WVMP Music talk with Shane and a Giveaway!

So today is a happy day and a sad day mixed into one! I have the amazing Shane McAllister (one of my top book boyfriends of all time! Don’t tell Ciara lol) here form Jeri Smith-Ready’s WVMP series to talk about 90’s music! The sad part? One of my favorite series has come to an end *sobs* and yes peeps this is an adult series I know I don’t post much about them but if you like adult paranormal books I suggest you read this one!

So now to pass the mic to Shane!

Hey everyone, it's great to be here at Two Chicks on Books to talk about 90s music. Thanks so much to Jaime for having me—we go way back, so it means a lot to write a post for her blog. I hope you like it.

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We all have that one song or album (or entire CD shelf) that we used to play over and over during the worst time in our lives, right? The song that fed all our unhealthy impulses and let us wallow in our rage or heartbreak? The song we just couldn't stop listening to, even though we knew it was bad for us?

For me it was Filter's "Hey Man Nice Shot," which came out in July 1995, just a few months after I became a vampire. If you've read WICKED GAME or my short story, "Last Request," you know that I never wanted to be undead. I just wanted to be dead.

Even after I became a vampire, I did my best not to survive. I tried to starve or stay out until sunrise. Once I even tried staking myself (it was kind of comical—I used a shard of "wood" paneling that was so cheap it had very little actual tree product in it). Eventually the Control captured me and put me on suicide watch in the fledgling-vampire ward of one of their "nursing homes."

 

That was when I heard this song on the radio. Let's just say it was a good thing I was under close supervision.

Lyrics

Like most people, I thought at first that "Hey Man Nice Shot" was about Kurt Cobain's April 1994 suicide-by-shotgun. My own suicide attempts  were inspired by that event, so I figured it was at the top of everyone's mind. But apparently Richard Patrick of Filter wrote it about Pennsylvania state treasurer Budd Dwyer, who shot himself in the head during a live televised press conference in 1987. The poor dude had been convicted of bribery and was probably going to jail (later evidence showed that he might have been as innocent as he claimed).

One reason he committed suicide was so that his family would get the hefty pension that came from him dying in office. As someone who has always worried about money, I can totally understand this. But he could have offed himself in private and still accomplished that. He did it in public to make a statement about feeling persecuted, or so he said.

Filter made a public statement about "Hey Man Nice Shot" after it was released:

"It is not a celebration or glorification of taking one's own life. The phrase 'hey man, nice shot' is a reference to the final act itself, an expression of guts and determination of a person standing up for what they believe is right." (Source: Songfacts.com)

I don't know about you, but "guts and determination" sound pretty "thumbs-up" to me. And in my 1995 state of despair, I thought to myself, "if only I'd had the guts to do what Dwyer did, I wouldn't be suffering right now."

Yeah. Now you see why I was locked up for my own protection.

So I used to play this song over and over, getting angrier and angrier, wishing this song had come out a few months sooner so I could've used it to find the "strength" to shoot myself like I'd always planned.

Once I got help, not just from Control counselors but from my eventual employer David, I realized that suicide wasn't a sign of strength. It's not a sign of weakness, either. It's a sign of sickness. Problem is, sickness makes for boring songs (nothing rhymes with Zoloft).

I still love this song, for its lumbering bass line (especially the intro—who could resist that?), its driving guitar riffs, and its cathartic vocals. It's a perfect example of the quiet-loud-quiet formula that gives grunge its emotional power. I love playing it at home when Ciara is away. But I won't play it live with my band, Vital Fluid, and I won't play it on the air except by request.

The moral of the story? You can search songs for beauty and energy and entertainment, but be careful searching them for wisdom. They just might steer you off a cliff.

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Thanks again for having me, Jaime. And hey, Jeri is giving away a signed, personalized copy of any book in the WVMP RADIO series to one randomly drawn commenter. All you have to do is answer one or both of the following in the comments below:

1. Your favorite “bad for you” song. This gets you two entries.

2. Your favorite song from the 90s. This just gets you one entry, because it’s an easier question.

Open to international entries. Ends December 6th.

You can follow me and Ciara on Twitter, where we’re having a chat Saturday, December 2, 8-9pm at the #WVMPchat hashtag. Our author, Jeri, is on Twitter, the World Wide Web (do they still call it that? I forget.) and Facebook.

Author Bio: Award-winning author Jeri Smith-Ready lives in Maryland with her husband and two cats. Her plans to save the earth were ruined when she realized she was more of a “problem maker” than a problem solver. To stay out of trouble, she keeps her Drama Drive strictly fictional. Her friends and family appreciate that.

When not writing, Jeri she can usually be found—well, thinking about writing, or on Twitter. Like her characters, she loves music, movies, and staying up very, very late.

Make sure to add Jeri's books to your TBR piles you will love this series ans Shane will capture your hearts!