Speaker 1: What's up, Dave?
Speaker 2: What's up Aaron?
Speaker 3: No, Now I have a visual with my emails.
Speaker 2: I am talking to Aaron Kin, the guy in the
Speaker 2: center of the Sudden Impact point, in the middle of
Speaker 2: the Boys to Men Motown, Philly video at the heart
Speaker 2: of the thing I have been obsessed with for three decades.
Speaker 2: The guy behind the point is now on my laptop
Speaker 2: screen talking to me. I'm finally about to find out
Speaker 2: what happened to sudden Impact. This is a significant life event,
Speaker 2: but first I need some very basic information, like who
Speaker 2: is everyone. I pull up a screenshot of the sudden
Speaker 2: Impact point. I have the picture here.
Speaker 1: There it is. That's it.
Speaker 2: Can you talk me through who's who?
Speaker 3: I was the guy in the middle with the bowtide
Speaker 3: looking like a waiter.
Speaker 1: Because I was the lead singer.
Speaker 2: Had to set yourself apart.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm in the middle with the bow tie right,
Speaker 3: so all the way all the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's my brother. That's my brother.
Speaker 2: That's Noel, the guy who you really can't tell what
Speaker 2: he looks like because his point obscures his entire face.
Speaker 2: That is Noel Kane.
Speaker 1: The next guy's Dave.
Speaker 2: The shy guy, the one who's looking at and pointing
Speaker 2: to the director a little bit off camera. That's Dave.
Speaker 2: Just Dave. Listening back to this, I realized I should
Speaker 2: have asked for a last name. And this is a
Speaker 2: thing that will come back and bite me in the ass.
Speaker 1: The next guy's Alan Heally, that's my man.
Speaker 2: The guy who's pointing in kind of an Uncle Sam
Speaker 2: wants you kind of way.
Speaker 1: And then the next guy that's Todd that was writing
Speaker 1: all the songs.
Speaker 2: Todd White is on the right in what looks like
Speaker 2: a modified Billy Ray Cyrus Mullet, very on trend for
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one. Todd's the guy who had the idea
Speaker 2: for Sudden Impact, and that's the guy who you met
Speaker 2: when you were gonna fight exactly.
Speaker 3: That's how the whole thing started. Two guys get ready
Speaker 3: to go to blows.
Speaker 2: The story of Sudden Impacts, as told to me by
Speaker 2: Aaron Kane, is cinematic. It's got ups and downs. It
Speaker 2: has set pieces and moments that would cut down into
Speaker 2: a beautiful montage, and between two of the leads a
Speaker 2: meet cute. On this episode, the story of Sudden Impact
Speaker 2: from Aaron Kane, a guy who is right in the
Speaker 2: middle of the action This is Waiting for Impact, a
Speaker 2: Dave Holmes passion project. Where are you right now?
Speaker 1: I am in my studio, in my house right now.
Speaker 3: I got my just sitting in front of my studio Blackwood,
Speaker 3: New Jersey, right over the bridge from Philadelphia, Philly.
Speaker 2: A place by the way that Aaron visited for the
Speaker 2: first time ever when he and the Boys their cameo
Speaker 2: in the Motown Philly video. We'll get into how he
Speaker 2: came to settle in Philadelphia a little bit later, but
Speaker 2: first let's get into how this whole thing started and
Speaker 2: the high school house party in Newport News, Virginia that
Speaker 2: changed five guys lives forever. So take me back to
Speaker 2: the start. What's your what's your musical background?
Speaker 3: No musical background. My family doesn't really come from music.
Speaker 3: My dad's dad, he was kind of in a band
Speaker 3: and played fiddle and stuff like that, but he died
Speaker 3: before I was even born.
Speaker 1: So, but no musical background.
Speaker 3: I was always, uh a sports guy, played baseball, basketball, football, like.
Speaker 3: I was always into sports, and this music thing just
Speaker 3: kind of like fell into our.
Speaker 1: Lat though it was the craziest thing.
Speaker 2: Sudden Impact came together because of a perfect combination of fate,
Speaker 2: and testosterone.
Speaker 3: A guy named Todd White started group and he was
Speaker 3: just like doing little demos around town this and that.
Speaker 3: I started talking to one of his girlfriends and me
Speaker 3: and him were about to fight. Actually that's how we met.
Speaker 3: And he heard did I sang a little bit? I
Speaker 3: sang with a couple of people around in high school
Speaker 3: and stuff. And this one night we went to a
Speaker 3: party and I saw him there and we were getting
Speaker 3: ready to fight, and he comes up to me and
Speaker 3: he's like, hey, man, I hear that you sing. And
Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, I sing a little bit. And he's like, hey, well,
Speaker 3: I'm starting this group. You know, wy don't you come
Speaker 3: by the studio. Maybe we could work something out. So
Speaker 3: we go to the studio. I just happened to go
Speaker 3: by there one day and ended up getting on the
Speaker 3: track singing some stuff. At that time, it was just
Speaker 3: three of us at that time.
Speaker 2: So instead of brawling and ruining a perfectly good house party,
Speaker 2: Todd and Aaron decided to sing along with a guy
Speaker 2: named Eric, who, as far as we know, was not
Speaker 2: talking to either of their girlfriends.
Speaker 3: We did like this little hometown demo. Just started kind
Speaker 3: of working the demo round town.
Speaker 1: A little bit.
Speaker 3: The demo really wasn't even that good, but you know,
Speaker 3: we loved it and everything.
Speaker 2: What was it called?
Speaker 1: It was called Please Be Mine?
Speaker 2: Was it a ballad? Was it up tempo? What was it? Uh?
Speaker 3: It was a ballad at first, and then we turned
Speaker 3: it into We had this guy named Timmy Beale. He
Speaker 3: was kind of like a producer around town. We had
Speaker 3: this guy do a remix to it, and they this
Speaker 3: is how the hook went. Please be mine, de my girl,
Speaker 3: please be Mine.
Speaker 1: That was it. That was like, that was That was
Speaker 1: basically the whole song.
Speaker 2: That's all you need.
Speaker 1: That was it all?
