do your research!

Those who are performers in some way will understand when I say to people who interview artists:

DO YOUR RESEARCH!!

Did two interviews last night to promote my new album ACT NATURAL. Let me start off by saying the second interview with Jeff Rickett on CBJ Radio was AMAZING! He really does his homework, asks great questions, even threw curve balls at me such as "How's Linus?" (my cat!) and "How's Pinkie?" (my 22-year-old Ibanez 7-string!) Of course he asks about particular songs on the cd, and I had stories for everything. He even asked about Mike and Brian, as well as Joe Lambert Mastering! Now THAT'S how you conduct a Q&A!

The first interview was...err...umm...shall we say amateurish? I was asked "So did you play all the instruments on your album?", I wanted to say "Did you see the posts about the drummer and bassist from Attacker are on it?" But I stayed cool and answered with "Well, no...here's who played on it" and moved on. The guy even said "I can't remember the single, something about lightning." Really? 

BTW: that song is called "Walk Through Lightning".

Moral of the story: If your interview is going south because someone didn't do their research, be ready to ad-lib and do damage control. It's not fun but you come out shining like the top of Vin Diesel's head. When someone is more prepared, it can make things run smoothly for all involved.

More interviews are being scheduled, so I will post as things unfold.

And I know things will be better!