The REAL Steve Gray

Wow, just reading all these comments and it’s amazing how inappropriately fans insert themselves in to a celebrity’s life and how celebrities let these fans in.  Absolutely bizarre.

I’ve been reading all the comments on here and other blogs about the Monte situation and for a long time I was conflicted. I’m not anymore. For me it has always been about Adam. And it always will be. I stand behind him 100%!!
However, I don’t believe Monte is evil or deserving of the hate he is receiving. His actions show a desperate person grasping at what is probably his last chance at making a substantial amount of money as a musician. I’m trying to see things from his perspective. He is supporting a wife and kids on a musician’s sporadic income. His best days as a musician are probably behind him. He NEEDS the money BFM will bring in. I don’t believe Monte ever meant to throw Adam under the bus but the choices he has made has done just that. Monte probably thinks (and this is all speculation because I have NO idea what he thinks) his need for the success of BFM supersedes the temporary problems it is causing Adam. Adam has a bright future in music. Monte doesn’t. Desperate people do desperate things.
I’m NOT condoning what Monte has done. He has made a lot of poor decisions and by trying to make amends (if that is what he was doing) he only made things worse. As a result, he has probably permanently damaged his career in his attempts to further it. And he must accept responsibility for his choices, whatever his motivations were. I pity him.

My heart breaks for Adam,not because of the money, but because to have a friend stab you in the back is so very hurtful.  Adam is a person who treasures his friends and has done more than anyone I can think of to keep his pre-fame friends.  He tried to help them when possible,as did his fans.  To have a long term friend betray you is horrible,and if it is for money,it’s worse.  Ignore Monte and Lisa, they are not worth the time.  We are here for Adam and to help his career,  Monte can go it alone and live with the knowledge that he is officially nothing of consequence to us from here forward.  What goes around,comes around.  Enjoy any “ill gotten gains” Monte.  The rest of us need to get back to Adam”The Show Must Go On”.

After reading these comments, I see Monte’s point.  Vicious & totally hateful statements are not necessary…he gets the point…the fans that love sweet, kind Adam want tear Monte limb from limb and cast him to the lower regions of HELL!

I’m very upset with MP over this whole thing with a Crazy People List…what is that?  And I’m not sorry to say that I have unfollowed him.  It’s very sad that loyalty doesn’t mean anything to some people.  I was slow on the uptake b/c I do my best to stay out of the crap…and I’m not on twitter a lot due to my work schedule, but this type of behavior is NOT okay.  I’m here for Adam and his music, that’s it.  He’s why I’m on twitter to begin with and I’ve made great connections with others b/c of ADAM…not b/c of others, and he has my FULL support.  Sorry man, but what you did is not cool.  I don’t need that type of behavior around me.  My 17 yr old son knows better than that!  I won’t be taken in again by that kind of thing, that’s for sure. 

This is really sad to see…How can you put a price on friendship & loyalty…Monty you did just that…You sold out Adam to gain more public recognition along with trying to further your career by betraying & backstabbing Adam who held you in the utmost regard…Monty I think you need to do some serious soul searching and find out what the true meaning of friendship is…True friendship thrives on Trust & Inspiration…Nothing is hidden between two friends (what you’ve done here is blindside Adam)…True Friends are not opportunists…They do not help because they have something to gain out of it…They help out of love & loyalty (another strike against you)…True friends want nothing but the best for us…Monty sadly you have failed to be a true friend to Adam on every level…With so called friends like you Adam does not need any enemies

The BS albums are called The Parasite Sessions and Beg For Money in my circles. And Monte fits right into those titles. I am so disgusted I can barely even write about it. BTW I have a Monte CD here – unopened. Still in it’s plastic wrapper. Anyone want it? I just don’t know what to do with the thing now – it feels contaminated.

Monte – I initially, I was such a fan of yours. I have now become one of your harshest critics. I have felt in my gut, for a long time, that you were self – absorbed and jealous of Adam. You tried to take credit for Adam’s success, saying that you and Lisa were the ones that convinced Adam to go on AI. OH!!!! It was all you! No one else mentioned it to him? It never crossed his own mind??? Adam didn’t discuss this with anyone but you. Huh? So you own him and his career, cause you made him??? That is truly sad. Why did you allow your wife to set the ball in motion with her twitter rant. Why didn’t you just come out the next day and tell the truth….Something like – Private business….Sorry for airing our personal affairs publicly….We made Adam’s fans uncomfortable and defensive….So sorry….It won’t happen again. Why didn’t you handle the situation with class and some dignity? You had it all! The love, respect, and support of Adam’s growing fanbase. They funded your new album, your trips, your expenses, and even your baby showers. As Adam’s fan base continued to grow, so would have your own career. You could have played with Adam on tour, played with Madonna when needed, and had your own separate albums. Now what is left? A handful of Adam fans who have invested time, emotion and money into you. It all comes back to the money. BMF is an album of demos, for God’s sake. You should have just let it go. You had so much to gain by being loyal to Adam, and so much to loose by betraying him??? I know you think I hate you, but I don’t. I hate the way you have behaved. Can you turn this around? I don’t know if you have the emotional maturity and honesty. When you make statements like – “I believe in BFM” – I want to shake you! You are not a stupid man at all, but you are behaving so recklessly. Take a long hard look at what has happened and see what can be salvaged. But first, you must take responsibility for all the people you have hurt. I want to tell you to grow up, but you are already grown. For your sake and the sake of your family, do some honest self-refection. Be a role model. Turn it around.

