Oh
it's pretty gay. No need to hide your
laughter from me. Seems fairly obvious
Spencer was born long before 2001. Though
I do have to defend this poor
bastard. His girlfriend said it looked hot
and took the picture. Yes, 1994 Adam was
gonna be a pop-star, and Alte Tyme was
gonna get him there. For one weekend at
the tail-end of my senior year in high
school, I felt that absolute certainty in
my gut that I was on the verge of a huge
break. As you'd expect my father was
alongside just as assured as I was and the
rise and fall was short and sweet. The
name and story however was burned in my
brain, and only in the past couple of days
have I realized just how influential it
was on how I processed these moments.
Which, at 18, you just knew would
be few and far between. Ha, ha,
ha.
A friend of mine,
Jeremy Baack, introduced me to a guy he knew that in
all honesty... I only remember by his stage name. He
was apparently an up and coming star who had just
signed with Sony Records and was just returning from a
meeting with Tommy Mattola (Mariah Carey's husband and
the head of Sony at the time). Adding to the
legitimacy of the backstory, he was singing at the
Capitol Theater the following week as a
surprise guest of Mr. Mattola's. His single was
dropping on WNCI that weekend and the immediacy of all
of this led you to believe it was true. I mean, if
you're gonna lie - why would you lie about something
happening TOMORROW? So we met, my father and I brought
him into the studio, he sang for us and really loved
the music we had put together and took my cassette to
play for Tommy.
It was absolutely
overwhelming. When he left my dad and I looked at each
other like: "Really? Is this really happening?"
Of course we believed in the music, we thought it was
special. And after hearing him sing, if HE had a deal?
Oh I most certainly was going to get one. The event at
the theater the following week wasn't just his
concert, but a Sony event and Mr. Tyme was so
impressed he wanted me to appear onstage with him. It
absolutely seemed too good to be true, but again - why
lie about something so imminent!?? We met on a
Thursday, the single was to drop that weekend, the
concert the following week. So though completely
overwhelming, it was easy to just revel in this
fantastic break for a couple of days. I was with
Burgundie at the time, and I remember there was a
gathering at her mother's house that Friday night and
word had already gotten out. It was absolutely my
first night where I was completely self-aware of
what was happening. You could feel the transition. You
could feel the energy in the room from those around
you that wanted you to succeed. It was just
spectacular. I was just about to graduate from high
school, I had just gotten the best actor award for my
role as the lead in The Music Man, I released my first
tape... it was all coming together...
...until of course
it all unraveled. Called WNCI, they never heard of him
and within a few hours I was able to get ahold of
this kid's foster parent who apologized for the drama
he had caused. He begged me not to beat the shit out
of the kid. LOL. He had only been his foster parent
for a few months, but said even in that time his
pathological lying was clear. Even this scene
is so vivid in my head. I was at a wedding with
Burgundie on that Saturday for someone on her father's
side of the family. I called during the reception and
remember distinctly looking out the window at a
beautiful summer day and hearing the news that it was
an absolute and complete fabrication. I told
Burgundie, stunned, and we just kinda went into that
zombie mode (that Journey viewers know oh so well). I
remember it being crushing. This was after 48
hours of belief. Naive beyond all belief. Green to
such an extent it's almost comical over 15 years
later.
I'll never forget
the embarrassment of telling everyone it wasn't
happening. The egg on my face. The disappointment in
everyone's eyes. Youth allows hope to prevail in these
situations but what really hit me a couple of days
ago? How I processed it. I wrote a song about
believing that "it will happen". And, heh, videotaped
it. It was the beginning of DV Therapy. The beginning
of realizing that the best way to deal with difficult
tests was to make art out of it...
Two years later
"Just Imagine" would appear on my first CD and the
mantra would follow me forever. I love that the last
note is the same key as "Float Downstream" -- the
latest "jesus christ i want to make it for the love of
fuck let this be it" song.
15 years.
Alte
Tyme.
The surrealness of
my life continues. What will happen next?
