It figures that with my luck the first time I get to give one of these speeches that I can't have a live audience to give it to. That said, this does give me the opportunity to go over the time limit you usually get at ceremonies and I'm going to take the opportunity given me to pontificate on a couple of things.
First of all, I'd like to thank the Radio Music Awards. It's been a crazy year and my crazy little song about a stalker in the age of COVID-19 who gets caught has it's fans. I've been an independent artist for most of my career, going back 3 decades and getting an acknowledgement of my efforts after all this time is lovely. I've been informed that the trophy is in the mail, so thank you. I'm looking forward to bragging about it for decades.
I'd like to thank Tony Guerro for dreaming up the album that this song was a part of, as well as all of the other great artists who contributed. I'd also like to give a special thanks to a long-time friend of mine, a music teacher named Jill DeWeese for spreading the word about the project in the first place, which is how I got involved.
I'd like to thank NursesHouse.org for all of their work during these horrific times, helping the Nurses who have given their all and sometimes paid with their lives in the cause of saving us all.
I'd like to thank the Guyzos in the band for letting me use the band name even though I played all the instruments and sang the vocals. I'd like to thank MARS for letting me use her studio for the vocals when the amplifier for my microphone gear glitched out.
I'd like to thank the old gang, the ASK INQ people for all their years of support, especially Kevin and Ed and my former partner in crime, Dave. He's got a family now and the statute of limitations has long expired.
I have to thank Billy Joel, of all people. If he hadn't written "Sleeping with the Television On" way back in the way back when I probably wouldn't have come up with this song. Until I came up with lyrics, I used to use the first line of it as a place holder in my song to get the timing right.
I'd like to thank my mom, who took me to my first rock concert, my first jazz concert. and my first classical concert. She helped expand my horizons and was always the voice of encouragement in my corner, from the very first day in 6th grade when I picked up a sax she couldn't afford to get me. Love ya mom!
I'd like to thank my brother Alex, for making me understand the strict work involved in the loosest of music, and for kicking my ass at the exact moment I needed it to start my solo career. Love ya bro!
I'd like to thank the rest of my extended family, Reeds, Storys, Rubins, Veales and more. Especially my Grandmother - a woman who taught me that fear is nothing to be stopped by, and my Grandfather - the first musician in the family who only gave me one piece of advice and it was the most important one I ever got: "Why are you in such a hurry to reach the end of the song?"
I'd even like to thank my long departed dad, who wasn't much in my life but made it one of his life's goals to be the barrier between me and the members of my family (and others) who wanted me to be a Doctor/Politician. He's also the person who made me appreciate that some music needs to be LOUD.
And of course I MUST thank my wife of all these years Catherine, and my daughters Diana and Isobel. I imagine it can't be easy living with a lunatic such as myself and yet they've always been my biggest supporters, fans and critics. I love you, my family. You make me better than I ever thought I could be.
And finally, to my fans who have stuck with me through the years and have been patiently (and impatiently) waiting for my next album, thank you for rallying to the new song. I promise to give you more - much more - very soon.I will put out a lot more music in 2021 than I did in 2020. I wish you nothing but love and happiness.
Whether or not we wish it were so, art doesn't exist in a vacuum. We've been through a horrible year with horrible leadership and that takes a toll on people. I think we as a nation are going to suffer a bit of PTSD while we try to make sense of it all. As for me I was already feeling negative about the country of my birth - you can even see it reflected in a song called "Priorities" from my 2008 album "11/11".
I admit I've had a difficult time putting a new album together. I gained and then lost a new publisher: Gained when my last big single was nominated for this same award, and lost when the power couple running the company fell into a nasty divorce. Have you ever been the PROPERTY in someone's divorce? Ugh.
I wrote and planned out a new album. I debuted a couple of new songs that I've never formally released at POPKOMM. Then an unexpectedly happy thing happened: Obama changed the rules, and gays were allowed to serve openly in the military. I fully support the decision, but it made what was to be the centerpiece of my album irrelevant - a song about a man discharged from the military under Don't Ask Don't Tell and one of the best and most cinematic pieces of music I've ever written.
For the country this was great - for me as an artist it was a setback. Understand that I don't write just songs; I write albums. I now had to re-think and re-do what the album was to be about. That took longer than I would like.
I've done it twice now. What should have been three albums will turn out to only be one.I re-wrote a song because my hand slipped and played a chord one fret off, and it sounded BETTER. I've cut songs, added songs, recorded and abandoned songs. I turned one song about an abusive partner into a song about suicide after a friend of a friend took his own life. I rediscovered my love for an old song by Sniff N' The Tears and wrote a song in tribute. A riff I've had in my head for 30 years finally became a song. I finally read "To Kill a Mockingbird" and a song came out of that. I wrote a song in 35.
!
I was in an accident in which I broke both arms and damaged a nerve in my leg, the effects I feel to this day. On different occasions I have broken both knees. I fell asleep while driving and lost my driver's license as a result (not because of alcohol, but a sleep disorder previously undiagnosed). I've barely left my home in months, and have had 4 people I know catch COVID-19. One of them died. Larry, thank you for being my friend. I wish I could have been there for you.
I marched in a Black Lives Matter protest, even with my bad knees. I didn't make it to the end I'm afraid. I have protested against this joke of an administration, loudly, and I got my driver's license back.
And I've lived with pain, both physical and mental. It has shaped me for the past several years, and I am still adjusting to that.
We are living through the worst health crisis in our lifetimes, with over 75 million neighbors who want those of us who don't want to get sick and/or die to suck it up and get sick with them. If hate were people I'd be China.
In the meantime I've been writing music, recording music, and discovering music. I've been publishing playlists every week on Spotify of new music under the banner of "Radio Free California". If you follow Chris Reed and the Anime Raiders you'll get new Playlists every week.
In the context of all of this, I've been working on that album.
"Omar", that song Obama made irrelevant, has survived the cut. The song about huckster preachers and played at POPKOMM did not.The Beach Boys inspired song did not. The instrumental I recorded with my daughter on bass did not. A couple of piano pieces I wrote long ago did not make the cut. The deranged surfer instrumental didn't either. I've played the first track for a few people and they all agree it's the most rock and roll thing I've ever written.
I never started recording the Colin Kaepernick song that my friend Kevin wrote lyrics for, the song about the Orlando massacre, or the Irish drinking song I was going to premiere before COVID-19 struck. Life is what happens while you're trying to make plans.
I have lived through the good and the terrible. We all have. It's the moments like this one that make the rest tolerable, so I am of course grateful, thankful, and humbled for being acknowledged with the Radio Music Awards 2020 Award for Best Alternative Song.
And of course I must leave you with my usual thoughts, emblazoned on each of my albums:
Fight the good fight
Practice safe sex
Never be afraid to sweat
And because I love you, here's the song that didn't win the same category 11 years ago:
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