I know what's going to eventually going to get me fired from the radio station.  It will be doing something I think I'm doing to protect our listeners.  You see, I am eternally grateful for the career I've had and I know who butters my bread; it's not the artists or the radio station, it's the listeners.  If listeners aren't loyal, they don't need me.  Anyways, when a situation arises and it looks like my listeners are getting the sh!t end of the stick, I ALWAYS step up.  This was the case backstage this Saturday at Godsmack.  More after the jump.

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After a perfect day of "meet and greets" with Korn and Chevelle (including a surprise appearance by Halestorm who weren't playing until the next day) on Friday, things went south on Saturday.

I had a run in backstage at Godsmack and I thought we had all settled it amicably, but evidently not.  Here's the story:  We have our VIP area for shows, had it for 15 years or more. A half hour after we were originally told to be in place,  the promoter (Lane) told me to get my winners and put them in the Voodoo Lounge. When I got there, I found that Godsmacks squad was squatting in my place. They asked me to leave and I told them I was told to be there.  They gave me a smug "well, we're using it now" answer so I told them they were in my house and I wasn't about to leave just because they visited town for one day. I told them I will quietly keep my listeners away from their paid VIPS until it's our turn.  I thought this was a bit of a compromise because I didn't feel like out listeners needed to be treated any different than the paid VIPS.  This wasn't good enough for them and they bitched at everyone until I decided to move our group a little further away from their stuff.  At that time I made peace with the local production manager and even a big security guy named T.C. (who was actually the coolest of the Godsmack crew).  The Godsmack crew then didn't even use the Voodoo Lounge except as part of a big circle that they ran people through twice (somewhere in their mind it's easier to run people through once for autographs and a second time for pictures). So after bitching and bitching (they kept telling us to stay back and stay against the wall, they didn't even really use the space.  Then, after watching their paid V.I.P.s being treated like cattle, our group was allowed to meet and greet the bands  (now the bands themselves were cool).

I may have been abrupt when speaking to these people but I did not raise my voice (about 20 people can attest to this). I simply stated that my listeners were not going to be pushed around or treated like second class citizens. The listeners themselves were pretty much fine with everything, they were just excited to be a part of the whole experience, but that doesn't matter to me...I know when we're not being treated properly.

So what did I get for "going to the wall" for my listeners (and Godsmacks fans)?  Some guy from the Godsmack crew called to try and narc me out saying I was disrespecting his staff and wanted my boss to chew me out over it.  Fortunately this isn't my bosses first rodeo (and he actually used to ride rodeo which is another story) and my boss put this guy on the spot and asked him why he didn't deal with the situation on Saturday instead of calling on Tuesday?  This, was my bosses way of calling this guy a p@ssy.  And if it wasn't enough that my boss had already figured out that this guy was a jerk, lo & behold, not ten minutes after, I got an email from one of GODSMACKS VIPS saying they were treated like sh*t. So, the long and short of it is; they f'd me over, they f'd their fans over, so who's left?

So like I said, even though my boss understands where I'm coming from, one of these days I'm going to knock the sh!t out of one of these glorified carnies and I guess the chips will fall wherever they may.  When that day comes, I'll move onto something a little less confrontational, but until then, god (or whomever) help anybody who disrespects a listener to this radio station. Yeah, I could just as easily be beat down as beat someone else down, but I'll take a real life ass kicking for the kick ass career my listeners have given me.

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