I like the word y’all. "Y’all" includes everybody. "You guys" is inappropriate when addressing ladies I think. Of course you always hear girls refer to each other as "you guys." Whatever. When I go up north, people laugh when they hear me say "fixin’." I’ll say, for example, "I’m fixin’ to go get some coffee." It is awfully Texan isn’t it? In Texas everyone says "fixin’." Enough of that. Now it is time to get serious. Right. Here I am in Iowa City. I don’t feel very good today. I may have had just a little too much fun in Columbia last night. I ate at Burger King today. I usually eat better than that when I travel. But, today it was close, I was hungry so I went. The kids in there were going crazy over Pokemon items. I love kids, but, they can easily try my patience. There’s really not too much to talk about today. Oh yeah, there’s this great band called BR-549. They are buddies of ours and we hope to tour with them again soon. I heard through the grapevine (that means there may be a BS factor) that Arista may have dropped them from their roster of bands. I heard that the legendary label executive Clive Davis got fired. He was BR-549’s guy (or so I was told).If all this is true, it is another tale of major label ineptitude that has ripped-off bands and the music-buying public for decades. Who in the hell is dumb enough to fire Clive Davis? Some moron with a big ego I’ll bet. Clive Davis is a classy old gentleman who has signed some of our most beloved acts. He signed Carlos Santana way back in the day. When you consider that Santana is still a top blockbuster artist today, it seems stupid to fire the guy who helped make all of that possible. But, that’s the way the music business jerks can be. So, I hope that none of this is true. If any of y’all out there know more about the BR-549/Arista/Clive Davis controversy, please post something about it on the message board on this website. I talked to a music writer yesterday who said that our old label, Interscope Records, was the worst at sending promo materials, the worst at remembering deadlines, and kind of stuck-up when deciding who is worthy of writing about their bands. Maybe that’s why some critics were sometimes less than kind to us. You know something, it’s not hard to picture. A lot of these label people don’t care as much about being someone who helped writers get their interviews before deadlines as they do about being the guy who gets to tell Marilyn Manson, "Marilyn, I just want to help you not shoot yourself in the foot artistically." Bullshit. It’s funny, of all of the suggestions we’ve received from our labels about all sorts of stuff that was none of their business, not one time did any of these people tell me, "You know Rev., this swing thing is going to get really big, and, since you were there to help start this movement, let’s capitalize on that." Of course, I wouldn’t have listened to them anyway. But, the way any of our labels could have found "the next big thing" ahead of time, is by simply asking me or any of their other artists. I would have told them. But, they never did ask me. When you have some huge Hollywood ego, you don’t listen to artists, you think you are the artist. In the meantime you don’t even know which of your bands are on tour and you piss-off radio, media, and mom and pop record stores. I think that it's time for the labels to realize a few hard facts... 1. Label execs and employees are not artists. Sure, they all can play Cheap Trick songs on guitar, sure they go to great lengths to fit the beautiful/punk/rockstar image, but, it is insulting to me that these people consider themselves even close to the professionalism of the artists that they represent. Many of these big label people feel like they "made" the artists they represent. 2. Spending time making "creative" decisions for artist's just takes time away from their real job of selling CDs. No one listened when we said, "We want you to be more aware of all the touring that we do." But, there again, it's ego that fuels this business. 3. Not one single label executive knows how to sell CDs, they can only continue to be willing to keep looking for new ways to sell CDs. However, they can continue to learn how to sell CDs if they realize that every product has a different group of people that are the target audience. The best way to learn how to sell any new CD to it’s target audience is simple—ask the artist. But, ego won’t let most label guys do that. You know, we play our music to our current audience every night. And, every night it’s easy to tell which of our new songs really get the crowd moving. But, not one label person has ever asked me what song I think should be the single on any of our projects. They just know in their own little minds that the artist is not a good person to trust when deciding which song will "work." Why even sign artists at all? Why not just get some computers and...oh yeah, that’s what they’re doing now! It’s you, the public, that’s getting ripped off in the long run. 4. Labels act like, since it’s their money, they want to know if the artist is doing the "right thing" on their session. The problem is, IT’S THE BANDS MONEY. Labels merely loan bands money for their project. Bands have to pay back every penny from future royalties. If you GIVE me money, hell, I may even let you sing on the album...not! 5. Labels need to remember that they have this job. To us it’s almost a religion. We go to all sorts of bland places to play music. We spend more time away from our family and friends than is sane. We kicked, scratched, clawed, and in the face of industry turndowns, we kept-on-a-keeping on. All artists deserve respect for what they’ve had to go through. My guys don’t get health insurance or any other benefits. Keeping my band together and on a constant upward climb is by far more of a difficult achievement than the job some A and R guy did to get platinum records on his wall. We lived in a van for more than ten years. Crashing on floors and being treated like the catering crew. We used to drive two thousand miles to play for a hundred bucks or maybe even nothing. Our musical style, our artistic ability, our willingness to work and our perseverance got us where we are today. Every tour we’ve ever done has done a little bit better business than the one before. There may be a good argument that I know more about this business than the businessmen know. But, once again, ego won’t let them see that we know what’s best for us. That’s how we got all these fans. That’s how we will continue to grow our business. I do have a lot of people that I think of as friends at Interscope Records, and, from one point of view we will always have to work with Interscope/Universal as long as people keep buying our CDs that are on Interscope. But, I’m glad that they are not going to be there when we really start to reap the benefits of a lifetime of persistence. They should have asked a few more questions. They should have lived up to the terms of our contract. We know what’s cool artistically better than they do. That’s why we’re the artists. 6. Not one label person has had the time to listen to one of my thirty song demos that I do before every project. They’re too busy. Too busy with important things like forgetting to return phone calls. Maybe they should get busy with the right things. 7. Labels need to be very aware of every show that every band on their roster is playing. If they can’t, their roster is too big. We headlined one particular show in Interscope’s home town of LA. We sold-out the Hollywood Palladium. Four thousand tickets. Movie stars, record people, and writers were all present. It was one of the most important shows that R.H.H. has ever done. Not one person from Interscope showed up. After some investigating, we determined that our guy couldn’t make it because he was at The Whiskey checking out some new heavy metal band. I may not seem like a very good businessman, but, even little old me is better than that. Now that I think about it, there are many things that labels should learn...I’ll get back to more of that later.I know it must seem that I have a lot of animosity toward label people, but, really I don’t. I’ve been very fortunate to have worked with all sorts of wonderful people who’ve helped us. I’m grateful to be where I’m at. Sure, there have been opportunities missed along the way, but, I can’t complain about my place in this world at all. I am lucky to have one of the best jobs a person can have. To me, it’s not even like a job. It’s just a lot of fun that never ends. Thanks To All Of Our Cool Fans, Jim "Rev. Horton" Heath PS Please write or E-mail Arista Records to find out if they're stupid enough to fire Clive Davis and drop BR-549.