THE TRAGIC TALE OF KEVIN GILBERT

I WAS MURDERED BY SHERYL CROW

The Untold tale of Kevin Gilbert

Yeah, I’ve got your attention now, huh? Well despite the dramatics, the tragic tale of Kevin Gilbert reads like the kind of good kid gets chewed up by the mean ol’ industry tale that would make for a great movie; or perhaps a concept album. (?) For most, the name Kevin Gilbert doesn’t even register, yet anyone with a radio has certainly heard his work. So who is this guy, Kevin, and how did Sheryl Crow kill him? Lets begin with Kevin’s own words:

-My name is Kevin Gilbert. I was born with a piece of J.C. Penny stainless steel flatware in my mouth, and I scratched and clawed my way out of the upper middle class ghetto of San Mateo, California to become the feared yet loved pariah that I am today. I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling buildings and crushing ice. I write award-winning operas and translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees. I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I can cook two-minute eggs in less than a minute. I have been known to remodel subway stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat dispersion. I have written number-one singles. I am an expert in glass bricklaying, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Brazil. I breed prize-winning clams. I write, produce, and play music in an overgrown home recording facility which I hand-built with money I earned composing innocuous television scores under an assumed name. I pay my bills on time. I don't perspire. I think reverb is dishonest but sometimes necessary. I, too, have written and produced material for Madonna, and refused to have sex with her. Using only a hoe and a glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from an attack of ferocious army ants. I read ancient Egyptian manuscripts in the original Sanskrit. I am an abstract sculptor, a master archer, and a ruthless bookie. I once engineered sessions for Michael Jackson and unknowingly offered him a bite of my hot dog. I own many of Burt Bachrach's instrumental recordings and periodically annoy the neighbors by playing them at a high volume. I sleep only fifteen minutes a night and do so standing up. It is not true that I performed covert operations for the CIA. I think Peter Gabriel was a brilliant artist until he underwent EST training. I am an unselfish lover, an investor in the Chinese stock market, a rabble-rousing herdboy, and an inspiration for freedom fighters everywhere. My dad was a respected physicist, and I changed my name from Kelvin. Children trust me. After one listen, I can play any song on several instruments. I do not own a television or a blues record. I can make extraordinary four course meals using only a spatula and a toaster oven. I have performed open heart surgery, and I have spoken to Elvis. - Kevin Gilbert.

A PROMISING FUTURE

The consummate musician, Kevin began an illustrious, albeit short, career as the teenage keyboard whiz kid of the Eddie Money band. Shortly after, Kevin formed Giraffe, a progressive pop group and in 1987 put out the first ever independently released compact disc. Produced, engineered, and arranged by Kevin, the Giraffe albums were marked by a musical vision and diversity far ahead of his time. From the ethereal ‘‘Airdance’‘ to the bitter sweet eloquence of ‘‘Holding on with Both Hands’‘, Gilbert stylistically moved into adventurous areas of pop and prog, resulting in gorgeous works flavored with elements of Peter Gabriel, Genesis, and Steely Dan. Live dates during this period were marked by Kevin’s amazing diversity, playing several instruments, and incorporating pop, prog, techno, rock, jazz, and fusion into his concerts.

An early highlight undoubtedly was when Giraffe were asked to perform at the Los Angeles Progfest in the late eighties, as Kevin led the band through a re-cration of the Genesis double album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in its entirety, complete with costume changes. The regional success of Giraffe, brought young Kevin in touch with some the highest profile characters in the music industry, and the future looked promising. As a result, he took the producer seat for Micheal Jackson’s Dangerous album, as well as Madonna’s Breathless.. Madonna’s collaborator, Patrick Leonard was so taken with Kevin’s talent, the two quickly formed a writing partnership and formed the band Toy Matinee.

