From: Andy McKee
Subject: Re: E-Mail Of The Day

Bob,

Thanks for printing the email about my friend Jon Gomm. I’ve known him for about ten years and it is great to see him finally getting some recognition. We will be touring together in the UK later this year along with one of our great inspirations, Preston Reed.

Anyway, I thought I would relay that I had a similar experience with America’s Got Talent several years ago. Shortly after my videos went viral on YouTube, I was contacted by someone representing that program. America’s Got Talent was really interested in having me come in to try out for the show.

The exposure would have been pretty massive and I thought it could really help to get my name out to people that might not hear me otherwise.

But the more I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that I would be throwing away the one thing my career was built upon: integrity. One guy with one guitar and a mic. Doesn’t get much more honest than that. Why throw it all away by being on a show with a guy who can burp the National Anthem or whatever the hell it is they do on that show?

I’m still out gigging 150-200 shows a year all over the planet. I don’t have thousands of people coming to see me every night but I get to do what I love and meet fans from all cultures. It looks like I’ll even have a gig in Zimbabwe later this year for crying out loud!

All the best,

Andy

Sent from my iPhone

TEN YEARS! And I just heard about him TODAY!

If you’re in it for the short haul, if you believe instant fame is your destiny, now is not your time. Jet yourself back to the nineties, before the Internet took hold.

The funny thing is now it takes even longer to make it. Because there’s so much stuff out there. And if we’re bombarded by incoming e-mail/tweets/Facebook messages about something new, we’re suspicious, we believe the hand of the man is behind it.

Everything you know is wrong. Assuming you subscribe to the old model.

Your music is your marketing. Start there. Be great.

Also, while I’ve got your attention, read/listen to this essay by Frank Deford, this is the way it used to be in the music business, when gatekeepers kept out talent that didn’t fit the mold.

Looking For Lin In All The Wrong Places

But those days are now through. There are a limited number of basketball teams, but we can always use a new musical artist.

Assuming you’re good.

No, make that great.

And Andy McKee is great. He broke via YouTube. Check him out here:

Andy McKee – Guitar – Drifting

Notice the 42 million plus play count! And, everything sits on YouTube waiting to be discovered, the clip may have been posted in 2006, but it’s new to people all the time.

If you don’t think Andy McKee is a rock star, you don’t know what a rock star is.

A rock star is first and foremost a musician. Who does it his way.

Those dieted-down phonies rapping over beats provided by the man in between nights at the club?

Ignore them.