“In the fall of 1990, the metal band ‘Warrant’ was about to release their new album, ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ when Jani Lane — the band’s lead singer and primary songwriter — received a call from one of the managers at Sony, their record company, asking him to add at least one ‘love ballad’ song to the album due to commercial success requirements. Lane understood this completely, reluctantly complied, and wrote a song that later became one of the most famous metal songs in history, ‘Cherry Pie.’”
Everyone was stunned by the success of this song, which ranked tenth among the top songs on the Billboard Hot 100. In an interview with VH1, “Lynn” told the host: “He ‘hates that song’ and shared details with the Sony producer, saying: ‘On that night, I wrote ‘Cherry Pie,’ then sent it to him. He read it over the weekend, and suddenly the album’s name changed to ‘Cherry Pie’ instead of our chosen name. There was a hit song called ‘Cherry Pie,’ and contests were held to eat cherry pie. My legacy today is ‘Cherry Pie,’ everything about me is ‘Cherry Pie,’ I am ‘Cherry Pie Man,’ I could shoot myself in the head for writing that song!”
“The misery hit ‘Lene’ from this unexpected exceptional success of a song he didn’t want in his life. Perhaps ‘Lene’ was mentally ill, perhaps he couldn’t bear this legacy, and perhaps with every praise for his song — the lyrics he didn’t want — he felt he had sold his soul for commercial success, sacrificing what he believed in. Shortly afterward, he committed suicide in his hotel room by consuming an excessive amount of alcohol.”
In another society, one of the most famous YouTubers (Nikocado Avocado) appears as a nice and handsome young man, with over three million subscribers. He films himself eating voraciously in a way normal cannot do. “Nicholas Perry” gains weight slightly with each video he posts, transforming from a handsome young man into an extremely obese and negatively impactful person through his shocking behavior in eating fast food. It got to the point where he ate ten thousand calories in one day in front of the camera in response to a foolish challenge, taking on many similar challenges that turned him into a sick individual in his appearance, challenges, and interactions, even for his longtime followers.
Selling dignity, selling health, or selling one’s soul; a trade that kills much of our humanity and turns a person into an addict whose sole purpose is to attract more followers, thus losing all inner peace and replacing contentment with greed. He looks in the mirror and asks himself, “What do others like and what excites them?” Instead of asking, “What do I like, what comforts me, and what creates greater value for me?”
