Todd Headlee writes in to say that he's not the ex-manager of Milli Vanilli, nor is he representating American Idol loser Clay Aiken. He is an honest-to-god Clay Aiken fan. (Careful, Todd. No taking that back ten years from now. It's in print now. Or Google cache, as it were.) I suggest you read the whole thing. ("More" at the bottom of the post.)

During the course of the last AMERICAN IDOL, I stumbled upon a Clay Aiken fan board quite by accident. Reading through some of the posts, I had a reaction to one of them and decided to post a response. To do so, I had to register on that board. I had never EVER participated in a MESSAGE BOARD on the internet before, and I was nave about the importance of "hiding" your real name and e-mail address. Someone apparently put my name in a GOOGLE search which brought up a bunch of stuff regarding my involvement with Milli Vanilli, as well as with a movie loosely based on my senior year of college called "CAMPUS MAN", and they posted this information on this board. My profile had listed that I was busy writing a screenplay called "BLAME IT ON The RAIN", based on my real-life rollercoaster ride with Milli Vanilli, and many people wanted to know about this as well — When was the movie coming out? Who would be playing Rob & Fab? Would it feature new Milli Vanilli music? —- I was truly dumbfounded. I had no idea that my posts on one board had been reposted on dozens of other Clay Aiken message boards that I had no idea even existed. Within days, my e-mail server began crashing due to the amount of e-mail I began to get from Clay fans all over the U.S., Canada, and as far away as Singapore. These e-mails from Clay fans ranged from notes expressing appreciation for my my posts (which I was shocked seemed to reach so many people), or people who, surprisingly, wanted to know more about Milli Vanilli stuff, people who saw and enjoyed "CAMPUS MAN", and mostly fans of Clay that had questions or concerns about Clay's chances on American Idol and in the music business in general. I answered every e-mail personally, mostly because I thought it would be rude not to respond —- and still having no idea that these responses would be copied by others and then re-posted on other sites (including Gawker.com) all over the internet. Suddenly, I found myself in the role of educating many of these Clay fans as to the behind-the-scenes machinations of the music business. Things reached a fever pitch the night that Clay lost to Ruben in the American Idol finale. I began getting even more mail from Clay fans, most of them distraught about Clay not winning the AI crown. I expressed to all of them my own personal belief that Clay NOT winning was a "Blessing in disguise", that it was certainly not the end of the world, and that Clay being "Runner-up" quite possibly would fuel a bigger reaction in his fans than had he actually won, due to the "Underdog" factor. Inadvertently, I somehow inspired those that I responded to in such a way that it mobilized many of them into action, encouraging them to e-mail request lines at radio stations, buy multiple copies of Clay CD's and give to friends (in something they came to call "Clay It Forward"), all united with the goal that Clay, not Ruben, was going to have his single debut at #1. What followed among the Clay fans is nothing short of a phenomenon. They educated themselves about radio stations and program directors, Billboard magazine, Soundscan, and the media. They organized themselves in a grass roots campaign to form "Street Teams" for Clay. Fax machines at media outlets, radio stations, and at RCA started running out of paper, e-mail boxes overflowing like never before. DJ's at radio stations came face-to-face with the Clay Aiken fan-driven request line machine. Meanwhile, my e-mail had gotten so out of hand that I had to do something because I simply couldn't keep spending the time addressing the concerns of Clay's growing fan base. Then ROLLING STONE released the issue with Clay on the cover, and Clay's single "THIS IS THE NIGHT" broke sales records for a debut artist and became one of only 12 artists to have a single debut on BILLBOARD's "Hot 100" at #1. This clearly was something very BIG in the making. Moderators at other boards began getting fed-up with the amount of posts that were directed to me on their boards with questions about Clay, record companies, radio stations, Dj's, and everything else Clay-related, and they began BANNING me from their board which, to my surprise, outraged many of the posters on those boards. This only increased my e-mail, with people wanting to get to me and wondering where I had gone. So, last week (July 2nd) I decided to start my own message board on EZBOARD (called "ToddVenice On All Things Clay Aiken") so that these people could all go to one place, rather than my personal e-mail address, and that I could also go to one place and read their posts, answer their questions and concerns, and in essence be a "Voice of Reason" to so many who simply didn't understand how this music business works so they could, hopefully, make some sense out of it all and act accordingly. I am overwhelmed that in less than a week, my board has received nearly 90,000 views and over 2000 posts. This all just sort of happened quite by accident. However, what is amazing about it is that it is just one of so many examples I have learned about through this experience in which Clay Aiken's talent and persona has affected lives in a profound way. Through this experience, I have been gifted with the chance to meet so many people from all over the country who I otherwise would not have ever met — really amazing, wonderful, dedicated, and most importantly, "real" people —- who all share the common bond of being touched by this mystery that is "Clay Aiken". What's more, out of the blue, I was able to draw on my own experience and knowledge in the business, and in doing so was able to educate and inform others who were not otherwise savvy as to the ways of this business. I also got a true understanding of how incredibly broad Clay's fan base is, and how he has touched the hearts of people of all ages (from 3 to 93), male, female, all races, religions, straight, gay, and everything in between. In my lifetime, I honestly don't remember seeing anything quite like it. I realize that there are many out there who still don't really "Get It" about the unmistakable "power" that this young man from Raleigh, N.C. seems to have that touches so many in such a profound way...I'm not even sure I fully understand it myself. But, what I do understand is that something truly remarkable is taking place here surrounding Clay Aiken, and that it has only just begun. I feel blessed that myself, along with so many others, have a chance to see it all happen, and in what ever small way, have a chance to be a part of it. But, I repeat, I am not involved with the career of Clay Aiken in any way other than as a FAN and, I guess, now an operator of a Message Board for many other of his fans.

Sincerely,
Todd Headlee