You always read about people that end up being disappointed after
meeting a celebrity that they looked up to. I can honestly say that in
all of my encounters with "celebrities" since being in Nashville that
I've never had any that turned out bad.
One encounter that I'll
never forget is when I met Sebastian Bach from Skid Row at a music
store back in '99, but that's a story for another time. This entry is
for a more recent encounter.
Back in 1992 I happened to catch an episode of
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The musical guest for that episode was
a guy named Mitch Malloy. I had never heard of him before that night.
After watching him that night I was hooked. I went out the next day and
got his CD. It was catchy melodic rock and roll. I loved it!
I listened to that CD constantly. Even though he wasn't a Christian artist, there was something about that CD that
just connected with me on a very deep, somewhat spiritual, level. There
were many nights during my college years when I was dealing with
sadness or hurt that I would just go driving and listen to that CD. As
I said it really connected with me.
Mitch went on to put out
another CD a couple of years later but it was a bit of a change in
direction, less rock and more A/C. I liked it but not as much as the
first one. Then after that CD it seemed like he just disappeared. This
was back around 1996, way before being able to Google someone.
Fast
forward to a couple of weeks ago. I was at the office when I got an
e-mail for a friend request for a social network site I'm on (
http://www.myccm.org/bigbluebarry). The request came from someone name Mitch Malloy. I thought to myself "No way!!! Is this the same guy!?!?!?"
I
went to his profile page and sure enough, it was the same guy! One
reason that I was so surprised was because this site was a Christian
site. Turns out that Mitch had become a
Christian artist during the last year or so.
I
couldn't believe it. Here's an artist that I still listen to, some 15
years after the CD released, and now I have a chance to tell him how
much his CD impacted me. So we exchanged some emails over that next
week. Turns out he's also a UK basketball fan.
As I was reading
through his profile I saw something that mentioned him fronting a
legendary rock band, but it didn't mention the band. So I googled him
and found an interview with him from about 7 years ago. Turns out that
legendary band was none other than Van Halen!
Here's the short
version of the story. After Sammy Hagar left Van Halen, before they
went with Gary Cherone, Mitch was offered the spot in the band. It
didn't last long as he didn't have a peace about the situation so he
ended up declining the offer. But during his audition with them, they
recorded him singing over some of their songs.
In that interview
he mentioned that he still had those tapes. Since we were emailing each
other I figured I'd ask him if he still had them. Turns out he does. He
invited me over to his studio to check them out. So a couple of days
ago, I did just that.
He couldn't have been a nicer guy. He
played me the Van Halen tapes. They did "Panama", "Why Can't This
Love", "Ain't Talking 'Bout Love", and "Don't Tell Me" as well as an
unreleased song. After I found out about this, I thought that Mitch
would have been a better fit than Gary Cherone for VH. And after
hearing the tapes, I can tell you for certain, he would have been a
better fit.
It was really neat to get to hear the stories of
that part of his life. The conversation then turned to his new album
and recording. His studio is incredible, very top-notch. He played me
some of his new album and it sounds incredible. He even offered to help
me out with any questions that I might have as I start getting further
involved with production and recording.
It was just a really
neat experience for me. He was the real deal and just a really nice
guy. Take a moment to visit his profile page at
http://www.myccm.org/mitchmalloy and check out his music.
