Speaker 1: How did you feel about the style of the group
Speaker 1: and how that sort of evolved.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I was I was definitely the outsider of
Speaker 2: the Outsiders just because like they called me tiger Beat
Speaker 2: because I was I don't have any edge, right, like
Speaker 2: like Todd Allen and and even Jimmy, you know, like
Speaker 2: they all kind of grew up in a I don't know,
Speaker 2: there were military kids, and they grew up in around
Speaker 2: with different culture than I did.
Speaker 1: This right here is Jason Dowdy. When Aaron Kane and
Speaker 1: his brother Noel left Sudden Impact, which by then was
Speaker 1: called the Outsiders, Jason is one of the new guys
Speaker 1: who took their place, and for the rest of the group,
Speaker 1: the first order of business was to dirty him up
Speaker 1: a little.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So when I joined the group, they kind of had
Speaker 2: to give me a makeover, you know a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and like what like how oh, like you know, get
Speaker 2: like Jibo jeans and Iceberg and I don't know all
Speaker 2: this stuff in the.
Speaker 4: Time, sure, all giant giant jeans.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I had my jeans that I had at
Speaker 2: the time were more Jimko than Chirpo, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 5: Yeah, But what I got there, I got there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jason didn't know he'd be a part of the
Speaker 1: version of Sudden Impact that came the closest to fulfilling
Speaker 1: the promise of the Motown Philly Moment, the version that
Speaker 1: finally got a whole song on a movie soundtrack, The
Speaker 1: version that finally appeared in music videos for its own music.
Speaker 1: These Outsiders for live videos are on YouTube, by the way,
Speaker 1: And in the one I'm looking at right now, the
Speaker 1: one that you will not believe me when I tell
Speaker 1: you who directed it, Sweet Tiger Beat, Jason is definitely
Speaker 1: all decked out and bad boy tank tops and do
Speaker 1: rags and wide leg jeans. He exhales blunt smoke and
Speaker 1: when you look, you don't even have to look that closely,
Speaker 1: you see it. The blunt smoke is cgi. We'll talk
Speaker 1: to Sweet Jason Dowdy Tiger Beat, the new guy in
Speaker 1: Sudden Impact, about his life in the group's final stretch,
Speaker 1: the Outsiders for Life years. He'll take us into the
Speaker 1: inevitable tragic drug chapter of the story.
Speaker 4: Every group has one.
Speaker 1: And since we're taking some big swings lately, if we
Speaker 1: are really chiseling out Mount Rushmore of early nineties music
Speaker 1: video special guest performers. I have found the daddy of
Speaker 1: them all. No, I have found the zaddy of them all.
Speaker 1: I've reached out to an unforgettable face from a nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety one music video, someone I have always wanted to
Speaker 1: track down, and baby, Baby, you will not believe who
Speaker 1: I have got for you. This is Waiting for Impact,
Speaker 1: a Dave Holmes pasion project. By the late nineties, the
Speaker 1: group that had started as Two Special became White Hot Empty,
Speaker 1: famous as Sudden Impact, got renamed White Guys, and later
Speaker 1: rebranded themselves.
Speaker 4: The Outsiders began to implode.
Speaker 1: After being pulled off of Capital and then dropped from
Speaker 1: BIV ten Records. Their third record label, Stone Creek, just
Speaker 1: folded entirely, putting them right back to square one. Brothers
Speaker 1: Aaron and Noel Kine left the group to start a
Speaker 1: new one, and their empty seats got taken by two
Speaker 1: young singers, Jimmy Marble and Jason Dowdy.
Speaker 4: How are you good, Dave good good?
Speaker 5: Where are you in well OneD Ontario where we have
Speaker 5: free healthcare?
Speaker 4: Oh? Come on, good thinking.
Speaker 1: When we talk, Jason Dowdy is freshly vexed and ready
Speaker 1: to talk about his adventure with a group he already
Speaker 1: knew a little bit about. Did you remember having seen
Speaker 1: the Boys to Men Motown, Philly video and the sudden impact?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely, Yeah, Okay, I remember. Let's see that
Speaker 2: was in ninety I want to say one or two
Speaker 2: somewhere around there house, still in high school when I
Speaker 2: saw that. Yeah, And of course I was like what
Speaker 2: I was like cause, you know, new addition Viv like
Speaker 2: all that. There were my heroes growing up. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I was like, what's gonna happen with this?
Speaker 4: What was the Outsiders for life lifestyle?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 4: For you, what was a typical day?
Speaker 5: Hurry up and wait?
Speaker 2: So it depended on the day, right, Yeah, Like I
Speaker 2: would say, most of my time spent with the Outsiders
Speaker 2: was downtime because we were waiting on this or that
Speaker 2: to happen before we could you know, tour or record
Speaker 2: or that type of thing. They put us up in
Speaker 2: a really nice apartment. You know, we were at this
Speaker 2: we were definitely vampires, so you know, we were staying
Speaker 2: up all night.
Speaker 5: I would say Tim probably worked the hardest out of
Speaker 5: us all.
Speaker 2: Like I would go sing my little bit and then
Speaker 2: I would be, you know, walking the streets with Jimmy
Speaker 2: or ordering Chinese food, or we'd play ping.
Speaker 3: Pong or whatever.
