This is about a really GREAT Artist.  I can't actually convey just how great in this small space, but to me its not just that he has one of the greatest voices ever in pop music, but the fact that he's just a normal guy.  He's a genuine nice person who loves people, performing and being a part of the music world.  He's ALL of that for certain.  You know him the minute you hear him on the Radio or CD or TV. 

This is also a true story! 

The year escapes me now for what ever reason, I guess I'm just getting older and my cells are all in my car phone now but, it was either late 80's or early 90's and those of you who have better memories than I will know a little later in the story just what year it was, but the time was a little different back then than it is now in the music industry in more ways than one.  

This story involves just about every major record label, but only one artist.  Unusual in that the competitive nature of the music business usually doesn't find the promotion community involved in working each others records harder than their own.  If your not familiar with what a promotion person is, he's the unseen entity involved in every record you ever heard on the radio.  Its his / her job to find a way to get the Radio Stations you listen to, to play their records.  Its their job to constantly find a way to get some program director ( some with an ego bigger than their office ) to do something they don't want to do .... play a new, unproven record.  That is, one that hasn't been played on the radio in another market and proven itself to be a hit.  In all fairness to the PDs tho, they've got, in any given major market, some 20 to 30 promotion people trying to do the same thing every week, and there's just no way to play all the records released by all the companies.  There just isn't enough time in the day for it.  Let alone with the radio clock and all the spots they have to run to pay the bills.  So the promotion people are very competitive in this way because its how you are judged by your bosses .. ie:  How well you do on a regular basis in this competitive marketplace in getting your deserved shots with your records on the major reporting stations.  Stations who the national tip sheets and trade magazines look to for what's hot and what's not in the music business. 

Got all that now?  Ok, good.  Here's the picture.  This artist, who lived and worked in the Atlanta area  with one of the biggest publishing houses in the business, has a history of making hit records.  Great Records.  Records you all know, danced to and loved from back in the 60's and on up through the 80's.  This particular artist was now facing this dilemma along with many of the artists in his class. 

Radio had changed, and his music just didn't quite fit what was hot any more.  At least on pop radio.  His voice was undeniably one of the best out there and still is.  His talent hadn't changed.  His songs were still strong as ever, but Radio had changed and now he's facing a decision which he and all other artists must face if they are to continue to record. 

So, he went in to the studio at Southern Tracks and began to create a new album.  One particular song found its way to the promotion community before it was actually released to radio, and made its way to me in my studio where I've been working on Travis Tritts Career for a couple of years.  I got really excited when I heard it and started calling my buds and asking them if they had heard it yet.  This artist had made a lot of friends throughout his career as had our local record label Southern Tracks and publishing company Lowery Music behind him.  The combo had been a strong team and always helped others when they could.  Therefore, when they released the song on Southern Tracks, a morning man named Cleveland Wheeler in Florida at Q-105 jumped on it early and began to testify about the reaction to it.  Butch Lowery President of Southern Tracks started getting calls wanting to know "Where's the album",  "Where can I buy the album"?  However, there was no album yet.  This record was hot all the sudden, and they needed to move quickly to record and release one.

Shortly after that, they made a deal and he signed a contract with Atlantic Records, one of the biggest and most respected labels in the record business period.  He then went into the studio and cut some additional songs for the new album. 

Does he go country?  Does he stay in the pop field and give it another shot?  Neither, he does something different.  He just does what comes natural and makes a great record without calling it one or the other.  He just does what he has always done and makes not just a good record, but a GREAT record. 

I contacted my counterparts in the business and we decided to call this artist and offer our help in breaking this record.  The list of people wanting to be a part of the effort to help this artist was pretty impressive. Butch Lowery from The Lowery Group, Geno Rumple with Capital, Butch Waugh with RCA, Larry King with Atlantic, myself with Warner Brothers and others met at my studio with him and made plans to tell the story to radio and set up the release for the record on such and such date.  We then decided to create some skits in the studio, record them and send them out to some of the trend setters in radio to get their attention to the fact the record was coming their way and to get ready.  How could they refuse to listen when the whole major label force of promotion people were joining forces to MAKE them pay attention ?!?!  They reacted.  They reacted in a major way in fact. 

When all our efforts finally hit the streets, we had all but insured it would get a great shot on the air and have the best chance possible to become a hit.  This happens when YOU the listener react, request and buy it.  Then the story moves from one market to another and builds into a major hit record when all the stars line up just right, the product is laid out properly, and the artist is out working with tours, interviews, instore appearances etc etc. 

Such was the case with this record.  In fact, the record was on its way to becoming possibly one of the biggest hit records this artist has ever had when without notice, and in a way no one could have ever dreamed of   ......  it was all over.  The NASA shuttle exploded.  Right on national TV.  In a crystal clear blue sky and in a moment of international tragedy, it was all over ... the lives of the heros on the shuttle, along with the promising future of this record and the hopes of this artist to have this be a re birth of hes
historic career in the pop music field. 

After the tragedy, no one would play the record anymore, it just didn't seem right.  It just fell apart. 

Why you ask?  How could that tragedy kill a hit record?  Stop it in its tracks as though it blew the record up with it ???

"Burned like a Rocket" was the record ..... Billy Joe Royal was the artist, and now you know the Rocket story, but that's not the end of Billy Joe Royal.

Stay tuned for some VERY EXCITING NEWS about Billy Joes concert date at the Copperhill Opry.

The Canteen was fun city and we're coming back to relive the good times again!  Complete with our all time favorite radio personality as host!  Tommy Jett from Jet Fly WFLI will be our host for the
"Golden Oldies Concert Series" and how fitting is it that Billy Joe Royal will open the series ...
Gotta love it!

Danny