Danny Gokey Blogs On
Danny Gokey posted his first blog on the website for his foundation for underprivileged kids, Sophia’s Heart, started in honor of his late wife, Sophia.
Danny, in his typically candid fashion has a lot to say about his life during and after Idol, particularly about his detractors, who he feels misunderstood him. Danny admits to googling his name, and reading everything written about him. Oops!
He also admits to sticking his foot in his mouth sometimes, and realizes he could use a little PR coaching. Well, that’s a start!
Danny envisions a music career that will intertwine entertainment with his “movement”, as Danny likes to call his non-profit activities.
He feels sad that some folks assumed he “hated certain groups of people whose lifestyles or beliefs were contrary to mine.” Danny assures you, dear reader, that he’s got unconditional love for everyone.
The blog reads like an expanded version of the little sermon he preached during his summer tour set. I hope next time, he blogs about his upcoming album.
Currently, he’s recording tracks for his debut album, set to be released by 19r/Sony Nashville early next year. Danny has tweeted that the first single will be released sometime in November.
Read the entire blog HERE. Read an excerpt after the jump…
I have to admit, I felt over my head so many times and questioned myself as to why and what was I doing. It’s interesting to see how ones life will undergo intense scrutiny when put into a spotlight. At one moment, people loved me and the next moment people hated me’ ¦at least that is what I felt. I couldn’t figure it out although I must confess, I desperately needed to attend some kind of media training class and even some T.V. etiquette. The show is so popular. At times I felt we were tossed to the media and asked so many questions. Sometimes the good intentions deep in my heart were not properly conveyed through the words that were spilling out of my big mouth.
I remember many times I would walk out of interviews kicking myself in the butt saying ‘Why did I say that?’ or ’I should of said it like this’ . There were even times I would ask the interviewer not to air a certain thing I said because I would unintentionally say it all wrong. I look back on those days and I laugh…and I laugh hard; almost as hard as I did when I belted out that ‘blood curdling’ scream at the end of my performance of ‘Dream On’ . As you can see, I was thrust into an arena of which I knew nothing about and walked in the massive spotlight very ‘green’ behind the ears.
The reason why I laugh now is because I was one of the many contestants who would go online and ‘google’ my name to see what the media outlets and local blogs were saying about me. I read it all, the good, the bad, the ugly, and sometimes just complete nonsense. It was definitely a whole lot to take in for a boy who just only really sang in the church and now wanted to pursue a career in the mainstream market. I could go into detail and share with you the terrible things that were said, written and taken out of context, but they don’t matter anymore. I learned the important lesson of never allowing what other people say about me to define me. I’ve learned that when you let other people’s negative words sink deep into your heart, you’ll sometimes succumb to the pressure and sink back, never fulfilling your purpose. Admittedly, it took me a little while to finally let those fabrications role off my back, allowing me to rise above it all. Internally from that point forward, I made it up in my heart and mind that I was going to be very forward about my dream and not allow people to influence me just because they didn’t understand me. If you have not already learned, you will eventually learn that some people are going to flat out despise you no matter what you say or what you do. Please understand I’m not trying to be the ‘party pooper,’ but once you lock this concept in like I did, you will make the right choice to just brush it off, rise above it, and move on towards your dream or particular goal.
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SHF will have to file a 990 which will be a publicly available document, either from the IRS or the organization. I don’t see any point in running around the mulberry bush on this – the pertinent information will be available at that point, and in the meantime, anyone who is not confident in the organization or interested in its goals certainly should make their charitable contributions elsewhere. pj, I also think it would be nice to see info about the team, but just because their names are not on the website doesn’t mean that they aren’t legally responsible. I expect that Danny will continue to improve the site over time, and I think that he will ensure that SHF complies with regulations that ensure that the public has access to information that it has the right to have when making these decisions. I guess it’s not optional, really, if they want to retain their status, which I’m sure they would.
Hi Jx223! I hope I haven’t missed you, this is a very interesting question. I wasn’t familiar with the songs that you listed, so I listened to them on youtube. I liked the “Red Light” one, I agree that something like that would be good for Danny. I thought that the Due West one was kind of similar to the Rascal Flatts types of songs, and those work for him. The Lady Antebellum is a nice song but I don’t think it’s the type of song that would really leverage his strengths.
I don’t know the modern country music landscape well enough to speak in terms of current artists/songs that are the types of things that I’d like to hear from him. But there are two areas that I think of for him, each of which focuses on one of his great strengths. One is his ability to deliver songs that inspire the heart or touch deep emotions, the “I Hope you Dance” and “I Wish” kinds of things.