Speaker 2: Right, Like a lot of a lot of weed being smoked,
Speaker 2: a lot of that going on. I wasn't I wasn't
Speaker 2: a weat smoker, but a lot of that happening people
Speaker 2: in and out of the studio all the time. Like
Speaker 2: you know, we'd run into Kenny Loggins and I remember
Speaker 2: Queen Latakifa stopping by at some point. So it's a
Speaker 2: little bit of like surreal, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: That is the entire tragic drug chapter of the story.
Speaker 1: By the way, you're safe now. Like I said, if
Speaker 1: you do some digging on YouTube, you can find some
Speaker 1: of the videos from the early Outsiders for Life era.
Speaker 1: There's one called college Degrees spelled with a Z, just
Speaker 1: like Outsiders.
Speaker 3: Those God, the.
Speaker 1: Guys are a little thugged up in this one. They're
Speaker 1: in low riders. They're smoking blunts for Jason and I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna repeat this in case his parents are listening.
Speaker 1: The blunt smoke is cgi. This video is a wild ride.
Speaker 1: But I was not prepared for what Jason told me
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: That one that was a hype Williams one. So first
Speaker 2: of all, we got like the best director.
Speaker 4: Wait a minute, Hype Williams directed.
Speaker 5: That college degree.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, wow, yeah, Okay, yeah, I can send over
Speaker 2: like a picture.
Speaker 5: I think we have a picture of us with him.
Speaker 1: Okay, gather round, kids. Hype Williams was the music video
Speaker 1: director of the late nineties. Every hip hop video cliche,
Speaker 1: he did it first, fish eye lenses, hype, artists bathed
Speaker 1: in deep red or vivid blue lighting, hype. All those
Speaker 1: early Missy Elliott and Buster Rhymes videos, all hype. Name
Speaker 1: an iconic nineties hip hop or R and B video,
Speaker 1: and I bet he directed it. No scrubs, getting jiggy
Speaker 1: with it, MO money, more problems, Hype, hype and hype.
Speaker 1: It's no exaggeration to say that he single handedly changed
Speaker 1: the visual language of music, video and film. In two thousand,
Speaker 1: he directed videos for jay Z, No Doubt, DMX, and
Speaker 1: Outsiders for Life. Jason has a YouTube channel where he
Speaker 1: hosts a bunch of Outsiders for Life videos. There's College
Speaker 1: Degrees directed by Hype Williams. The guys are shooting, Moody
Speaker 1: looks at the camera inside a bowling alley and then
Speaker 1: getting hauled off to a jail cell for reasons that
Speaker 1: are never made clear. There's one for Not Enough, with
Speaker 1: the guys in matching black leather outfits. The video features
Speaker 1: each one of the guys rolling around with a model
Speaker 1: on a bed with some aggressively shiny satin sheets, and
Speaker 1: the guys do the very two thousand music video thing
Speaker 1: of getting so emotional they have to rip their jacket
Speaker 1: or shirt off and expose their tank top. Not Enough
Speaker 1: has Todd White singing the lyric You're something special girl,
Speaker 1: you know your shit is tight?
Speaker 4: And then there are.
Speaker 1: Two videos for a song called who Are You, the
Speaker 1: original and the Timbaland remix. Both of these songs start
Speaker 1: with a verse from Dave Smith, the Quiet One from
Speaker 1: the group Let's take a listen. Okay, you really have
Speaker 1: to watch out for the Quiet Ones. But I listened
Speaker 1: to this verse again and something jumps out at me.
Speaker 1: Pay attention to these lyrics. You think you're hot shit,
Speaker 1: but you ain't nothing.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: You went from boys to men, broke to Benjamin's front
Speaker 1: and day by day like we're fucking friend, come up
Speaker 1: with something new because you ain't saying nothing.
Speaker 4: Hold on, is who are you a diss? Track? And
Speaker 4: if so, who are they dissing?
Speaker 1: January nineteen ninety one, a thirty year old superstar in
Speaker 1: the Christian music world released her first pop single, a
Speaker 1: song whose lyrics are actually about her six week old daughter, Millie.
Speaker 1: The artist was Amy Grant and the song was Baby Baby.
Speaker 1: It went to number one on the Billboard Hot one
Speaker 1: hundred in April, unseating Wilson Phillips You're in Love because again,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one was a great fucking year.
Speaker 4: Anyway.
Speaker 1: If you know the song, which you do, you also
Speaker 1: know the video. The video was absolutely everywhere you looked
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety one, seismic in our culture. Karen Kilgareth
Speaker 1: herself describes the video as like if Rachel from Friends
Speaker 1: were a music video. It's Amy Grant doing what we
Speaker 1: can only call avoiding in some outfits right out of
Speaker 1: the Elaine Bennis collection, with a guy, a handsome guy,
Speaker 1: a strikingly startlingly seen, stealingly handsome guy, a rare male
Speaker 1: video vixen. Largely because of him, the video for Baby
Speaker 1: Baby made people crazy crazy. It was sweet, aspirational, clean
Speaker 1: enough for a Christian music star. Yet because of this guy,
Speaker 1: undeniably sexy, he was so popular he made the rare
Speaker 1: music video move of reprising his role in a sequel,
Speaker 1: the video for Ammy Grant's Good for Me. He was
Speaker 1: one of the faces of nineteen ninety one, but because
Speaker 1: it was nineteen ninety one and there was no Internet
Speaker 1: or social media, and I guess he didn't hire a publicist.
