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Late in the spring of 2007, I spent a month in Vancouver with producer Bill Bell recording a new EP called VanCity. Bill has produced and played guitar for artists like Jason Mraz and Tom Cochrane and after talking to Bill once on the phone I new he was the person to help me craft the new songs I had written. When we were finished we had an incredible product. The next question was what to do with the EP. How can I introduce my music to people beyond my fanbase?
Long story short, on August 1st of this year I launched a website called "www.ImGonnaBeOnEllen.com" and I took a comedic approach to trying to be musical guest on her show as an unsigned artist. The website started with a few comedic blog entries that described the goals of our project, auto plays my song “I’m Stuck with Me,” and includes links to directly email Ellen’s staff on my behalf. The next thing we added to the site was a 6 minute long, ridiculous sketch-type video that delivered the message of why I wanted to be her next musical guest. The video includes a parody of a scene in Ellen’s movie “Mr. Wrong” and somehow even throws in a jab at Michael Vick.
The site became so popular so quickly that the producers of "Ellen" called me only 3 weeks after launching the site. On Ellen's Nov. 28th show she showed part of a video I made and then asked her viewers to vote on whether or not I should appear on the show. One week and over 155,400 "yes" votes later Ellen invited me to be a guest on her show.
On December 13th, 2007 my segment aired on NBC affiliates in all 50 states. It begins with an interview by Ellen and ends with my performance of my song “Lucky Day.” The segment ends with me proclaiming my love for Gibson Guitars, so Ellen gives me a Gibson Blues King acoustic as a gift.
Ellen truly is one of the most wonderful people on and off camera. I thanked her afterwards by reminding her of her first TV appearance on the Johnny Carson show. That appearance was hugely instrumental in boosting Ellen’s career, and I feel like my performance on her show was very similar. I’ll never forget everything Ellen did for me that day by allowing me time to introduce myself and perform on an Emmy winning network television show.
This success has to be one of the biggest, most successful grassroots campaigns of 2007 and has boosted my music into the national spotlight. Activity on my websites and my Myspace page has increased in massive, staggering numbers.
Video of my performance and interview is on YouTube and my Myspace page.