I think this was my third visit to Hollywood and I enjoy it more each time. On the flight out to LAX, my boss Laurie and I ended up sitting near Brenton Brown who wrote the song "Everlasting God." I just love the song—it says a lot and is upbeat—it has appeared in many of the worship sets I have led. After the long flight, I got my rental car and hit the roads in L.A. for the first time. What did people do before GPS? That thing is amazing—I get lost everywhere without it. Anyway, I got to my friend Samuel's house at around 11pm (which is 1am in Nashville). Samuel and I worked together in college at Anderson University so have been friends for awhile. At Anderson, we worked events and booking for the school's auditorium, which is basically how I got into the music industry. So I always enjoy catching up with Samuel when I'm in L.A. He is a great video guy—he worked on Dancing with the Stars for four seasons. He has the drive to get far and he enjoys what he does. Around 3:30am the adrenaline from traveling finally wore off and I went to sleep.
Saturday was a blast. We went to a great cafe and had crepes for breakfast—I was able to eat outside in my short sleeve shirt which is not something you can do in Nashville in February. Then we went to a park for some frisbee action followed by some sightseeing including the Hollywood sign. Later I headed over to the convention center to pick up my tickets for the Grammy awards. I saw a few friends while in line—the guys from Luna Halo and Ryan Young (brother of Ace Young from American Idol Season 5). It was fun to catch up a bit. After that, back to Samuel's house where his girlfriend made us amazing smoothies from Dr. Oz ... I think I'll have to make one sometime. Finally around 4pm it was time to head over to the concert. I should have gone earlier to catch some rides ... next time ... but I did have dinner with Laurie (my boss) and her niece Sarah at Citywalk.
Backstage, there is kind of a calm-before-the-storm feeling. Everyone is getting food, the stage is set, the doors are about to open. True Artist has two acts on this tour, Matthew West and tobyMac. I hung out in Matthew's dressing room and he showed me the music video we shot recently. I always try to get in the video somehow—I can be spotted for a second in the "Boomin'" video and in Matthew's new one as well. (By the way, if you aren't familiar with Matthew you should be—he is an amazingly talented songwriter. His new CD Something to Say is full of great songs, and chances are he has penned a song by another artist you like.) Next I went by the production office to say hello to those guys, then on to tobyMac's dressing room. It's a very colorful room as you can tell from the photos.
We all gathered in there for a pre-show talk—about God, different types of people and ministry in general. Being onstage, either as a singer or on the stage of life itself, you get so many people giving their opinion on how things should run in your life ... so we just talked about how we need to be where God wants us to be, and how we need each other to pray with and grow on this journey. I love the pre-show discussions, how they lead to a time of surrender and prayer, as we lay all that we have before God ... and how it's about Him before anyone walks on the stage.
So then we go to a huge meet and greet—people really only get a second to talk to the artists. I see some old friends there so it's fun to catch up with them. Pretty soon, it's time for the show. AT&T is sponsoring this tour, so they make an announcement about some giveways for the texting fans. Then, a video intros Matthew West. He was amazing, SO funny—if you see it you'll know what I'm talking about. He crams a lot of his hits into the set and ends with a worshipful moment with "More" and everyone sings along. So definitely learn the tunes before you hit the show ...
The tobyMac set is next—I hope you get to catch the show sometime. It starts with "Ignition" (hope I didn't spoil that for anyone)—I could seriously watch the performance of that song over and over again. The set is rockin' for sure ... what I love most about working in the tobyMac camp is that everyone truly enjoys the show. No matter how many times we see it ... everyone from Ryan the tour manager to Tony from booking to me ... we get groovin' when the tunes are played from stage. Not to mention that tobyMac is just a blast to see live.
I think everyone will be able to experience it, even if you can't make it to a show, when the live DVD comes out. Anyway, at the end of the set, the group flows into "Made to Love" then "Burn for You" - it's so powerful, like if it goes on any more, I would think Jesus is returning ... it's just such a powerful moment and for awhile the "work" side of this fades away and I'm just someone lost in the moment and the music, knowing that I am a child of God who is made to love Him and all I want to do is burn for Him in all I do. As the band leaves the stage, I realize I am exhausted ... on my way out I say 'hey' to my roommate Adam who is doing merch for Jeremy Camp. I'm gonna miss Jeremy's set but I am beat and I need to rest up for the big day ...
It's the morning of 'Grammy day' ... as I'm getting ready I remember watching the Grammy Awards as a kid. The show always went late so I never got to watch until the end but I always enjoyed it. Looking in the mirror in my suit I just thought "are you seriously going to the Grammys?" One of those is-this-really happening moments ... and I'm like "yes!" On the way there, we stopped to pick up Toby and his wife Amanda. Driving through the traffic, Toby scribbled names on an envelope I gave him, to make sure he didn't forget anyone in case he had to give an acceptance speech. Most of the awards are handed out during the pre-show so they aren't on TV.
We arrived around 2pm and our categories were announced around 3. It's a little awkward because the artist has to prepare to win or lose and you never know what's going to happen with the Grammys because all different genres of "Gospel" music are crammed together in one category. And who knows how many voters actually listen to the nominated music. So, neither Toby or Mandisa (super good album and powerful singer) won but it was still cool they were nominated. Of course we do this for God and not the awards so neither winning nor losing are really important. Outside, we ran into the folks from Casting Crowns, Paul Meany from Mute Math, and songwriters Aaron Rice and Jamie Moore (you'll see their names in the liner notes of tobyMac CDs).
We also saw some of our guys—Ryan, Ben and Maj—who were waiting in line for their pit passes. Maj knows somebody who got them up front and in the pit for the televised part of the show ... pretty cool. Then, Toby and Amanda got in a cab to go meet with friends, and I was hoping I'd get their tickets on the floor if they didn't come back, haha. For dinner, Dan (my other boss) and I went to a cafe on a corner near the Staples Center which ended up serving GREAT food.
!http://www.trueartist.org/tobyms/photoblog/taxismiling.jpg! !http://www.trueartist.org/tobyms/photoblog/outsidegrammies.jpg!
We got back to the Staples Center for the big show and in our seats about 10 minutes before 5pm when it started. I loved it!! I thought it was a great show even though I expected a little more since it was the 50th anniversary. Oh well - really no complaints here! Towards the end, we decided to move to the floor and sat in front of the teleprompter. They don't allow photos but I tried to snap some. I enjoyed a lot of the performances, especially the legends who probably won't be performing much longer.
I had heard Michael Jackson was going to be there, which would have made me SO happy, but he was a no-show (I wasn't too surprised). After the show, we ran into some people we knew, chatted with them, and then we were off to Grammy party #1. Dan said sometimes the music is good so lots of people go to this party, plus you get free food and drinks. I was happy we ended up getting to see Natasha Beddingfield—she's a good singer. We got gift bags too—hair product but hey I'll take it!
Grammy party #2 was the EMI party - parent company of Forefront Records. Some artists were there—Robert Randolph, Corrie Bailey Rae, George Martin, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and Yoko Ono. It was cool but it was getting to be time for bed.
On Monday, before leaving L.A., Dan and I met up with Michael Tait at the home of producer Ben Moody. Ben wrote a lot of hits for Kelly Clarkson and a lot of other artists. He has a cool house and he showed us some stuff from the Star Wars movies (the newer ones). Michael has been working with Ben on a new record, so all you Tait fans out there just hold tight ... more to come from our friend.
And at last it's back to the airport and a long flight back to Nashville ... home sweet home!
Until next time,
Philip