Speaker 1: Nobody knew his name. I did a little digging. I
Speaker 1: found him and I talked to him, and his name
Speaker 1: is Jamie Sin. Yes, sir as I live in breath.
Speaker 1: I can't believe we found you and it's happening.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm pretty in shocked myself. I'm in shock. Thirty
Speaker 3: years is what I'm in shocked at.
Speaker 4: Yeah, tell me what you're doing now. You're in Miami Beach.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm in Miami Beach and I'm kind of going
Speaker 3: back California. In Miami Beach, my son lives here. I'm still,
Speaker 3: believe it or not, in the fashion world, modeling at
Speaker 3: the age of fifty two.
Speaker 4: I can see you. I believe it.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: This is a video call. I believe it.
Speaker 3: Thank you you guys.
Speaker 1: Jamie Stein looks good as hell. He's in kind of
Speaker 1: a salt and pepper silver Fox Daddy moment.
Speaker 4: It works. Let's go back. Who was Jamie Stein in
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety one?
Speaker 3: Oh, my god, who was Jamie Stein in nineteen ninety one?
Speaker 3: I was. I was just starting in the business of
Speaker 3: doing commercials and modeling, just literally fresh into it. I
Speaker 3: must have been twenty four, around twenty four years old.
Speaker 3: I was living in LA and I was surfing a lot,
Speaker 3: and then I got into the fashion world and that
Speaker 3: kind of changed the direction on my life for sure.
Speaker 4: What did you want out of life at twenty four?
Speaker 3: Oh? I mean literally just I wanted to see the
Speaker 3: world as I was doing. Even went out before the business.
Speaker 3: I was traveling just to go surf and explore. That's
Speaker 3: really what my life was about. And all I wanted
Speaker 3: to do was surf and travel.
Speaker 1: You can relate to this, right You moved to Los
Speaker 1: Angeles to surf and then you find yourself swept up
Speaker 1: in the world of high fashion modeling.
Speaker 4: Well, that's Jamie's life. He's modeling.
Speaker 1: He's starting to go out on commercial auditions, and at
Speaker 1: that time, with four major networks and just a few
Speaker 1: dozen cable channels, a national commercial could make your career.
Speaker 1: The residuals alone could buy you a house, You could
Speaker 1: get discovered and go onto something bigger like Brad Pitt
Speaker 1: and Matt LeBlanc did. Jamie Stein went a different direction.
Speaker 1: So you're going out on commercial castings and whatnot. What
Speaker 1: kind of stuff would you go out for?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, from Coca Cola to car commercials. Back
Speaker 3: then there was even out cigarette commercials. I mean, it
Speaker 3: was such a wide variety of music videos, you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: there you go, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4: So how did the Baby Baby job come about?
Speaker 3: Well, they my agency sent me on a casting to
Speaker 3: go see about this video, and I had no idea
Speaker 3: what it was about. And I never heard of I was.
Speaker 3: I was always listening to reggae music as I grew up,
Speaker 3: and that was most of the music I listened to.
Speaker 1: Just breaking in to say that reggae absolutely suits Jamie's
Speaker 1: personal brand.
Speaker 3: So I wasn't really familiar with Amy Grant at the time,
Speaker 3: and I didn't know how big of the deal she
Speaker 3: was back in that time as well. And I didn't
Speaker 3: know that she was a christ Christian gospel singer. I
Speaker 3: thought she was just a pop singer. So I had
Speaker 3: no idea the whole background of this whole situation, you know.
Speaker 3: So I just went in and I casted for it.
Speaker 3: They made me dance around and sing to the song
Speaker 3: that I never heard of before, which was crazy, but
Speaker 3: it was super fun and it felt comfortable and they
Speaker 3: liked me. And then they called me back and I
Speaker 3: met the director and I did some more dancing and
Speaker 3: some more singing, lip singing, obviously to her music, and
Speaker 3: uh and there you go. They booked me for it.
Speaker 1: You were living in La at the time where we're Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was in La Okay whereabouts.
Speaker 3: I was living at that at that time, on top
Speaker 3: of the Panga Canyon. Oh wow, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: Theme themes are emerging here, Jamie stout. Welcome to my world, right,
Speaker 4: I love it. Your world is a good place, Jamie steins.
Speaker 1: Panka Canyon, for those who don't know, is just over
Speaker 1: the hill from Malibu, and it is exactly the part
Speaker 1: of La you would end up in if you were
Speaker 1: a surfer turned model who listened to a lot of reggae.
Speaker 1: It's perfect. Jamie booked the job. The video came out
Speaker 1: and you've seen it.
Speaker 4: So you know he crushes it. So during during.
Speaker 1: Lockdown, we've had a lot of time time to you know,
Speaker 1: to watch things, to binge, watch our thing here.
Speaker 4: In our home.
Speaker 1: My partner and I will just go down late night
Speaker 1: YouTube music video rabbit holes, right, and we we got
Speaker 1: into the Amygrant music videos recently, and I said out loud,
Speaker 1: this is a man who understands the assignment. This guy
Speaker 1: has a job and he's doing the hell out of it.
Speaker 3: I appreciate that you're I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: It's you're you're like you're magnetic, but you're not stealing focus.
