Jimmy Needs Assistance

I knocked on the door and heard a voice say to come in. I opened the door, not looking up at the moment, closed the door behind me, and turned around to meet my hopefully new employer. It only took about 3 seconds for my brain to turn to mush and my mouth to dry up like a desert. Outwardly I surprised even myself when I didn't show any sign that I had just walked into a room and would maybe be working with one of the most attractive guys in the music business. Jim's right eyebrow went up with a bit of surprise when he noticed I didn't outwardly react to seeing him.

I just showed my patented smile, and believe me it was genuine, and took his outstretched hand for a firm handshake, and said, "It is very nice, and a true honor to finally meet you. Would you prefer I call you Mr. Bass, James, or Lance? I will draw the line at calling you master, or at least until you hire me that is."

This was all said while looking into his green eyes, them being even more exquisite than any of the descriptions that I have ever heard. The eyebrow came back down and the look of puzzlement vanished. I think he thought I didn't recognize him, probably explaining the raised eyebrow.

He just smiled back and then when everything finally sank in about a second later, started laughing. The look of puzzlement was quickly replaced by a look of mirth. He then said, "It's nice to finally meet you as well. I have heard a lot of talk about you. You have definitely made an impression with some of the people around here. Now I just have to figure out what kind of impression that was" he bantered back with a look like he was saying 'pay back is a bitch' as he said this. It looked like he could be a lot of fun to be around. My thoughts were quickly interrupted though when I made eye contact again.

I noticed his eyes took on a little glint as he continued speaking "but whatever you do, do NOT call me Mr. Bass. My father is Mr. Bass and I am not nearly old enough to be him! You on the other hand..." he said with a small laugh leaving off the rest. With that said I shot him back a look that said 'Bitch' before we both started laughing.

With the introductions all said and done, I could almost literally feel most of the tension and awkwardness dissipating from the room. I took a quick look over to Johnny Wright who was grinning like a Cheshire cat at the banter James and I threw back and forth, and that settled into a look of knowing on his face. It almost seemed that he already made some decision. What it was I could only hope.

James continued what he was saying, "You may call me either James or Lance. Whichever you prefer. I only ask that you do NOT call me Jimmy. If you do I might have to beat your ass!"

At this point all three of us broke out in laughter again. I am pretty sure that my reason for laughing, not to mention a light blush, was different from that of Johnny or James. I had a quick but vivid picture of him actually doing it and not clothed either. Now don't be thinking those thoughts, I am NOT into the leather and S&M shit, but a little love tap or two on the butt is another story altogether. Damn where did that thought come from? All I have to say is that I was happy I was wearing boxer briefs instead of going commando in those pants. That was something James definitely didn't need to see!

I did take a quick moment to think that I couldn't believe my luck, here I was in a room with James Bass and Johnny Wright and we were getting along like old friends. It was nice. I could definitely get used to that. Realizing where this train of thought was going I told myself quickly 'Calm down Jojo, you don't have the job yet!'

I replied to James switching into a little more formal address, seeing this was still my interview, "Well in that case I'll call you James if that's okay with you. Lance just doesn't seem right for some reason. I see Lance as the guy up on stage singing and dancing. James is who I see standing here in front of me." I saw that glint in his eyes again and he and Johnny exchanged a knowing look. I got the distinct feeling that I had made a good impression with that statement.

The three of us finally sat down, luckily just before my nerves told my body 'either sit down or you will end up on your ass on the floor'. This was the most fun, but at the same time stressful interview I had ever been in.

James began the serious conversation by saying, " James is fine, and thank you for coming all this way for the interview. Originally I was going to try to meet with you in NYC, but Johnny wouldn't have been able to make it. First and foremost I wanted to say sorry for the little bit of mystery and evasiveness with my, and my company's name. If I used Lance or James Bass or mentioned FreeLance Entertainment, everyone and their brother would be trying to interview just to get to meet me. I wanted to weed out all of the people who wanted the job because of my name. I hope you understand."

