I know him.

The only other politician I know up close and personal is my old friend Stanton Lesser, the attorney for the Town of Fairfield, then again, that’s not an elected position.

John’s wife Robin tracked me down, she’s a subscriber, she works at Liberty, and when they were in town last fall she suggested we get together. We did, at the Tavern in Brentwood, John noticed T-Bone Burnett sitting next to us, so I introduced them, you see Hickenlooper loves music. I remember riding the Highline Express when Strasburg took a call from the Governor, I think Don was working on the party for his inauguration, but if you know Strasburg, it’s so funny he knows the governor. As does Chuck.

But John Hickenlooper is not Governor of Colorado anymore, now he’s probably gonna run for President.

And I asked him, at that first meeting, WHY HIM? Especially because I could never imagine running for President myself. I mean who am I? I was brought up being told I was a s___head, and there was always someone else who could do it better. And John’s not one of those guys who overwhelms you, one of those can-do blowhards who you can listen to but cannot interact with.

John told me it was because he reinvented himself. Trained as a geologist, after losing his job he raised money to open a brew pub, ultimately having fourteen of them before they were sold. And he went into politics because…

Your dream. Do you even have one anymore? Or has America got you down to the point where you’ve lowered your expectations. Anyway, in the era I grew up in, the era Hickenlooper grew up in, you chose a profession and you stuck with it, the company took care of you, but homey don’t play that no more, you’re on your own in America.

So, seeing that businesses and communities needed to come together, he decided to run for Mayor of Denver. And won twice. Before becoming Governor twice, his term just ending. So what’s the next step?

Hickenlooper specializes in listening, bringing people together, that’s what he told me. And then he gave details, about rural and metropolitan, frackers and residents, public and charter schools. And the longer I listened, I thought…just maybe.

But everyone else said his name would stop him.

But if we can elect Barack Hussein Obama?

And to tell you the truth, I’ve got no problem with Elizabeth Warren, I’d vote for her in a heartbeat, but it seems everybody with money feels otherwise.

And then you start going down the list… Gillibrand…I’m never gonna forgive her for shooting Al Franken. Cory Booker? Some skeletons in the closet. As for the vaunted Joe Biden… Does anybody remember when he ran before? Just give Joe some time, and he’ll put his foot in his mouth. While he grins under those hair plugs. Never pay attention to the spin doctors, the prognosticators in the press, hell, “New York” magazine just reported that AOC has moved the corporate media to the left.

But Hickenlooper is a centrist. Are we looking for a centrist? Can millennials get excited about a centrist?

Someone asked John that tonight. He said yes, because he’s authentic.

And he is. He lacks charisma, he’s not like Bill Clinton with his aura, everybody who ever met Bill testifies about the glow when you’re in his presence. Hickenlooper is more like you and me. But maybe that’s his secret weapon.

But what about Trump, who denigrated Hillary and got away with it, would Hickenlooper go mano a mano?

He said he wouldn’t attack the Donald. But do we need someone who can put Donald in his place?

And then it comes down to track record. Hickenlooper’s got one, not only the legalization of marijuana in Colorado, but number one in job increase, so many other markers that senators can’t point to.

So, could he win?

I went to the Palisades tonight to hear him talk. It struck me how the attendees were monied. That’s right, he’s raising cash for an exploratory committee, and you need money, and without national name recognition can you do it like Bernie and Beto, one by one, via the public?

And so many of these people were in finance, working for the corporation. And I could not relate. Because I’m ten or fifteen years older, and our goals were different in a different time. We were about living the American Dream, less a house and a job and two cars in the garage than experiencing life, the good times. Hell, Hickenlooper went to Woodstock. Which was a financial disaster before the record and movie saved it.

Everybody’s playing it safe today, unlike the sixties, today’s generation is the man, and that bugs me. It’s about lifestyle, look, as opposed to who you are and what you think. Stunningly, the man of the house where the event was held leaned to the right, as so many who’ve won the economic wars have.

So you can get depressed.

Or you can be optimistic.

Trump has to lose. It’s just that simple.

But who is gonna beat him?