Speaker 1: It's like, it is. I hope you're comfortable with me
Speaker 1: saying this. It is you're performing a male Tawny Katain situation. Wow, Wow, Wow,
Speaker 1: all right, kids, gather around again. Tawny Katain was the
Speaker 1: video vixen of the eighties. She appeared on the cover
Speaker 1: of rats breakthrough album Out of the Cellar, but she's
Speaker 1: known for her performance doing the splits and vaults on
Speaker 1: the hoods of luxury cars in White Snakes Here I
Speaker 1: Go Again video. That performance made MTV play that video
Speaker 1: a million times a day, and MTV playing that video
Speaker 1: a million times a day made that song an album
Speaker 1: go multi platinum. You're gonna have to take my word
Speaker 1: for it that when I said he had pulled off
Speaker 1: a rare male Tawny Kataine maneuver. Jamie put his hand
Speaker 1: right on his chest like he was really touched. This
Speaker 1: guy gets it. Okay, yeah, Okay, that landed. Wow good
Speaker 1: yeah good.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So on set, what kind of direction were you given?
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, I have to say DJ Webster,
Speaker 3: who was the director, was just he was crazy but
Speaker 3: so like like he gave me all the energy that
Speaker 3: I needed. I was, you have to you have to
Speaker 3: know that I was really raw, like into this business.
Speaker 3: So I really didn't know what I was doing at all.
Speaker 3: I was just going with how I feel and with
Speaker 3: the direction I was And Amy Grant Okay, so I really,
Speaker 3: like I said, I don't really don't know anything about Amy,
Speaker 3: And she was so sweet and so understanding and so
Speaker 3: like I had the lip sync to her her song
Speaker 3: and in front of like I don't know, fifty sixties
Speaker 3: people working in front of me. So I was super
Speaker 3: embarrassed in the beginning because I didn't want to embarrass
Speaker 3: her by me like making a fool myself. She said,
Speaker 3: just go with it, just let's have fun. And I
Speaker 3: literally just whatever came on the line, I just did.
Speaker 3: And with the direction of DJ and and Amy just
Speaker 3: like leading it was. It just felt it felt really natural.
Speaker 1: After the video comes out, it explodes and gets played constantly.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Oh my god, you have you have
Speaker 3: no idea, you have no idea. It was no, it
Speaker 3: was it was beyond what I'd ever thought I was
Speaker 3: doing at the time. What was going to be the
Speaker 3: direction of my life was going after that, Like it
Speaker 3: was literally on I don't know, because MTV back then
Speaker 3: was playing videos and it was my video, the video
Speaker 3: I was in, and the Janet Jackson video at that time,
Speaker 3: and it literally was playing probably ten ten times a
Speaker 3: day at least. Yeah, and and averywhere I you know,
Speaker 3: a lot of places I went, Like I would see
Speaker 3: it on like a TV inside a restaurant I would see.
Speaker 3: I would hear the music in like target, you know,
Speaker 3: I would. It was and this goes on for years,
Speaker 3: you know, for years, and every time someone would look
Speaker 3: at me or say something to me, or it caught
Speaker 3: me by surprise every single time. And I never ever
Speaker 3: got used to that ever, And it happened a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw this video a lot that year, and
Speaker 1: every time it was on, I would watch it all
Speaker 1: the way through. Everybody would Jamie's that magnetic. Amy Grant's
Speaker 1: fans ate the video up. Jamie knew a little about
Speaker 1: Amy Grant, but he didn't get how many fans she
Speaker 1: had or what kind of fans they were.
Speaker 3: And I didn't realize she had that many followers and
Speaker 3: that many fans. The followers fans, like a crazy, crazy
Speaker 3: amount of fans.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, she had a lot of fans.
Speaker 1: But then also that song and that album made her
Speaker 1: cross over to the mainstream pop charts, and then then
Speaker 1: it really exploded.
Speaker 3: I didn't realize that's what was going on. And then
Speaker 3: it kind of got a little controversial, I guess with oh, explain, Yeah,
Speaker 3: well she was married and I was playing her love interest.
Speaker 3: So the Christian gospel fans, some of them, you know,
Speaker 3: were just like, well, what's going on here? You know,
Speaker 3: they actually believed I was her boyfriend on the side.
Speaker 3: Some people.
Speaker 1: While another guy might have tried to seize that moment
Speaker 1: and capitalize on it, try to spin it into a
Speaker 1: movie career or a pop single of his own, Jamie
Speaker 1: just kind of took it in stride. It raised your
Speaker 1: profile through the roof. Did it did it change the
Speaker 1: way you saw your future?
Speaker 3: I mean day I saw my future. I saw like
Speaker 3: I see my future day by day, not like long
Speaker 3: long term. But it changed it for sure within within
Speaker 3: my within my work, because people started calling for me
Speaker 3: because I want that guy in the in the amy gravity,
Speaker 3: who's that guy? Let's get him for this, Let's get
Speaker 3: him for that. So it opened up huge opportunities for me.
Speaker 3: I just went with it, and and from there I
Speaker 3: ended up moving to Europe to Paris, and I stayed
Speaker 3: in Paris for like almost eight years, working working fashion
Speaker 3: in Paris, and I would come back to California and
Speaker 3: do jobs through through my agency's in LA and New York,
Speaker 3: and and I was getting a lot of work because
Speaker 3: of that video of the videos, but first basically from
Speaker 3: the first one for sure.
Speaker 4: So just as a model, it got.