Speaker 2: Right? After thirty years, I have finally heard music from
Speaker 2: Sudden Impact and I like it. Now this this is
Speaker 2: all happening. In nineteen eighty nine, Aaron Kane is sixteen
Speaker 2: years old. It's the summer between his sophomore and junior
Speaker 2: years of high school. He's a star athlete with a
Speaker 2: demo tape. Whether he was the inspiration for zac Efron's
Speaker 2: character in High School Musical, I cannot say. But Eric
Speaker 2: leaves the group. Three more guys join Aaron's brother, Noel,
Speaker 2: Alan Healy and Dave, whose last name I really should
Speaker 2: have asked for him. Todd White makes a connection with
Speaker 2: a guy named Cecil Jenkins. Cecil puts the entertainment together
Speaker 2: for local church festivals, so he books them for a
Speaker 2: couple of those festivals, and the guys get to work
Speaker 2: on their vocals, practice their stage show. The buzz is
Speaker 2: starting to build, so they did what any ambitious young
Speaker 2: boy band would do, a photo shoot. The pictures turned
Speaker 2: out well, so they turned their favorite one shot of
Speaker 2: all of them under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge into a poster.
Speaker 2: This teen movie is off to a good start. It's
Speaker 2: got a poster. It's got a near fistfight over a
Speaker 2: girl that leads to a friendship and the formation of
Speaker 2: a singing group. But to move the plot forward, we
Speaker 2: need a road trip. Cecil Jenkins was a good friend
Speaker 2: of Marvin Gay. Marvin Gay was about to get his
Speaker 2: posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Cecil wants
Speaker 2: to go to the ceremony and he wants company.
Speaker 3: Cecil Jenkins says, hey, guys, listen, Marvin Gay is getting
Speaker 3: ready to get his star on Hollywood Boulevard. You know,
Speaker 3: just want to tell you guys, if you know, if
Speaker 3: you guys want to come out to La with me.
Speaker 1: You're more than welcome come out. Well.
Speaker 3: Two guys in the group, Todd White and Alan Heally,
Speaker 3: their parents were the only ones that said yes, you
Speaker 3: can go.
Speaker 2: Aaron seventeen by now, his little brother nol is fifteen,
Speaker 2: and mister and Missus Kane are not about to let
Speaker 2: kids that age just drive across the country. Neither is
Speaker 2: Missus Dave's mom. But Todd and Allen drive out to
Speaker 2: Los Angeles for Marvin Gay's Walk of Fame ceremony. An
Speaker 2: article about that ceremony that ran in the next day's
Speaker 2: LA Times points out neither of Marvin Gaye's parents showed up,
Speaker 2: which is a shame and which also tells you that
Speaker 2: there was an entertainment reporter for the LA Times who
Speaker 2: didn't know that Marvin Gay's mother had died two years
Speaker 2: earlier and that Marvin Gay's dad murdered him. So his
Speaker 2: parents are not there, but four hundred other people are,
Speaker 2: including one very important.
Speaker 1: Person, Michael Bifvens.
Speaker 3: Just happened to stop by that ceremony when two of
Speaker 3: the guys from my group were there, and at the
Speaker 3: time we had that crappy demo and we took a
Speaker 3: picture underneath the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. We took a picture
Speaker 3: and we made a poster, and that's all we had.
Speaker 3: We had a poster. We had a crappy demo. So anyway,
Speaker 3: they take the crappy demo.
Speaker 1: They take the poster.
Speaker 3: Out to La Thorn, Marvin Gays getting his star in
Speaker 3: Hollywood Boulevard. Michael Bivens up stopping by to guys in
Speaker 3: my group see Michael Bivens. They're like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: that's Michael Bivens from New Edition.
Speaker 2: This is September nineteen ninety. We know that by the
Speaker 2: next summer people would just be coming up to Michael
Speaker 2: Bivens and singing in his face. Todd and Allen don't
Speaker 2: have their whole group together to meet Michael Bivens, but
Speaker 2: they do have a demo tape and a poster, so
Speaker 2: they take bold action.
Speaker 3: They run up on Mike, Hey, sign signed, this is
Speaker 3: a poster. This is a poster of us. Can you
Speaker 3: sign a poster? And Michael Bivens said, guys, get that
Speaker 3: shit out of my face. Get that New Kids on
Speaker 3: the Block poster out of my face.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's harsh, and.
Speaker 1: They were like no.
Speaker 3: They were like, no, no, no, no, this is us,
Speaker 3: this is this is us.
Speaker 1: And he was like, are you kidding me? He was like,
Speaker 1: that's you, guys.
Speaker 3: And at this time, Michael Bivens had just signed a
Speaker 3: three artists production deal with Gerald Bugsby from Motown, and
Speaker 3: he had ABC, another bad creation, and he had.
Speaker 1: Boys men and he needed one more. Wouldn't you know.
Speaker 3: The two guys, Todd and Allen hop in Michael Bibvens' bins.
Speaker 1: They go to Motown that day.
Speaker 3: Michael Bibbins didn't even hear the demo, didn't even hear
Speaker 3: the demo.
Speaker 1: He just loved the poster so much.
Speaker 2: Now, if this were to happen in a movie, this
Speaker 2: would pull you out of the movie. One of the
Speaker 2: biggest pop stars on the planet wants to sign an
Speaker 2: act he's only met two fifths of whose songs and
Speaker 2: voices he's heard zero of, just because he's seen the poster.
Speaker 2: You'd be thinking, all right, somebody at Motown is going
Speaker 2: to step in here. But there are a couple things
Speaker 2: to consider. We've talked about the story of New Edition
Speaker 2: and how they fired more Restar, the guy who had
Speaker 2: discovered and produced them when he paid them a dollar
Speaker 2: eighty seven for a world tour and a hit album.
Speaker 2: We've talked about how Maurice Starr went on to form
Speaker 2: New Kids on the Block pretty much completely out of spite.
