So once again I did the right thing and the wrong thing happened. It was getting to be a world of backwards reality. It wasn't like I was screwing up back then. I did my work, but the outcome always seemed to depend on somebody else's agenda. Ever since Tony Alamo every thing I did came out like this. I didn't care if Ken Handler was gay, hell I'd been around plenty of gay people, the music business and places I'd been had plenty of that it was just a fact of life. The problem was that Ken Handler had a lot of power, because he was rich and was the son of the Mattel Toys family. He didn't have a damn thing to worry about he was covered no matter what he did.
I on the other hand was trying to do something with my life and get it up off the ground at 20 years old. I was misled by Handler and didn't find out about it until the last minute. He forced me to choose between giving him what he wanted, to get what I wanted, or to give up what I wanted, because I was unwilling to give him what he wanted. To him, I was little more than a piece of ass as it turned out, but to me it was my whole world at that particular point. It wouldn't have mattered if it were a man and a girl or a women and a boy or whatever configuration you could come up with, it was a chicken shit thing to do to anybody and that anybody was me.
I brought all of the gear Ken had bought me back to Penthouse Records at Mira's offices. The attitude of Handler was one of someone who placed himself above everyone else though I had not seen this part of him until I returned the equipment to him. He barely had time to acknowledge my presence as I recall and asked the whereabouts of the motor cycle. "I'm not giving it to you Ken, I'm gonna keep it cause I earned it." He started to object and I got very cold with him and said, "I'm keeping it Ken and that's all there is to it." I stared at him until he figured out that I was not kidding and I'm sure that he got to see a part of me that he had not been familiar with until that day. Anything said after that moment was pushed aside by me and I retained my position and made it clear that neither he, or Randy Wood, or anyone else would get me to change my mind regarding my keeping the motor cycle as some sort of payment for my work and time.
I had not been paid for "Reconsider Baby" or "Gotta Find My Roogalator" so keeping the bike seemed reasonable to me then, hell I should have kept everything. I had experienced too many losses at the hands of others in the past couple of years to just keep standing around at the end with absolutely nothing except whatever record I had made and the experience. I was tired of the Tony Alamo, Andrew Oldham, and Randy Wood's of the world so Ken became the first one I took something from. I took it and challenged him to do something about it and he did not, it was one small victory.
No one will ever convince me that in light of what the facts were as they relate to Ken Handler and myself that any contract I may have signed with Penthouse Records could be enforced. He and Penthouse dropped me and failed to fulfill even the most minimal obligations as a record label and or publisher. In a court of law I would dominate on law and facts alone, not to say anything about the fraud perpetrated on me personally by Ken Handler, regarding his sexual demands or else position. I was in a no win position and my choices amounted to non choices, as usual I had no leverage. I claim all rights to my songs "Low Down Funky Blues", "Gotta Find My Roogalator", and "Reconsider Baby".
I don't recall with great clarity, following the Penthouse fiasco, what Randy Wood's position regarding me was. I was probably blamed by everyone for screwing the whole thing up, because what I found was people won't take responsibility for their own actions. It has taken me many years to realize that many of the calamities in my past were brought about by the actions of others, at least in part. I have paid enough dues for these assholes and am determined to someday set the entire record straight. I have no plans to sit by and allow forever others to claim ownership of what I created and to profit from my work while I get nothing.
Okay. Now I gotta say something. You are an artist and they are greedy capitalists. There was never anything but good in your extreme talents. You're just were a lousy business man. And, secondly, you should have kept everything, not just the bike.
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