Speaker 3: To yes, yes, okay. But I also think because they
Speaker 3: saw that, they believe that I wasn't just modeling in it.
Speaker 3: They believed that the emotions and stuff like that and
Speaker 3: in the chemistry, they believe it's real, and so a
Speaker 3: lot of those jobs that's what they wanted. And so
Speaker 3: they saw that and they're like, oh, let's try this
Speaker 3: guy looks good for what we're doing. So I mean,
Speaker 3: I can't give enough thanks to aiming for all that.
Speaker 1: So a music video, there are no like residuals or
Speaker 1: anything like that, Like it's you get your day right
Speaker 1: and then it doesn't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I if there was residuals from that, I would
Speaker 3: be a different, different category. But yeah, no, no, it's
Speaker 3: it's just it's a it's a one time thing, okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: but what it gave me in the future is priceless. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: So he took a big role in a big music
Speaker 1: video that he did extremely well, and he used it
Speaker 1: as a way to do more of what he was
Speaker 1: already doing. He got exactly what he wanted from his
Speaker 1: big break, and what he wanted was what he already had.
Speaker 4: This goes against everything that you're.
Speaker 1: Taught about how you're supposed to live in America in
Speaker 1: late capitalism.
Speaker 4: But he didn't want to be rich, he didn't want
Speaker 4: to be famous.
Speaker 3: No, I just wanted to to be to be be happy,
Speaker 3: be at peace with myself, enjoy my life. I wanted
Speaker 3: I wanted to. I wanted to I wanted to surf, obviously,
Speaker 3: and I wanted to travel and and and get different
Speaker 3: cultures and and and experienced life. That's what I wanted
Speaker 3: to do, and that's what I was doing and continuing
Speaker 3: to do. And I would just pick another place to
Speaker 3: go into experience and and and to dive into the culture.
Speaker 3: I saw myself doing that until I couldn't do it anymore.
Speaker 3: Let's just put it that way.
Speaker 4: And and it sounds like that is how it's panned.
Speaker 3: Out a little bit. It has it, really, it really has.
Speaker 3: I mean since I had my son, it's obviously slowed
Speaker 3: me down. It's not slowed me down, it's it's put
Speaker 3: me in a different position to be. To be a father,
Speaker 3: you have to be there for your for your son
Speaker 3: or your daughter. So I'm more focused on being a father,
Speaker 3: but also traveling and doing that as much as possible
Speaker 3: and actually making him understand, like feel the way I
Speaker 3: feel about it as well. That's important to me to
Speaker 3: understand that there's a world out there. Yeah, what's he's studying,
Speaker 3: what's his marine biology? I mean it's amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the apple has not fallen far from the trade.
Speaker 3: No, no, thank god.
Speaker 1: The day after we spoke, he headed to Las Vegas
Speaker 1: to do some modeling for a hotel, then off to
Speaker 1: Kona in Hawaii. Than Corus out than Hamburg, Germany. Dude
Speaker 1: has not stopped working or exploring or surfing. He's busy.
Speaker 4: Your dance card is full and I love it.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I'm very I'm very happy.
Speaker 1: You've got a great energy. I would if I were
Speaker 1: to in a position to cast you in my music video,
Speaker 1: I would do it in a heartbeat.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I appreciate it truly.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna You've made me want to learn to surf.
Speaker 3: See, that's all. That's all I want to do. That's
Speaker 3: all I want to do, inspire people to get in
Speaker 3: the water and enjoy the water.
Speaker 1: Just as we were saying goodbye, Jamie remembered a message
Speaker 1: he had just gotten on his Instagram. And it's too
Speaker 1: good not to play for you.
Speaker 3: I want to share one thing with you guys really quick,
Speaker 3: because I thought this was really special. If someone sent
Speaker 3: me this message on Instagram literally two days ago. Do
Speaker 3: you mind if I share it with you guys?
Speaker 4: Please?
Speaker 3: Okay, so let me just put my glasses on because
Speaker 3: I'm flying without him, That's all right, Okay. This is
Speaker 3: from Lisa twenty five years ago. My husband and I,
Speaker 3: being nine months pregnant and overdue, went on a dancing
Speaker 3: date to possibly get things moving. As luck would have it,
Speaker 3: the DJ saw my huge belly on the dance floor
Speaker 3: and played Baby Baby and made me feel like a
Speaker 3: star out there. Not only did I love the song
Speaker 3: and the artists, but I thought you were perfect in
Speaker 3: the role. So now I have an amazingly gifted and
Speaker 3: gorgeous twenty five year old son named Jamie. Can you
Speaker 3: believe that? It's unbelievable?
Speaker 4: How often does that kind of thing happen?
Speaker 3: It happens quite a bit, honestly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 3: I mean, it makes me feel really good. You know,
Speaker 3: if I get if I'm down one day, I'll look
Speaker 3: at one of these texts, these messages, I'm like, wow,
Speaker 3: that's pretty amazing. So yeah, it makes me happy.
Speaker 1: Jamie Stein has the life he wants. He has a
Speaker 1: chill attitude, and there's at least one child out in
Speaker 1: the world named after him. If he's not alongside such
Speaker 1: an impact in the music video co Star Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: I don't know who is. Now, feel excuse me, I
Speaker 1: need to watch Baby Baby five more times. So there
Speaker 1: is a thing that people do in conversation that really
Speaker 1: jumps out at me and it's starting a sentence with
Speaker 1: the word so. I find myself doing it a lot
Speaker 1: in questions. I'm not sure what it's all about. I
Speaker 1: think it's to reassure the person I'm talking to that
Speaker 1: I've done my research, So tell me about that BBD
Speaker 1: tour jacket.