I just nodded and said, "I completely understand. I will be honest with you in that I was a little leery because of the lack of information, and I almost didn't come. The only thing that swayed me was that WEG was involved. If I were in your position I would probably do something similar. At least you don't have to worry about me taking your place though."

With that James looked a little puzzled. I continued "Your job is secure with NSYNC. Even though I have a bass singing voice, I can't seem to hold a note at times and I also have White Man Syndrome - 2 left feet on the dance floor!" With that said, the room erupted into laughter and completely dissolved the last of my nervousness.

Johnny surprised me a little here jumping in saying, "Well you aren't the only one with 'White Man Syndrome.' We have been trying to cure Scoop over here of that for the last few years."

Talk about being shocked! I would have expected something like that from of one of the other guys in the group, but not Johnny. James just seemed to shrug it off with a laugh. I figured this must be a running joke between them.

Changing gears a bit and getting a bit more businesslike, James mentioned that Johnny was sitting in on some of the interview because if I were offered the job, I would be dealing with him quite a bit with FreeLance because Meredith would be touring with NSYNC this summer. if I got the job, I would also be with James working one on one at other times while they were on tour. Plus the fact that he trusted Johnny's judgement with these matters, as they had worked together for a number of years.

After a little more laughter and some minor small talk, James started the actual interview. It took a second to get back into that mode again. We had been getting along so well up to this point I almost forgot that it was an actual job interview. One of the first things I did was set him straight (no pun intended) on my name as well.

"First off seeing we didn't know each other before, I have been letting you get away with calling me by my first name. Well not anymore, I hate it. You can call me Joe, Joseph, or as most of my friends call me, Jojo. If you don't I will have to kick your ass as well!" I said that last part looking directly at James hoping that he would get it. He started laughing. He said that was fine and started referring to me as Jojo. Now why did he have to go and do that so soon? Him calling me Jojo went and gave me that warm fuzzy feeling because it meant he was starting to think of me as a friend.

He went on to explain that the position was for an all around assistant. He made most of the decisions for FreeLance, and with him working mostly with Meredith in the past he could handle it pretty much alone. He mentioned that with Nsync getting ready to release their third album, and going on tour this spring, as well as FreeLance taking on a few new clients, he would need help.

The job would consist of everything from making and keeping schedules, setting up and coordinating meetings, organizing and conducting press conferences and press releases, to running interference between James and other FreeLance staff, as well as taking over some of the administrative and time consuming things that James just wouldn't have the time for. There would be a lot of travel with both Meredith as well as James himself.

He also mentioned that this was a great time to get involved because he was thinking about signing a couple more artists to FreeLance. He wanted to be sure that he had great support staff first, as he didn't want to take on an artist and then not be able to do anything for them. He had already hired a few people for some of the more mundane tasks like working from the offices in Orlando. I was originally targeted to interview for one of these positions, but he changed his mind after the phone interview, as he thought I would be more suited to a more direct, hands-on position.

He then mentioned that the person that got the position I was interviewing for was to start right away, as Meredith was going to be one of the opening acts for the upcoming Nsync tour, and he could train me himself and show me what he expected during the tour. Once the training was completed I would be on my own, doing what needed doing. It sounded a little bit overwhelming, but at the same time very exciting.

Now I knew why I was flown to Orlando and interviewing with James directly. I was wondering why they had me interview with both James and Johnny. I was actually interviewing for something totally different than what I thought I was. I also thought that the pay would also be quite a bit more, and that didn't hurt either!

A few parts of the interview really stand out. One of the first questions that James asked was what I thought of different music, saying that if he did hire me, I would be up to my armpits in it. Following that he asked me what I thought of country music. The devil in me decided to speak when I told him the following.

I told him, with a totally straight face, "To be honest, I'm not a big fan of Country Music."

The look on James' face was priceless! After all Meredith Edwards would be releasing her new album within the next few months. After a nice fat pause for effect, I continued with "but I do like some of the 'New' country out there. I like Brooks & Dunn as well as Reba and some others. Oh, don't forget Garth! My favorite of his is the 'No Fences' album. I know every song on it by heart."

