He gave himself seven months.

Not Steve Barnett, but Sam Smith. That’s where I was, at Steve’s house, at a small luncheon introducing Sam.

Sure, they played the music in the background, but I already had the album. I enjoyed talking to Rodney Jerkins.

What’s strange about show business is everybody’s two-dimensional until you meet them. Oh, you think you know them but you don’t. Furthermore, who you think is a prick is not and vice versa.

So how much do I have in common with Mr. Jerkins?

Not much!

But it turns out he’s from Atlantic City. And my family used to vacation in Ventnor. Furthermore, we’re both transplants and laughing about it. I mean we’re talking on the phone to our families on the east coast and they’re complaining about the cold and it’s eighty degrees out here and I’m reminded of nothing so much as Sam Kinison’s routine about starving Africans. “Don’t send food, send LUGGAGE! They’ve got to MOVE!”

As it is, many east coasters are moving to Florida, the state is bulging with those who used to come to CA, the nutjobs who believe if they just change their surroundings their lives will work. They stopped coming to California when the economy turned sour, when they realized Florida was so much closer, but now Governor Moonbeam has saved the state and California is burgeoning but most people are focused on the shenanigans in FLA. You know, where the Republicans are fighting the Democrats and under the rubric of “personal freedom” the whole state is in transition. Whereas in California, it’s only Democrats, the grid has been unlocked and we’re moving forward with electric cars, more money for schools and mistakes are being made, but once again, the west coast is the country’s beacon. Not that it gets much press. Because the whole nation is controlled by the loonies who want more guns, fewer taxes and more “freedom” as they tell us how to live our lives.

That’s right, I’m a LIBERAL! The whole damn state is liberal. And we’re pulling away from the rest of you like Dave Edmunds crawling from the wreckage into a brand new car. We’ve got tech, and we’ve got music. We’ve got Capitol Records! The building may have been sold in an effort to ensure honchos got their bonuses, but there’s a whole new team ensconced in the Tower, with Steve Barnett reporting to fellow left coast transplant Lucian Grainge. We live in a Universal world. And if you don’t think that’s true, tell me about Warner’s market share and what septuagenarian Doug Morris’s plan is for the future.

THERE IS NO PLAN!

It’s business as usual. Spend and have hits.

And I’ll agree, that’s the essence, but it’s the penumbra that’ll kill you.

So Barnett makes a deal for Sam Smith, already signed to a Universal label in the U.K. And gets Rodney Jerkins to remix the single, adding some horns, some churchy elements.

And I find myself spending an hour in the hills, overlooking the Basin from downtown to the beach, having lunch outside on January 24th thinking there’s no place I’d rather be.

And after Steve gives an introduction, I get into it with Mr. Smith.

He’s been trying to make it since puberty. It’s all he ever wanted. He went through nearly ten managers. Some have posted old tracks on iTunes today. And while he’s scrubbing toilets at the bar, he’s thinking if it doesn’t happen in seven months, he’s done.

But he finds a new manager. He gets hooked up with Disclosure. And these new people tell him…he can do it his way. Honesty rules.

It’s so funny to encounter someone at the advent. Someone who’s not American, who doesn’t focus first and foremost on the trappings, but rather the music.

The project is gonna live or die on Sam Smith’s talent. Remember that? When music wasn’t made by committee?

Then again, everybody who remembers that era is much older than Sam Smith, who had no idea what “Tumbleweed Connection” was.

Kind of like my conversation with Peter Mensch last night. He was wondering why Q Prime doesn’t get recognized for its achievements, why people don’t consider it to be the best management company extant.

BECAUSE WE’RE SIXTY PETER! AND DEF LEPPARD WAS DECADES AGO!

I’m not saying that Q Prime hasn’t done much since, they’ve done plenty, but although old men, and it is mostly men, run this business, it’s driven by the efforts of youngsters, who grew up in a connected world and know the Beatles and the hits of yesteryear, but whose knowledge only goes so deep, because there isn’t enough much time.

So Sam Smith is still wet behind the ears. He’s only been to New York, L.A. and Las Vegas, the last of which did not fit his fancy. He’s just starting to learn, he’s just starting to be influenced.

And it’s all about the influences. And the risks.

Yes, he was due in the studio the next day with Linda Perry and debated whether to stay out late and tie one on or to hunker down and go to bed early.

Sam did the former. And then wrote about it!

Because that’s what we want. Honesty. Not contemplated, but as Bryan Adams used to put it, straight from the heart. Once you start to second guess yourself you’re done. You’ve got to be willing to ride the razor’s edge.

In other words, if you’re not willing to fail, you’re never going to win.