Speaker 4: So what was the super Bowl halftime show?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: Etc.
Speaker 1: But often I ask a question and then the answer
Speaker 1: begins with the words so, I've thought a lot about
Speaker 1: what that so signifies, because, as you probably know by now,
Speaker 1: I think about a lot of things that can't possibly
Speaker 1: benefit me financially. I think what it says is, Okay,
Speaker 1: here it goes, I've anticipated your question, and you're going
Speaker 1: to get a full and satisfying answer. Jason goes a
Speaker 1: step further. I ask a question and he begins his answer, yeah,
Speaker 1: even if it isn't a yes or no question.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And then sometimes so it's next level.
Speaker 1: It's Jason saying, not only have I anticipated this question,
Speaker 1: I've answered it in my head a few times already.
Speaker 1: To me, it says, Jason has been ready to talk
Speaker 1: about this stuff for a long time. He's just been
Speaker 1: waiting for someone to ask, how does.
Speaker 4: That feel to you?
Speaker 1: When you've you've made something, and now it's just you're
Speaker 1: just waiting for strangers to do something with it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, at the time, like it was, it was so gradual,
Speaker 2: like our you know, the realization that you're not going
Speaker 2: to get released.
Speaker 1: Once again, the three remaining guys of Sudden Impact, who
Speaker 1: are now recording as Outsiders for Life with Jimmy Marble
Speaker 1: and Jason Dowdy, are recording for a hot record label,
Speaker 1: this time Blackground Records, the label launched by Aliah's uncle
Speaker 1: Barry Hankerson, and once again, the finished product never sees
Speaker 1: the light of day.
Speaker 2: There's probably one moment where, you know, I think all
Speaker 2: of our hearts sank a little bit when we were
Speaker 2: promoting not Enough, So we got a lot of radio play.
Speaker 2: It was trending up. We were on tour like it
Speaker 2: was around spring break time. I want to say, I
Speaker 2: can't remember if it was ninety nine or two thousand,
Speaker 2: I cannot remember.
Speaker 5: Somewhere in that time.
Speaker 2: I remember it was spring break time because we were
Speaker 2: in Florida and we were, you know, opening for our idols,
Speaker 2: you know, like Loud Cruise and Pink and Shaggy, and
Speaker 2: we're starting to get some attention, We're starting to gain
Speaker 2: some momentum, doing interviews all of that, and then I
Speaker 2: guess the single lost momentum and they just pulled the
Speaker 2: plug on the tour, so we're off the tour bus
Speaker 2: and all that, and I think that was kind of
Speaker 2: the moment where like, and you know that boy bands
Speaker 2: are about to be over, you know, the kind of
Speaker 2: run their course. By the time, I think this was
Speaker 2: in two thousand, so he kind of knew that they
Speaker 2: were running their course. And that's probably the moment where
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I don't think this.
Speaker 5: May not happen.
Speaker 1: With the single sputtering out, Blackground pulled the plug on
Speaker 1: the album, an album that was already made, finished, had
Speaker 1: a cover and everything. They did get one song, a
Speaker 1: remix of hell Yeah on the soundtrack of the DMX
Speaker 1: Steven Sigall movie Exit Wounds, But as for a full album, again,
Speaker 1: the guys have poured their hearts into a project that
Speaker 1: sits in a vault at a record company. Why record
Speaker 1: something and then never give it an opportunity to earn
Speaker 1: a single dollar back?
Speaker 2: I think that's just I think that's just part of
Speaker 2: the business at the time. There, I mean, there are
Speaker 2: so many boy bands and like girl groups from that
Speaker 2: time that probably got left on the cutting room floor,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: Like, I bet there are.
Speaker 2: Thousands of stories like mine out there, and I think
Speaker 2: it was just the way they did business like they
Speaker 2: would it was worth the investment to see if it
Speaker 2: would happen to get like like, it's kind of like
Speaker 2: a gold rush, right instinct. You know, Backstreet Boys are popular.
Speaker 2: Everybody's like, let's make the next one. When they all
Speaker 2: rushed to it and they all throw money at it,
Speaker 2: and then you know, whoever catches on, great, But if
Speaker 2: they don't catch on, it was worth the investment to
Speaker 2: seek to get part of that part of that market.
Speaker 1: To your point about boy bands that that don't take off,
Speaker 1: Get this, Okay, I'm going to tell you a story.
Speaker 1: This would have to have been. In two thousand, I
Speaker 1: hosted the get this you're sitting down, this is good.
Speaker 1: I hosted the press conference the unveiling of the Backstreet
Speaker 1: Boys Burger King Kids Club action figures.
Speaker 5: Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: They flew me down to Orlando, Florida to like to
Speaker 1: some theme park or something, and the Backstreet Boys were
Speaker 1: there and they were unveiling their kids Club, Action figures
Speaker 1: and so and so that's that was going on there,
Speaker 1: which was of course wild. And the night that I
Speaker 1: spent in Orlando, we ended up going to some club
Speaker 1: and the club was literally full. Like everyone that I
Speaker 1: met was like in a boy band or a girl group.
