A request for Alanis Morissette
 

I have a question for you all, assume for the moment that you are Alanis Morissette, a liberal artist currently on tour and you receive an e-mail like this:

"My best friend and I are going to be going to your concert in Pheonix Arizona on the 15th of July. My best friend has wanted to see you in concert for as long as I can remember. When I found out about the concert I thought it would be awesome to take her to go to it as a birthday present (She's turning 20!) She means a lot to me and while just going to the concert is awesome, and will be an experience I know we will both enjoy, I would like to ask a favor. Being able to meet you in person would be an experience she would never forget, and I would be willing to do anything to give her that opportunity, including spending whatever money I have. I know you are a busy person, and I understand that it is a little late to be asking this, (as the concert is only 2 weeks away) so even if you were to dedicate a song to her would be an awesome thing for her to remember. I'm sure that you get emails like this all the time, so if you can't do it, I understand completely and want to let you know that I will still enjoy the concert no matter what your decision is.
Sincerely,
Jon"

How would you react if you were Alanis? This isn't the exact email that I wrote, but it is the basic idea, the sentence structure is the same, and a lot of the words are as well, I just can't remember everything I said. I haven't gotten a reply back, and I want to know what to expect from someone that isn't inside my own head. (I.E. if I were to receive this email I would want to do everything I could to help, but that may just be because I wrote it.)

Any help would be swell! Thanks!

P.S. this isn't a music discussion thread, so I thought it would be best to put it here. Thanks again!

If I were Alanis, I probably would never even see this e-mail, so I wouldn't be able to react to it at all. Most likely she has someone read the messages sent to her publicly known e-mail addresses, and only actually reads her own private e-mails.

But assuming she/I did, in fact, read it, she/I would probably consider doing that dedication thing, but chances are that any sort of meeting would be to difficult, logistically speaking, to pull of in such short notice.

Becuase of my celebrity status, it would make me feel weird and suspicious of the sender. It would be better for you to buy backstage passes or try and win them from a local radio station or something. Meet-n'-greets with celebrities are almost always arranged as part of a promotion for a radio station, or TV show. Unless you know someone who knows someone, I'd say the possibility of your request being honored falls at a pretty low percentage.

Maybe you could get her cell number from Paris Hilton? *rimshot*

maybe Paris Hilton and rim-anything shouldn't be used in the same sentence :p

Heh, while I did ask for your thoughts, well, they aren't really what I wanted *grins*

I may know next to nothing about business, but I do understand some basic PR and it would seem to me that preformer would want to help people out, so that more people know that said preformer is a good person. I can understand that they would get so many e-mails that they wouldn't be able to read them themselves, but to completely ignore people? That shows bigotry and ass-holishness that I would never expect from Alanis. Not after hearing the songs she has written, after hearing the things she has said about herself, her life and her development, the things she has said to other fans and at concerts. Given the chance to help people, if I were in her exact position I would definately do everything I could to help. Of course, she could actually be a bitch, but I don't believe it.

Feel free to disagree with me, after all fore-warned is fore-armed, and if my view of the world is wrong, I certainly want to know so I can change it for the better.

Well sure, Alanis may seem like a really nice genuine person. Heck, she probably is. But as a celebrity, she does have to be cautious about handing out favours.

There was an episode of 'Punk'd' that totally illustrated this. They had this kid keep asking for autographs from this Basket-Ball player (i forget who) and the guy would totally do it... he signed all kinds of crap for more than an hour - IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS DINNER - and the kid just kept coming up more stuff.

Now, obviously, no one would really do that. (it was pretty funny once he got mad, but that show is kinda mean so I have mixed feelings about it) But people would expect it all the time, in theory. But it just shows... some people can get too involved.. try to be too close... and that makes the celebrities be more aloof with the fans at times. Its almost nessecery. Do you think the beatles answered every fan-mail they got? (Don't anyone DARE pull a simpsons quote on me. I've seen that episode, too^_^) Its not immpossible, but it is very unlikely. You would be better served going through more regulated mediums - again, radio stations, back stage pass, etc...

But, I'll say this; If she actually gets to look at the email you sent before the concert if at all(doubtful), you catch her in a good mood, and there hasn't been a bajillion other fans asking for similar favours recently, you might get something. It could be what you wanted for your friend, or maybe just an awknowledgement of your email, but even that would surprise me.

EDIT: WHY R U MAKE 'RIMSHOT' SOUND D1RTY!?!1

Well, if I were Alanis, and it was 1996 and I was suddenly an overnight success after the release of "Jagged Little Pill" and "You Oughta Know" was being played into the ground on every radio station in the New World, I'd see this email and be like, "Dude, I'm, like, eh? Too busy for this stuff, eh? I'm too angsty for like, love stuff."

But If I were Alanis and it was a few years later and I'd just released "Under Rug Swept" and I'd become this hippie-esque earth-muffin granola girl, I'd never get the email because computers are evil and are the reason for all those baby seals being disoriented by greenhouse gasses immediately before having their skulls bashed in by drunk Eskimos and American Corporate Executives.

So, the long and the short of it is that there's a slim chance of her even seeing it, much less responding to it. But knock yourself out.

Wait. Staizer... Are you a dude? Are you taking your 'best freind', a person known to be of the female gender, to this concert as a way of getting 'closer' to her? Cuase trying to get her to meet Alanis morset is actually a pretty suave deal... even you don't suceed... I know your game now... Its so obvious, how did I not see this before? ^_^

yes I am a dude, my best friend is my Ex, I must say that it is for honorable intentions, she really has wanted to meet Alanis, and I would do the same type of thing for any of my friends. If she and I get back together after this though . . . that would be cool too *grins*

I said nothing about dishonourable intentions... But isn't it true that you would esspecially try and do something like this for her?

It is not dishonorable to do nice things for someone you care about and hope for affection in return on some level... You just can't expect it, is all, otherwise you feel like you wasted your time and you really shouldn't.

You know this though.

Well, I was more saying that I wasn't just doing it to get laid. I only have like 2 best friends and both of them are girls, but if I did have a guy best friend I would like to think I would do the same for him as well . . . But of course there is also the fact that I like doing really cool surpising things for my girl friends, meh, whatever.

I'm still not sure if I can really understand why a famous person can afford to ignore their fans. The more they treat their fans like people, the more fans they get and the more revenue. I understand that famous people are only human and can't read all of the emails themselves and can't answer all the requests that are made, but they could have whoever does read their emails bring them a summary and they can decide what they want to answer. Just outright ignoring emails is rude.