Dave's Top Eight

1. Jerry Reed...Revisited by Darrell Toney (reviewed 6/07) (5 Stars)
2. Sounds Like Sunday by Janet Paschal (reviewed 5/07) (5 Stars)
3. True To The Call by Kingdom Heirs (reviewed 3/07) (4 1/2 Stars)
4. Revival by Gold City (reviewed 10/06) (4 1/2 Stars)
5. Get Away Jordan by Ernie Haase & Signature Sound (reviewed 2/07) (4 1/2 Stars)
6. Breakin' Chains by Three Bridges (reviewed 5/07) (4 1/2 Stars)
7. Big Sky by The Isaacs (reviewed 4/07)
8. Skywriting by Mercy's Well (reviewed 7/07)

Click title to purchase at CBD.com...click artist name to read Dave's Review. A CD will automatically fall out of the Top Eight after twelve months if no CD surpasses it before then.

Most Recent Articles

Beating The Revolving Door Dilemma
My Take on "Quality" Radio
Caeser Salad - Bruce Hornsby Fan Tribute Recording...
So You Want To Be A Charting Station?
PR Photography: Spit Out Your Gum!
AUDIO/PODCAST INTERVIEW>> Crabb Family (2006)
Quality Music On Radio
EMI DRM-Free Music Available Now
More DRM Bites The Dust
AUDIO/PODCAST INTERVIEW>> Bill Gaither (March 2007...

I'mWithFred - Contribute Now

-----------

April 13, 2007

Hero Worship

The Prodigal Comes Home is an autobiography by the ever controversial Michael English that is already drawing a mix of praise and criticism for just how openly he discusses the initial affair that led to his departure from Christian music, his brushes with the police, live-in girlfriends of dubious reputations that carried on even after his return to gospel music, and his ongoing drug addictions that ultimately thwarted what was to be his big return to Christian pop.

This post isn't really about Michael English, though. It's about fans...one fan in particular...me.

Up until last night, when I read his book straight through in about three hours (no great feat, as it's only 200 pages or so), I had believed English was unfairly treated by Warner Alliance when he was dismissed from their label. He wasn't.

A few years later, I had no idea when I invested several thousand dollars in promoting a Michael English concert (for which I profited a slightly less than zero return) that he was routinely abusing massive amounts of drugs, going to strip clubs, and even living with one of those strippers. In fact, I'm pretty sure she was at the concert I promoted, among all the other fans who believed that while Michael English had clearly messed up just one time (we thought), he couldn't really be THAT bad. Surely, he deserved another chance.

In due time, I met other people who were even more extreme fanatics than me. Some started a fan based website that later became the official Michael English website for a period of time. We sadly shook our collective heads, lamenting the fact that "only Christians shoot their wounded." The fact that English had a good testimony in which he said he took full responsibility for his sins and apologized for his mistakes at each concert only served to strengthen our position that he was a victim of an over-reaction in the industry, unfairly punished for one mistake. The book reveals that this wasn't the case at all. While Warner Alliance could have handled English's dismissal from their label better, his rebellion was very real and sustained for almost a decade. During this time, he was granted platform after platform by fans (including fellow artists) who wanted to will him back into stardom.

I've drawn a few conclusions in the past few hours. One is that I was extremely gullible at the time...gullible to the point that I was willing to invest my hard earned dollars based on a principle that was fundamentally false. I've always been prone to rooting for those I perceive to be the underdogs, especially if the underdog is a first class musician or vocalist. This has been one of my basic character flaws.

Another conclusion is that fans will project onto a gifted person the image they want to believe, even when there's plenty of evidence to the contrary. I've always known this to be true of other people, but I never thought I had given in to it myself to any great degree. However, you can go over to Google and do a Usenet search right now if you like. It shouldn't be too difficult to locate examples of me defending English in the late 1990s even in the face of evidence provided by people living in Nashville who knew his reputation a lot better than me.

Another conclusion is that there should be a line between forgiveness and rushing a fallen artist back into the limelight. The limelight should be denied to a Christian artist who continues to lack the ability to handle the attention. I used to side with those who continually want to give second, third, and fourth chances. God gives second chances, and so should we. But is putting an artist on stage and handing them a check afterwards that will allow them to support their stripper girlfriend and buy more drugs really the type of second chance we want to be giving? I think not.

It's called "hero worship," yet we all should be well aware that no human being is ever perfect. It's fine to be a fan of an artist, but there's something fundamentally wrong with fans who want an artist to live up to their expectations so much that the fantasy of what this person represents (a Christian artist or otherwise) overshadows the reality of the actual life they're living.

And so, while I'm still very much a fan of Michael English's music, after 20 years, I suddenly find myself no longer a Michael English fan after reading his book. This statement may seem ironic, given the encouraging message of redemption and restoration at the end of his book which I happen to believe to be true. However, when I look back, it always should have been about the music and not the singer. I hope this is a lesson I can remember for the rest of my life. It isn't that I no longer pull for him to succeed...I do...but I'm also painfully aware that a hundred thousand fans "ministering" to one guy who's hurting by putting him in a position where he has no business being can end up doing a lot more to facilitate and maintain his poor choices than to help.

That $4250 check I handed to his road manager when I promoted the concert is just one of many examples.

Here's how stupid I was at that time. Jeff & Sheri Easter appeared on the same program that night, thanks to an booking agent who insisted that English couldn't come unless I booked another group who would be able to provide sound. Then, I ended up providing part of the sound equipment. English's road manager called a few days before the event to ask if I was going to provide them with meals or a hotel. I didn't fall for that, since it wasn't in the contract. On the day of the show, I watched as Jeff Easter did 90% of the work in terms of setting up his sound equipment for the event while English's band sat watching him work and didn't offer to lift a finger. Jeff's group got $1700 for their efforts. The booking agent got $1050, for a total of $7000, plus there were advertising costs, a rental fee for the facility and countless hours spent distributing concert promotional material at other concert events and selling advance tickets. I felt good about myself at the time, knowing I had done my part in helping restore Michael English in the gospel music industry.

I refused to believe that what I had done was wrong right up until last night. Then I finally was confronted with precisely what he was doing with the money at that point in his life and forced to admit I made a mistake.

Labels:

posted by David Bruce Murray @ 11:16:00 AM


Links to this post:

Create a Link



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?