Back in the 80's I produced several bands over at T.I. (*you guess the name) - The clients were wanna be acts....they could sing a little and their saving grace was the budget they had to pay me to sit behind a console and make their recording. On one occasion there was this country band of 20 year olds from Indianapolis....I found a tune I liked from singer songwriter Pat Alger....I saw Pat perform at the Bluebird one night and he did this new tune "Small Town Saturday Night"...I knew immediately it was a hit.
I called Terrell Tye and got a hold on the song for this band I was producing. Well, the band wasn't that good so I hired great musicians to come in and track the song....The singer tried as he might never was quite able to pull off a plausible reading. They pooled their monies from friends & families to come to Nashville to record. After about three months of them coming into town to attempt a vocal session, the publisher called me to say that her boyfriend wanted to cut the tune. Her boyfriend at the time was Hal Ketchum.... So he & Rooney recorded the tune and within a month the song hit the charts and made Hal a career.
Those boys from Indianapolis were confused & bewildered. I had dropped a hit right into their laps and they were so damned stupid they took it for granted and failed to perform the simplest of tasks. In the end I made a couple thousand bucks for the three months of frustration and disappointment. Most of these custom budget projects averaged in at about 50,000.00. The owner would con the acts into building basically an
illegal "corporation-business" venture that offered "stock" to all the investors.
That's pretty much the way he financed TI....Put together a bogus stock offering to about 6 people who invested 80,000.00 or so each. The studio got built...they put together a very nice recording studio and managed to pay them selves for a good 5 years while promoting all sorts of custom projects that put more money into their pockets and a little in mine.
The whole idea of someone buying fame makes me nauseous. If someone isn't good enough...If they are a marginal talent.....They don't deserve it. American Idol answers that one IMHO. As for me spending the last part of my life recording wanna be acts. I'll be passing on that one.
Why waste the time ?
(A good friend of mine with MAJOR credits talking on Custom/Vanity deals)
SM @ MSO
