Shaun’s Sayings: My Friend Tom (June 9, 2006)

I finally met my first “friend”. I met TOM!

If you are one of the 83-million or so people on MySpace.com you know who TOM is. When you sign up for an account on MySpace to start gathering a network of “friends”, Tom is the first one that you get.

Yes, I actually met Tom – he’s real and was sitting right near me!

I was honored to be the host for the Recording Academy Honors where we recognized those whose outstanding achievements and contributions have significantly enriched the music industry. Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe – the co-founders of MySpace were two of the night’s honorees. We chatted during the evening – these guys are so cool and I gave them some suggestions on improving MySpace, like being able to adjust the privacy settings so people don’t know the last time you logged on. They really liked that idea and said we will be seeing upgrades soon.

I had the privilege of introducing Jimmy Lovine – my new buddy – who is the head of Interscope Records. I almost took Jimmy out backstage as I was running to get back to the podium. Bumped right into the man! He grabbed me and said, “Shall we dance?” Love him!

I also introduced the talented Dr. Dre. He came out to hand the award to eight-time Grammy nominee Snoop Dogg, who was honored for helping to bring a taste of the “hood” to mainstream and his work with inner city youth. Snoop, by the way, had the BIGGEST, HUGEST, LARGEST, bodyguard I have ever seen in my life! I asked him, what would happen if I tried to tackle Snoop. He laughed and said, “Little Lady, I would just have to tackle YOU.” So, I left it alone.

I got to introduce two of my pals – movie director Brett Ratner and actor Chris Tucker. They came to hand an award to four-time GRAMMY winner Lalo Schifrin. You may not know Lalo’s name, but you know this pianist, composer and conductor’s music. He’s written more than 100 scores for film and television including the theme for “Mission: Impossible”. When he and the band played that, the audience went crazy!

Also entertaining the audience was, my friend, the great, Natalie Cole, and Bow Wow.

Much love to my pals at the Recording Academy for giving me the honor to host the show.

I had a great time!

Peace, Shaun