The Other Garden Party

Now comes Madison Square Garden, the apex of every artists dream and the big show, really big show. India is going to play two nights there with Sade and it’s all media frenzy with a guest list that would knock your socks off.

Funny enough, people were taking bets if I would show up or not. I found that comical. Though I long threw travel to the wind, I wouldn’t have missed that for all the money in the world. I will repeat, it all begins and ends with the artist, but as with every artist, success is a team effort and we worked our asses off night and day to make this happen.

I felt great pride for India, great pride for Motown and great pride for our management company, because if one of those cogs were out of place, I assure you, it would have never happened to the extent that it did.

It was great artist married to great label married to great management.
I don’t typically toot my own horn, or pull my own dick, but on this one, I know what we did and how much we brought to the table. In my entire career, I have never worked as hard and with as much conviction, sweat and diligence, as I did with India. It took every ounce; of every skill set I could find, to pull shit off. This was a twenty four hour a day job, filled with drama and adversity at every step, it wasn’t easy and I wanted to quit a thousand times, but I knew we could pull it off.

You bet your ass, I was going to MSG and I did. I called my old friend Joey and we rolled up to NY, my sister and daughter was there from the day before and they were telling me how many people were betting on my no show. I was laughing my ass off on the drive up. Joey was laughing too, but Joey is fucking priceless and was the perfect companion for that ride. I’d known Joey for decades.

Joey was just Joey, which was beautiful! He didn’t care, like backstage at Mellencamp when he informed John, “You did good, you write good songs.”, or upon meeting Giants quarterback, Kerry Collins, “You did good Terry.” even though his name is Kerry. Me and Joey had played in bands together in the 80s, and neither of us changed much, in attitude or appearance. We roll up to the Garden and head backstage.

It was pretty funny seeing the shock on people’s faces when I actually showed up. I had no idea this mystery thing had grown to such epidemic proportions. I was in the process of speaking with India, making sure she was ok, when our security chief pulled me aside and said he needed me to speak with some people. He brought me to a private room (I took Joey of course) and introduced me to N’Sync, at which point Joey told them, “Hey fellas, you guys did good.” Perfect!

They, especially Justin, wanted to meet India. This was the height of their fame and let me tell you, they were very nice kids, very down to Earth and very confused by Joey, who was now literally patting them on their backs, repeating that they did good.

It was pretty hectic and a star studded backstage for the first show from Sade in almost a decade and the new shiny explosion named India.Arie. Then comes the moment everyone was waiting for, the first face to face between Kedar and me. I walked up to him, introduced myself, and we started hugging and acting like two lost friends from high school. Kedar looked at me and said, “You look like a rock star.”

I guess he, like most people, expected me to look very different (like my Roy Thomas Baker moment), I have a very gruff voice and I think they expect someone older and taller and perhaps with at least half an eye on fashion, and I dress like a bum or less. Kedar and I truly showed each other respect and I think the ice completely melted at that moment and it was very genuine between both of us.

We did something magical together and we just banged heads along the way, but in reality, we admired the Hell out of each other and you could feel it at that moment.

Everyone was relieved.