Speaker 2: We've talked about how New Kids on the Block were
Speaker 2: the biggest pop act in the world in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2: What we don't know is how this all felt to
Speaker 2: Michael Bivens. What we don't know is whether, as Maurice
Speaker 2: Starr form New Kids to get back at New addition,
Speaker 2: Michael Bivens might have wanted to sign Sudden Impact to
Speaker 2: get back at Maurice's Star dollar signs and revenge at
Speaker 2: the same time, I would take it. We should also
Speaker 2: consider that this is real life, and as the saying goes,
Speaker 2: truth is fucking crazy.
Speaker 1: We actually got signed to Motown off of a poster
Speaker 1: without them even hearing any music.
Speaker 2: And you're hearing about all this from across the country.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3: Michael Biffins called us during this time. Michael Bivens calls
Speaker 3: us and the guy Todd and now and they're like, hey,
Speaker 3: Michael Bivens is on the line, and now you gotta
Speaker 3: think this At the time where Michael Bibvens just BBD
Speaker 3: just came out right, and that album was amazing, Like
Speaker 3: that BBD new album had just come out. Michael Bivens
Speaker 3: is talking to us, Hey, hey, doing this is Michael Bivens.
Speaker 3: You know, we want to sign you guys here the
Speaker 3: Motown And you got to think, I'm thinking to myself,
Speaker 3: yeah right, We're talking to him on the phone.
Speaker 1: We're like, yeah, right, this is this. I'm like, Todd,
Speaker 1: who is this?
Speaker 3: You got somebody acting like Michael Bivens And now it
Speaker 3: was really am.
Speaker 2: So what tell me what that feels like to you
Speaker 2: getting this call and finding out that you're like, you've
Speaker 2: ascended to Motown.
Speaker 1: Man, it was.
Speaker 3: It was craziness. Like, first of all, it took me
Speaker 3: like a couple of days to actually realize that it
Speaker 3: was true, you know what I mean, Like, who thinks
Speaker 3: they they're getting a call from Michael Biffins to sign
Speaker 3: you to Motown Records, and all we have is.
Speaker 2: One It does sound like a prank, Yeah, and all
Speaker 2: we have is.
Speaker 3: One crappy demo. That's it, you know, you know, back then,
Speaker 3: back then, that's the way it was. It was all
Speaker 3: about artist development, you know's that's one thing in the
Speaker 3: music world today That's why artists don't. You know, you
Speaker 3: don't have artists that stick around for a long time
Speaker 3: because the whole artist development thing has kind of been
Speaker 3: pushed to the side.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: But back then, you know, you could get signed on
Speaker 3: a whim, and you know they could develop you.
Speaker 2: You know, the music industry was flush back in nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2: After all, if you liked a particular artist and you
Speaker 2: wanted to hear a song or an album by them
Speaker 2: on your schedule, you had to buy it in physical form.
Speaker 2: If you wanted the album, you had to go to
Speaker 2: a store and put down anywhere from ten to eighteen
Speaker 2: dollars to get the cassette or the compact disc. Around
Speaker 2: four million Americans did that with Bell Bivdevo's album Poison.
Speaker 2: So Michael Bivens had clout, and that clout allowed him
Speaker 2: to do something risky like sign an act to Motown
Speaker 2: Records after only seeing their poster. It allowed the Boys
Speaker 2: Set an impact to reach the big time just by
Speaker 2: asking nicely. Back in the seventies and eighties, record labels
Speaker 2: took their time with new artists. They let them develop
Speaker 2: their sound and their look over the course of a
Speaker 2: few years. A few albums. It took Bruce Springsteen a
Speaker 2: couple of years and a couple albums to come up
Speaker 2: with Born. To run that development is generally the job
Speaker 2: of a department within record labels called A and R
Speaker 2: Artists and Repertoire an R people find new artists, work
Speaker 2: with them to determine where they'll fit in the marketplace,
Speaker 2: help them develop an identity. And Michael Bivins had a
Speaker 2: good relationship with an A and R guy at another label.
Speaker 3: And we signed with Motown, and then we started working
Speaker 3: for a little bit. And then and Michael Bivens calls
Speaker 3: this up one day and says, hey, listen, guys.
Speaker 1: I want to take you. I don't want you guys
Speaker 1: to be with Motown.
Speaker 3: I want you guys to go to Capitol Records. Now
Speaker 3: still minds you, Dave. We don't have any song. I mean,
Speaker 3: we've been working on demos at the house. We have
Speaker 3: a sixth member in our group that was the producer.
Speaker 3: He produced everything. He's actually my best friend right now.
Speaker 3: His name is Tim Bird.
Speaker 2: I make two mental notes here. One find Tim Bird
Speaker 2: and two just really breathe with the fact that there's
Speaker 2: someone they call the sixth member of sudden.
Speaker 3: Impact, and so we're like, all right, cool, we'll go
Speaker 3: to Capitol because Michael Bivens had a good relationship with
Speaker 3: the A and R guy over the area. His name
Speaker 3: was Steph Johnson. So we end up signing this huge deal. Still,
Speaker 3: minds you, Capitol hasn't heard any music. Still, We're going
Speaker 3: through all these deals and everything, and nobody has heard
Speaker 3: any music. They're going off of just Michael Bivens words.
Speaker 2: They signed with Capitol Records. Capitol puts the boys up
Speaker 2: in a beach house in Virginia to bond with each other,
Speaker 2: rents them a studio nearby to write and record some songs.
Speaker 2: What were the influences? What did you what did you
Speaker 2: sound like?
Speaker 1: I mean our influences.
Speaker 3: People make fun of it, but New Kids on the
Speaker 3: Block was a big influence for us. New Kids on
Speaker 3: the Block was huge influence for us. Of course, New Edition,
Speaker 3: you know back then it was New Edition bb D,
Speaker 3: Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat, Teddy Riley guy.
Speaker 1: That's the we were trying.
Speaker 3: We were trying to be like the more R and
Speaker 3: B version of New Kids on the Block.
Speaker 2: The Virginia music scene would blow up a few years
Speaker 2: later with Timbaland and Missy Elliott and then Pharrell and
Speaker 2: then Neptunes. But at the time, Sudden Impact were the
Speaker 2: pioneers of the Virginia sound. I mean maybe they were.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I've never heard anything before. They developed
Speaker 2: their sound, before they even made a sound. They got
Speaker 2: their big break.
