10.11.11 Adam News & Info

Your comment was there when I clicked on the link.

Here's my take, just a general response only quoting yours because of the link to Cooke's facebook and to answer your comment about the deletion.

Paramount Sessions - Dublyn Jones material session singer work Steve and Adam hired guns.

Beg for Mercy - CV tracks w/ Monte

Steve Cooke in his statement is talking primarily about Paramount Sessions which is what he was involved in recording. He states clearly he knows nothing about Beg For Mercy. He had his own writing project with Monte which is Mercury Feather (let's call this the Cooke equivalent of CV).

WARNING ASSUMPTIONS HAPPENING!!!!!
IF Welsford is the producer for the Mercury Feather project (which seems obvious) then Monte has really been stuck between a rock and a hard place. Assuming all these agreements were signed back then (which seems obvious given that Steve said he came in on the project before Adam left) perhaps when Adam left to audition for Idol Monte concentrated on the project with Steve and the Paramount sessions thing and it is quite possible that he signed further contracts pertaining to Mercury Feather or even Paramount Sessions long before the whole shit with Take One hit the fan. Or he had already signed more binding contracts than Adam had. We don't have any info on Monte's legal obligations to Welsford that I am aware of at least.

Yes we all know that Welsford screwed Adam over but if Monte had projects in the works he maybe couldn't get out of them. It sounds like Steve said they had signed agreements to do the two videos for the Paramount Sessions songs so Monte was under contract as well.

Who knows what kind of strings Adam had to pull to get Monte involved in his own touring band given that RCA obviously would not have been happy about his connection with the Take One and CV stuff. I remember clearly Monte saying in an interview that 19 DID hold auditions for guitarist even though Adam wanted to hire Monte and that Monte came out on top in the auditions but Tommy had auditioned for lead guitar and they liked him so much that they asked him to learn bass. Who knows if there was pressure on Adam NOT to hire Monte then.

There is every chance that Monte has been having to walk a tightrope between two warring record companies. As far as Cooke is concerned hell the music industry is often every man for himself and he obviously has no personal connection to Adam so why the HELL should he give up his shot because Adam got screwed over. Face it there's no way in hell he's going to turn his own career upside down for Adam's sake. Monte probably is a better fit musically with Steve so the fact that he stuck with Adam through the whole Take One thing means he was probably shooting himself in the foot the whole time because of his close personal relationship with Adam. Because looking at it from a career standpoint he actually had more to loose sticking with Adam.

Yes, I know everyone is going to throw the whole kickstarter thing out there and say if Monte hadn't gone on tour with Adam he wouldn't have gotten all that but I think that's bullshit because the fans new about the Citizen Vein tracks and a lot of those disappointed fans that didn't get rock Adam loved those songs and as long as they stayed friends Adam still would have promoted Monte on twitter just like he did all his other friends and any Adam stuff he donated for Monte to use as rewards probably still would have been donated and I am sick and tired of people telling me that I'm only a fan of Monte because of Adam. I bought Monte's first cd cause I liked it, and I contributed to his kickstarter for that reason. Sure I wouldn't know about Monte without Adam but I wouldn't know about Adam without Idol. Telling me I'm somehow less of an Adam fan for liking Monte or less of a Monte fan for liking Adam first is no better than those assholes who won't give Adam a chance because he was on Idol.

I don't have any respect for Welsford but to convict Monte on the flimsy "evidence" that is floating around is like holding the stock boy at the grocery store responsible for their false advertising. If and when there is some ACTUAL evidence other than association or thanking someone on liner notes or just a desire to actually have your own music released then Monte can and will be held responsible but until then what the HELL happened to "innocent until proven guilty".

There are sleaze balls galore in the music industry and I'm willing to bet that as successful as Adam is he's still going to have to hold his nose and deal with some just like Monte has probably had to do for a long time just to be able to make a living.