Chapter 23
Scott - Musician/Songwriter I was a little shocked
at the cold, detached, matter-of-fact tone that accompanied references to me in
this part of the book. If you didn't know any better, you might assume that I
was picked up hitchhiking on the way to record Show No Mercy and they just asked
me to sit in on a few tracks. In fact, my friendship with Dale pre-dates both
Bride and Matrix. I first met Dale in the early 80's when he was playing bass
and singing in Warrior. Back then I was a photographer who owned a good
professional camera and liked hanging out with local Christian groups and taking
photos for them. I continued that relationship with Matrix. In fact, many of the
Matrix photos that you see, were most likely shot by me. I'll never forget the
day Dale called me and asked me to be in Bride. He was quite upset over his
guitarist and longtime friend Billy Sutherland's attitude regarding the
impending Pure Metal contract. As I remember it, I was told that Billy was
skeptical that the contract would ever show up and that he was behaving more
like a rockstar guitarist than a part of the team. Knowing that I played bass,
Dale called and asked me to join Bride and play on the record and he asked for
the phone number of my friend and extremely talented guitarist, Steve Osborne.
Matrix would go from three piece to five piece and from Matrix to the newly
signed Bride, all in one felt swoop. "Time of your life, huh kid?" My
recollection of the SNM sessions is that I played on ALL of the songs. Yes, Troy
did indeed overdub MANY of the tracks. NOT because I messed up anything, but
because they wanted the bass tracks to sound like Yngwie Malmsteen played the
bass on the record. Well, Yngwie wasn't available so they let me have the gig.
I'm a much better player today, but I was certainly no Yngwie back then. It's
been a long time since I listened to SNM but as I remember it, two of the tracks
are nothing but me on the bass, two of the tracks are nothing but Troy on the
bass and the rest of the songs are a mixture of the two of us handling the bass
work. Usually, me doing the basic line and Troy overdubbing "intricate fills". I
was Bride's first bass player and also the first of many member changes over the
years. Although, I was one of the few to leave of my own volition. I had only
been married a few months when we discovered that my wife and I were to be
blessed with child. About this same time it became clear to all of us that we
were going to be ripped off by Pure Metal Records. We were already working on
the songs for the Live To Die record. In the best interest of my family and the
band, I bowed out and Frank stepped in. Frank displayed a lot of class by making
it a point to come up to me the first time we met and making sure that I was
cool with the change. Most musicians wouldn't give a rat's "you know what" about
what a former bandmember thinks. Frank is one of those rare people in Christian
music who treats people the way he would like to be treated. What a concept. I
spent the next several years out of Bride and educating myself about how the
music business works and trying to figure out how and why we got ripped off.
Scott - Manager/Booking Agent/Publicist Once again, the overall tone of the
references to me here is the primary item I take issue with. The way it's
written it sounds like I was just some hapless schmuck who really didn't know
what I was doing and I just managed the band in my spare time and out of the
goodness of my heart. The facts are: I did know what I was doing, I was
fortunate to have a day job and an understanding family that allowed me the
freedom to put more than just my spare time into the band and I was doing it
because I believed in the band at a time when virtually no one else did. My
recollections are, when Star Song bought the Pure Metal catalog and took an
interest in Bride, Dale and Troy wisely thought it was time to have professional
representation when dealing with a major Christian record label like Star Song.
Dale had seen some promo materials that I had put together for a local band and
asked me if I'd be interested in managing Bride. I said yes. For the three years
leading up to this time I had successfully managed the entire distribution
operation for the Louisville, Kentucky franchise of the Clearwater, Florida
based Auto Trader Magazine. In three years I singlehandedly TRIPLED the size of
the distribution network while simultaneously managing the logistics of the
entire distribution operation. This included among other things the supervision
of 20 contract labor drivers covering 60 counties in two states, a sweeping
promotional campaign with local radio and television, marketing & sales
presentations and contract negotiations with corporate clients. All of that was
accomplished while facing a competitor with a proven 18 year track record. As it
turns out that's a pretty good training base for managing a rock band. Shortly
before Dale asked me to manage the band, I was headhunted back into the photo
business by a former employer. They wanted me to come in and turn around a
mismanaged, floundering photo lab. That's something I could and ultimately would
do, in my sleep. This would allow me the freedom to do what I was about to do
for Bride. Many people mistakenly try to credit me with Bride's success while at
Star Song. I am quick to point out that I was just a part of the team. For the
record, none of it would have happened were it not for Dez Dickerson and Mike
Keil initially. But more importantly, I didn't write those great songs. I didn't
make all of those long agonizing road trips crammed in a minivan. I didn't work
for weeks in the studio making a record with...aahhh...uuhhmmm.... producers. I
didn't spend nearly every weekend away from my family. I certainly had nothing
to do with that magic chemistry between those four guys: Dale, Troy, Jerry and
Rik. Nobody could touch them on the live concert stage and most refused to even
try. The power that was captured on those records was more explosive and cutting
edge than Christian music had ever seen at that time. But, I did do my part and
I did it well. I will always be proud of that. Yes, I took no fee or percentage
for managing Bride. They always reimbursed me for my out of pocket expense very
promptly, though. I did spend a lot of time handling management and publicity
issues primarily with the record label. However, I also handled things like
Rik's Peavey Endorsement, our Worldvision Artist Affiliate Endorsement and the
great GMA "SchmoozeFest" schedule of events each year. Once things really took
off, most of my time was devoted to concert bookings. It was then that they did
permit me to take 15% of any guaranteed honorarium that I booked. That's a very
unusal arrangement for the music business but that's how it was. Most managers