Speaker 3: And then boom Motown Philly comes out, and that's what
Speaker 3: really took us to that next level.
Speaker 2: What was shooting the video? Like, did you know that
Speaker 2: you would be a part of it long in advance?
Speaker 2: Was it kind of last minute? What happened?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we knew.
Speaker 3: That was actually the first time that when we were
Speaker 3: in the video, that was the first time that I
Speaker 3: had ever been to Philadelphia. We recorded the one part
Speaker 3: I don't know if you're the I mean, the iconic
Speaker 3: part is Viv sitting in the middle of us.
Speaker 1: And then we do this yep, we like point to
Speaker 1: the camera.
Speaker 2: To the point Aaron is doing the Sudden Impact, point
Speaker 2: to me over zoom and I have fully left my body.
Speaker 2: The video come out, and the video blows up. Boys
Speaker 2: the Men becomes stars, and so does Sudden Impact.
Speaker 3: Actually, the first time that Boys the Men was ever
Speaker 3: on MTV, there was a show on MTV. You probably
Speaker 3: remember Dave with Martha Quinn. Yep, Martha Quinn had a
Speaker 3: show on there.
Speaker 1: I thought. I think it was like called.
Speaker 3: MTV Live or something like that, and that was the
Speaker 3: first time Boys the Men was ever on MTV and
Speaker 3: they had people calling in right, yeah and get and
Speaker 3: guess what the first question was when somebody called in
Speaker 3: during that interview. The first question I actually remember her name.
Speaker 3: Her name was Lydia from Utah.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 3: And the first question Boys of Men has just released
Speaker 3: their new album, Motown Philly just came out. They're on
Speaker 3: MTV for the first time, and the first question is
Speaker 3: who those white guys in the video?
Speaker 2: Listen. I am not opposed to tracking down Lydia from Utah.
Speaker 2: And it's good that Boys to Men goes on to
Speaker 2: become the biggest selling R and B group of all time,
Speaker 2: because it is absolutely criminal that the first question they
Speaker 2: get on their first MTV appearance is about sudden impact.
Speaker 2: But as Boys to Men is blowing up, sudden impacts
Speaker 2: are being talked about on MTV with original VJ Martha Quinn,
Speaker 2: and they're on a major label, Capital. The Beatles were
Speaker 2: on Capitol, the Eagles the Beastie Boys, Juice Newton. They're
Speaker 2: on a huge label in a peak here for the
Speaker 2: recording industry, so they're being shown a taste of the
Speaker 2: good life with Capital.
Speaker 3: It was fantastic, Dave, Like, I mean, they put us
Speaker 3: up in this huge house right on the beach, this
Speaker 3: amazing studio in Virginia Beach. They were sending us to
Speaker 3: Disney World, they were sending us to Universal Studio.
Speaker 2: And how old are you at this time?
Speaker 1: We're like nineteen twenty at this time, So what's that lifestyle? Like?
Speaker 3: Oh man, you're talking about some kids right out of
Speaker 3: high school that had a crappy demo. They got a
Speaker 3: huge advancement. Like back then, Back then, the advancements, especially
Speaker 3: with Capitol Records, we were getting like huge advancements.
Speaker 2: And advance is an amount of money a record company
Speaker 2: gives you when they put you under contract. It's to
Speaker 2: keep you afloat while you're working on your thing. They
Speaker 2: take it out of your earnings when you start making money.
Speaker 2: But if you never do start making money, you don't
Speaker 2: even have to pay it back. From today's perspective, it
Speaker 2: is wild the corporations could do business this way at
Speaker 2: this level. But in nineteen ninety one. That's how it worked.
Speaker 2: Aaron and the rest of the Sudden Impact guys were
Speaker 2: at the cusp of pop music stardom. But in order
Speaker 2: to move forward into the great unknown, Aaron had to
Speaker 2: close the door on the shore thing he knew.
Speaker 3: I actually got a baseball scholarship coming out of high school,
Speaker 3: and that was a hard decision for me to make.
Speaker 1: It was go to college.
Speaker 3: I got a scholarship to King's College in Tennessee. It
Speaker 3: was a really hard decision because baseball was my life
Speaker 3: ever since. I just had a talent for it from
Speaker 3: time I was five years old all the way up
Speaker 3: going out of high school. And I had to make
Speaker 3: a decision when I graduated high school, do I go
Speaker 3: to college play baseball, or do I pursue this music thing.
Speaker 3: I'm getting ready to sign the Capitol Records get a
Speaker 3: huge advancement. My mom actually had a conversation with her dad,
Speaker 3: my grandfather, and my grandfather, you know, because my parents
Speaker 3: wanted me to go to college and everything. And my
Speaker 3: grandfather said, listen, if you make him go to college
Speaker 3: and he misses out on this music thing, he's probably,
Speaker 3: you know, gonna have some resentment his whole life, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean? So I said, listen in Boys
Speaker 3: and Men's Video, I'm getting ready to get this huge advancement.
Speaker 3: I'm going with the music thing, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: And I mean, what do you what would you do day?
Speaker 3: You're a little kid.
Speaker 2: You're a little kid now, yeah you're all.
Speaker 3: You're on MTV, b et get ready to sign with
Speaker 3: Capitol Records.
Speaker 2: This is very understandable. How how big an advance are
Speaker 2: we talking?
Speaker 1: Uh? I mean, I don't really want to but it was.
Speaker 3: It was nice, but I wish you know, uh you
Speaker 3: think that it's just gonna.
Speaker 1: Keep coming, you know.
Speaker 3: And I definitely wish that I would have made some
Speaker 3: different decisions back then.
Speaker 1: I mean I did some amazing stuff, but.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wish I would have did a little something
Speaker 3: different with my money back then.
Speaker 2: You know, somehow you weren't at your wisest when you
Speaker 2: were nineteen. How that happened? But I guess that's what happened.
