[background] Lefsetz in a recent column mentioned seeing TS on a flight to Nashville]
From: Tommy Shaw
Subject: Tommy Shaw here...
Date: October 16, 2007 5:50:26 PM CDT
To: bob@lefsetz.com
Hey Bob,
When we got to our room last night my wife and I began to get your blog forwarded to our e-mail accounts from friends around the country who'd seen that you mentioned seeing me on that music-biz LA/Nashville flight we were both on yesterday. You certainly have a huge and respectable following!
How about that flight? Unlike any other, this particular flight is notorious for its passengers, most all of whom are in some way involved in the music business and no other. It's not the least bit uncommon to see legends sitting in coach because other legends or other travel-savvy music business passengers thought ahead and got their first class seats in advance. I don't claim to be either one because my wife Jeanne and I didn't get our upgrade, even though we were #1 and 2 on the upgrade list.
I heard that you were giving the keynote address today at the IEBA wingding here in Nashville. STYX is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from them tonight. The place is chock full of promoters, managers and agents I have known and worked with over the years, most of whom I am used to seeing one at a time in their particular city. I'm still trying to figure out the right way to greet folks in clusters as I walk through the hotel lobby. To assume they know me, well, that's just not in my Southern nature or upbringing, but then when I say "Hi, I'm Tommy..." and the person says, "We've met many times..." it's almost as bad. I can claim, as Sir Paul's latest CD says in its title "Memory Almost Full." It's just one of the little awkward things that happens in these situations.
A few years ago my Damn Yankees and Shaw Blades partner Jack Blades and I went to Le Dome in LA for an A&M Records anniversary party for Gil Friesen. This was probably 1990, and by that time I had not seen any of the A&M alumni for quite a few years and was nervous walking in as I tried to visualize faces I might see and put names to them. Just as we waked in the door, I made eye contact with someone from across the room, who started to make their way towards me. Shit! I know this guy. Is he that radio guy from Chicago? What was his name? My heart was pounding. Now we were face to face and I stuck my hand out and said, "Hi, I'm Tommy..." He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Tommy, I'm John Branca, your attorney." That was 17 years ago but I'd just given up the last of the drugs and alcohol the year before so that was a decent excuse back then.
I grew up in Montgomery, Alabama and Nashville was the first place I stopped at when I left Alabama to seek fame and fortune. Nashville agent Bobby "Smitty" Smith called me and invited me up to join a band he was putting together. Nashville was a very different place in 1973 but it was still Music City, USA and the rules you mentioned were very much in place. I didn't make it here and had to play around clubs and bars for a couple more years before someone from the STYX organization heard me at one of them in Chicago and I got my break when one John Curulewski left the band suddenly, but I will always remember leaving my parents a note that I was off to Nashville to make a name for myself. Here I came in my Ford Econoline with my three favorite 8-tracks in heavy rotation: Hank Williams "Greatest Hits," Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey" and Elton John's "Madman Across the Water."
I still get that funny feeling when I come here.
I hope your Internet connection is better than mine. I keep having to restart to keep web pages alive, but my new MacBook Pro has a 250 gig hard drive and over half of it is unused. My head may be getting full but my laptop's just fine.
Keep on blogging in the free world and I'll see you downstairs in an hour.
Until then,
Hi, I'm Tommy Shaw
Enjoy!!
Cat
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