And the AFM have caved and will allow the Disney benefit to air this Friday - in his statement, Ray Hair did not even acknowledge that it was his decision NOT to let it happen. But I knew they would cave because the outcry was so large and loud and the local 802 really got tough with him. When what they call the "optics" are that bad, caving is what happens. He should never have done what he did and he truly needs to be ousted. The musicians were, of course, fully paid for the concert itself and WELL paid as they always are - the actors, of course, are allowed to donate their services and the same should hold true for ANY musician who is playing ANY benefit. But no, their union won't allow it. It always makes me think of the troubles I had with them in NY for the first year of recording. I finally told them what it would take for me to use the low-budget agreement and they quietly made the adjustment I told them HAD to be made, and then they loudly proclaimed they'd brought us to our knees through their brilliance without once mentioning the deal that I made them do. We, of course, were equally loud about it. The deal was - in the original low-budget agreement, if you sold more than around 3500 albums (maybe it was 5000) then you had to kick in the rest of the money they'd be owed under the normal budget prices. I said no, 5,000 was not enough for us to break even, and I, me, myself, and I got them to raise the units sold to either 10,000 or 12,500 can't remember which. And of course, none of the albums we did with them sold anywhere near that.