The look on his face was absolutely priceless, for more than one reason. I found out that Garth was one of his favorites. To top it off I broke out into a rendition of the song 'Friends in Low Places' purposely singing off key. I thought this would be a fun little thing to follow up this little revelation and he surprised me by joining in just as off key as I was. At this point Johnny laughed and said that was all he could handle, wished me good luck, and left James to finish the interview.

About three quarters through the interview we turned to the personal part of the interview, talking about my goals, where I wanted to end up in life, and more personal things such as what I liked to do in my off time etc. By this time I started to get a hunch and thought I would play it. I told him about my Mom and 2 sisters, and some of the things I wanted out of life. I also mentioned that I loved reading. Playing the hunch a bit more I added that I usually read Science Fiction and Fantasy, but lately I was reading a lot of romance online from Nifty.

Nope, he didn't bite on this. I thought for sure that he would ask what Nifty was, but there was nothing. 'Hum', I wondered, 'maybe he knows what the Nifty site holds'. Thankfully he didn't ask me about it, as I didn't quite want to tell him I read almost every story that has been posted in the Boy-Band directory for the last year or so.

Then I finally got a BINGO as a couple pieces started to fall into place. I had to test my little theory first. James asked me what I liked to do for fun. I told him about how I got into computers as a hobby, different shows that I liked, and things of that nature.

Just when I thought my hunch was wrong, James asked me "So how long have you been hiking? Have you been to anyplace exciting to hike?, And what made me decide to join a gay hiking club?"

Ding, Ding, Ding, give the man the grand prize! The pieces fell into place. Main mystery number 1 had been solved, the mystery fourth person on the phone interview. The next decision was going to be whether I wanted to bring it out in the open or not. Was this a test or was this just a little slip on his part. I decided to go for it and take a chance.

Before I answered the question, I looked James and said, "you sneaky little bastard. Were you going to tell me that you were taking part of the conference call or was this a little test to see how observant I was?"

Now, I want to explain something to you. I am usually VERY good at remembering faces as well as voices. I can talk to someone once, not talk to him or her for months and have them call on the phone and I can usually remember who they are within 30 seconds. The reason that I am mentioning this, is that if I was right, then James had pulled a fast one on me and was actually at the phone interview, but disguising his voice.

The look on his face said it all. It was a total look of surprise, and I think also maybe even ??pride?? there as well. This really puzzled me. He must have seen that I was just a bit upset about that, so he decided to spill.

James made sure to make full eye contact so he was sure to have my undivided attention and began, "Yes I was present during your phone interview. I purposely disguised my voice for obvious reasons - not to be recognized and thereby ruining the interview. To answer your other question, no, it wasn't a test."

He took a breath and continued, "as we discussed earlier, I didn't want it known that the position open would be a job working for me, to keep fans away. It also wasn't a test to see how observant you are. I will admit that you are very observant though. Of all the interviews that I have given, you are the ONLY one to pick up on it. I think that's a very good thing. I apologize for misleading you with that, and I WAS planning on telling you about it at the end of the interview. I'm sorry if it offended you."

Now it was my turn to apologize to him saying, "no James, I am sorry for getting upset. To be honest I'm not sure why it upset me. I completely understand why you did it, and to be honest, it would have been a good test. I guess it was more surprise than anything else. I also tend to be more observant that most people anyway. Call it a gift or a curse."

With that James smiled and we continued from there. I told him a little about my hiking trips, like my trip to Mt. Marcy **(more info in my author's section) and some of the other things that kept me occupied in my spare time.

Right before James wrapped up the interview he had to ask the one question I was dreading. Out of the blue he asked, "so, what do you honestly think of Nsync's music?"

I took a breath, and inwardly gritting my teeth as I told him what I thought, "I liked 'No Strings Attached'" and left it at that.

I knew what was coming next as he asked, "can you be more specific please. Tell me what you like and don't like about our music."

'Oh shit' I thought, 'here we go'. Kiss the job goodbye. This is where I could really piss him off. I then sucked up my courage, and told him, "I think your first album sucked."

Those cute eyebrows of his both raised up but he motioned for me to continue.

