Dear Fans, Please Don't Stalk Me ...

David Cook is hoping he can convince his fans to show a little more respect for boundaries so that he can continue to be as accessible to his fans as the AI stars are known to be.

On Sunday, the 25 year old winner of Season 7 posted this request on his MySpace blog...


Sunday, March 22, 2009

ATTENTION!

Hey everyone,

First off, I want to say thank you to everyone who has been coming out to the shows since my last post. The vibe at these shows has been amazing.

Secondly, I have to address some behavior that has become disturbing. We pride ourselves on being accessible to you as fans, but in contrast, we do enjoy what little privacy we can muster. To that end, the efforts by some fans to find our hotel rooms, call our hotel rooms, attach things to our bus, etc., is something I have to condemn. This relationship only works when it remains healthy for both parties, and should this behavior continue, the only thing we can do is take more preventative measures to maintain our privacy, which in turn makes us less accessible to you.

I hope this doesn't come off as harsh. I merely want to nip this in the bud so we can continue to have a great experience with all of you at the shows we have coming up. Take care and see you at the next show.

~D



What an impressive young man. He loves and appreciates his fans, he wants to continue to be able to interact with them, but he sees the boundaries starting to blur between expectations and entitlement, and wants to be clear on what he finds unacceptable.

I don't know if David is just a quick learner and saw himself becoming a hostage, if he was smart enough to watch and learn from some of the guys who have gone before him and fallen victim to having not spoken out when it happened to them, or if he actually thinks it is going to be as simple as just posting this blog and the fans will have that "ah ha" moment where they realize how unreasonable they were being and suddenly respect his "down time".

Note to David .... I hope you are not counting too much on the last one.

The great thing about the AI machine is that you have some loyal, supportive, incredible fans who love you, who will follow you from tour stop to tour stop. Who suddenly, at the age of 50, will learn how to make a video or create a web page, or become proficient in the music industry lingo. They will take it as their personal responsibility to ensure your success and without ever thinking twice, will, for some reason they can never explain, grab up 10 copies of your new CD.

But the part you didn't see .... the part you missed with some of your "fans" is that they actually dialed that second number when they voted for you. The one that indicated "by David counting my vote he will forever 'owe' me because I am the reason for his success, and he will from this day forward be chattel".

As I am sure to come under fire as overly critical or insulting, I will give you some insight into two of the most egregious abuses of an artist's privacy that I know to have occurred within the AI fan base.

Several years ago, one of the AI artist's father passed away, and for a number of reasons, it was going to be a rather strained and hard time. Several of the fans decided it would be perfectly appropriate for them to attend the funeral, of course, standing back a bit because they certainly wanted to observe proper decorum for a total stranger fan at someone's funeral for their parent. They even said they felt he would find some comfort in their presence.

We just recently were made aware that one of Taylor Hicks' AI fans who happens to live in the Birmingham area and work for a government agency decided that since he was, after all, a celebrity, that any information a fan could obtain on him they were entitled to. It was this logic that led the fan to decide they would use their job to access Taylor's parent's legal records. I cannot imagine a more callous lack of respect or violation than prying into something that personal.

So David, I guess you can see why I am somewhat cynical that such a pure and respectful attempt on your part is going to fix your problem, but boy am I rooting for you. I've seen what can happen, and once they do sense "control", you can never get it back without becoming "ungrateful" or "not needing them anymore".

What I hope most for you is that if your request isn't respected that you give yourself permission to actually do what you said and step back, put some barriers in place, and manage to hold on to just a piece of your life. You deserve it.