Hey Rick and Jimi,
Didn't know if you guys saw this post from Dug on the King's X site (see below). I hope he is OK. I missed them here in San Diego when they played a few weeks ago.
Also...what's up with the This is.../SIN split disk????
Peace,
Joel
dUg's words...
"I have read about 2 pages of this thread, I wish I could set down and answer all the questions, and speculations...I will try to make light of some of the things said and suggested..you guys are wonderful so please dont take anything I say as negative or bitching....theres no anger here....just love ...
here goes...we never fit in, no matter what we do we cant get the masses on board, and weve done everytnig there is, I now you all have suggestions of what we could do do get more successful, but we have done everything there is to do! or at least inquired about it all...we just cant get the folks on board...woodstock 94 we played for 300 thousand people, and the next week on soundscan we sold about 200 CD's .then the week later nothing to comment on....the rest of the bands on the bill, Jackel, Sheryl Crow, Live, Candlebox, stc.. sold millions!!! we got the best slot of the day, and USA today, Howard Stern, MTV,said we were the best band that day..! we sold nothing...and it changed my life....I cut my hair and almost gave up! plus I was going thru mid life crisis..I started getting panic attacks and got blinded by my self hate...Ear Candy was the result...
management?.. we have had people check us out and they say were doing a better job by ourselves than they could,,,after they see what we have to go thru to get a gig...and keep the boat afloat...others say were precieved as an old band and they feel they cant help us....
record companies? we tried to give Atlantic a done CD with nothing to do but throw it out there... they passed, saying they are only interested in new young bands....ALL other companies rejected us accept Metal Blade and Inside out...thank the gods for that....
booking agent?.. they say they cant get many promotes to bring us, they all think they will loose money...
Deep Purple? were trying to get on that tour, and anyother oportunity we can...but we have to pay to play, its all political....thats the way all bands are treated now, they all pay, Ozz Fest... the record companies pay to get all the bands on the tour....we dont have the $$, we opend for many bands in the past to no avail..a few new converts, but not enough...
Paul Scheafer plays Born to be loved all the time... but to get to play live on the Letterman show? practicly impossible....I wish you all could understand how impossible the situation is these days for many bands..it sucks! the rejection to KX is overwhelming in the music marketplace...you can imagine how it makes us feel.....
Christian music scene,?? yeah we could have been maybe the biggest band in christian music, but were not hippocrites, and when the christians find out that we drink, smoke weed and I am gay!, they would turn on us anyway, so why go there...that just hurts...besides that, they rejected us anyway after they learned who we were........theyre human, they hide it....were not like that, were to honest. thats why I am down on christian music...in the name of truth they live lies....thats never been me..or kingsX..its one of our biggest faults...The christian music scene was a dead end for us no matter what had happend in our career....I am agnostic now anyway, we just couldnt justify being a christian band...it just wasnt the truth...I was raised christian and have seen the christian music scene first hand...I cant be a part of it and I couldnt back then either...and were still called a christian band to this day, it wasnt kosure back then either, I remember so many people saying tat they couldnt get thier friend to listen to KX cause we were christian, even thoug Stryper were successful...now its accepted being a christian band....but were not one of those bands.....whats done is done and its the past.......
downhill career?.. Manic Moon Light was a good CD, I dont care what anyone says...I put my heart in that CD and wrote some songs that I am proud of...there was some waisted space on it but isnt that the way most CD's are? we realy did our best with what we had and who we were at the time...this band started out down hill, now were in a hole...we couldnt get the $ for a producer for years, so we did it ourselves, at least we tried....then we payed for Michael Wagner out of our own pockets....and finished the CD paying for it ourselves....we are realy trying to do the right things but all we get are walls....theres only so much we can do without money, record company support and attendance....we have maybe sold a million CD's combined from day one...!. thats not many in the real world....
.....and Atlantic put millions into promoting us..more than most we have had the oportunity for exposure and we got it........
I know some of you think theres things we should be doing, but trust me, we have tried or checked out all the possibiity, its just not as easy as you may think... we need all ages shows, and its almost impossible to get them...thats just fact...it sucks playing at such late times when people have to go to work or drive hours to attend....we always ask for early shows and all ages, it just dosent happen..
.bands that are successful without airplay or much promotion?,,,its a mystery, were doing what they did and here we are..
were going home from this tour broke...I get no $ when I am off tour, I have to fend for myself....thats life i guess. same as everyone else, I wish it wasnt so...
25 years of doing this with KX....even in the early days before the record deal, we couldnt get good attendance doing covers, when the other bands we competed with packed the clubs....its always been this way, we just dont appeal to the masses.....maybe if we had about 10 million to promote us??? but theres no guarantee...
were precieved as an old band in the marketplace that is well respected but not a money maker.....
bands try to take us out with them but thier management always reject us,
we may not tour for a while because if all of this...we cant...
we have made mistakes for sure in our career, but we have realy tried to do the right things.. were not the same people as we were when we started this band, and we always try to do ur best and make the best music we can...sometimes it didnt seem like it was the best effort at the time, but if you were there you would understand...
we are so thankful for the support from the faithful...we wouldnt be here if it wasnt for all of you people...the band is realy down these days, frustrated, and out of money and ideas that will work....were not young upcoming wide eyed kids anymore, and this music biz is obsessed with youth, the whole US is this way, just look around....its not over untill the fat lady sings they say... well, shes at the mike.....
I have had a wonderful adventure being in this band and being me...I have been blessed more than most..I take nothing for granite..we could go on and on about what we should do and what we havent....but at the end of the day we have done the best that we could with what is before us.....were not done, were not breaking up....were still hoping to be the biggest band in the world....and I have many more songs in my head and on demos to throw out there for you guys..good or bad, you can decide.....I will make music as long as I can breath...I have questioned my whole life and this bands place in the world....its still a mystery to me....this band I have invested 25 years of my life to.....and I think about my place in this more than anyone could possibly know or understand....and still dont know why no one realy gives a feck on a major scale...and people wonder why I have low self esteem....I am one of the biggest loosers that there is...and I dont know why....no one in KX knows why it hasnt happend for us....but I will keep doing what I do because I know nothig else and I love making music....thanks for letting me ramble...thanks for hearing me out and like I said before, without you guys I probably wouldnt be alive....thanks for saving my life....I love you all.....keep the faith, its not taken for granite.....dUg . "
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