Best known as the lead guitarist and band director of the Bret Michaels Band, Pete Evick has a new single out, ‘For Whom It May Concern’, the latest in a string of releases that Evick has undertaken in the past year with plans to continue to so in the foreseeable future.
Back in 1998 Evick’s band Some Odd Reason signed its first record deal with Sol 3 Records, distributed by WEA/Warner Bros, with an album produced by the legendary Richard Gottehrer – Best known for co-writing The Strangegloves’ ‘I Want Candy’, producing The McCoys’ ‘Hang on Sloopy’ and alter bands like Blondie and The Go Gos.
That album, and its title track was To Whom It May Concern; a controversial song with the opening lyric “I used to believe in God.” The inspiration for it had been swirling around for years already in Evick’s head; since the onset of the Gulf War in 1991: At an age where he was old enough to begin understanding how cruel people can be to one other, images of war were repeatedly being broadcast live on TV in real time, permanently burning into his memory.
This did not help his lifelong struggle with faith. He spent years of his youth freely speaking to preachers, rabbis, and anyone that would listen, looking for something to believe in. Due to very personal and traumatic events in his life, that quest for understanding left him to conclude that the universe is one of science, not faith. This is something those close to him know he still struggles with today.
The emotion of his search, along with the visions of a war being broadcast live on TV, finally manifested into the song ‘To Whom It May Concern’, an imagined conversation between the guitarist/songwriter and Jesus. He asks Jesus if he himself still believes in his own Father. Gotterher loved the song but said, “The song is a hit, but… It’s a war protest song and right now there is no war!”
Several years later, Some Odd Reason disbanded and the guitarist formed Evick, where he moved from guitar player to singer. As he was finding his voice, he began to reimagine and rerecord the Some Odd Reason material he had written, including ‘To Whom It May Concern’ in 2002. The hard drive housing this material had a catastrophic crash and Evick was told by several experts that the drive was simply unrecoverable.
21 years later, in a time where, sadly, there is war, unrest, and uncertainty, Evick was able to resurrect the song with his original vocal from that old hardware. After all this time, his voice has come a long way, but he chose to leave the raw, “amateur” vocal exactly as it was recorded back then, along with the demo – quality (At best) piano introduction. As if by divine intervention, the material seemingly rose from the dead.
Despite these protestations, Evick’s throaty larynx draws the listener in, like some world weary Jon Bon Jovi wrestling with confusion as bells chime in the background about this rock ballad.
The album art may be even more controversial than the opening lyric. A haunting vision from a lifetime of Evick’s own nightmares, the image depicts Jesus as a grey alien, leaving his crown of thorns behind on a rock where the supposed messiah painted “I Tried” on a pile of rubble as he strolls off into the teeth of the apocalypse.
Available digitally you can check out the video for ‘To Whom It May Concern’ here at RAMzine.
Evick also recently released his second book, MTV Famous, as well as his first bourbon, Bare Knuckle, a salsa – Evick’s No. 4, Shining Sol Candles are being retailed and several singles over the past few months.
