Protecting the Guilty

It's been a while since I wrote one of my all time favorite features - Protecting the Guilty. This one was worth waiting for!

It seems as though last night, an artist, with a current record deal and single on the charts, had a little too much to drink downtown. This artist stumbled out of Tootsie's, grabbed the nearest person, and offered the complete stranger $100 if he'd drive the artist home.

The stranger, recognizing the artist, said sure. The artist gave him an address out in the boondocks, and offered $200. Driver said $100 was fine, and artist soon passed out in person's vehicle. At this point, we should all be grateful the driver was an honest person not a hoodlum, or this story could have a much different ending.

Fortunately, the driver knew the area he was going to, which apparently is quite a ways outside of Nashville. Getting there didn't prove to be nearly as much trouble as arousing the artist from their drunken stupor to get them into the house. And guess what? Artist had no money. Told the driver to come back tomorrow.

Which... he did. And the best the artist could come up with was $40, got the driver's phone numer and promised to get the rest to him later.

What the artist doesn't know... but I do... is that there are pictures of the artist passed out in the stranger's vehicle. If I were this artist... I'd make sure I paid the debt. ;-)