Speaker 2: So an impact is getting paid, they're getting put up
Speaker 2: on the beach, they're getting trips to Disney World. But
Speaker 2: and this is how I know we're talking about kids
Speaker 2: right now. The thing that means the most is a
Speaker 2: team jacket.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you a funny story, Dave. So at that
Speaker 3: time BBD went on tour, and they went on tour,
Speaker 3: and Michael Bivens gave everybody out BBD tour jackets with
Speaker 3: your name on them, like they were really really cool jackets.
Speaker 3: And so of course us being around Newport News, being
Speaker 3: around Virginia, we would always wear our bb You know,
Speaker 3: we're a motow Philly video. We got BBD tour jackets on.
Speaker 3: It was like wherever we went, it was like we
Speaker 3: were celebrities and we really hadn't.
Speaker 2: Done anything and what did that feel like?
Speaker 1: Oh man, it was amazing.
Speaker 2: I believe him, and I know a little bit about
Speaker 2: what he means. Having a normal life one day and
Speaker 2: then finding yourself in the middle of the entertainment industry
Speaker 2: the next is a thing I can relate to. It's
Speaker 2: exciting and it's disorienting, and you don't really want to
Speaker 2: talk about how weird it is while it's happening. You
Speaker 2: don't want to seem like you're bragging to someone who
Speaker 2: it hasn't happened for. You don't want to seem like
Speaker 2: you just fell off the turnip truck for someone who
Speaker 2: has already happened to But it's big. You have to
Speaker 2: talk about this stuff. Yeah, okay, all right, Yeah, there's
Speaker 2: this guy.
Speaker 4: Oh my god. Uh, this is the most nervous I
Speaker 4: think I've ever been.
Speaker 2: This is Damien Fahe. He was a VJ on MTV.
Speaker 2: Just after I left. He and I were in my
Speaker 2: backyard doing something we never do, which is watching old
Speaker 2: clips of ourselves. I found one of him on TRL
Speaker 2: that someone posted. The YouTube reads like this.
Speaker 4: She's sold almost two hundred million albums, had twenty five
Speaker 4: top ten singles, won three Grammys, and a bunch of VMAs.
Speaker 2: Ladiesship, and she put the M and MTV.
Speaker 4: This is Madonna. This is two thousand and two, two
Speaker 4: thousand and three.
Speaker 1: See.
Speaker 4: I keep my hand because my hand was shaking, so
Speaker 4: I figured if I put it in under my arm,
Speaker 4: it won't shake. Because I was so nervous.
Speaker 2: Damien is interviewing Madonna on live television, a thing even
Speaker 2: seasoned professionals get nervous for. And Damien's just a few
Speaker 2: months into the job and he has just been told
Speaker 2: she doesn't want to talk to him.
Speaker 4: She wanted Carson refused to do the interview if it
Speaker 4: wasn't Carson.
Speaker 2: Carson Daily was the host of TRL from its premiere
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety eight. Damien was brought on to be
Speaker 2: phased in as his replacement as Carson transitioned into his
Speaker 2: post MTV life of hosting everything on television.
Speaker 4: They talked her into They said, we don't have Carson,
Speaker 4: but we can do She said, well, I want John
Speaker 4: Norris if I can't get Carson. John Norris was like
Speaker 4: her second, because I guess he's been with And they said,
Speaker 4: we don't have John Norris, we have Damien hosting the
Speaker 4: show now. And it was sort of like, who the
Speaker 4: fuck is that. I have no idea who that is.
Speaker 4: And so they told me this story. This is always
Speaker 4: good to know, you know before that your third tier,
Speaker 4: you know, before an interview.
Speaker 2: It's strange watching these old videos, the haircuts, the clothes,
Speaker 2: it's like finding a video of yourself from high school,
Speaker 2: except hours aired on television. I want to see if
Speaker 2: we can put ourselves back into the mindset of those
Speaker 2: guys twenty years ago. Mostly we can't remember what happened
Speaker 2: at all. Whenever old things come up, like every now
Speaker 2: and then, somebody will digitize something with me in it
Speaker 2: and put it up on YouTube, and I'll watch it
Speaker 2: and it's like, oh, that's nice. Good for that guy,
Speaker 2: Good for that guy. Who is me? Like who that's
Speaker 2: my face and my body and my voice. But I
Speaker 2: don't have a single recollection, yeah, of any of it.
Speaker 2: For me. I always say it was like it was
Speaker 2: like getting a head injury, you know, like if you've
Speaker 2: just if you've ever been in a very bad car
Speaker 2: accident in.
Speaker 4: Shot, it is like watching a different I'm like, oh,
Speaker 4: that's cool, look at that what that guy did.
Speaker 1: Good for him.
Speaker 4: That wasn't me. You know. It's like I just feel
Speaker 4: like a totally different kind of person like me.
Speaker 2: Damien got plucked out of his normal life and dropped
Speaker 2: right into the center of MTV, hosting TRL at the
Speaker 2: height of its popularity. He had been working at a
Speaker 2: top forty radio station in Boston while going to college.
Speaker 2: An MTV casting director came to town on a nationwide search
Speaker 2: to find a new rock vjay, and a co worker
Speaker 2: encouraged him to try out. He didn't want to do it.
Speaker 2: He had tried out for a local TV show a
Speaker 2: few months before and just eaten it at the audition.
Speaker 2: He was humiliated. He didn't want to be embarrassed again,
Speaker 2: but just to get his coworker off his back, he
Speaker 2: showed up.
Speaker 4: And so then I go to the radio station waiting
Speaker 4: in the lobby with like three other DJs. One guy
Speaker 4: goes downstairs, you know, fifteen minutes past as he comes
Speaker 4: back up, okay, Damien fahee, you know, and I go
Speaker 4: downstairs and I go in the basement. And it was
Speaker 4: so weird because it was it was like it was
Speaker 4: the last thing that I wanted to do. And then
Speaker 4: the second I got like the first laugh from the
Speaker 4: casting people, I was like, this is all I want
Speaker 4: to do. Oh my god, I love this.
Speaker 2: When you get a taste to that, you start really
Speaker 2: wanting it.
Speaker 4: I said, when when will I know you know about this?