Speaker 1: So it was like they would introduce themselves by name
Speaker 1: and then.
Speaker 4: Name of group.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, as though I knew like these you know,
Speaker 1: second and third tier like groups that Lou Pearlman was,
Speaker 1: you know, was working with, but it was it was insane.
Speaker 1: It would just be like, Hi, I'm Ashley Innocence. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means. I don't know what
Speaker 1: that means. But there were dozens of them, and it
Speaker 1: was like I am fully in like in like some
Speaker 1: sort of I'm like at Hogwarts for boy bands and
Speaker 1: girl groups, and most of the ones I met nothing happened.
Speaker 4: So there you go.
Speaker 2: Well, and I think part of the reason we had
Speaker 2: some success was like there was some integrity to our
Speaker 2: group because we wrote and produced the stuff, and we
Speaker 2: like the contracts that we had to choose from. DreamWorks
Speaker 2: was one of them, and we could have gone that route,
Speaker 2: you know, work with David Foster, you know, with that direction.
Speaker 2: But Todd and Alan and Tim really liked the offer
Speaker 2: from Blackground because they were more like our people, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean, Like they understood the type of
Speaker 2: music we wanted to make. They were working with our
Speaker 2: ye rows, you know, Timberlance from the Missier Votes, from
Speaker 2: that Hampton Roads area, like, you know, it just seemed
Speaker 2: like a better fit. So, like, I think the reason
Speaker 2: we even caught on some was because there was like
Speaker 2: that people can tell genuine from fake pretty easily, right,
Speaker 2: and I think at least people could tell that, you know,
Speaker 2: we wrote the song and it's real and we mean
Speaker 2: the lyrics and all that.
Speaker 1: So in the early nineties, Sudden Impact slash White Guys
Speaker 1: Slashed the Outsiders couldn't get their records released because new
Speaker 1: Kids on the Block were over. In two thousand, Outsiders
Speaker 1: for Life couldn't get their record released because Backstreet Boys
Speaker 1: and in Sync were huge. Sudden Impact got pushed to
Speaker 1: the side because there were no boy bands. Outsiders for
Speaker 1: Life got pushed to the side because there were too
Speaker 1: many boy bands. For Jason, this was a disappointment, but
Speaker 1: he was still new to the game. For the core
Speaker 1: group from Sudden impact. This has to have been devastating.
Speaker 1: If this is two thousand, this is nine years into
Speaker 1: a career where this has been happening over and over
Speaker 1: and over. Did you get a sense for how they
Speaker 1: were feeling.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so Todd.
Speaker 2: Todd is definitely the most persistent person in the group
Speaker 2: that will do anything to make the dream happen. He
Speaker 2: started the group, it's his dream. He is so good
Speaker 2: at I don't know, like motivating people and getting people
Speaker 2: on board. But his I think his thought process at
Speaker 2: the time was this sucks. What can I do next
Speaker 2: to make it happen? Like, you know, it was more
Speaker 2: like let's do this, let's do that, let's talk to
Speaker 2: these people. He's more in like, let's still make it
Speaker 2: happen mode. So I think you'll have to ask Todd
Speaker 2: what happened after that. But I think for him it
Speaker 2: wasn't quite real yet, and it wasn't real necessarily for
Speaker 2: any of us were But that was kind of a
Speaker 2: moment where I was like, oh, yeah, this could be
Speaker 2: over soon, you know, like where at least that light
Speaker 2: bulb went on, you know, but we weren't ready to
Speaker 2: give up.
Speaker 4: Sure, and what does that feel like?
Speaker 2: So joining this group has always felt like it's too
Speaker 2: good to be true anyway, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: Like I talked in right when everybody did the groundwork,
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, Like everybody had already done
Speaker 2: the groundwork, got the contract and all that, and I'm
Speaker 2: just like singing songs that other people are writing. Like
Speaker 2: so for me it wasn't as bad. I was like,
Speaker 2: I can always go back to, you know, performing doing
Speaker 2: what I was doing before. So and you know, it's
Speaker 2: been a dream of mine, but I'm not like, you know,
Speaker 2: there are people who dream and then there's people who
Speaker 2: build and do things about it. When I was that young,
Speaker 2: I was just dreaming, not doing anything about it. So
Speaker 2: I wasn't like invested too heavily. So I probably took
Speaker 2: it better than most of the people, like especially Pod
Speaker 2: and Allen and.
Speaker 1: Day and Jason had a fallback position doing something else
Speaker 1: that I feel like I'm going to have to explain
Speaker 1: to young people, like.
Speaker 2: I moved did a cruise ship contract two thousand and
Speaker 2: four and moved back to two thousand and five to
Speaker 2: make one last go of the group, and then in
Speaker 2: two thousand and six is when I moved away started
Speaker 2: doing cruise ships again and all of that.
Speaker 1: All right, kids gather around one more time. People used
Speaker 1: to go on cruise ships.
Speaker 4: That's it.
Speaker 2: So I think that's kind of when the realization happened
Speaker 2: for Todd and for the guys in the group. I
Speaker 2: think we're all slowly accepting it over time.
Speaker 1: Now Todd, as I understand it, is still in the business,
Speaker 1: still like writing songs for country artists.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, he's still doing that.