"You have a couple of good songs on the album like 'God Must Have Spent...' for example, but the retro songs like 'Sailing' don't have the spark that they need. Sailing is a great song, and Christopher Cross did a great job with the original, but I can't see you doing it. It isn't Nsync's style. I was also disappointed on the sound of the album. It doesn't have the sparkle that NSA has. The album sounds hurried and a little flat like it was put together haphazardly and with as little time and money as possible. A lot of the mixing was not the best it could be either. Sorry to be so blunt."

At this point I took a deep breath. James had a blank look on his face. I couldn't read him if my life depended on it. So I continued, "But, I didn't hear that on NSA. The album has a great sound to it, an energy all it's own. I also bought and listened to NSA before I heard your first album, so that probably biased me a bit. I heard your best work before anything else you did. If I had heard the albums in order, the improvement would have been noticeable and not so drastic. I also want to note that if your junior album shows the same leap of maturity as the changes between your freshman and sophomore albums, then it will truly be a work of art."

Trudging on I continued, "Personally I don't know the reasons why you decided to break away from Lou Pearlman, and to be honest I don't really care, but I can honestly say from a fan stand point Nsync did a total 180, all for the good. When all of you perform now, you all truly look happy. Not like some of your earlier appearances that I have seen. The vibe I get from listening to NSA is that you were free and able to play what and how you wanted. The songs and album definitely show that. It sounds like you had more time and control of the whole album when doing NSA. It definitely shows."

I continued after I took a breath, "It wasn't so much just the remakes either on the first album that brought it down. They just seemed more noticeable, to me anyway, having known how the original version of the songs sounded. For example I LOVE what you did with 'Just Got Paid.' Your version is better than the original. This is a perfect example of what I was talking about with 'Sailing.' 'Just Got Paid' is the perfect remake for Nsync. It has the sound and energy that you have. That is what a remake is supposed to sound like. So do you forgive me?"

I gave him my best puppy dog look when I said this last bit, which made him chuckle breaking the seriousness of the moment a bit.

"I do have one complaint though" I continued. There goes that eyebrow thing again. If he didn't stop it I was going to shave them off so he couldn't do it anymore. "I don't hear your voice standing out in any of the songs. Yeah yeah yeah, you do a little speaking here and there in some of the songs but that isn't the same and you know it!" I gave him my patented smile again. "You harmonize and support the other guys perfectly. Of course JC and Justin have solos, even Chris and Joey do now and then, but I don't hear you. It is such a shame."

When I had finished this last bit James actually blushed. It was so cute! Being the evil bitch that I liked to be sometimes, I continued on before he had a chance to recover and say anything, "but... I picked up the DVD of your Madison Square Garden HBO Special."

At this little tidbit of information the cute little eyebrow thing happened again. I was going to bring a razor the next time I saw him. Trying not to get too distracted I continued, "I was playing around with the added features of it and I noticed that if you switch to the second audio track you get to hear the separate feeds from your mikes as well as the feed of the band. I could hear all of you singing without it being filtered or mixed. I could hear you sing separately. You should be more confident with your voice, step out a little, you definitely have the pipes for it." Well that finally did it. He was as red as a tomato and looked like he wanted to become a part of the chair. Being a bitch was fun!

After getting some of his composure together, and a lot of the blood finally draining from his face he found his voice and said, "Thanks for some of that, I think" and then he gave me a quick smile. He added, "on your observations of our music, I have to admit you are pretty good at picking music apart. You have some pretty good insights and instincts on recording. You could make a good producer."

I thanked him for this compliment, but had to change the mood. It was getting more serious than what I was comfortable with. I broke the mood completely with my next question. I just HAD to ask. Chris wasn't here so I just asked James. Getting a serious look on my face I asked him "James, can I ask you something?"

He gave me a questioning look and answered, "sure, what is it?"

"I just have to know." I said confidently and with the straightest face I could muster. "Listening to the HBO special, I was wondering. On the one song that Chris sang a long solo on, and I'm sorry the name of the song escapes me at the moment, how did he get his voice so high without cracking? Did one of you guys accidentally kick him in the balls backstage while getting ready?"

