This song was originally on "Delve Deeper," a double disc production experiment. There were 33 songs, of which 2 were worth keeping beyond the experiment. Those 2 songs are "There Was A Man" and "You Gotta Want It." Interestingly enough, both songs have a different tempo than they originally did. I'll do the slower version of "You Gotta Want It" at some upcoming shows, but the slower version of "There Was A Man" becomes slow and boring, so you won't get that one.
Anyway, there's not much to tell, except that this is a COMPLETELY fictional story. No one has ever tried to kill me, as far as I know. There was a fear at the time, and I suppose I still have the fear, that people would misunderstand me. They would think I was insulting hip-hop. Gangsta rap was pretty big at the time I wrote the song (1997), and I felt like that would be the biggest reason for people misunderstanding me. Obviously, I'm not gangsta rap. I'm not a gangsta at all. The entire point of the song is that I am expressing myself, and I genuinely want to help people with my music.
I still have a somewhat grandiose idea that my music can give people strength, and make their lives better. I know I make a difference in some people's lives, just by giving them something they can dance to, sing along with (at least the choruses), forget their problems, and have a good time listening to. I'm not going to hate on anyone. I have my own musical opinions of who I think is good, and who I think is terrible, but I won't get into a verbal war, or publicly say how bad I think they are, because it is only my opinion, and my opinion of who sucks is completely irrelevant. Who I think is good is only important because it helps you understand my music a little bit better, but you can still understand it without knowing my influences.
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