Speaker 4: And they said, well, it's going to take a while.
Speaker 4: We got to you know, take the tapes back to
Speaker 4: New York and have our bosses look at it and everything.
Speaker 4: And I said, okay, well I'll be in touch. I'll
Speaker 4: be in touch because this is this is really fun, right,
Speaker 4: And so like I just like you know, got in
Speaker 4: my car and drove home, and you know, I remember
Speaker 4: seeing like a license plate of the car stopped in
Speaker 4: front of me. The first car stopped in front of me.
Speaker 4: I just stopped signing. It was like two forty eight
Speaker 4: VJ five whatever, Like that's a sign I'm getting this
Speaker 4: fucking job. Holy shit.
Speaker 2: Damien got a call back in New York. He met
Speaker 2: a friend there the night before. They had some drinks,
Speaker 2: so he showed up a little hungover. And here's the
Speaker 2: thing about that. I can't recommend it in good conscience,
Speaker 2: but it kind of works. If you have a headache
Speaker 2: and a sore stomach to focus on, that is less
Speaker 2: energy to give to your nerves. He went back home
Speaker 2: to Boston, and then he got a phone call another callback.
Speaker 4: They're like, this is the last callback, the final round.
Speaker 4: It's between you and this other guy. And I'm like,
Speaker 4: oh my god, don't tell me that.
Speaker 2: And so do you know who the other guy was?
Speaker 4: De Snyder's son, Oh, Jesse Snyder.
Speaker 2: This is rock Royalty we're talking about here, the son
Speaker 2: of d Snyder, lead singer of heavy metal band Twisted Sister,
Speaker 2: the guy who testified before Congress against explicit lyrics record labels.
Speaker 2: This is very serious and Damien is going to have
Speaker 2: to step up his game.
Speaker 4: I went home for the weekend from from from from school,
Speaker 4: and I said, I'm gonna have my dad take me out,
Speaker 4: buy me clothes for this cool clothes and sos like,
Speaker 4: of course, you know, go out. It's been two hundred
Speaker 4: dollars in structure.
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 4: I had like very big jeans, leather, square toed dress shoes,
Speaker 4: like a very pattern. It was like an aqua in
Speaker 4: maroon like FLOORI de lee kind of like pattern saying
Speaker 4: going on with the button down and then on top
Speaker 4: of that like a like a like a red a
Speaker 4: deep like burgundy red leather jacket from like like like
Speaker 4: a Chicago Coppu where like in the nineteen seventy and
Speaker 4: so so that was like mine, I'm gonna wow, I'm
Speaker 4: going to New York. Baby.
Speaker 2: I can see this outfit very clearly, and I don't
Speaker 2: like it. But Damien takes a train down from Boston
Speaker 2: for the callback. He's nervous. He's not hungover this time,
Speaker 2: so he has that much more energy to devote to
Speaker 2: being nervous.
Speaker 4: I remember waking up that morning. I was, you know,
Speaker 4: super nervous. I couldn't eat anything. My Mom's like, your
Speaker 4: stomach is upset. Here take these large vitamins.
Speaker 2: I don't need to tell you that Damien vomited on
Speaker 2: that train. Kids don't take large vitamins from your mother's
Speaker 2: purse on an empty stomach before a big audition. But
Speaker 2: still Damien knows he looks good.
Speaker 4: I remember getting walking into MTV with that outfit on,
Speaker 4: and Vinnie comes out, casting director, and he goes, hey,
Speaker 4: good to see you. You know, we're all ready for you,
Speaker 4: and he he. I go, well, I'm ready, let's do this,
Speaker 4: and he looks me up and down and he goes,
Speaker 4: let's get you into some new clothes. And I'm like,
Speaker 4: but I spent two hundred dollars in structure.
Speaker 2: You know. A week later, Damien gets a call from
Speaker 2: the head of casting. They're giving him a contract to
Speaker 2: be a VJ, starting right away at the MTV beach house.
Speaker 2: Where are you feeling it? Everywhere?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Everywhere?
Speaker 4: Like yeah, yeah, Remember where I was, Remember what was on,
Speaker 4: you know, television, Remember like the smell of the air
Speaker 4: this way the air smelled. I remember my fucking giant
Speaker 4: Nokia cell phone. I don't waiting by the fucking phone
Speaker 4: at the kitchen table, and then it rang, and then
Speaker 4: I would wanted to like I didn't want to pick
Speaker 4: it up, all like, you know, hello, you know, I
Speaker 4: wanted to let it ring three times, don't sound too
Speaker 4: you know, And then I picked it up and like they.
Speaker 2: Would resend the job off for if you answer the
Speaker 2: phone to you're too excited for this. Yeah, it's we're
Speaker 2: looking for it right at let's get Jesse Snyder. The
Speaker 2: job of an MTV VJ is a dream job for
Speaker 2: a person of a certain age, but for a person
Speaker 2: of a certain kind, people like me and Damien. It's
Speaker 2: an emotional challenge.
Speaker 4: Someone who experienced a lot of like loneliness and feeling
Speaker 4: invisible for a lot of years in throughout you know,
Speaker 4: your teens. To hear, you know, see a giant audience,
Speaker 4: it's really scary and you just imagine that they're gonna
Speaker 4: boo you or they're not gonna care. And so it
Speaker 4: was all that was in my head. So I wanted
Speaker 4: to be like really cool. I wanted to say the
Speaker 4: cool bands? What bands are you gonna do? I don't know,
Speaker 4: what do people like? What is going to make people
Speaker 4: think I'm cool?
Speaker 2: Yea?
Speaker 4: And it was just like all that and that, I
Speaker 4: mean that lasted for years.
Speaker 2: When you were standing like on the edge of this thing.
Speaker 2: When you were just starting this job, you knew it
Speaker 2: was going to bring you some sort of like fame. Yeah,
Speaker 2: what did that look like? What specifically like in my head,
Speaker 2: what did it look like? I think I kind of
Speaker 2: went in.
