention and look like they are really doing great. It is ADVERTISING. And gets them into a YOUTH MARKET. They have unending talent who are all trying to make it. After they are over THEY ARE OVER. and it is on to the next contest.
The Miller contest ended a year later and they were on to different advertisements. The people involved in the promotion for MCA were reassigned and on to other things. The $25,000 we TURNED DOWN from Welk Publishing, went to someone else. I got a bass guitar I didn't play and some sound equipment that never worked. We traded everything for something else. Yeah.
Years later, I was in Nashville playing a show and Jon Bon Jovi was in the audience. I mentioned the contest and he got this huge grin on his face. After I finished my set, he waved me over and asked me to sit down. The first words out of his mouth were "They got you didn't they?" The deal was that he already had a record deal before the main show. He had gotten a lot of publicity out of the contest but between the time he entered and the finals, he had gotten and signed a deal with Mercury Polygram. But they didn't want to lose him for the publicity it would bring so it was arranged that he would COME IN SECOND. We were offered the same deal, but we didn't know it at the time.
GEFFIN RECORDS had been willing to sign us THE DAY BEFORE THE CONTEST. JESSI SAID "NO." Guess he didn't know everything.
So Peggy, ALL CONTESTS ARE LIKE THIS. The reason you have seen so much from AMERICAN IDOL is that the publicity is huge. But in 12 years, there are actually only about 12 winners who have gone on to huge success. Kelly Clarkson, who was first, Carrie Underwood, who went for country instead of rock, Jennifer Hudson, who won an Oscar for ACTING, and weight watchers, Daughtry, who was about number SIX, and a few others here and there. The majority are answers to a triva question. "name the season five AI contestant who had weird hair and name.
Answer: SANJAIA!!!!!
On the "songwriting front." It is the same. Matt Casey, our member who we haven;t heard from in a while, Wags, also haven't heard from in a while, won this year's NSAI contest. A lot of hoopla, a great night in Nashville being featured on a big show, a lot of hoopla, some money, I think and I believe Matt got his trip to Nashville paid for. I am not sure al lthe particulars. But will that song, "Plain White Tee" go on to do much? I don't know. but I don't hold out a lot of hope.
The reason is that contest songs are judged AGAINST the other contest songs. Not the industry. You might have a really strong contest song, but doesn't hold water against the latest Chesney or Jason Aldeen song. They are just not going to be the same as the songs Craig Wiseman or Jeffery Steele, or with all due humility, even I, write almost every day. And professionals are DISQUALIFIED from participating in contests. I actually caused a rule to be re-written in an NSAI contest once. You can't have had a major label cut, or publishing deal. so you are not competing with the industry. Hit songs don't come from there. Name for me a contest song, even the American Idol contest, that you have ever heard from.
ARE THEY WORTH IT?
This is the big question. This has been an UNSUFFERINGLY LONG POST. I realize this. I did it for two reasons. First, Iam redoing my own book, FRESHMAN YEAR IN NASHVILLE and may be using that story to illustrate this point. You have just become a chapter, Peggy. Congratulations. No money though. LOL! You just won a contest! LMAO!
The second is that like everything in the music business, there is a LOT TO IT. And the more you know, the less you want to know. I wanted you to know that I have been through this, the experience I have had and why I think like I do.
Did I have a great time? ABSOLUTELY!!! And I still use it on my resume. Did I get some stuff? Absolutely! Was it worth it? Jury is out. Wish I had turned down winning the contest, and tuned into the other offers. Had that happened I would have NEVER LEFT LA. And WOULD NOT BE HERE. Would not have the greatest life in the world.
Hey, I met the BEAUTIFUL TINA THROUGH A CONTEST!!!! That should tell you enough. Are they worth it? Sure is a lot of fun!
But did it make (or break) my career? No. If you really are doing this, you do it. You rise above the hard times, or what doesn't work out. You keep moving.
Should you enter song contests? You have to decide that. But do this:
FIND OUT ABOUT THEM. Read the rules.
DON'T ENTER YOUR BEST SONGS. Do something great, But don't do your best. but of course, you will ALWAYS WRITE MORE SONGS!
FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED WITH PREVIOUS WINNERS. Find out who won last year, find out their web site or email and send them a message.
GO FOR IT! If you want to. If it is the only avenue, WHAT'S THE HARM?
They are a nessasary evil. Have a good time, but don't get too caught up in them. Like everything, DON'T PUT YOUR EGGS ALL IN ONE BASKET.
TRY NOT TO SUCK.
MAB