That’s all I care about, that a Democrat wins. Personally, I’m left of left, but I just want someone to emerge and become victorious in the national election.

So who is the candidate gonna be?

And the longer I hang with Hickenlooper, and his consigliere/wife Robin, I start to think this guy has a real chance. Because the experience didn’t shave off his rough edges. And he’s enthusiastic, and that’s contagious. He’s that guy in the huddle who keeps you going when the chips are down. You start to believe.

So it’s funny being at the beginning, even knowing a potential Presidential candidate. But that’s where the written word’ll get you. Hell, I didn’t make a donation tonight. But my writing led Robin to me and suddenly I’m standing in the hallway discussing strategy with Hickenlooper.

And let’s be honest, I don’t think I belong there. I came in my jeans and sneakers, my Vail vest, when everybody else looked like they came from the boardroom.

Then again, just like at John’s Wesleyan, at Middlebury it was all about who you were on the inside.

And Ryan Tedder spoke, he used to live in Colorado, he and Hickenlooper are friends, and said he didn’t vote for Trump but he couldn’t vote for Hillary.

WHY?

Because the Republicans defined her? Made a big deal about Benghazi and all the rest of the crap that meant nothing when Trump did and has done so much worse?

Then again, Hillary was anything but authentic.

Is there such a thing as an authentic politician?

So Hickenlooper is heavily involved in the music scene in Colorado. He knows Nathaniel Rateliff, he knows the Lumineers and their handlers. And he put in light rail so you can get to Red Rocks and the number of gigs at the legendary outdoor venue soared from double to triple digits. This guy is a fan, a believer. He was not brought up with a silver spoon, he’s just like you and me.

In an era where we laud celebrities and people float Oprah’s name as a candidate can someone who is relatively soft-spoken who has done the work win?

I think maybe so.

Watch this space. Expect Hickenlooper to announce. A relative with the same last name was an elected official in Iowa forever. John’s got a relationship with a restaurant chain owner in New Hampshire.

He could win.

And I could know him.

How strange is that?

I guess I’ve got to say we still live in the greatest country in the world. There is still social fluidity. But we need more. More chances, more opportunities.

Could Hickenlooper deliver them?

Just maybe.

Marc Reiter, creative majordomo for Metallica, will be joining me tomorrow to analyze and discuss secret weapons.

As Marc so eloquently put it:

“Secret weapons: Band members who may not have seemed important , but in truth, were indispensable. Once they departed/were kicked out, the band was never the same.

Some examples:

Michael Anthony (VH)

Bill Berry (R.E.M.)

Stan Lynch (Heartbreakers) …and Howie Epstein?

Bonehead from Oasis

Randy Meisner

Steve Clark from Def Leppard”

You get the picture, join the discussion!

Tune in tomorrow, Tuesday January 15, on Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive

https://bit.ly/2M7VXiX

This is more like it.

The right is working the refs. I never see this story in the media, but I experience it every time I mention Trump’s name, the usual suspects inundate me with blowback, putting me down as a “progressive,” telling me about their “facts,” laughing at me.

This is not easy to take, but I soldier on.

But it’s why so many others stop. The right is organized. With their Fox News and talk radio. Hell, if it weren’t for Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh the government would be open and the wall would be just another talking point.

This is the way it used to be before the youth woke up their brethren back in the sixties. The United States was the greatest country in the world, we could win any war, especially in backwater Vietnam, all hail the Red, White & Blue!

Until suddenly the artists took a different path.

You see we need leaders. And oftentimes they’re those who think a little different, who don’t get up at six to go into the office, who contemplate what’s going on and lay it down in song, film or prose.

But it’s hard to triumph in media these days. Where it takes years for a song to bubble up, where we’re all in our own different silos.

But still, take a stand and you’re gonna get blowback.

The Killers have taken a stand.

Of course they’ve got something at risk. This is not the seventies, when the youth was completely left, you can no longer tell someone’s political bent by the length of their hair, music fans can be as right as Abbie Hoffman was left. And since today’s “artists” believe that first and foremost they’re a brand, a business enterprise, they don’t want to offend any potential customer.