This is my two cents worth on this situation, now that I have had time to cool off– and binge on pasta and wine. Mostly, this is really sad and demoralizing. Until very recently, I thought Monte and Adam were very close friends and had each others’ backs. Sure, Adam the unknown session singer who a better known Monte invited to cut demos with back in the day immediately outshone his old friend as soon as he hit the Idol stage. Nevertheless, after the Idol tour and the grueling creation of FYE (which did NOT include Monte) Adam stuck with some of his oldest and dearest friends to create the Glamnation tour. Perhaps this was to his detriment professionally, as I’m pretty sure there were more experienced, talented people in LA or elsewhere he could have worked with. But Adam, being Adam is loyal to his friends and also probably felt much more comfortable with some of his close friends on board for this crazy “handful of shows” turned into 100+ shows worldwide. He created and funded the tour and it is his job and prerogative to choose with whom he wants to work.
Onto phase three. The critical “Sophomore Album” which is typically make or break for an artist, especially one who gained his initial popularity from his experience on a “game show.” There are MANY people just waiting for him to fail, and there is no room for error. I think Adam started working on his album right away, and as his own personal life and experiences changed he was inspired to change the emotional vibe of his new music. Then all of a sudden 19A/RCA/Sony and the recording industry blew up and the game was changed. Adam got new, I believe savvier and better connected management an all of a sudden he was introduced to some of the biggest names in music, and once again all the hitmakers were eager to work with HIM! A heady mix indeed, and life-changing for sure. The offshoot of all of this change is that Adam is now in the big time and he can no longer arbitrarily hire his friends as his back-up musicians, and he likely didn’t want to, as the vibe of his new music had changed and he had bigger names who wanted to be a part of his rise to fame. Can’t blame a guy, right. Not like he didn’t try to bring them along for the ride in the beginning.
Anyway, this is even getting boring for me so I apologize for rambling. In the end, Adam Lambert is a world-class once-in-a-genration star who is finally being recognized and treated as such in the industry. As he deserves. For his “friend” Monte to be envious is understandable. But to venture to make money off of Adam’s name, to damage his brand, and do take many steps which would certainly hurt Adam both personally and privately is unforgivable. Monte, be happy for your friend. That’s what friends do. And maybe you would have played guitar on many future tours, had you ego and need for “musical director” status and song-writing credits not gotten in the way of good decision-making. It’s done now. And unfortunately got ugly enough that is still goes on, and Monte’s actions continue to cause damage to Adam’s career and to his bottom line. And he lost what he thought was one of his best friends. Sad.
But that’s Show Business. GodSpeed Adam. I wish you ALL the best in every aspect of your life. And Monte… you’ll get exactly what you deserve. Karma is a bitch. 

Let’s recap:
First Lisa Pittman starts shredding Adam on twitter. I would bet this is when Monte first broached the subject of releasing BFM which was probably a done deal anyway. Adam said no way. Lisa tweets out a rampage and Monte tweets out a You are Dead to me video. Monte ends up playing the two remaining concerts. I gather Adam thought the matter was dropped because at the beginning of Oct he tweeted out congrats to Monte on his new CD. Three days later PS and BFM hit Amazon. Adam was taken by surprise & tweets out Welsford is behind Paramount Sessions, BFM and Take One. Adam fans notice Monte thanked Welsford for his help on his new CD. Also noted on Welsfords website Monte still works for Welsford and worked on Paramount Sessions and several project throughout 2010. Monte starts losing followers on twitter. Fans beg Adam to make a statement or say something about the Monte thing. Adam’s response was to unfollow Monte. Monte shortly thereafter tweets out a video of Adam Sandler making fun of people who use social networking sites such as twitter basically calling them loser. Monte just tweets the video with no words. Another mass unfollowing and Monte deletes the tweet. Monte’s website which has it’s own twitter starts tweeting out links to support BFM. They publicly acknowledge that this will probably hurt Adam but stated that it was ok because people worked hard on this. Monte loses more followers. Adam gets sued. More unfollow Monte. The lawsuit asks for unspecified monetary damages at a minimum of 75k. So not only does Adam have unauthorized music out there but they expect him to pay for it. More unfollow Monte Monte starts calling some of the fans who gave him strong support in the past. He gives each one a different story. Some fall for it and start tweeting out support and others are too smart to fall for it. Monte makes a Crazy Person list. He apparently doesn’t realize it’s public. People call him on it and he deletes it.
Oddly enough the twitter account that is pushing BFM is blocking the same exact people Monte are and appears to always be on line the same time leading one to conclude Monte is running that account.
They are pushing this CD worldwide. It takes big bucks to push this worldwide through distributors. Note this has a much bigger push than Take One. This project has big investors. Monte is one of them and there are several others including a chatty Dr. in California. This is why they are so vested in it. These investors want a big return on their money as they were promised. They are exploiting Adam’s name. Monte in his phone calls tried to lead some to believe that Adam wants this released. Ok, Monte we weren’t born yesterday. Monte even got one Adam follower to publicly chastise fans for not supporting the project. Comparing BFM to nude photos of actors being released after they became famous. In other words suck it up. This is all about money. These people made a big investment and they could care less who they trample to get to the profits be it Adam or his fans and they don’t care who they manipulate along the way.
People who are buying this CD are actually funding the lawsuit against Adam.