SamboraBlog

Wednesday March 01, 2006

Leamington Post — It was music to his ears.
In a special in-studio phone call at WDVD 96.3 FM in Detroit last week, Jody Raffoul learned he was the winner in the “Have a Nice Gig’ music contest.
Jody, a popular musician who has grown up in Leamington, was thrilled with the news.
“I’m still in shock,” he said in an interview Friday morning. “I’m honored, I’m excited...and it’s a little scary.”
He has won the right to open for Bon Jovi at Giants’ Stadium in New York sometime in June. In addition, he will also receive a demo recording contract.
Jody has already opened for Bon Jovi once, at the Palace of Auburn Hills on Nov. 18. He beat out hundreds of Detroit’s best unsigned bands to earn the right to perform for Bon Jovi’s ‘Have a Nice Day Tour’ and a chance to compete against 23 other winning bands for the grand prize -- a chance to play in Giants’ Stadium for about 80,000 fans.
According to the Bon Jovi website, it was Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora who made the final decision.
“They sought the band that displayed the best songwriting and elicited the best crowd response,” it said. “They then weighed in the opinion of fellow bandmates to choose the winner.”
Jody had been invited to the studio under the guise that each of the four finalists in the contest would be standing by in their area music studio for the live announcement of the winner.
But in fact, the Jody Raffoul Band was the only group invited to a studio.
And then, in a special recorded video announcement those words came.
“Jody, Jody you got the gig man...congratulations!” were the words he heard. “We’ll see you in a stadium in New York City this summer.”
For Jody, it was an unbelievable experience.
He said he is looking forward to the upcoming concert -- but admits to being just a little nervous about the whole thing.
No matter what happens though, Jody said he will always remember his roots. “That’s what it’s all about,” he said. “You get what you give.”
If fame and fortune follow, ‘that’s all good’, said Jody. But he said the most important thing to him is to do something positive with his music.
It’s not just about making money, or being famous, he said, it’s about making a contribution to society -- it’s about helping others.
Jody’s manager, Tim Brack, said he is hoping the contest win, does for Jody what a similar contest did for Bon Jovi. He said the rock band got their big break when they won a ‘battle of the bands’ contest and that was when ‘Runaway’ became a hit.
“It’s all in the timing,” he said.
But he said playing at Giants’ Stadium “will certainly get Jody the ears he needs”.
Brack said hopefully the tremendous exposure “will turn people onto how good he (Jody) really is”.
He said he expects an announcement within a month, on the concert date.