What Do Tom Sizemore, R. Kelly, Tupac Shakur, and Robert Downey Jr. Have In Common?

You know who I admire?  The workers of the world like Tom Sizemore, R. Kelly, Robert Downey Jr�  Guys who got in BIG TROUBLE, but were able to weather their respective storms of scandal by distracting attention from the news story by means of a simple but brilliant strategy: TO KEEP WORKING.  Imagine what wonders it would have done for Michael Jackson to release an album at the height of his trial, or immediately following his acquittal.  Even if it only went platinum in the US, that thing would have sold wildly well around the world, where 80% of Jackson's audience has been the past 10 years anyway.  Instead he hid out, and allowed the press and public no place or other way to see him in.  R. Kelly, by contrast, kept cranking out hit after hit in the wake of his sexual pornography scandal, for which many charges are still pending.  While his lawyers craftily stalled the case with motion after motion, and delay after delay, Kelly was able to draw the public's attention away from the scandal with smash hits like �Ignition,' his biggest single since �I Believe I Can Fly.'  

Tom Sizemore is another entertainer who, in recent years, has been in massive amounts of trouble with the law.  From drug possession to domestic abuse convictions and parole violation after parole violation, Sizemore has quietly kept working, making more than 25 films since his last major role, in Black Hawk Down, which was released in 2001.  Most of Sizemore's material has gone straight to DVD, and his work was motivated by two mutually beneficial factors: 1.) the need to raise money to pay his substantial legal fees for lawyers who, 2.) work around the clock to keep Sizemore out of jail so he can continue to work.  It's the same strategy Robert Downey Jr. And his lawyers employed, keeping Downey at work in movies and television steadily throughout the four-year struggle he faced with drug abuse and its legal ramifications that included jail time.  One program judges seem very fond of for actors and musicians are live-in drug rehab facilities where entertainers are allowed to leave during the day to work, but must be back home by early evening.  Both Sizemore and Downey Jr. participated in multiple versions of the latter, in an arrangement that marked their cleanest periods during the entirety of their troubled years.  Scott Weiland is another fantastic example of the latter formula working successfully- being allowed to leave a lock-down, in-patient rehab facility to complete vocals to Velvet Revolver's debut LP, �Contraband.'  Many of these entertainers also complete some of their finest work while under the gun of court-enforced sobriety.  

Consider the master under-pressure work-a-holics, Tupac Shakur, who- upon release from prison in October 2005 after signing to Death Row Records on $1.4 million bail pending his appeal- completed the 24 tracks that comprised his (and hip hop's) first double-album, �All Eyez on Me' in just 3 weeks, and over 150 in the year between his release from prison and assassination in Las Vegas in October, 1996.  So, what is the point of this rant, you ask?  Who am I criticizing?  Well, aside from Michael Jackson, I suppose also Axl Rose, for waiting 10 years to release a new studio album�  Billy Joel for not writing or recording a new album of pop material in almost 15 years, instead making more press from his penchant for drunk driving accidents.  Basically anyone who becomes lazy where they have the talent not to be.  Maybe they need a motivation like prison or bankruptcy or legal bills or something that dire to keep them from falling off, but it's sad to think anyone needs to become that desperate�    
 

Shameless Plug: on April 25th, 2006, Versailles Records will release �Its So Easy: A Millennium Tribute to Guns N' Roses', featuring current/former members of Guns N' Roses, Heart, Ozzy Osbourne Band, Love/Hate, Adler's Appetite, Deep Purple, Riot, Rainbow, Lillian Axe, White Lion, Warrant, Pretty Boy Floyd, Faster Pussycat, LA Guns, Ratt, LA Guns, Lita Ford Band, Slash's Snakepit, Brides of Destruction, etc.  That same day, the label will release the debut LPS from Italy's The RadioVipers, and Canada's One Bad Son!  To learn more, visit www.versaillesrecords.com, www.radiovipers.com, and www.onebadson.com.

About the author: Jake Brown is owner/operator of Nashville-based Versailles Records and a biographer who has published several books. Click here to more details.