Not So Peaceful World

I explained to India what I wanted to do and why it would work. She wasn’t interested in selling more records and wasn’t that familiar with John, but she agreed to do it for one reason; she knew Mellencamp was my favorite writer of all time and she would do it for me. She was a really good kid, back then.

Immediately John’s manager and I made arrangement for India to record with John and also appear in the video. This was a massive breach of protocol, as I did not have permission for either thing from her label, but I had to make it happen.

Mellencamp flew India and her mom out to Indiana to record and then they went on to Georgia to film the video, which would be his first single, “Peaceful World”. I told you about all of the red tape and politics to allow these guest appearances to happen, well this roadblock was astronomical. I then went back to the label for clearance, and a resounding no was once again uttered. Shit, now what?

Me being me, I broke protocol big time and pissed Kedar off even further, went over his head and right to higher powers at Universal. This time the answer was, again no. I was told how Columbia and Universal had a problem on a St. Lunatics track, I was accused of being Donnie Ienner’s boy, I was told no way would they allow the clearance, I was like, “Doesn’t anyone understand I am trying to break a record? Donnie doesn’t give a shit about Mellencamp, it’s not a favor to Donnie, and it’s what’s right for India.”

It went on and on for days and here we are with a single recorded and video shot, ready to go.
Kedar was livid; I won’t even go into detail what he said to me. You wouldn’t believe it and it doesn’t matter, as I forgave it because I know too well about speaking from emotion, which is one of my faults. Universal was livid, it seemed like the whole fuckin’ world was pissed and I was just trying to find a way to introduce my artist to more people. Sorry about that, it’s called doing my job.

Now I know I breached protocol and completed recording and filming without approval, but fuck me, you’d think I killed someone. Sometimes you have to do, what you have to do, to make it all work. After meeting upon meeting, we might have been more intense than the damn Geneva Convention, bartering, promises, trades, insanity, ill will and a lot of baby shit, we finally got India cleared for the both the single and video and I am certain to this day, that those appearances and the ensuing involvement with Mellencamp and all we did with him, is the primary reason we had as much Grammy recognition as we did.

Hands down the primary factor, because we broke through the ceiling and her name recognition sky rocketed and that, unfortunately, is the key to the Grammys. Let me talk on that for a moment and explain my position. The Grammys have one giant flaw in my opinion, and that is you should only be allowed to vote in the genre or genres you have experience in.

When it becomes a blanket vote, you will vote for the name most familiar and that is just wrong. I myself am guilty of that, and it’s similar to voting for the party across the board, rather than voting for the individual during an election. It explains many mysteries of the Grammys, like when Jethro Tull won, or when Metallica lost. I’m not sure a classical violinist in their seventies knows a Metallica from a miasma, but somewhere in the corner of their mind, they may have heard of Jethro Tull. Maybe got it confused with Jethro Bodine from the Beverly Hillbillies, but a Jethro nonetheless.

It just makes no sense and to me, makes the Grammys a marketing game more than anything else. I still have great respect for the Grammys, I understand their value and I am humbled when involved.