He then jumped up and searched for his address book, locating it immediately. He flipped through until he found what he was looking for and resumed his seat in front of the phone, dialing a number. Seconds later he chuckled, using the greeting they had for each other since the beginning of their friendship. “Nickkkyyy! What’s up man?”
Annie knocked on Spencer’s door and waited patiently until she heard his cue to enter. She walked in with her notepad in hand. “I’d like some guidance on something.”
He nodded and motioned for her to take a seat. He met her eyes. “What’s up?”
She glanced at her notes and then looked up again. “When does Kit-Kat’s single drop in the record stores, officially?”
He cocked his head to the side, intrigued by her question. “September 29th. Why? Who called you? Press? Remember, we’re directing all press to Lila Greene.”
She bobbed her head in agreement. “Oh, I know. I was curious. We have a third party interested in promoting her single and they’re anticipating a big bump in sales because of the audience. Maybe even have the single in their merch booth. They were wondering if…”
Spencer held up his hand to stop her. “Who is this third party?”
She swallowed hard, her eyes wide. “Sully Foxx…uh Gypsy Tango. He wants to promote Kit’s single during an upcoming radio interview and plug it in the shows too. Y’know, give it mention, get the fans fired up about it. He’s been wanting to speak to you, but…”
He nodded. “I know. I haven’t been taking his calls. Ok. Business I can do. And that sounds like a great opportunity to launch her career. I appreciate you being so thorough with the information and protecting my time and my personal reasons, Annie. I’ll give him a call.” He offered her a reassuring grin. “Thank you.”
She smiled. “You’re welcome. Happy to help. If you need me to reach out to Diamond and get the ball rolling with disty, I can.”
He sat back and thought about it a moment. “Let me talk to Sully first. We’ll get the details ironed out and then we can move. I’ll brief you in a bit.”
She stood up. “Great then, I’ll get Sully on the line for you.”
He shook his head. “I’ll do it. It’s your lunch time, head on out.” As she left his office, he picked up the phone and dialed Pete Lundy at Diamond.
The phone rang, making Sully jump. He had just finished his call with Nicky and set down the receiver. He wasn’t expecting it to ring again so suddenly.
He answered cautiously. “Hello?”
Spencer took a deep breath before starting. “Sully, hey, it’s Spencer. Annie told me about your conversation. The single drops on Tuesday. I think your idea is a brilliant one. I spoke with A&R and they agreed to ship out singles for your merch booths with the caveat that the sales are pass through. You guys won’t get any percentage on it.”
Sully sat back, satisfied. “I know. We weren’t looking for one. It’s a goodwill measure. From a business perspective, Spence, Kitty made our careers. She was our manager for eight years. She was the one that put us on the map. Our millions, our status, our stardom is because of her. We’re not looking for a percentage. Now, I dunno how to track it, you’ll have to talk to the bean counters on that one.”
Spencer thought about it. “Sull, KMK has insight into all of that. It’s ‘in the family’ so to speak so running the numbers on your merch for her single won’t be a problem. I’ll talk to Giselle. I’m sure we can find a way to back it out of your numbers and separate the sales. Pete and Giselle will work out how this relates to NARAS and all those details. This will help her climb the charts. I’m sure it will give her quite a boost. It’s a great idea. Thank you. Does she know about it?”
He sighed. “No. She won’t take my calls. Personal shit aside, Spence, if she’s up for it, we’d like for her to perform the song at our L.A. shows. It’s the last two on the tour. L.A. is her city. She’ll blow up the Forum with that song. And if she has more than one maybe some up-tempo tracks to follow her ballad she could really command the audience.”
Spencer sat back and wondered if he should consult with Kit before committing her to it. “Three songs? What’s the placement in your set?”
“Her single—the one that’s all over the air waves right now plus two others of her choosing. She knows our audience like the back of her hand so I’m sure she’ll pick wisely. We’d put it two songs from the finish of the show, before the first encore. The crowd will go insane for her and this gives her a few weeks to build momentum on the charts and continue dominating the airwaves.”
Spencer knew it was a good launch for her single and her success. As her manager, he made an executive decision. “Ok. We’re still several weeks out from those shows, so let’s not push it out to the press yet. We’ll make the announcement closer to the dates.”
He figured this would buy him time to speak to Kit about it and get her prepped. “How are we going to do this? Are you guys prepared to learn the songs? We’re gonna need a soundcheck for her too.”
Sully remained unfazed. “I know. A step ahead of you on all that, brother. We’ll start rehearsing her single in soundcheck everyday so it’s perfect. Bryan knows the song well from being in session with her. Jimmy can learn anything in a matter of hours and Remo