But that’s not what they are, they’re artists. Which side are you on, the truth or the dollar? You get to decide. And the further up the food chain you are, the more momentous the decision.

It’s easy to be a nobody and take a stand, but when you’re somebody…

And the classic acts have given up. No one wants to hear their new music and they don’t want to offend the baby boomers who’ve accrued their fortune and have swung to the right, so they stay silent.

And, once again, if you don’t, it’s gonna be news in the right wing blogosphere. And the left wing will report it but not defend you, you’ll be hanging out there alone.

So who is gonna take a risk?

Sure, rappers have. But so many people ignore rap the same way they ignored the exploits of R Kelly and his African-American victims. And in hip-hop, cash is king. Then again, African-Americans have been victimized throughout our history, screwed in the music business by Atlantic Records and so many more companies that didn’t pay royalties.

And the hook here is supposed to be the Spike Lee film.

But in this case, unlike how it’s been for decades, the song eclipses the video.

In this era where you’ve got to hook ’em quick and hook ’em good, “Land Of The Free” has got a long, instrumental intro, starting off quiet and building, it’s more classic rock than Spotify.

“Washing his truck at the Sinclair station
In the land of the free”

That roots it, personalizes the song, the gas station with the dinosaur. In a song that seems like it’s going to be about platitudes, it ends up intimate.

“His mother Adeline’s family came on a ship
Cut coal and planted a seed
Down in them drift mines of Pennsylvania
In the land of the free”

That’s why we came here, for the freedom, everything at risk in D.C. And we all came, almost nobody was here already, except for the Native Americans who’ve been abused for centuries.

“Land of the free, land of the free
In the land of the free”

If you’re aged, you’ll be reminded of Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is,” with its anthemic chorus supported by a full choir. It makes the song important, that’s the power of the voice in an era ruled by machines.

“But if you’re the wrong color skin
You grow up looking over both your shoulders
In the land of the free”

Truth. So simple, but so right.

And like Leonard Cohen sang, everybody knows.

“We got more people locked up than the rest of the world
Right here in red, white and blue
Incarceration’s become big business
It’s harvest time out on the avenue”

CAN’T HE STAY IN HIS LANE! That’s what the right wing agitated will say. Musicians can’t talk about politics, and how many issues do you want to embed in one song. But the Killers are not holding back, once you break out of the restraints, freedom feels so good. And that’s the problem in America today, the chilling effect, where a President says not to trust the media and if you cross him, you’re gonna pay.

“So how may daughters, tell me how many sons
Do we have to put in the ground before we just beak down and face it
We got a problem with guns”

Whew, now he’s singing about guns too? And isn’t the NRA just too powerful? But the Parkland kids put a dent in ’em, and why do we need the guns anyway? The same nitwits who think a wall will solve immigration problems are the same idiots who think by owning a gun they can stand up and overthrow the government, in an era of drones, where you fight with software.

“Down at the border, they’re gonna put up a wall
Concrete and rebar steel beams
High enough to keep all those filthy hands off of our hopes and our dreams
People who just want the same things we do
In the land of the free.

The message of the song, the message of the video. What does America stand for? But that wall hasn’t been built yet and the Killers don’t want it to be. They’re making a statement that will reach their fans more than anything in the “New York Times,” never mind Fox News. That’s the power of art, to change minds.

And if this were the eighties, this video would be all over MTV, the talk of the nation. But in the teens, it’s impossible to reach everybody. But disruption never sleeps, it’s just a matter of who is willing to fight.

We’ve been overwhelmed with the innovation of the techies for two decades. But we’ve learned in the past few years that the majordomos have no moral center, which is why artists need to take the reins and make a statement.

Like the Killers.

https://spoti.fi/2CoO6ZG

The rich are just like the rest of us.

Only with a lot more money.

Oh, maybe that’s not true. Maybe they believe they’re entitled to what they want, that the rules of both law and morality don’t apply to them.

First and foremost Bezos lied about when his affair with Sanchez began.

Is he living in a vacuum? Does he not know that in today’s world, the truth always outs? People can choose to believe it or not, but the only thing private is what you say to yourself, alone, in the dark.

