A cassette? You know what that is, right? Anyway, it had a word on it that they're very interested in, and the word was inflation. This cassette tape got reporters Sarah Gonzalez and Erika Beras tangled up in the music industry. But the song was never released. It's, like, a butter and flour base. Earnest Jackson is kind of like the roux to this song. He wrote it and is the lead singer. Earnest has dreamt of stardom for almost 70 years. Yes, indeed, 'cause that's been my dream since I was a little boy.
I've always wanted to be a superstar. I feel like I had the potential. And, you know, I haven't given up my dream. And just because a song is good and of the moment doesn't mean it'll be a hit or make anybody any money. But we're going to try. We're going to take this long-lost song from the '70s and resurrect it. He started singing when he was 5 years old. By 14, he's performing in nightclubs. Singing Give me your love and all your time.
Don't ever leave me 'cause I'd lose my mind. And all this time, he's just trying to land a record deal. And he gets close. He had a hit once. If you've heard this song on an old jukebox, chances are, you've heard Earnest's version, not Al Green's.
He's on the radio. But Earnest never got any royalties for this song. It's the '70s. Inflation is going up. Everyone felt the pinch. Money could only go so far, you know? It's just like today. You see? They decide to record it. They made a demo, that cassette.
But then they don't do anything with it. He didn't know how to register a copyright for a song. So this song kind of misses its moment. The rest of the band, they go on to play with famous people in famous bands. The bass player is actually a very young Randy Jackson, original judge on "American Idol. He's retired, but he still sings. He has shows here and there. He's just never been discovered. So we've decided we are going to try to become like a record label ourselves, just to get this one song out there and try to figure out how the music industry works because inflation is back, so "Inflation," the song, might have a second shot.