The Toy Matinee album was released in 1990, and featured two top twenty hit singles: ‘‘Last Plane Out’‘ and ‘‘The Ballad of Jenny Ledge’‘. The latter was embraced by the Mark & Brian show, leading to regular appearances by Kevin on the KLOS morning show. That album, which was co-produced by Kevin and L.A. whiz kid Bill Botrell sold nearly 200,000 copies in 1991, thanks in part to an MTV video featuring actress Rosanna Arquette (whom Gilbert had dated), and their label, Warner put them on tour for the summer. When he wasn’t working with the Toy Matinee project, Kevin had assembled a weekly gathering of the LA music community for open jam sessions on Tuesday Nights at Toad Hall in Pasadena.

The Tuesday Night Music Club, as it came to be known was a wildly creative venture, as Kevin, along with Bill Botrell, David Baerwald, and several other LA studio luminaries, would meet, play, and write for several years. The weekly jams were a celebration of music, and the resulting songs were never really intended for release; instead, a communal spirit of creativity would fill the sessions, and bonds were formed. ‘‘We were all good, not to be immodest,’‘ Baerwald said. ‘‘We were also all cynical, embittered by the process of pop music. We were trying to find some joy in music again.’‘

Although no formal release was intended, the Tuesday Night Music Club had penned and arranged songs that were certainly ready for mass consumption. In particular, Kevin had penned a couple’a little tunes,‘’Leaving Las Vegas’’, ‘’Strong Enough’’, and ‘’All I Wanna Do’’ during this period. See, I told you you’ve heard Kevin’s work on the radio.

Now, here’s where things start getting a little screwy. While producing Dangerous, Kevin met and fell for a young backup singer with Micheal Jackson’s touring band. You guessed it: Sheryl Crow. Hungry for success, Sheryl stuck close by Kevin and discovered the workings of the industry through the eyes of our hero. By the time Toy Matinee were set to tour, somehow Sheryl had managed to work her way into the lineup as a second keyboard player (?) Does she even play keyboards?

Anyway, after the tour Kevin reassembled the Tuesday Night Music Club, and eventually brought Miss Crow to her first of only a handful of sessions. Lending only a few backup vocals to the session, and hearing a Tuesday evening’s worth of great tunes, a plan must have been hatched that night.

Shortly after, Crow, armed with a six string and a tape of Kevin’s Tuesday Night Music got herself a record deal, recorded the song’s from the Pasadena sessions, and created her own despicable rock & roll legacy. The album was completed, largely without evening informing the Tuesday Night Music club members. Some promises were made to keep tempers at bay, and strangely Kevin was asked to play drums on one track, ‘’Run, Baby Run’’. Bottrell got the news when he met her to hand over the finished master in a Sunset Strip coffee shop. Although there had been much talk of hitting the road together to promote the record - he even bought a new bass for the tour - ‘‘she essentially told me to get lost,’‘ Bottrell said. ‘‘I add Sheryl Crow to a long list of people in Hollywood who told me they were my friend until they got what they wanted from me,’‘ Adding insult to injury, Crow’s debut album, transparently titled The Tuesday Night Music Club, makes little mention of Kevin Gilbert. Somewhere, buried deep in the liner notes Crow offers only this about Gilbert: ‘‘I owe you big for 2 years of musical and emotional support. Thanks.’‘

‘‘I don't know if I can ever forgive her,’‘ he wrote in his journal. ‘‘I don't hate her - I'm just soooo disappointed.’‘

Devastated by the whole ordeal, Kevin turned to his music, and began working on the solo album that would come to be known as Thud.. Asked about the title, Kevin offered:

