Anyone who is fighting for something, anything, should read this.
It has been awhile since I have blogged and to everyone emailing for another, well here I am…and here is another.
I have been rather quiet for a couple weeks. The reason is that I immersed myself in work. I think at a point it became unhealthy. I’m still not sure. I was in a zone of trying to accomplish something big. Along with my co-worker and friend Matt Gabrys from www.realcollegetour.com, were both relentless on a pursuit of redemption. This blog will drift briefly from the subject of sobriety but trust me, it’s a message every addict needs to read as it serves as a testament to perseverance, which all of us need from time to time to make it on through that next sober moment. So here it goes.
Have you ever been told that dreadful expression, “Keep dreaming?” It’s a ludicrous and negative comment that usually comes from those who that aren’t inspired themselves and/or cant stand it when others around them succeed. Trust me; I get this all day long, sometimes 2 to 3 times a week. Rock Star and myself, and Matt, were all told (and sometimes to our faces), that our hopes and desires were too unreasonable. One example would be that our music would never play on any single station in America. That our method to bringing to light a very serious substance abuse issue amongst our youth will never attract enough attention to ever make a difference. Well sorry to 100% of those around us, we do not and will never see things that way. AND THANK GOD! In our eyes, everything imaginable is obtainable. Of course that is, if your sober and of course, we are.
While Rock Star rocked his message of sobriety in California, Matt and I kept busy ourselves in the windy city trying to break through the wall of despair and rejection with these very objectives. .
As you all are aware, my brother and I have recently released National Anthem 2.0. A song performed by members of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Circle II Circle, and ourselves and created with sincere sentiment toward our great nation. We felt very strongly about this effort and very positive about the message we were trying to express. The message was simple; support all of those who are on the front lines everyday, fighting for our freedom at home and around the globe while at the same time, release a song so inspirational and so true, that it will ultimately allow us to convey our message of sobriety to the masses. We were setting ourselves up for quite a mission.
National Anthem 2.0 was not just the ultimate tribute to the Star Spangled Banner. It was bigger than anyone of us and we all knew it from the beginning. We all felt very strongly that it was important to get this song out there and in every way and anyway we could.
Well today, I can stand before you and can say that because of our very exhausting efforts, the song has now garnered interest from radio stations across the country. It has been nominated by the L.A Music Awards as “Song of the year,” and finally, we have recently learned of a few towns will be playing the song to help welcome home members of the National Guard during their upcoming homecomings. As you can imagine, this is the ultimate compliment for us.
But in between the lines to all this success are the self-doubts created by the doubters that surrounded us. It was often Matt and I would look at each other and ask, “When should we give up?” Because we knew what getting this song out there could do for us to help us communicate our message of sobriety later on, we knew we had to keep going, but but how? The doubts were setting in quickly and it was making things extremely difficult.
“How much of our effort would make a difference anyway?” I can remember asking.
It was a very difficult time and everyday we were faced with a discouraging blow to the face by someone else who had an over inflated ego and who didn’t want to help us simply for the reason because he/she knew that they could.
Then the emails came tricking in.
Various Lieutenant Colonel told us they liked the song.
Family members of soldiers told us they liked the song.
Now we could not stop.
During this time, there were A LOT of program directors and other corporate folks who wrote us off by ignoring us completely with our ideas and proposals. This is hard to accept when it was often that developing one initiative or pitch could take up to 10-20 hours to perfect, or in the case of General Motors, 40-50 hours. Most people don't think about that when they click delete. Pretty sad. Some stations and companies even told us the song was song “too patriotic,” for their tastes. Hundreds of hours only to end our days with comments and actions that we saw as nothing more than a slap in the face to our soldiers and our nation’s heroes. We ourselves also took them very personally. Our hopes were always high and we suddenly found them AND ourselves at an all time low. Dealing with rejections on a daily basis is discouraging and disheartening. Every one of them were hard to recover from because each was a horrific blow to our self-esteem and self-worth. Geez, maybe everyone was right. Maybe we should "keep dreaming."
As I mentioned prior, we did get radio eventually but it wasn’t just radio Matt and I were after. It was something even greater. We knew we had a good product (song), and being the innovators we are often called, knew it could do a whole lot of good for a whole lot of people somehow, but in what way?
Then we thought about it and realized how terrific it would be to get this song into the hands of an organization that could benefit from its message of patriotism and use on a level that we never could. Moreover, on a level that could help more people in ways than we could ever fathom. But at this stage of our push we were already running on fumes and only a day or two away from possibly giving up completely.
Last Monday, before I laid my little head down to rest, I prayed harder than I ever had. I asked my higher power for anything, just a little something; to give me us the courage to continue our quest to do what we felt was “the right thing.”
Then I went to sleep to “keep dreaming.”
The very next morning, the phone rang. On the other end of that phone was my answer we had been relentlessly perusing for months.
I cried.
Everything and even more than what Matt, Rock Star or I could of ever of hoped for was suddenly and almost still unbelievably talking to me on the other and of the phone.
Although I cannot tell you what just yet, National Anthem 2.0 is now in the hands of the right entity. My higher power undoubtedly brought us together. We are lucky to have people and companies out there that “get it,” and like Matt, I, and my brother, are not afraid to stand up and fight for those that stand in front of us on our behalf every single day. For the ones that don’t and didn’t, SHAME ON YOU.
So in the not to distant future when you hear National Anthem 2.0 on the radio by Rock Star Super Star project, you can be sure that its for a great cause and we hope that you show your support to them in droves.
As of writing this blog, a total 60,000 of you have watched the videos posted online for National Anthem 2.0. It has been nominated for “Best song of the year” by LA Music Awards and will be used by an extremely important organization that supports our Military Might. Not to shabby for a song that everyone told us not to write.
If you are dealing with your own obstacles while fighting for your own truth, with addiction, or anything else, or just need some kind words of inspiration and hope, please email me at super@superstarsuperstar.com and/or visit us at www.rockstarsuperstarproject.com
In conclusion, you can accomplish everything and anything, just stay sober. It is the only way. And for all those that have helped in some form or another, push National Anthem 2.0 to the front lines, thank you. Redemption is already here.
And to Matt, the one person who set up camp with me for all those months who never gave up. Truly the one person who never laughed, ok we both laughed, no matter how outrageous my ideas and claims. All those Friday and Saturday nights working behind our crazy laptops wishing we were somewhere with the rest of the world, even if it were a Wal-Mart, thanks brother. On to the next conquerable endeavor. You ready? Cause I got an idea!