Speaker 4: I hosted a few shows, and they sort of were like,
Speaker 4: you need to just do what Carson does, like you
Speaker 4: need to be just like Carson. And so in my head,
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, I'm never going to be as big
Speaker 4: as Carson. I can't do what he does. So I'm
Speaker 4: just going to be like this mid tier like VJ.
Speaker 4: And so I think in my head I never really
Speaker 4: had like these huge like oh my god, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: be so fucking famous, I'm going to be I never
Speaker 4: had that. It was it was like, I don't know,
Speaker 4: for some reason, I just never stepped into like this
Speaker 4: is what my life's going to be.
Speaker 2: A very strange thing happens when you start to achieve
Speaker 2: a conventional and public kind of success, you just start
Speaker 2: wanting more conventional and public success. But the problem is
Speaker 2: who decides what that success should look like. Some of
Speaker 2: you used the MTV job as as stepping stone to
Speaker 2: untold wealth, right and then have just vanished. And I like,
Speaker 2: for me, I just vanity wise. I don't want some
Speaker 2: stranger somewhere to be like, oh, that guy got the
Speaker 2: job and then nothing happened after, Like I don't know,
Speaker 2: I don't know who this person is who would react
Speaker 2: that way. I'll probably never see that person. But that
Speaker 2: stranger somewhere has so much control over me because I
Speaker 2: like just the idea that I'm not doing enough for
Speaker 2: him and I don't know him, and I know what's
Speaker 2: enough for him, but like, uh and and I didn't
Speaker 2: go in wanting to please that guy. My choices on
Speaker 2: some level have been guided by a ghost, a fictional character,
Speaker 2: some guy in some bar somewhere, some dick on Twitter,
Speaker 2: someone I don't know who thinks I'm a loser. I
Speaker 2: went in just wanting to be close to where things
Speaker 2: were happening, to use my skills, and to like, you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: have a better professional life than I had before that
Speaker 2: used all of the dumb shit about myself that I
Speaker 2: was taught to. Yeah, it was frivolous. That's all I wanted.
Speaker 2: And then immediately this vanity comes in where it's like, well,
Speaker 2: I have to keep doing bigger and better things that
Speaker 2: I don't want. We're complicated people, us former mtvvjs, guided
Speaker 2: on some level by voices, by someone else's idea of success.
Speaker 2: When I managed to shake that voice off and think
Speaker 2: about my life rationally, I know I'm doing what I
Speaker 2: want to be doing. Damien is an executive producer on
Speaker 2: Family Guy, so he knows he's doing what he wants
Speaker 2: to be doing. Plus he has a really nice house,
Speaker 2: and I kind of want that too. But that's beside
Speaker 2: the point. We're both happy with our lives and our jobs.
Speaker 2: But the real work sometimes still is to bust those ghosts.
Speaker 2: If Aaron Kane of Sudden Impact is troubled by ghosts,
Speaker 2: if he's worried that some fictional asshole somewhere is having
Speaker 2: a laugh at his expense for appearing in a big
Speaker 2: music video and then never releasing an album, it doesn't
Speaker 2: come through at all. He's excited when he talks about
Speaker 2: this stuff. In his voice. You can still hear that
Speaker 2: kid who nearly got punched in the face at a
Speaker 2: high school party and got pulled into the music business instead.
Speaker 2: He's enthusiastic. It's like he still can't believe his love
Speaker 2: just to recap the scores here. Such an impact is
Speaker 2: on their second major label record deal. They're making an
Speaker 2: undisclosed but nice amount of money. They're featured in one
Speaker 2: of the biggest videos of nineteen ninety one. They've released
Speaker 2: zero songs and everybody's talking about them, but this movie
Speaker 2: is still just getting going.
Speaker 3: But once we did that video, it kind of took
Speaker 3: us to another level. There was anticipation, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean, Like yeah, like everybody was like waiting on
Speaker 3: this white group to like, you know, oh, there's this
Speaker 3: white group that's down with Boys the Men and with
Speaker 3: Michael Bivens from New Edition, Like what's going on with these.
Speaker 2: Guys and what was going on? How far along was
Speaker 2: the album?
Speaker 3: We did four songs under Capitol Records and they were cool.
Speaker 3: The two of the songs were really really cool out
Speaker 3: of the four, again produced by my boy Tim Bird.
Speaker 3: So from there, Michael Bivens gets another situation. You know,
Speaker 3: he's got Boys Men, he's got ABC off of Motown
Speaker 3: that really did big things.
Speaker 1: Boiso Men's doing huge things.
Speaker 3: So Motown says, Hey, Mike, I want to give you
Speaker 3: your own label called do you know the name of
Speaker 3: Michael Bivens?
Speaker 1: Label of ten Exactly ten.
Speaker 2: The antar person at Capitol whom Michael Bivens liked, the
Speaker 2: person he trusted to develop sudden impact and make them
Speaker 2: as as big as new Kids on the block left Capital,
Speaker 2: and Michael wanted the guys to move to his label
Speaker 2: BIF ten. The problem was the guys were comfy a Capital.
Speaker 3: So when BIV called us up right, BIV called us
Speaker 3: up and said that I want to take you off
Speaker 3: of Capital.
Speaker 1: Now and put you on fIF ten.
Speaker 3: We really weren't feeling that because we were living the
Speaker 3: life of Capital World. We got a nice house on
Speaker 3: the beach, We're going to Disney World. You know, we're
Speaker 3: getting money. And that didn't sit well with Mike when
Speaker 3: we said that, And he kind of got offended a
Speaker 3: little bit when we said that, because he felt like
Speaker 3: he's made everything happen for us. Anyway, he's getting his
Speaker 3: own label. We should be honored to be on BIV ten.
Speaker 3: And you know, maybe that was a mistake on our part.
Speaker 1: You know, we don't know.
Speaker 3: It Again comes back to being little kids again, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. And you're a little kid living
Speaker 3: on the beach, you're happy, you know.
Speaker 2: Did you have a manager no okay. With a feeling
Speaker 2: of loyalty to Michael Bivens and no one else to
Speaker 2: guide them, the guys made the decision to dance with
Speaker 2: the guy who brought him.
