An overly-eager artist being welcomed into the industry is taken on a bumpy ride as she learns life does not have as many sunny days as she thought. Within the process, she comes to learn that her tour guide is a lot more important to her than she e...
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December 21, 1983 Chicago, Illinois
I stood in the mirror of my dressing room. My record label decided to take one of my demo records and mixed it all up. The entire process was as smooth as can be. One day I looked up and everything was all together. Pow! We had my first single! Although, before I even got to release it, they were putting me through a trial that included my first live television interview with Helen Rogers on The Helen Show. I spent weeks in media training just practicing how to answer questions with a publicist they provided me. This was my first official big test after jumping from radio station to radio station. Helen Rogers was one the most popular hosts out there but the way she got popular was something I could never respect. She was unnecessarily mean. She was no Mickey Stone but she was quite passive aggressive.
I put on my tinted black sunglasses as I paced through the room. "Stay calm, keep good posture, speak clearly..." Uncle Dorian spoke positive life into me to prepare me. I nodded, continuing to pace around the open space. "Think before you speak! Don't say something unless you're positive it's true because that's how rumors start." I nodded and once again fixed my hat. My hair was growing by the second and I hated it.
A stage manager said, after sticking his head in, "You're on in 30." His words were short before he was spotted popping back out.
"That's minutes, right?"
"No. Seconds, silly." My uncle chuckled at me. I looked in the mirror once more, taking a deep breath. Then, he pushed me out the door.
I heard Helen announce me as the crew shouted that her announcement was my cue. Things start moving faster than I thought they would. My world began spinning as the backstage crew took it upon themselves to push me toward the glowing arrows guiding my path to the stage. This was the moment my life changed forever. I was on television for the first time ever. Thousands of people were all seeing my face at once for the first time since college graduation.
"Hello, hello, hellooooo! Welcome Little Miss Lyric! She is the newest thing signed to Atlantic Records!" Helen yelled as the crowd cheered. Boy, was I lucky I'd built a city-wide buzz prior because I knew the crowd would be dead crickets. I still had a lot of worked to do but It wasn't as nerve wrecking as I thought it would be because I kind of had a base.
I giggled out of nervousness as I waved. "Hi, it's nice to meet you." I looked around at the crowd fighting a gulp at all the people staring at me. I felt a billion pupils staring me down as if they were all just waiting for me to drop dead.
We were about five minutes into the interview and Helen was definitely grilling me but it was going quite well, I'd say. I was handling myself so well but that dickweed was just starving for gossip. I had nothing to offer. I was as green as an earring bought in an alley but she kept digging. I still don't know why people thought I was living some kind of crazy life where I'm skiing down a coke mountain every Tuesday night and partying at Studio 54 every Friday. One thing a lot of people clearly failed to realize about the industry is the fact that new talent got way more popular than we were financially stable when first starting out. I just stopped busting tables as a waitress a little over a year ago.