Oh My God, you should have heard James laugh. He was laughing so hard that his face turned beet red and the tears were just rolling down his face. Don't get me wrong though, I wasn't far behind him. When we could both finally stop laughing and caught our breaths, all he said was, "well, you are just going to have to ask him when you meet him." Woah, hold up a sec there! Did he just slip and say when, instead of if, by mistake or was he trying to tell me something?

After hearing this you wouldn't believe the funky dance I was doing in my head. Outwardly I just pretended that he didn't say it. I was finally starting to let myself get a little hopeful that I had gotten the job. 'A little hope never hurt anyone, just don't count on it' I told myself.

The interview had ended up lasting almost three and a half hours. James asked most of the usual questions, and mixed in some personal ones as well. I made sure that I was as honest as I could be and emphasized more on the management side of my work experience with both people and projects. I especially emphasized supporting over 1000 users and 9 county offices with the one computer job I did for over 2 years. I needed to push the managing chaos thing in there. I admit that he did get a little personal on some of the questions, and I was surprised how I answered them. He was so easy to talk to that everything just seemed to flow out of me. I think it was one of the best interviews that I had ever had.

As we got up to say our good-bye's, James shook my hand and said, "I really had a good time interviewing you. I will get back to you within the next 24 hours. It was a pleasure to meet you."

I just shook his hand and replied back "no James, the pleasure was all mine. Never in my wildest expectations would I have guessed that I would be here talking to you about a job. It was an honor to meet you as well, and even if I don't get the position, I will cherish this for the rest of my life. You proved that there are decent and talented people in the music industry who don't let fame go to their head You deserve everything you have worked for."

I took a pause at this point and continued, "I would just like to add that if you do hire me, you will not only get 110% from me, but most importantly you already have my respect. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon."

With that I left, and took a cab to my hotel with a very content feeling. As I sat eating a sandwich I had gotten from the deli down the street from the hotel, I reflected back on the day. I knew that even if I didn't get the job, this day was definitely one I would cherish for the rest of my life. I could only hope that tomorrow would be even better.

When I finished eating, I headed back into the room and went to bed. It had been a long and exciting day, and the sooner I went to bed the sooner tomorrow would come. I knew without a doubt that the next day would change my life forever, but right now I didn't know how. Either I would be going home to continue my job hunt, or I would be working with one of the most successful men in the POP music industry. Only time would tell. Either way I was happy.

To Be Continued!

Author's Notes: Here is some information on the Adirondack Mountains. The tallest mountain in New York State, and possibly the whole Northeast United States (but I am not sure as my memory fails on this one), is Mt Marcy. I had the honors of hiking this beautiful mountain a few years ago with a good friend. Mt Marcy is in one of the oldest mountain ranges in the United States, the Adirondack Mountains. Glaciers created the whole mountain range many centuries ago. If you get a chance to visit the Adirondack area, I truly recommend it with all my heart. There is usually something to do all year round, and one of the nicest places to stay is in the Lake Placid/Saranac Lake area. This area is in the High Peeks region, where Mt Marcy is located, and is a very nice area. Many of you might have heard of Lake Placid, because it has hosted the Winter Olympics 2 times. Once in 1932 and the other in 1980. The skiing in the winter and the hiking and rock climbing is some of the best in the East. Some might also recognize the Saranac name, as it is the name of a great tasting dark beer that is sold all over the US and got it's beginnings in this area.

I would like to thank DJ again for all the help with the ideas and editing this nightmare, as well as wrestling with this wrambling I call writing to wrestle this into something ledgible. Thanks bud, I couldn't do this without you!

Thanks also go out to my 2, yep count them 2 fans of the story, David from the Great White North and Stan from the state known for the maple syrup, thanks for the fine words, it is appreciated!

Just to let you all know, I am planning at this point to get a chapter out every week or so. I also wanted to mention that I have the next chapter written and it is in DJ's sticky little hands. No, threatening DJ will NOT send you an advance copy so there! The reason I am a little ahead on writing is simple. I have to be in training all next week (Oracle Forms I for those that are curious) so won't have much time.

See you soon!

Jojo