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The story behind the Song:

Narrative by Kris Harrison:

July 2008 I went with a client of mine to 212 Pelham Davis circle as they were shopping for a building for them to lease for a studio. They were already in the business of audio/video production and we all planned on teaming up to offer more production services there were 5 of us there that day. During the tour I was introduced by them to John Wesley Lewis and he told us that he was the owner of the building. My clients and I told him in detail about our plans to partner and we were planning on setting my production equipment and their offices there. I gave John my Card and we all left.

The next day John called me and proposed that I partner with him instead and set up my gear at the building and provide services to the world. I replied, "We could do that" and we negotiated that we split the profits 50% each. I made it very clear that I was not interested in taking on any overhead and that any overhead must be paid out of sales. We agreed that my equipment will stay my property and I will need a key (which I never got), I told him that my equipment is already set up and working at my home studio and I don’t need any overhead especially if I am covering the cost to fix up and clean up the place. He agreed and also stated that if things didn’t work out that he would figure out a way to pay me back for all the repairs and clean up of the building. I then rented a 27 foot truck and brought everything over. I fixed up the entire building and set up my equipment with the understanding that if things did not work out, he would take care of the repair costs. I took pictures of before and after that clearly show the mess he had before we did all the work. I also have receipts for all the material and labor I paid out. John currently owes me 10k for all the work we did on the building as well as 3 projects we did for him and his clients. I never received any money from John or his clients.

In May of this year 2009 Kathy and I found an investor that is willing to buy the building and finance the construction and expansion of the studio. He has been actively working with Dean Anderson of Prudential who is the real estate agent for the building to date. That first week of May he told Dean that he wanted John out prior to making the purchase. This was told to John by Dean and everything did a 180. All of a sudden the building is locked down, John is told that he has to be out in 10 days, and he hits the roof. Our Investor will only purchase the building if John is gone because he has the entire lower level loaded with junk. John is still not out; my equipment is still in the building waiting for the sale to go through. We all suspected that something was going on because he had a large area of the basement locked up and nobody knows what’s there, not even the owner of the building. They are frustrated and can’t seem to get him out. I had received a phone call from John and he was very angry and making threats because the Owners Son Dan had visited the building the day before and was upset. John told me that he wanted me to pay $7,000.00 immediately or he was going to keep my equipment and he said that I could not go and get it and he threatened that if I did try to enter the building something bad was going to happen. He then hung up on me. I was speechless and just listened to him yelling very aggressively.

I know he is mad about the visit by Dan Dobson because Dean Anderson is the one who told me just a couple of days after the call I got from John. John never told me about that visit. He told me that John owed a lot of money and that he was not the real owner of the building. I immediately went to the Sheriff’s office and talked to an investigator and told him what is going on. He told me that once our Investor buys the building that we should do an inventory and if anything is missing, then we should contact him and he will then investigate.

I made many calls to the owner Bobby Dobson, as well as many emails pleading with him. I was very patient in hopes that the new Investor would buy the building. I had many long conversations and had have many email correspondence with them about what the Investor wanted in order to buy the building. Even 3 way calls to Dean from me and the Investor. He wanted only 2 things, for John to be out of the building and our equipment to be safe. Dean, John and the owners continued to show the building to prospects throughout this whole process for several months. Dean always told me that they are protecting my equipment form John. John never left and after about 3 months the Investor backed out.

Finally after many pleading emails from me to Dean and Bobby Dobson they let me get my equipment for fear that John was going to steal it, I got a call from Dean and he said that Sept 3, 2009 the owner Bobby Dobson will finally allow us to get our equipment out. Dean Anderson, Bobby Dobson, and Josh Loewer as well as two of my hired helpers and my wife Kathy went there at 9:30 am with the biggest U-Haul truck available. John was not around and we were told by Bobby D. that this was intentional. Prior to tear down I did a walk through and notice items missing. I took some photos to clearly show what was missing and all of us together made a list of the items and serial numbers. I showed the owner the original boxes of the missing items as I always save them for this purpose (moving). Most notably, my brand new Line 6 Flextone III amp that I just bought on Craigslist two weeks before they “locked down” the building. This is every guitar players dream amp. Of course John was not there and was probably sitting at home playing with my Line 6 amp. Other items missing are 2-Apple G-4 computer with studio displays and high end accessories, Pro-tools, Motu 2408 mk3 24 track recorder, Bass guitar, DAT recorder, cables, DVD payer, ALESIS verb efx unit, etc. John is a Bass player, and only uses Mac computers. I have a list of all the items and serial numbers with pictures. Everyone involved promised me that they would get to the bottom of it and help me get it back. Only one other person had access to the building (John). I never got a key to the building even though I asked many times.

I immediately reported my property as stolen as instructed. I showed the pictures of before they locked the building up and the pics I took that day. These are high resolution images and show clearly what was missing. The investigator went over there and talked to them. That was it. Nothing has been resolved to date. They simply got away with it. I guess they are above the law. The cops said sue them in court. This guy already has several cases clogging up the courts for exactly the same thing (wrongful trust).

I hired an attorney, I posted a $1,000.00 reward on Craigslist and that gets flagged immediately (I wonder who is flagging it!) and taken off. I don’t expect any money or even the return of my property as that would take a miracle at this point.

The song and viral video were created to inform others that they need to be careful when dealing with real-estate companies and their agents because this can happen to anyone especially in this economy and there is no legal recourse.

The thing that bothers me the most is I have always wanted a Line 6 Flextone III amp. I think it’s been about 20 years or so since I first played one at Guitar Center. I finally get one and this guy steals it!

I am very thankful that Dave and his family stepped up and helped us out. Dave is the best singer/songwriter on the planet and great to work with.

This whole incident has caused me and my family nothing but "Pain and Misery".

While we had to eat out of garbage cans, Dave Mathias and his family gave us hope.

Misery was originally written by Lenny Marks III who was the other guitar player in my old band Hiatus. I recorded the song live with my band in my studio in 2002. Dave Mathias wrote the lyrics for this version. We recorded the new track in our home studio in 2010.

The video we also produced in our home studio in 2010.

Proof:

These are pictures of the visible items I found missing when we went to get our property.

New Line 6 flextone III with shortboard taken before while I was playing one of the Investors guitars and he took the pictures.