take 10% to 15% of every dollar that the band generates. That would include
advances, royalties, merchandise and concert bookings. A booking agent would
take another 15% of any concert bookings, 20% if they handled publicity for the
event. I can't imagine any legitimate concert promoter who would say that I
wasn't returning concert booking phone calls. I had an excellent relationship
with all of our repeat promoters and festivals. Certainly the record company had
no problem getting a hold of me. They had my home phone, office phone, work
phone and cell phone numbers and routinely called me on all of them. My phone
numbers and mailing address were on every Bride CD and cassette on Star Song,
business card and publicity photo ever produced. I continued to recieve phone
calls for Bride for YEARS after I had ceased managing and booking them. As I
just stated, that's the only source of revenue that my company, Axiom Music
Group, Inc. had. Why would I not return phone calls and thereby cut my cash
flow? It makes no sense. I will say this. There is a scourge in Christian music
of sometimes well-intentioned but nontheless inexperienced teenaged and immature
young adult fans who like to think of themselves as concert promoters. This was
a constant battle to try and determine who was legit and who was not. Yes, this
was before the days of e-mail and our phone bill was rountinely $300+ each
month. I strongly believed that I had a fiduciary responsibility to the band not
to waste their expense money on these fraudulant "wanna-be" promoters and to try
not to send the band out to horribly promoted shows. We got tricked into enough
of them as it was. There were plenty of those to go around and still are, I'm
sure. If those are the people who complained about me not returning phone calls,
good. I'd do it again. To this day, I've never understood why Dale got so wigged
out over that disaster of a show in Arizona. What he refers to as irrational I
considered a step of faith, at the time. The promoter had a positive reference
from the Newsboys organization, but he was having trouble coming up with the
airfare. I really wanted the band on the West Coast. We had done virtually
nothing out West and I thought that's where the other 50,000 units in record
sales that we were looking for was to be found. Add to that the cancellation of
a much anticipated club tour throughout the southwest put together by one of the
Stryper Tour promoters and to be honest, my zeal got the best of me. I ate the
airfare and the band had to deal with a couple of lousy shows and an idiot
promoter. I never dreamed that would negate all of the positive things we'd
accomplished over the years, but I was wrong. Sometimes the Manager has to be
the bad guy. That's understood by most artists and that's how they want it. My
job was to get the best deal for the artist that I represent, not to make
friends. Many people in the Christian music business want to have it both ways.
When a record label is negotiating for the best deal for themselves, it's
cutthroat all the way. They won't give an inch. Well, as far as I'm concerned,
that's o.k.. That's just business. But if you as an artist try to do the same,
why that's positively non-christian in their eyes. How dare you not sign that
piece of crap they just put in front of you. Star Song tried to get us to
re-sign with them even before they had exercised the last option of our current
deal at the time. This opened the door to negotiate with other labels. Dale and
Troy gave me the o.k. to do so and I did. When Jeff Moseley found out, he hit
the roof and Dale and Troy didn't back me up. I thought they had my back, but
instead they caved in to Jeff for fear of having no record deal. This was the
beginning of the end for me. My attitude was, you have to strike when the iron
is hot and nobody was hotter than Bride back then. All of the labels wanted us.
Oh sure, they head for the hills when the great Jeff Moseley huffs and puffs,
but I believe eventually we could've gotten a better deal. If not from Star Song
then from another label. Had we held strong and toughed it out in the end I
believe we would have most likely been offered a better deal and all of the
labels would have more respect for us as business people. You can't negotiate
from a point of weakness and when the label knows you'll sign whatever they put
in front of you if they yell loud enough...they've got your number. I think Dale
and Troy did not see eye to eye with me on this issue and the Arizona fiasco was
just a good excuse to make a change. The last thing I wanted to bring out was
that near the end of our relationship I was talking to Dale and Troy about me
stepping aside as Manager. I had come to realize that those other 50,000 units
weren't on the West Coast. They weren't anywhere. If you're on the covers of all
of the magazines, all of your singles go to number one, you win all of the
Dove's you're nominated for and you play your butt off and you still don't sell
more than 50,000 units, you never will. At least not in the CBA market. I
realized that I had done all I could for Bride. They needed mainstream
representation. They needed people with contacts outside of the Christian market
to shop a non-Christian deal, to get them the international exposure that they
needed. They needed an opening slot on a major secular tour. I could not do
these things. We talked about me becoming just a business manager for the band
or just handling the Christian concert bookings. We had someone interested in
managing the band, fronting the money to demo the songs to be shopped, shopping
the demo and if nothing panned out, a new Christian record deal with Word
distribution to fall back on. Apparently Dale and Troy had another plan in mind.
The main point I want to make very clear is that through all of this, I had no
agenda other than doing what was best for Bride. I managed no other artists,
although I was asked to. I handled concert bookings for no one else, although I
was asked to. Bride was my focus. Bride was my passion. It was not always easy
and it was not always fun, but rarely did it ever seem like work. Regarding
Bride there are many things I am proud of, a few things I'd change and only one
regret. I've always been a little sad that mine and Dale's friendship did not
survive. As I stated earlier, that friendship pre-dated both Bride and Matrix.
Some of my favorite and lasting memories of Dale are the times when there were
no fans around, no record people, no promoters, nobody to schmooze and no talk
of business. Just two guys hanging out and talking about the kind of things that
two guys who've been friends for a long time talk about. Whoever said, "It's
only rock and roll."...was full of crap.
Scott T. Hall
zombieonaleash@hotmail.com