Chapter 4
Johnny’s desire to be a rock god pushed him forward to get
the recording done but that was fun and he didn’t plan on spending hours
working on getting recognition for his brilliance. He would never work at
anything. The feeling that you are doing work was not a feeling he thought a
god should have. Johnny believed firmly in his position of the higher station
of privilege and work was only for other people who in his mind were his peasants.
Johnny was convinced that the news of the new rock god would
make it easy to get the press’s attention so as soon as they were made aware of
his presence. He contacted a PR
firm recommended by a hotel patron at the bar one evening that had an office
close to the hotel. For money richly paid a press release to his liking was
sent out to all the media and top musical publications and local media in
Berlin. Johnny smiled broadly as
he thought about being inundated with requests for interviews and invitation to
all music industry events. His self
absorbed plan was headed in the right direction; more partying and fun and no
work! Interviews on his rock god status would be fun as he was recognized as
the new Mozart. Going to music industry events and parties would be a blast; he
would be invited to everything! Johnny’s thoughts then turned to his need to
hire a personal assistant right away to handle any work that may be required to
arrange his party life effectively; he didn’t want to miss any of the big
events!
Johnny headed off to the rock clubs to begin the reveling of
his success. It was a fabulous night filled with fun and frolic mixed with all
the accoutrements of wild rich living. Morning replaced the evening in what
seemed like one breath to Johnny but he was too excited to sleep anyway. When
he returned to the hotel with the sun breaking he turned on the television news
channel and hunkered into bed.
He hesitated for a moment to call room service as he didn’t
want to tie up his telephone hotel line but he decided that the media would
have to wait for the rock god to eat his breakfast. After a few hours went by since Johnny’s breakfast banquet
arrived and the news channels didn’t say a word about Johnny, the phone
suddenly rang. The ring was so
loud that Johnny thought his head would explode and he decided not to answer
it. They could wait until he was ready was Johnny’s thought. He was a rock god
and they are at his behest not the other way around.
By the early evening only one call had come through and not
a single news station reported on the coming of Johnny! The one call that came
in was from his father but Johnny knew that return call could wait. Johnny was
furious and called the PR firm accusing them of lying to him about submitting
the press release. That was in
Johnny’s opinion the only explanation for his lack of media attention. But
Johnny didn’t get anywhere. While he ranted and raved and caused a scene they
just kep repeating the same thing over and over assuring Johnny that they sent
the press release out as they had been contracted to do. Johnny realized he was
getting nowhere with this and gave up once security was called. He would have
to assign another PR firm to send out his press release if he didn’t get any
response as that would surely mean the PR firm he hired were just crooks anyway.
Johnny knew that many people he encountered were jealous of him so they would do
things to try to screw him over but he knew their game.
Later that same evening as Johnny was at the last stages of
primping for his night out clubbing an envelope was pushed under his hotel room
door. Inside the envelope was a letter from a local paper along with a letter
from the firm. The PR firm formally noticed Johnny that this contact letter
proved that the press release was issued and that they were not willing to do
any further work for him and requested that he no longer contact the firm for
any reason. Johnny threw their
letter down screaming out that they would regret this decision and then grabbed
the letter from the Berliner Newsgroup music critic. He read it over and over
again feverishly. His emotions went
wildly from anger to elation. This was a contact but it was not what he
expected or deserved! It was a simple request for him to submit his music to
the Berliner for their music critic to review.
After Johnny got worn out from his anger he decided in the
end that it might take the rest of the media more time to respond but surely
they would recognize his great talent as soon as they read his press release. Lying around, partying and shopping while
he waited was fine by Johnny; it was the life he was used to. Of course he would be recognized as the
rock god that he is.
He then picked up the phone, called the studio and paid for
a copy of his recording to be submitted to the Berliner’s music critic that had
requested it in the letter. They
would be the first to decide his rock god status and Johnny could tell his
father when he called again about the request. Any news of progress is all
Johnny knew he needed for his father to turn his sights away from him again.
That same night he found out from other clubbers that the
Berliner Newsgroup was a largely respected publication and their music critic
was also well respected even for rock. Johnny’s thoughts returned to his
expectation of receiving recognition for his rock god status for days until the
Berliner music critic article came out reviewing his recording he ultimately named
“My Universe”.
The critic blasted Johnny’s voice saying he couldn’t sing at
all and had harsh words about the lyrics and music. The critic saw what everyone else saw; Johnny’s music was
crap. Johnny didn’t have a chance to react to the article before the phone
rang. It was his father.