The other area is one that would leverage that bluesy/husky quality that he has that so many people love. I really like a lot of music that’s at the intersection of rock music and country. A lot of Southern rock, which sometimes has a great blues influence as well. Danny is not going to even try to sell an “outlaw” persona like a lot of those boys do, but I think it would be great if he would kind of explore this neighborhood to see what might work for him, since it would be a great way to show off that voice. Maybe a sound in the neighborhood of Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page”. Turn up the blues element and it might sound kind of like the Fabulous Thunderbirds “Tuff Enuff”. Turn it way up and it might have aspects that are reminiscent of something like Robert Cray’s “Smoking Gun”. I’m not suggesting that these songs would be good for Danny, or that they’re what’s currently considered “radio friendly”. But I think this kind of sound is where Danny could really blow the roof off, and could be positioned reasonably well on a country album. I want him to mix it up, and go for some complexity in his work…I don’t want it to ever turn into “oh, here’s another tearjerker from Danny”. Just some random thoughts there!
Here’s the Fabulous Thunderbirds for you, in case you don’t know them (I lhave always really liked this song).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxBx0nfRp9s
p.s. aek, I’m so glad that you’re better!
The website of Danny’s Sophias Heart is still a work in progress; after all it is a very young fledgling organization. They may very well list the employees in the future. It must have been listed elsewhere, since the following are not “secret”
I know the paid staff is very small; it is an organization devoted to keeping administration costs small (so many charitable organizations eat up a significant proportion of donated $$ with these) and relying on volunteers and grass roots organization in the future.
Danny Gokey is the president- He is an unpaid CEO (Danny has never received any compensation from SHF).
Ivan Santiago is the Vice president. I believe he is Sophia’s brother.
Hsing Liu is another staff member; seems to be in charge of correspondence.
There are two more staff members, but I’m not sure if they are paid positions- another family member (I believe its Sophia’s sister) and an unrelated web technical guy.
The website does not seem complete yet. It would be nice to have personal faces behind this ambitious organization and I would imagine that is one of the items they would add in the future.
Good Luck to SHF and to Danny both! I admire Danny for spending so much of his free time on charitable pursuits before; during and after AI.
Hey aek.
I hope that you are feeling better. I agree with your posts as always. I too am definitely awaiting more news of Danny’s album. I am glad to hear about things like him having a photoshoot for his album. I am definitely excited and interested to hear his single, and about other stuff that will be happening.
I’m with MJ on this; Lets hear more about the album!
Props to Gokey for attempting to do good in this world; can’t really fault the guy for that. We should all talk less and do more. Even though he talks too much sometimes, he obviously tries to follow through with action.
I’m more interested in his music. Not impressed so far with what has been put out from season 8 (officially and unofficially). Hopefully the upcoming albums will be better.
Just a quick word on charitable foundations here for those of you wondering “where the money went.”
A charitable foundation like the one Danny has set up is only required to distribute 5% of the assets each year for charitable purposes. This distribution is required only after the expenses of the foundation are met. So, if SHF has several employees who are receiving a salary, the required charitable distribution may be small each year.
SHF may well have taken in several hundred thousand dollars already (or maybe much more), but after expenses, required distributions may be minimal. The purpose of the minimum required distribution is to allow the foundation to continue to exist over time without depleting all of its assets.
When the markets go down, and the assets in the foundation decrease, the size of the distributions will decrease. The IRS scrutinizes these organizations, and they generally will apply for non profit status vis a vis the IRS.
Charitable foundations do a world of good, but it is possible to set them up, put the entire family on the pay roll, and in effect spend more of the foundation money on expenses and family than on the required yearly distributions. That’s why it is important to inquire about operating expenses prior to donating to a foundation such as SHF. You want to make sure it’s not just a front for the family business.
The IRS does have oversight to some degree, and can revoke the organization’s tax exempt status if the behavior at the charitable foundation is improper, but caution is warranted.
I’m not implying in any way that Danny’s organization has excessive administrative costs or that it is set up for the purpose of putting the family on the payroll, I’m just trying to explain how these things work and why only a small amount of money may have been distributed already.
For such a foundation to operate successfully, there really needs to be at least several million dollars in it.
Foundations are great, but in reality, the money that is going into SHF is probably money that would have gone to another charitable endeavor. All the foundations out there compete for funding and gifts from wealthy charitably inclined folks.
There are already MANY charitable foundations in the US.