Speaker 3: So, like a couple months past or whatever, we end
Speaker 3: up not being with Capital anymore. Got to get rid
Speaker 3: of the house, stop recording at the big studio.
Speaker 2: Did you lose the rights to the songs he had
Speaker 2: already recorded?
Speaker 3: Yep, okay, yep, Capital, that's Capital's songs now. But anyway,
Speaker 3: so we go back to Newport News and then that's
Speaker 3: once BIV ten things started happening. That's when the whole
Speaker 3: East Coast Family thing started happening, and that was great.
Speaker 3: Biv said that we're gonna do a song. He started
Speaker 3: getting all these groups together. I want to do this
Speaker 3: song with all these groups. And that's where Hayden and Ivett,
Speaker 3: Kyle Lee and ten ten and all these other groups
Speaker 3: start coming into the picture.
Speaker 2: Aaron and the guys, who are now on their third
Speaker 2: label and at least their second name White Guys WHYTG
Speaker 2: I Z E take part in the East Coast Family
Speaker 2: one for All for one music video. They're wearing sport
Speaker 2: coats on a hot Houston day.
Speaker 3: And then we did the video in Houston, Texas, and man,
Speaker 3: let me tell you something. That day we did that video,
Speaker 3: we did it in like this warehouse and Dave, it
Speaker 3: was like one hundred and ten degrees at like seven
Speaker 3: o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 2: It was like, it was crazy, and you guys are
Speaker 2: wearing layers.
Speaker 1: Oh did you see us in the video?
Speaker 3: We got yeah backets on. Yeah, yeah, we got jackets.
Speaker 3: You can't tell on the video, but we were just soaked.
Speaker 3: So we did that. We did the East Coast Family
Speaker 3: Song and that actually went to number one on the
Speaker 3: R and B charts.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know that. Yeah, that song
Speaker 1: actually went to number one on the R and B charts.
Speaker 1: Huge song.
Speaker 3: That was fantastic for me because I sang the leads
Speaker 3: of the park and the song and it was funny.
Speaker 3: My mom picks me up from the airport. I'm coming
Speaker 3: back from Houston. My mom picks me up from the airport.
Speaker 3: As soon as I get into the car, the song
Speaker 3: comes on the radio and I was like, oh, this
Speaker 3: is me on the radio.
Speaker 2: Oh thing you do you know?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm finally on the radio.
Speaker 5: Finally And this is how long after you after you
Speaker 5: moved into the Capitol House, Like, what has this been
Speaker 5: two years?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: This was? Yeah, this was probably about two years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right.
Speaker 2: It's a couple of years into their brush with the
Speaker 2: big time and the guys have finally released something. It's
Speaker 2: a couple quick lines on a posse track, but it's something.
Speaker 2: And if you've seen the one four All four one video,
Speaker 2: the one where we found vt Nicole Brown's secret life
Speaker 2: as a singer, the one where we met Hayden, you
Speaker 2: know there are more than a few artists on the
Speaker 2: BIV ten label. There are many, and they're all waiting
Speaker 2: for their shot and waiting, and Michael isn't finished signing
Speaker 2: artists yet. He brings on a girl group who you
Speaker 2: might remember from around the turn of the millennium.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember seven oh.
Speaker 2: Two where my Girl's at et cetera exactly.
Speaker 3: So anyway, he picks up two and everybody on BIF
Speaker 3: ten is pissed off, like like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 3: You've just picked up this other group and another group
Speaker 3: he had called Subway put them out, and we're all like,
Speaker 3: what the heck is going on?
Speaker 1: Dude?
Speaker 3: Like we're supposed to be next, and you're picking up
Speaker 3: new groups, like what's going on? We're supposed to be next.
Speaker 3: So slowly but surely, everybody off of bif ten started
Speaker 3: getting dropped off, getting dropped off. This person got dropped off,
Speaker 3: this person got dropped off, and everybody's like, wow, what
Speaker 3: is going on here? Like we just did all this
Speaker 3: amazing stuff, and all these artists don't have a record
Speaker 3: deal anymore. It was because the whole uh, New Edition
Speaker 3: went back on tour and Michael and still had BBD.
Speaker 1: They were still like he just didn't have time for that,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: And it's a shame because he really could have made
Speaker 3: all that happen, but he just.
Speaker 1: He would have.
Speaker 3: Had to say stop to BBD and stop to New
Speaker 3: Edition for all of that to like really happen. And
Speaker 3: it just just sucks for all of us because we thought,
Speaker 3: you know, oh, we're gonna come out, We're gonna be
Speaker 3: like boys men, and next to you know, nobody has.
Speaker 1: A record deal.
Speaker 3: So now here we are in Newport News sitting there
Speaker 3: and don't have no deal.
Speaker 2: Another complication for sudden impact. But this movie is still
Speaker 2: in its first act. We'll have more with Aaron Kine
Speaker 2: and talk with the guy many people call the sixth
Speaker 2: member of Sudden Impact, producer Tim Bird. They'll tell us
Speaker 2: the rest of the story and we'll see if we
Speaker 2: can get even deeper into the inner circle of Sudden Impact.
Speaker 2: Next time on Waiting for Impact, a Dave Holmes passion project.
Speaker 2: This has been an Exactly Right production. Written by Me
Speaker 2: Dave Holmes, Produced by Hannah Kyle Crichton, recorded, mixed and
Speaker 2: sound designed by Andrew Eapen. Additional engineering and assembly by
Speaker 2: Annalise Nelson, Music by Ben Wise, artwork by Garrett Ross.
Speaker 2: Executive produced by Karen Kilgarriff, Georgia hard Stark and Danielle Kramer.
Speaker 2: Follow the show on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at exactly
Speaker 2: right and follow me at Dave Holmes. For more information,
Speaker 2: go to exactly Rightmedia dot com. Binge the show add
Speaker 2: free on Stitcher Premium for a free month. Head to
Speaker 2: Stitcher Premium dot com slash impact and enter promo code
Speaker 2: Impact Let the monthly plan, listen, subscribe and leave us
Speaker 2: a review on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get
Speaker 2: your podcasts.