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Rogue,
North Carolina, USA
Jim,
Where to begin... I couldn't even tell you when I first heard your music, or which song it was. It has been like an everpresent theme in my life that I've only recently become aware of. I'll never forget that moment of startled fascination when in my bored channel surfing, I came across the video for "I Would Do Anything for Love", prompting me to make Bat II the
first CD I ever bought myself. I remember dashing over to the radio and turning it up every time "Making Love Out of Nothing At All" came on, and closing my eyes to savor the beauty of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" after a stressful day at work. There was the way the line "You won't find a Coupe de Ville hiding in the bottom of a Cracker Jack box" stuck in my mind the first time I heard it, and how my first boyfriend used to crank up Bat II on the radio and floor the gas pedal. And of course, the ongoing naughty pleasure of sneaking downstairs with my 'Bad for Good' CD and cranking it up on my current boyfriend's sound system when he's not home.
But beyond those, there were moments when your music had a more obvious and stirring influence on my life: the time I ran into my room and turned up the music to keep my mother from hearing how she'd made me cry, and "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" dried my tears and gave me hope, while "Life is a Lemon and I Want my Money Back" was perfect for cranking up loud to vent my disillusioned anger.
More recently I was sunk in depression, taking anti-depressants and still constantly miserable, when in a rare moment of motivation I decided to do some research online on this Jim Steinman person I kept hearing about, and discovered that so much of the music I had loved was written by the same amazing man. You wrote music that didn't just entertain, but shook me out of my apathy and made me FEEL. It made me realize that I'd given up too many dreams, but it wasn't too late to take them back. I found in the music was an emotional catharsis that I'd never realized I needed until I found it. I stopped taking the antidepressants that night. That was a little less than a month ago, and I'm more active physically and in better emotional shape than I have ever been. I'm done with trying to be what other people want me to be. I'm starting to follow my own dreams, and I have you to thank for it.
You have an incredible gift, Mr Steinman. Your music weaves a beautiful world around the listener, where emotions are deeper, cars are faster, and taking a chance on love is the greatest high of all. We might never know how many lives you've changed for the better through your music, but I can say without a shadow of doubt that the world is a far better place with you in it than it ever could have been without you. You've accomplished more in your life than most people dream of, and still have time to do much more. Happy birthday, Maestro, and I and your other fans wish you many, many more.
Lots of love,
Rogue
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Short Stories | Narratives | Drawings | Poetry + Prose | Digital Art | Novels
Paintings | Commercial Art | Symbiosis | Kingdom | The 8 Laws of Excess | Complete Works
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