And sending his junk in a photo, what is he sixteen? Celebrities bitch about Apple leaking their erotic photos, when the truth is it was their weak passwords at fault, and the world’s richest man decides to send a photo of his personal parts anyway? What, did he think he was immune?

And you know what they say about getting involved with someone who left a marriage for you, they’ll leave you too.

Oh, of course there are exceptions, but the axiom is proven true in most cases, especially for those who don’t have the balls to be single. Play the field, see what it feels like to be alone in this world. As opposed to jumping from relationship to relationship, as if they’re stones that will take you to the other end of the river, that you will never slip and fall and get wet.

And this guy is lionized in the press, he’s a cultural institution. Maybe a bit weird, but hewing the line. Then he blows up his whole life over a woman? Proving, like my first sentence, we are all the same, and sex rules the world.

Kinda like Bill Clinton. If I were President, I’d keep my penis in my pants, especially if that’s what people were looking for. Same deal with Gary Hart. But the rich and famous have large appetites, that seemingly can’t be satiated, and like I said above, they don’t think the rules apply to them.

She’s Patrick Whitesell’s wife. The couples are good friends. Shouldn’t she be off limits?

Does nobody have any morality? Both Jeff and Lauren?

As for lying about the affair… Booking Lauren in the same hotel in Boston where you’re staying with your wife to visit your kid at college… How daring do you want to be, how risky do you want to be, I mean you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants for a weekend?

And lying about the timeline… You were already schtupping Lauren while you were celebrating your anniversary with Mackenzie?

This is why Trump gets elected. The rest of us are playing by the rules, written, ironically, by the masters. And then the masters ignore them. This is true of elites on both sides of the aisle. They worked hard to earn their riches and damned if they’re going to kowtow to any poor people. They have contempt for poor people! Uneducated, on drugs. Screw ’em!

And while the poor get picked up for blue collar crimes, with cameras everywhere, white collar crime is rampant. They blow up the economy, and then the Republicans hobble the IRS so their tax returns are never investigated. That’s right, your job withholds your taxes. But the bigwigs?? Let the games begin!

And the quality of the prose in the texts… As if Bezos had been reading YA novels. Or maybe watching cartoons. This is the language the richest man in America employs?

And I don’t mean to be holier-than-thou, to moralize, but this guy has been canonized in the press, hell, even I’ve lauded him. Because we don’t really know him. He’s not some nitwit entertainer tweeting and Instagramming for attention, to further their so-called career, he’s got a team of publicists releasing just what he wants to, when he wants to. He’s sculpting his image.

And everybody buys it.

Hell, the “New York Times” admits that they bought Trump’s charade, never investigated his financial claims deeply, even though he lived in New York.

So on one hand you can laugh, how this guy blew up his life. You know how it works… After the dust settles, Lauren dumps him, or he discovers that she’s not what he believed her to be, after living with her for a while, and Mackenzie won’t take him back and all he’s got is his money, or half of it.

Then again, Hillary took Bill back and was excoriated in the press.

Then again, the press loves to beat up on females. And, ironically, women yell loudest about the behavior of other women. Hell, Lauren shared the texts with her friends, what is she in grade school? Even a middle schooler is aware of the pitfalls of this, that’s why they invented Snapchat, so messages would disappear, and then when it was commonly known that with a screen capture they didn’t, the social media outlet changed its business model. Furthermore, Sanchez has a teenager!

Speaking of which, Mackenzie is at home raising their four kids while Jeff is dilly-dallying out in the field, lying about it all the while. And if he lies to his wife, what are the odds he lies in his business…ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!

Life with Mackenzie is old. As it is with every long term relationship. You must invest, you must keep growing, or like in that old Woody Allen movie, you end up with a dead shark.

But the joke is on Jeff, not us. Everyone knows long term relationships pay dividends. That breakups oftentimes ruin not only your life, but those of the people surrounding you. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. You’re driven. You’re in love. As if you won’t wake up one day, when life has normalized and wonder…WHAT DID I DO?

P.S. The only good thing in this whole escapade is Bezos’s lawyer’s comment, that Jeff “supports journalistic efforts and does not intend to discourage reporting about him.” If only our President felt the same way.