Thursday, September 20, 2007

Boycott Lee Greenwood

Here's a story that totally ticked me off:

DENVER (AP) — Country music singer Lee Greenwood, best known for his patriotic
anthem "God Bless the USA," refused to take the stage for a concert honoring
veterans, police and firefighters in a dispute over his payment.
Greenwood canceled as headliner for a concert Saturday that followed the "Colorado State
Parade of Honor" in downtown Denver after the organizer couldn’t come up with
$20,000 cash or cashier’s check required by the contract, his manager said.
Jerry Bentley, Greenwood’s Nashville, Tenn.-based manager, said Greenwood canceled his appearance after the concert organizer paid $10,000 in advance but offered only $2,000 in cash and a $2,000 personal check on the day of the show.
Frank Young, who organized the parade and concert, said he had wired $14,000 of Greenwood’s fee in advance and had $4,000 in cash to give the musician’s road manager the day of the show.
Young said he wanted to pay the remaining $2,000 with a check from the Knights of Columbus, one of four groups that agreed to pay for blocks of tickets to help finance the show.

I thought the whole country music thing was all about 'America' ... NASCAR and cowboys and rough-and-tumble stuff ... but maybe Greenwood is just a typical poser who's in it for the money. It's especially funny that he's "best known for his patriotic anthem "God Bless the USA," seeing as he needed $20,000 to do something nice for the people that fought so he could make a living singing songs.

And, even if "business is business," he got at least $10,000 up front. ... Even if he was owed another $10,000, couldn't he have just played the damn show?

I say if you're a fan of this guy, stop buying his stuff. Send him an e-mail telling him he's a selfish, money-hungry jerk. Here is his Web site, and here is a link to e-mail his general manager. Seriously, go ahead. I did, it was kind of fun. Look at the discography on his Web site, he has album after album of "patriotic" songs, which I guess he recorded purely to make a buck.

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