Q – I was just wondering…I have wondered about something every since I met you. I have always been a fan of yours since you were with the commotions. You don’t know how hard that is since I am black and many of my friends listen to everything but what you are producing. But I really never cared about what they had to say. Anyway, to the point. I recently took in a show you performed when you were in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It wasn’t surprising to me that I was the only black guy there, I am use to that. What I was surprised about was that when I went to stand in line to get a picture with you your whole demeanor changed from the others that proceeded me in line. You became more closed off and your body language spoke of defense more than anything else. Now, i know that I am no one special in the scheme of your life, but it got me thinking about whether you have had negative experiences with black people or any if at all that have been fans of your music. Please don’t construe this as an attack or believe that I am implying racism, I just have never had a reaction like that before. I was just wondering. Keep writing the great music that you do and sharing your insights through your lyrics. Peace and Love, Sincerely. H
A – Interesting that you would see that. And it shows that one person looking at something from one perspective never sees the same thing as another person, looking at the same thing from a different perspective.
It’s true that aside from in towns like London, there are very few black people at my shows. When I do see or meet one, I’m always pleased, if only to reassure myself that there isn’t something in my music which auto alienates a whole ethnic group. It also make a change. So, unless you were dressed in someway or behaving in some way that would scare me scare me, I can’t imagine that I did anything at all to lead you to the conclusion that you have come to. I’m sorry you’ve been dwelling on this for a while – you should have asked me there.
If this was the most recent show that I played in Ann Arbor, at The Ark, I do remember that the signing took place at the CD sales counter which was manned by a lovely chap, but his eyesight was so poor, he was maybe legally blind, that the line was moving very slowly. This added to the fact that the soundcheck and load in at the Ark were chaotic, to say the least – we were on time, and were waiting in the cold, in the back alley for about an hour until their technician arrived. There were more problems throughout the day. So I may just have been in a rotten mood and just wanted to get out of there…