A few days ago I was trying to think of a good guest from within the music industry to come in and hang with us for a couple of hours on Sunday night for the Grammy Awards — someone on par with the excellent guests we’ve had come in for the Archer open thread/live blog thingies we’ve been doing. A slight problem with that is that many people in the industry actually go to the Grammys, so availability is scarce. But there was one music industry friend of mine who, when I texted him to ask if he was going to the show, responded by saying, “Naaa f*ck that dinosaur show.” It was then that I realized that he’d make for the PERFECT guest for a Grammy night open thread and that I didn’t need to look any further.
So I was able to get him to agreed to come hang with us under one condition: that he could do so anonymously, so he could speak frankly and not worry about burning a bridge or two with any of the fickle, sensitive music industry people he works with when answering a question or sharing an anecdote. So for the occasion we’re going to refer to him as, “Mr. X, anonymous music industry executive.”
A little background info on Mr. X — he’s a partner at a management firm that reps a large stable of artists, mostly rock bands, some that are quite well known. He’s been in the business for over a decade, so he’s seen up close how the rise of MP3s has changed the industry, and he’s managed to evolve in order to survive. Most importantly, I’ve always gotten a kick out of talking about music and the music industry with him. Mr. X is frank, he’s candid and he doesn’t sling bullsh*t. Which is precisely why I thought it would be fun to have him.
Additionally, we may have another special guest or two swing by — we’ll see. In the meantime, enjoy the Foo Fighters doing a Grammy-themed “Top Ten” on Letterman last night. Below the video is a list of the artists slated to perform on Sunday night. And the full list of nominees is here. We’ll see you back here then.
The scheduled performers:
-Coldplay
-Rihanna
-Paul McCartney
-Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson
-the Foo Fighters
-Bruno Mars
-Nicki Minaj
-Taylor Swift
-the Beach Boys with Maroon 5 and Foster the People
Any questions? If you have any please direct them to the charming Capt. Dickson from the new 21 Jump Street film. He’ll be taking all my calls until Sunday night. Good luck with that.