‘’Thud is the sound one’s head makes when it hits the table.’‘

Along with Bill Botrell, several session players from the Tuesday Night Music club, and pop-prog drumming newcomer Nick DiVirgillio (of So. Cal’s own Spock’s Beard), Kevin captured emotional performances of his heartfelt musical suites. Once again, KLOS championed the music of Kevin Gilbert, and put the single ‘‘Goodness Gracious’‘ into heavy rotation. In addition, Gilbert’s unique cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘’Kashmir’‘ (he essentially straightens that famously crooked beat) which was dropped from a tribute record project, surfaced, once again, on KLOS, and exploded all over the airwaves. In November 1994, Gilbert met playwright Cintra Wilson at a party in San Francisco; two months later she moved to Los Angeles to live with him. ‘‘He was massively depressed over the whole Sheryl debacle,’‘ Wilson said. ‘‘and I was a basket case. We were perfect for each other.’‘ About this time, Kevin began work on his crowning achievement; an autobiographical concept album: The Shaming of The True. The concept was perfect; a young musician full of integrity comes to Hollywood to seek fortune and fame. Along the way he runs into every type of industry pitfall, back-stabbing sharks, plagarist whores, and spiritual death. the premise was fascinating, Kevin’s music was ever more inspired, sung through his fictitous rock-star hero persona, Johnny Virgil.

My name is Johnny Virgil, I play this here guitar, I play it for myself. ..

Everybody's gonna love me, everybody's gonna care. Everyone will know my name ..

I've been listening to the Beatles, I've been listening to the Who

And they don't know it yet, but they're gonna listen to me too.

- from ‘‘Parade’‘

THE SHAMING OF THE TRUE

In Johny Virgil, Kevin Gilbert created the perfect vehicle to voice his own frustrations, naiveté, hopes, and lessons learned. Heading off to the big city, Johnny pursues his dreams, and soon gets caught in the maddening frustration of industry manipulators. One of the record’s hilarious highpoints, a Gentle Giant-ish tapestry of vocals is achieved as multiple interwoven Exec phone calls reach our hero.

Hi, John it's Mel from Meglaphone, I've been listening to your tape for the 19th time… You sound like Air Supply meets Gwar In a good way… You don't really need the band they are in the way… No, we need a sharper hook - like a scandal, Maybe you could rape a nun Or better still a priest… Who decided on your hair? Can we cut it off? We'd like to see a Buzz Bin rotation… - from ‘‘Suit Fugue (Dance of the A&R Men)’‘

Tossed about in the maelstrom of a viciously painted music industry picture, Johnny Virgil is stripped of his integrity, his passion, his art, and his soul, and so naturally rises to unparalleled heights on the charts (!) Oh, yeah and then there’s the video:

Now I gotta tell ya about the video ...your really gonna love this! We start out in one of these rural churches… they're havin' this gigantic rave up gospel church festival with fat women with their hands in the air yellin' amen and hallelujah. and our boy, our hero, he's right in the middle of it and religious fervor is just exploding off of his body behind the alter of this church there's this gigantic icon of a black Jesus Christ...who our boy later licks. Smash cut to him on a hillside dancing wildly, half naked, with his undulating midriff sweating profusely in front of hundreds and hundreds of burning crosses Smash cut back to the church only now it's not a church right, it's a courtroom and the priest has become a judge and the choir's become the Jury and black Jesus is on trial for raping our boy

So this really angry contingent of fat trucker lookin' guys sweeps up black Jesus beats him senseless and throws him in prison where our boy takes pity on him, goes to him, weeps in front of the bars and then gives him a hand job through them. but it's all shot by Herb Ritz so it's really beautiful and you feel sorry for both of them… - from ‘‘Smash’‘

Musically, The Shaming of the True is truly an exceptional piece of work. Diverse in its range, it touches on the many genres Gilbert had mastered. ‘‘Staring Into Nothing’‘ harkens back to the hypnotic sounds of early Genesis, ‘‘Best Laid Plans’‘ is a dose of note perfect Quadrophenia. ‘‘From Here To There’‘ a genuinely unsettling ballad, is Gilbert at his emotive best as he builds walls of lush orchestral sound that seem to come crumbling down around him, all set to a rhythm track of eerie footsteps. Heart-stopping!