Speaker 2: He's I think he has a You'll have to ask
Speaker 2: Todd obviously to get the exact thing, but I know
Speaker 2: he had a last time I spoke to him, he
Speaker 2: said he had a big meeting in Nashville and he
Speaker 2: was considering, like there offered him a publishing contract. But
Speaker 2: you know, he has a family now, he's got a mortgage,
Speaker 2: and he's got all these responsibilities. So in order to
Speaker 2: only focus on writing, like we'd have to take drastic cut.
Speaker 5: And pay and so I think he was weighing those options.
Speaker 5: You'll have to ask him how it came out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jason's got a good attitude about the whole thing,
Speaker 1: probably because he remembers why he got involved in the
Speaker 1: first place. When you were like starting out as a singer.
Speaker 1: What did what did success in music look like to you?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I I didn't really I didn't really think about it
Speaker 2: that much. I so my very first job, I got
Speaker 2: it Frontier City in Oklahoma, just singing in some show,
Speaker 2: earning minimum wage, you know, and I was selling pictures
Speaker 2: at the front of the park before and after, and
Speaker 2: like I was thrilled, you know at the time, like I.
Speaker 5: Can sing for a living.
Speaker 2: Wow, you know what I mean. Like I had that
Speaker 2: just attitude or gratitude all the time. So I success
Speaker 2: to me was just like the fact that I could
Speaker 2: sing and make a living at it. That was number one.
Speaker 2: Like in Oklahoma, they don't preach that, like it doesn't
Speaker 2: happen because there aren't any performing jobs there obviously, right,
Speaker 2: So you know, if I grew up in La or
Speaker 2: York or something like that, I'd probably have bigger, bigger dreams.
Speaker 2: But did that got a job at Busch Gardens. I
Speaker 2: was like, Wow, even a better job. And then you know,
Speaker 2: started doing that, and then when this came along, I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, I didn't even realize this could happen
Speaker 2: this easily, you know what I mean, Like I was
Speaker 2: I didn't build it from scratch or anything like that.
Speaker 2: I just kind of luckily fell into it. So and
Speaker 2: then I got out a new vision of success with
Speaker 2: the group. I was like, Wow, we could really make it.
Speaker 2: We could do this, we could do that. Started to
Speaker 2: learn producing and songwriting and all that while while we went.
Speaker 1: And now are you still well nobody's doing cruise ships now,
Speaker 1: But have you had you How long did you continue
Speaker 1: singing on cruise ships and stuff?
Speaker 2: Yeah, until like twenty thirteen, and then I got another
Speaker 2: regular nine to five job, met my wife, you know,
Speaker 2: so now we have kids and all that, so just
Speaker 2: doing that. I still write songs. I still put music
Speaker 2: out and do some producing and stuff like that, but
Speaker 2: not like I don't have time to pursue it or
Speaker 2: anything like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah. How many kids?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 5: Oh two? I have two kids? Yeah, three and five.
Speaker 5: Sophia's five, Kayley's two.
Speaker 4: Congratulations, Oh thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 4: And what line of business are you in?
Speaker 2: I worked for an internet service provider and as a
Speaker 2: team manager just for people. We basically give a call
Speaker 2: and say, hey, I see you signed up for our internet.
Speaker 2: Let's let's get an appointment going that type.
Speaker 4: Thanks good. It's a happy life.
Speaker 5: It sounds like, yeah, yeah, it's a happy life most definitely.
Speaker 4: Are you glad you took the ride?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah it was. I mean I have
Speaker 2: some of my best stories from there. I don't know
Speaker 2: if I should share any other I think. I mean, like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, no, not have it involves other people,
Speaker 2: but yeah, yeah, I would say it's definitely worth the ride.
Speaker 1: Jason Dowdy and Jamie Stein Tiger Beet and the Baby
Speaker 1: Baby Man, two good guys, two living lessons in gratitude.
Speaker 4: I check my.
Speaker 1: Email after I get off the zoom and there's a
Speaker 1: message from Todd White, the main songwriter for Sudden Impact,
Speaker 1: the guy all the way to the right in the
Speaker 1: Motown Philly moment, the driver of the whole project, the
Speaker 1: guy who was gonna beat up Aaron Kine but started
Speaker 1: a singing group with him instead. He says he's down
Speaker 1: to talk and he wants to know if Alan Healy
Speaker 1: can join the call. I'll talk to two fifths of
Speaker 1: Sudden Impact at the same time, and maybe they'll give
Speaker 1: me the dish on who that disc track was about.
Speaker 1: We'll find out next time. On Waiting for Impact, a
Speaker 1: Dave Holmes passion project This has been an exactly Right production.
Speaker 1: Written by me Dave Holmes, produced by Hannah Kyle Crichton, recorded,
Speaker 1: mixed and sound designed by Andrew Eapen. Additional engineering and
Speaker 1: assembly by Annalise Nelson. Music by Ben Wise, artwork by
Speaker 1: Garrett Ross. Executive produced by Caro kill Gareff, Georgia hard
Speaker 1: Stark and Danielle Kramer. Follow the show on Instagram, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Twitter at exactly right and follow me at Dave Holmes.
Speaker 1: For more information, go to Exactlyrightmedia dot com. Binge the
Speaker 1: show add free on stitch your premium for a free month.
Speaker 1: Head to Stitcher Premium dot com, slash impact and enter
Speaker 1: promo code Impact when you select a monthly plan. Listen, subscribe,
Speaker 1: and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or
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