How to Make Your Intern's Day

I have mentioned my intern, Kim, who's in her second semester of torture being my unpaid 2nd pair of hands. However - she does get the occasional perk of free food and alcohol, so it's not constant abuse. Kim has very bad luck when it comes to artist visits. The first day she came and picked up her keys I introduced her to Kenny Chesney. But it went downhill from there.

She's a HUGE Brad Paisley fan. When I talked to Brad in October about his Christmas album, she was out of state for a wedding.

She also loves Tim McGraw. For weeks she was telling me I had to get Tim scheduled for ShortCuts around her spring break. Sure enough, while she was home, we had not only our interview with Tim - but also the big Tim & Faith party. And she missed them both.

Yesterday I realized that a bunch of things that came in while I was out sick never made it onto my planning calendar - including a couple of parties this week. So yesterday afternoon I left her a voicemail along the lines of "Kim - it's Joyce. I'm sending you an email about something I need you to be at tomorrow afternoon - and it's mandatory, so adjust your schedule accordingly."

I then sent her an Outlook calendar appointment for a Brad Paisley #1 party and Round Robin. It wasn't long before she called me all giddy.

So we get to ASCAP today for the Round Robin - where Brad sits down before a bunch of reporters and we go around the table asking questions. Earlier in the day I'd talked to someone at Brad's label and mentioned that I was bringing Kim. I was told that would be ok, but she wasn't allowed to grope him and couldn't ask a question. No problem, she wasn't planning on doing either. I'm pretty sure.

Before we get started the above mentioned label person went around the table making sure Brad knew everyone - including Kim. "You brought your intern? Cool! I want an intern question," Brad says.

I was third around the table... "That's enough talking about you Brad, what we really want to hear about is Will." After he talked for a while about the baby and fatherhood, everyone looked at Kim. And she jumped right in with a question about his upcoming album title - 5th Gear.

A few other things we learned: The album isn't done yet. No special guests yet, although he's got someone in mind to ask. He's not going to take Will on the road - and he's looking forward to going on tour so he can sleep. There are several car songs on the album. And he wanted name the baby Warren but Kimberly would have no part in that - said she couldn't name a little bitty baby Warren. She wanted "William" to carry on her family tradition, obviously, and they thought William Warren sounded like a supreme court judge.

And yes - he talked about the inspiration behind "Huckleberry" - which Kim was more into than he was, believe it or not. It was a very cool story about signing the birth certificate right before they left the hospital, and how he saved the pen to tell Will about the power of the pen - how by writing just one word, he'd wrecked his kid's life.

He also said the guys in his band all call him Huck - but he and Kimberly call him Will.

So after our time was done Brad thanked us and said "you really did let the intern ask a question!" And then he started talking to Kim about Belmont and when she was gradutating. And I had to get a ladder to get her down off the ceiling. :-D We got to see baby pictures too - as expected, Will is gorgeous!

The party itself - which was a #1 party for "She's Everything" was held in Owen Bradley park - between ASCAP and BMI. Brad writes for ASCAP and his co-writer, Will Nance, writes for BMI, so it was a joint soiree. I saw my buddy Thom Shepard there - who wrote "Redneck Yacht Club and "Riding With Private Malone" and remembered that the first time I heard "She's Everything" was at a writer's night Jen and I went to at the Bluebird when Will sang it - with the original words, not the ones Brad changed for his wife. Good mexican food, no alchohol (being an outdoor event.) The folks at ASCAP gave him this giant Moose for the baby. Kimberly and Will were not at the party.

Photo credit to Kim the Intern. Who I'm pretty sure would build a few thousand of the dreaded GROUPS for me about now.