Hey, Do You Know . . .

Well, while they say it's not what you know, it's who(m) you know, that maxim for moving up in the world should apply only to editors, agents and publishers. The people on this page are superb human beings, and most of them have helped me with the biography project. I'm very fortunate to have met them.

Percy Sledge was gracious enough to speak with me after he performed at the Iowa State Fair in August, 2007. Given the heat that day, I would not have blamed him for refusing an interview right after the show, but he told me what I wanted to know and gave me contact info so he could follow up with more anecdotes. This is one amazing human being. How good does he look in that impeccable suit after a show in sweltering heat? You should look for his new CD at his website.

Bobby Vee gave me a chunk of time before his show in St. Joseph, Minnesota on July 3, 2007. He was gracious, witty and very generous with his recollections of how the music business worked in the early 1960s. As tends to be the case with the people who come by their fame naturally, Bobby is another gem of a human being. Check out his website and go see him in Branson.

A completely random meeting, not related to the biography project, took place when I bumped into Irene Bedard at a Native American pow-wow near Red Wing, Minnesota. Irene was both the voice of Pocahontas and the model for the animated character in the Disney film. It was yet another hot day in July, 2007, but she was incredibly kind and patient. She had copies of her CD, Warrior of Love, available, and I bought one--it's excellent. You can buy her tunes at her website. As for my seeming endorsement of green sno-cones, I was a bit too stunned at being next to her to remember to lower my right hand.

Golly, the space above should contain a photo of "Weird Al" Yankovic, who put on a spectacular show at the Minnesota State Fair in August, 2007, but whose people didn't let me talk to him for five minutes about the biography project. I don't know if it was Al himself or over-protective "people" who blew me off, but I really want to include his comments on a particular parody song from the 1960s in the biography. If he doesn't come around by the time I send the book off to the editors, it's his loss.

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