Eventually , Johnny has a moment of clarity, realizes what he has become, and withdraws from the machine that made him a star.

Sometimes you have to climb up real high and its scary…

Everything Must Go! America’s having a Blow-Out sale...

They change my sex; burn my cash, stick my tongue up the clients ass…

Fuck em all this is art! Fuck em all this is art! I just wanted to work with my hands; see something go from A to B and somehow I ended up in the ghetto of beautiful things...

- from ‘‘The Ghetto of Beautiful Things’‘

Gilbert explores diverse musical terrain, from King Crimson-ish chaos, Tears For Fears alterna-pop (‘‘The Way Back Home’‘), and the orchestral grandeur of ‘‘A Long Day’s Life’‘, which will be a treat for any fans of Genesis’ Duke album. In all, this brilliant and emotional saga makes for a riveting journey for any listener, and offers layers of rewards and sonic treasures to be discovered with each listen. Unfortunately, Kevin never finished this monumental work in his lifetime.

THE SHIT HITS THE FAN

All during the making of ‘‘Shaming’‘, of course, Sheryl Crow continued her meteoric rise to fame. Despite the tension with Crow, most of the Tuesday Night Music Club attended the Grammy Awards in March 1995. To show irreverence, Gilbert rented 19th-century funeral regalia to wear including a morning coat and top hat. Crow picked up three awards that night, including Record of the Year for Kevin’s ‘‘All I Wanna Do,’‘ for which she was quick to take credit, even offering ‘‘I’m so proud to have written that song.’‘

For Gilbert, the final straw came when Crow sang ‘’Leaving Las Vegas’‘ on the David Letterman show, a song Gilbert had penned and included in his live shows since 1989. Afterward, when Letterman asked her if the song was autobiographical, a flustered Crow blurted out, ‘‘Yes.’‘ She had never even been to Las Vegas.

Days later Kevin Gilbert ended his life.

A black hood covered his face. His head was slumped against a leather strap chained to the headboard of the king-size bed in the sparsely furnished living room. The death of a former boyfriend and incriminating charges from former backing musicians are clouds hanging over Sheryl Crow's sunny career.

- JOEL SELVIN (San Francisco Chronicle)

The tragic end to this gifted singer/songwriters life are, sadly, a statistic in the music industry scorecard, and unlike Kevin’s alter ego, Johnny Virgil, who found a way out, Kevin himself was left with only bitterness, frustration, and self doubt. Ultimately he escaped, albeit a sad loss to music, and to those who knew Kevin. Perhaps the closest thing to a message that Kevin left was right there in his lyrics:

I saw you on my TV taking credit for our work,

and I knew if said anything that I would be the jerk...

There’s alwasys some ex-boyfriend, some jealous has-been clown...

trying to muscle in the spotlight, trying to keep the lady down....

Its a comfortable old story ‘bout the man without a clue,

who rises to the top on work some woman had to do..

but political correctness won’t accept the inverse true,

We just can’t see painted toenails on the foot that fits that shoe… so I’m leaving...

- from ‘‘I’m Leaving, Miss Broadway’‘

One afternoon, several hundred of Gilbert's friends and associates gathered for a memorial service at the Bottrells' Glendale home. Cintra Wilson, Kevin’s fiancé, dressed in white, sat next to Botrell as Crow walked up to say hello. ‘‘I barked at her,’‘ Wilson recalled. Wilson knew the titles of the album's songs well enough. ‘‘Run, Baby Run,’‘ she yelped at Crow, who fled in tears.

The Shaming of the True was completed posthumously by Nick DiVirgillio and John Cuniberti, culled from hours of Kevin’s master tapes, assembling pieces in accordance with their conversations with Kevin as well as from his scribbled notes. Released on KMG Records (Kevin Matthew Gilbert), the disc is a gorgeous masterwork, and yet a sad glimpse of the gifted man the world barely knew.