Road rage inspires singer's troop tribute (Chely Wright and "The Bumper of My SUV")

CNN.com ^ | 14 December 2004 | Billboard Magazine

[Moose4]

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Billboard) -- Leave it to sunny Chely Wright to turn an ugly situation into a popular -- and meaningful -- song. Now, that song has helped her land a new label deal.

About a year-and-a-half ago, Wright -- an established singer and performer -- was driving the Nashville streets when a motorist in a minivan behind her noticed the Marine Corps sticker on her bumper. Wright's brother is a Marine who sent her the sticker before he shipped off to Iraq.

The agitated woman began honking, swerving and flicking her lights. "I look in the rear view, and she's flipping me the bird, hard," Wright says. "I thought I cut her off, because I'm a really bad driver."

When the woman finally pulled up next to Wright and motioned for her to roll down her window, she gave the artist an earful of opinions about the war in Iraq.

"Your war is wrong," Wright remembers the woman screaming at her. "You're a baby killer."

She went home and immediately wrote a song about the incident, "The Bumper of My S.U.V." She put a demo of the song on tape, then tucked the tape in a drawer and promptly forgot about it.

[TheOtherOne]

Campaign of deception used to push patriotic song up charts


By JEANNE ANNE NAUJECK
Staff Writer

Country singer Chely Wright said yesterday she was dismissing the head of her fan club and shutting down a team of volunteers after The Tennessean learned that some of them posed as members of the military or their families to promote her latest song.

Seventeen members of a handpicked team of fans contacted radio stations around the country asking for more airplay for Wright's pro-military ballad, The Bumper of My SUV. It was all part of an organized campaign by leaders of the fan club who encouraged the team to do such things as ''tell 'em your husband is a marine — whatever it takes.''

[TheOtherOne]

Here are verbatim examples from the message board:

• On Nov. 22, ''Chuck'' urged team members to call several Kansas City radio stations and ''tell 'em your husband is a marine — whatever it takes.''

• On Oct. 30, ''Chuck'' said he had called about 40 radio stations under the name ''Sgt. Steve McKay.''

• On Oct. 28, ''Chuck'' posted this message: ''Sob stories and just telling how this song has affected u r going to work best. This song is what they call a reaction record and we need reaction.''

• On Oct. 25, ''Chuck'' suggested fans log on to military message boards and talk up the song. ''You can also fib a little and say you are in the armed forces and how this song needs to be heard — u get the picture,'' he wrote.

A separate e-mail to team members from Constantine contained a message that Hoffpauir said was forwarded from Walter. It said: ''I think with the Texas stations we should say — I am a Marine or Navy and so on, and tell the station they know of the song and in honor of them they should play it — it's worth a try.'' The e-mail is dated Dec. 14.

An Oct. 25 e-mail to ''special mission team'' from ''Sharon'' said, ''Remember this is a small group of special people, and as you know it has to be between us and only us (of course Chuck and Chely know LOL). We can't tell a soul outside of our family, so radio doesn't catch on.''

[Liberty Valance]

"I don't plaster my political views on my car..."

I'm with you there. A 3X5" American Flag sticker is all I need. It's also all that is needed for the folks looking at my bumper...although I did go out and buy a new Jeep Liberty to match my FReeper handle. ;o)