the storms of late have been EXTREMELY scary – i dont know if its just because of the recent tornadoes or what but the winds, the rain the whole thing seem to be slightly upscaled a bit – maybe God is pissed – like, “look muthafuckers, you think this shit is a joke???? you fuckers better wake up!” – and yes God can cuss – he MADE cuss words people – just like he made the stars, planets and everything else out there and here – it didnt happen over night, errr maybe it did, whose to say BUT my point is, is that it didnt happen without confrontation –
ALL great things some where down the line were developed because of confrontation – confrontation is the epitome of production – without it things, ANYTHING would not happen – recently during a road trip i found myself in a discussion about Hank Williams Jr – thats right good ol Bocephus – now EVERYBODY knows Hank – love him or hate him or both, hes a country music if not pop culture icon – he is blessed with being the son of Hank Williams as we all know BUT hes not WHO he is because of his lineage – anybody ive ever known to have contact with him or seen him in concert, in person or out and about has always prefaced their story with, “hes a dick!” – they then proceed to tell me how awesome he was and what a good time they had seeing or hanging out with him – how is this??? how can somebody be such a dick and yet be so charismatic?? my biz partner used to have this bootleg CD that we would listen too where Hank was SHITFACED and would cuss the audience, the band, EVERYBODY! he even cussed John Elway when he started to play “all my rowdy friends” – the beauty of it was no matter WHAT he did or what he said the band just went right along – he was so drunk hed play a few lines of a hit, forget the words and then launch into a completely different song – the band wouldnt miss a beat or a note as if theyd rehearsed it – after a few times of doing this you could tell, under all the cussing outs, that Hank was actually TRYING to throw them off – at one point he breaks mid-cuss to say to the band, “you aint impressing me….” then back to cussing – i could have killed to have seen this concert – much like the Ryan Adams breakdowns id be pissed that some douchelord was calling him bryan or yelling out “come pick me up” and not letting him do his thing BUT at the same time his frustrations are kinda comforting –
so WHY is it fans keep going back??? the guy that yells out “come pick me up” at the ryan adams show probably bitches for a week after about how he wants his money back – does he do anything about it?? no – he goes home and listens to ryan adams – people like ryan adams and hank jr can pretty much just show up, make an appearance and be done – they dont HAVE to hang out – its always the nobodys who are nice – “man so & so was GREAT – we smoked a joint on his bus and everything” – well that is great but theres a reason his/her name is “so&so” because I cant even remember who it was – i mean if they had told me they smoked with willie nelson then how could i forget??? at this point willie or hank could literally fart in a mic and it wouldnt be any different than if jesus had come and sat in – they have a name – that name is associated unequivocably with being able to do whatever it is they do – whether its hank, ryan adams or donald trump – hell george jones is famous for not showing up!!!! every concert he didnt show up to?? sold out – so again how is this possible? confrontation – somewhere down the line, and currently, they themselves or someone that works for them is being a dick – theyre going thru the sifter of m&ms looking for brown m&ms – brown m&ms you say???? yes BROWN m&ms – its probably one of the classic rock biz legend, urban myth, whatever stories youve heard about van halen or some other band but van halen is the originator – it goes like this – most every band, touring band, has a RIDER attached to their contract to play – a rider is an addendum to a contract providing the artist with comforts, tech specs, any accommodations the artist requires – for lower tiered bands its a few free beers and water – for van halen ONE of the rider items was a SIFTER glass of m&ms with NO brown m&ms – now to the lay person this seems petty and ridiculous but to a biz man this is key – when van halen started touring in the late 70s stages, production, venues were suspect – nowadays there are regulations and standards – at that time if you brought in two, three semi trucks worth of production, there was cause to worry that peoples lives could be in danger of any number of things – ONE pin in a light rig or speaker being flow up above david lee roths head could end in diamond dave, michael anthony or the van halens getting literally killed – SO the test was the brown m&ms – if they didnt do it – they didnt read the contract and the show was a no go – that old saying “the devils in the details” is true – miss one detail in a big production & you could be fucked, for life – by the way, in my experience WOMEN are the best tour managers because women are all about details – ANYWAY it is this principle in ANY business that make people who and what they are – confrontation leaves no question as to what is wanted or needed –
when i say confrontation one naturally assumes a butting of heads or an argument but thats quite the contrary – although it might take intimidation and force at times to get your point across, its not always needed – theres another old saying “choose your battles” – that doesnt mean sometimes you just roll over – it only means that sometimes FIGHTING is not necessary – sometimes confrontation only means what it is – to confront – why leave something unsaid no matter how trivial it might seem when you could just come out and ask or suggest point blank?? most times it is welcome since inherently, especially in the music biz, nobody WANTS to be impersonal – i mean it is the “music biz” – who wants to be all about business if we dont have to?? well ME because even though i LOVE playing, performing or whatever im doing with music, there are OTHER things i COULD be doing like, i dont know, hanging out with my kids?? or believe it or not making money somewhere else!! confrontation is also about being PRO-active but in small doses – u dont want to go over anyones head but you also want there to be a clear DEFINED communication – sometimes that means you have to lay claim to your responsibility so that everyone you work with knows that theres no question about what it is that you want to do – this always helps when you have a ton of opinions – opinions and ideas are great and if in fact it helps the cause me personally im all about them but dont get upset if i veto it –
CONFIDENCE and confrontation go hand in hand – the more confident you are the easier confrontation will go – basically if you know what youre doing then theres little doubt that not everything is taken care of – some people get weirded out by confidence and become confrontational – i was a tour manager for this guy and he would get upset with me because i was TOO relaxed – he felt i should always be worried and frazzled – sorry charlie me no get upset about shit ive been doing and have been able to do for the past 25 years – granted there were times when situations would come up but those are to be expected – how you handle them is what makes you a professional – are you going to CONFRONT the problem head on or are you gonna be a dick and not realize that sometimes, every once and a while, things are out of your control – theres a difference between having to be a dick and BEING a dick – knowing the difference is what separates the so & sos from the stars…….